Dr. Michael Murray The IMMUNE FA CTOR - Natural MediFAQS

T H E I M M U N E F A C T O R
natural medicines is to design studies where the
outcome will surely be negative and then using the
results to launch a media campaign that makes gross
generalizations. In the last few years the media have
reported several studies as showing “echinacea is not
effective”, just as they have reported the
“ineffectiveness” of other well known and trusted
natural medicines. Of course, the real details of the
studies were not given. Let’s examine one such
questionable study. 28
54
A double blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted with 302
volunteers from 4 military institutions and 1 industrial plant in
Germany. The subjects were given either a placebo, or alcohol-based
tinctures from either E. purpurea or E. angustifolia for twelve weeks.
The main outcome measured was time until the first upper respiratory
tract infection. Secondary outcome measures were the number of
participants with at least one infection, global assessment, and
adverse effects. The time until occurrence of the first upper respiratory
tract infection was 66 days in the E. angustifolia group, 69 days in the
E. purpurea group, and 65 days in the placebo group. In the placebo
group, 36.7 percent had an infection while in the E. angustifolia it was
32 percent and in the E. purpurea it was 29.3 percent. These results
seem to indicate that there was no real significant benefit with either
form of echinacea although there was an approximately 20 percent
reduced risk of infection in the echinacea groups. In addition,
70 percent of the E. purpurea and 78 percent of the E. angustifolia
group felt they had benefited from treatment compared to 56 percent
in the placebo group. The E. angustifolia group had a slightly higher
percentage of subjects experiencing side effects (18 percent)
compared to the E. purpurea (10 percent) and placebo (11 percent)
groups.