Echinacea Might Shorten Colds a Bit

Echinacea might help cold symptoms to go away a few hours sooner, a new study suggests. But the difference was so small it could have occurred by chance. Researchers recruited more than 700 adults and children with colds for the study. They were randomly divided into 4 groups. Two groups took echinacea pills. One group knew it was taking echinacea. The other group did not know. The third group took placebo (fake) pills. The fourth group didn’t get any pills. People were asked to write down their symptoms twice a day. For those taking echinacea, symptoms ended an average of half a day sooner. The journal Annals of Internal Medicine published the study. The Associated Press wrote about it December 21.