Echinacea is one of the renowned trees that are used for the herbal remedy. Echinacea s a flowering plant and many people sometimes call it the purple coneflower. It was used as a medicinal herb by the Native Americans and it is still being used around the world. Even in the present America, Echinacea is the most frequently sold herb and in Europe, Echinacea has been approved by several governments for it to be used against colds, flu, and other chronic urinary and respiratory infections.
How to use Echinacea
Echinacea is available in many forms, among the forms the Echinacea is available in are, capsules, and tincture. The capsules have a powder of dried root of the plant while the tincture is an alcohol preparation from the Echinacea plant. There are forms of the Echinacea where it is used to make juice from the fresh plant which people take where they have the juice pressured and they take it for treating infections of the skin such as acne and other skin condition.
There is the dosage that is suggested to be the most effective for the treatment using Echinacea, but this dosage depends on the species of the echinacea plat that is used in the preparation of the herbal drug. Echinacea should not be used at a time for more than 1-2 weeks.
Benefits of Echinacea
The Echinacea is commonly used for treating colds and flu but it is also used for the urinary tract infections, for the skin wounds which are not reacting well to treatment or which are not heeling well. Skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.
According to the various tests that have been conducted on echinacea, it has been found that it stimulates the immune system and echinacea fortunately promotes the CD4 cell activation there by increasing the activities of the immune system. Echinacea enables the white blood cells in the fighting of germs but this condition is said to go down if the patient continues to take echinacea for more weeks than the recommendation.
Benefits to those diagnosed with HIV with Echinacea
There are many conditions or diseases that people are suffer from recommended or the use of the echinacea, among the diseases are HIV, and tuberculosis. This is because echinacea helps the white blood cells. There is a doubt in the functionality of echinacea by some researchers and they believe that the immune system problems would be worsened by the use of echinacea.
Many people with HIV use the echinacea because this herb stimulates the immune system particularly for the people with colds flu and treats them besides there being controversial over the use of echinacea for those with HIV.
Echinacea and the colds
Echinacea has shown the best results on colds, being one of the frequently suffered acute illness, common colds has been reported to show the best result with echinacea. It is by the use of echinacea that many people have proved that its use relief them off common colds symptoms and the echinacea is also responsible for shortening the duration for one to show the improvement.
Side effects of Echinacea
There are reported side effects of echinacea by some patients where it has been cited to cause some allergic reactions to them. But there have not been side effects of echinacea when it is taken by mouth. However, the allergic reactions which include the development of skin rashes are prevalent to the people who experience allergic reactions. In some other rare cases echinacea is said to cause an increased asthma, and also on anaphylaxis. Another is in gastrointestinal as from clinical tests the side effects were most common. Many cases of the allergic reaction happen to the people who are most likely allergic to the plants that are related to the echinacea and the daisy family. In the same note of allergies, it appears to mostly affect the people with asthma or atopy and they develop the allergic reactions when they take echinacea.
According to a study, intake of echinacea is reported to cause an increase of a certain bacteria; this was done by a professor at University of Arkansas. Bacteria’s such as Bacteroides fragilis that are found in the in the gastrointestinal tract is increased by the intake. This increase contributes to diarrhoea and inflammatory bowel disease.