Benefits And Side Effects Of Echinacea

Echinacea is one of the renowned trees that are used for herbal remedies. 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 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.

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How to use Echinacea 

Echinacea is available in many forms, among the forms the Echinacea is available in are, capsules, and tinctures. The capsules have a powder of the 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 plant that is used in the preparation of the herbal drug. Echinacea should not be used at a time for more than 1-2 weeks.

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Benefits of Echinacea

The Echinacea is commonly used for treating colds and flu but it is also used for 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 thereby increasing the activities of the immune system. Echinacea enables the white blood cells the fighting germs but this condition is said to go down if the patient continues to take echinacea for more weeks than the recommendation.

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Benefits to those diagnosed with HIV with Echinacea

There are many conditions or diseases that people are suffering from recommended or the use of 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 people with colds flu and treats them besides there being controversy 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 illnesses, common colds have 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 improvement.

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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, 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 increased asthma, and also on anaphylaxis. Another is in gastrointestinal as from clinical tests the side effects were most common. Many cases of allergic reaction happen to the people who are most likely allergic to the plants that are related to the echinacea and the daisy family. On the same note of allergies, it appears to mostly affect people with asthma or atopy and they develop allergic reactions when they take echinacea.

According to a study, intake of echinacea is reported to cause an increase of certain bacteria; this was done by a professor at the University of Arkansas. Bacteria such as Bacteroides fragilis that are found in the gastrointestinal tract are increased by intake. This increase contributes to diarrhea and inflammatory bowel disease.