Echi-What? The Powerful Purple Coneflower and What It Might Do for You
Winter can be a hard time for Lost Souls. Darkness falls so much earlier, and even the daylight itself is a dismal white-grey. All manner of yucky illnesses compound the usual winter blahs, but I don't think it has to be that way. Since I want you to be healthy (and happy if that is possible...) this winter, I thought I'd make sure you knew about Echinacea!
When I started taking Echinacea to stave off colds and flu, many people hadn't even heard of it. At the time, I worked at a small, organic farm with some very interesting people, and I am fairly certain that's where I first came across purple coneflower as it is commonly called. The couple farming the land was very knowledgeable about the environment, nutrition, and all kinds of medicinal herbs. At the weekly farmers' market, customers would approach my employers about the use of some herb or other. The farmers would cautiously explain what they did with Catnip or Goldenseal or, yes, Echinacea, but they would not--could not--openly suggest that their customers use the herbs medicinally. They were not medical doctors, and, last time I checked, I haven't taken the Hippocratic oath myself.
Taking a lesson from their book, I will tell you what I look for when buying Echinacea, how I use it, and what I believe it does for me. Extrapolate all you like, but it never hurts to check with your doctor before adding dietary supplements such as vitamins or herbs to your daily regimen.
According to the Herbs Research Foundation, "[Echinacea] was prominent in modern American medicine in the early 20th Century and was discovered by Europeans, who have used it extensively since the 1930s. Today millions of Europeans use Echinacea as their primary therapy for colds, flu, infections, and for general immune-boosting effects." Native Americans used Echinacea to treat their maladies long before the rest of us caught on.
The Herbs Research Foundation reports, "Echinacea increases the 'non-specific' activity of the immune system. In other words, unlike a vaccine, which is active only against a specific disease, Echinacea stimulates the overall activity of the cells responsible for fighting all kinds of infection. Unlike antibiotics, which are directly lethal to bacteria, Echinacea makes our own immune cells more efficient in attacking bacteria, viruses and abnormal cells, including cancer cells."
Of Echinacea's specific actions, the foundation noted the following:
Echinacea appears to be beneficial, but is it safe? That all depends on whom you ask. Because no one has ever had a toxic reaction to the herb, the FDA lists its safety as "undefined."
Nevertheless, the medicinal herb has even found its way to Wal-Mart. There are capsules and tablets, tinctures and teas-even Echinacea lozenges these days. With so much on the market, it's hard to know just what to look for.
I can tell you that I have had the best results with Echinacea tinctures. An Echinacea tincture is the liquid form of the medicinal herb's volatile oils suspended in a liquid base. When I buy Echinacea, I look for the words "Certified Organic" on the label. Also, I check to see what parts of the Echinacea plant were used. Echinacea's medicinal properties are found primarily in the plant's roots. Many preparations contain Echinacea flowers and leaves; others are all root.
Something else to watch out for is the use of Goldenseal in conjunction with Echinacea. The two herbs do work very well together; however, I once heard a terrible story that has stayed with me. There was a man, the story goes, who took Goldenseal every day for a very long time. He blew out his liver and actually had to have a liver transplant as a result! Is this some kind of botanical urban myth--in this case an herban myth? Maybe. But, because the herb does increase the production of bile, this is entirely possible.
While we're on the subject of prolonged use, don't use Echinacea any longer than six to eight weeks because some studies suggest that regular use can inhibit its effectiveness. In my case, I am careful not to have too much of a good thing. I only take Echinacea at the first sign of a cold as a preventative measure or during an illness in order to shorten its duration and severity.
Echinacea is not right for everyone (for instance, people with auto-immune disorders shouldn't use it...), but it has really helped me!