By: Werdna
@Dave – specifically – and I actually had to check to see if your cite wasn’t a typo – that P-value is crazy high. 0.67 implies that there is a 67% probability that this result was due to chance. The...
View ArticleBy: weing
I stopped reading studies like this in the Annals back in my residency. They would always find a way to weasel out of saying that sCAM is useless. I suppose it’s on purpose to get more money for more...
View ArticleBy: Wholly Father
There is a randomized trial in which Echinacea treatment of colds was associated with an increased risk or recurrent otitis media in otitis prone children: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/8/56
View ArticleBy: micheleinmichigan
@Wholly Father – Interesting! But I wonder about that study, it’s funny that they did not allow subjects on antibiotics or with ear tubes into the study, but children who got antibiotics or ear tube...
View ArticleBy: micheleinmichigan
windriven – I appreciate the effort that you took to track that down AND I did make an effort to look up “interleukin-8 levels and neutrophil counts” and how they relate to the immune response, but I’m...
View ArticleBy: tmac57
Timely article,Dr. Novella,because just yesterday, I was reading an article in Woman’s Day (I know) that was…er..interesting? titled ’10 Things You Didn’t Know About Colds’. Number 5 caught my eye: 5....
View ArticleBy: Jan Willem Nienhuys
In Europe <i>Echinacea</i> is marketed energetically by the Swiss firm Bioforce AG. In the Netherlands their branch is called Biohorma. Bioforce/Biohorma was founded by a certain mr. Alfred...
View ArticleBy: Scott
<blockquote>And sometimes it seems that the only thing that separates herbal remedies* form food herbs is…what? mythology? a “wisdom of the ancients” reputation?</blockquote> I'd say that...
View ArticleBy: Joe
I have long been suspicious of the value of ethnobotany as opposed to random screening. I recently encountered this: Daniel S. Fabricant and Norman R. Farnsworth Environ Health Perspect 109(suppl...
View ArticleBy: Alyss
I realize I spend a little too much of my reading time on vaccines, but under the heading “Echinacea for Cold and Flu,” I see an article about vaccine administration. Did my brain break? Oh noes! The...
View ArticleBy: Joe
@micheleinmichigan on 22 Dec 2010 at 2:47 pm wrote “On the other hand many herbs are just, well food, one doesn’t want to get paranoid over, say a cup of peppermint tea or some ginger in your soup.”...
View ArticleBy: Jan Willem Nienhuys
@tmac57 The <i>Woman's Day</i> article goes back to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17597571" rel="nofollow">Shah et al., Evaluation of echinacea for the prevention and...
View ArticleBy: Werdna
@Joe – I just read that study. It’s not clear to me that it makes the argument the writer intends. For example… “Because these compounds are derived from only 94 species of plants, and a conservative...
View ArticleBy: windriven
@Joe Interesting thought but who is going to pay for the research? Absent an epidemiological or other clue (i.e. Japanese consume a lot of ginger and, say, have a high incidence of cirrhosis) what...
View ArticleBy: Mark P
Adults who have found echinacea to be beneficial should not discontinue use based on the results of this trial, as there are no proven effective treatments and no side-effects were seen How did this...
View ArticleBy: micheleinmichigan
windriven “@Joe – Interesting thought but who is going to pay for the research?” Particularly considering that “they”* keep showing us that all the good stuff is harmful. Sugar, Alcohol, cheese,...
View ArticleBy: micheleinmichigan
Scott – “It is certainly true that there is some chance that (continuing with the example) peppermint tea has some adverse side effects, when drunk in typical quantities as an enjoyable beverage. But...
View ArticleBy: Karl Withakay
Let me reword that for them: Based on the results of this trial, this study finds no reason to recommend that adults who have found echinacea to be beneficial should continue its use any longer, as...
View ArticleBy: ConspicuousCarl
Dave McGinn said Quick question for you. The 2008 article that you refer to (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18450126) has the following results: “RESULTS: Fifty-eight individuals were included in...
View ArticleBy: Harriet Hall
I was interviewed on the Rob Breakenridge show on Canadian radio tonight about this Echinacea study and about alternative and natural medicines in general. I got to mention Dr. Novella’s article. The...
View ArticleBy: Jan Willem Nienhuys
@ ConspicuousCarl ‘Mild adverse effects were noted by 8% of the echinacea group and 7% of the placebo group (P = .24).’ 2 out 28 (= echinacea group) means 7.1% and 3 out of 28 means 10.7%, so how did...
View ArticleBy: Joe
Mark P on 22 Dec 2010 at 4:49 pm quoted “Adults who have found echinacea to be beneficial should not discontinue use based on the results of this trial, as there are no proven effective treatments and...
View ArticleBy: Alison Cummins
micheleinmichigan asks, “Has anyone tested the safety of our foods (to the same extent that was necessary to tease-out the relationship between smoking and lung cancer; which was difficult)?” Basic...
View ArticleBy: TsuDhoNimh
Echinacea affects phagocytosis and histamine release. The infection protection you would get from Echinacea is from increased phagocytosis, and because viruses are inside the body’s cells almost...
View ArticleBy: Joe
@Alison Cummins on 23 Dec 2010 at 7:54 am wrote “Basic foodstuffs are assumed to be safe even if that is not exactly true.” And there lies my problem. Case in point- an herbalist move-in next to my...
View ArticleBy: Mark Crislip
I cant read German, but if White cells are exposed to all sorts of antigens in the test tube, it will prime them to phagocytose better. It is a non specific reaction of no specific clinical relevance...
View ArticleBy: micheleinmichigan
Alison “Another example is mold-fermented foods like blue cheese or soy sauce, because mold generally is carcinogenic. This is one of many reasons dieticians are continually harping on the need for a...
View ArticleBy: Charon
trrll: “This study seems to be using the standard p < 0.05 "bar" used in most other scientific work." This is not true. In the fields of physics, astronomy, and astrophysics, this p-value is...
View Article
