Echinacea Benefits and Side Effects

Echinacea Side Effects and BenefitsEchinacea is a medicinal herb present in the States as well as the southern areas of Canada. Often used to increase the power of one’s immune system, the echinacea benefits include being useful for colds, upper respiratory infections, eczema, sunburns, and more.

Preventing Colds
Echinacea is most widely used to defend against colds. And those who take a mix of echinacea, propolis, and centrum have reported fewer colds than those who did not make use of this treatment, states MedLine Plus. More research is necessary in this field because both these studies have questionable scientific validity due to the evaluation and examination techniques that were used.

Speeds Up Recovery Time
Even in the event that you start taking echinacea after you’re currently ill, it will still help plenty in regards to the speed at which you get better. Echinacea is regarded as especially successful in speeding up the healing time of several common sicknesses. Some medical conditions against which echinacea nutritional supplements can be especially successful are:

  • Urinary tract infection
  • Sore throat pain
  • Enlarged lymph glands
  • Upper respiratory infection
  • Enlarged prostate
  • Gingivitis
  • Canker sores
  • Hay fever
  • Sinusitis
  • Ear diseases
  • Vaginal yeast infections
  • Bronchitis

As an External Disinfectant
Echinacea helps shield your healthy cells from invasion by microorganisms and viruses, even in the event that you utilize the herb topically. Because of this you may use it to keep scratches and wounds from becoming infected. It doesn’t just keep lesions from becoming infected, but it will accelerate how quickly the wound heals, which I will go into below. Echinacea additionally has analgesic qualities when employed externally as a topical disinfectant, which means that it can help with the pain.

Helps With Psoriasis and Eczema
Echinacea has been proven to be a successful treatment when used topically to help with breakouts of eczema and psoriasis.

Increases Wound Recovery
Topically utilized, echinacea can radically accelerate lesion healing, therefore it’s frequently taken for curing slow-healing lesions. It’s also helpful to alleviate the discomfort of the lesion and may shield slow-healing lesions from illness. Echinacea can also be frequently utilized as a hemorrhoid remedy, and is regularly added to over the counter hemorrhoid medicines.

Helps With Sunburns
When used topically on sunburns, echinacea’s therapeutic properties help accelerate the recovery time and ease the pain of the one who was burned.

Echinacea Helps with Repeated Illnesses
Echinacea is especially successful in helping people to recover from recurring illnesses, like ear diseases, for example. Yet, echinacea is also able to lose its effectiveness as time passes, and might finally damage your defense mechanisms by inhibiting the formation of t cells in the event that you utilize it for too long a period of time with no break. It may not be a great thought to make use of echinacea every day for more than eight successive weeks. After 8 weeks of use, you should take a minimum of 2 weeks off from use of this herb.

Potential Echinacea Side Effects

Generally, few side effects are related to echinacea supplementation. However, some potential moderate side effects can include nausea or stomach irritation, sore throat, headache, vertigo, body pains, or weariness. Kids, in particular, might be more inclined to produce a skin rash as a complication of echinacea therapy. Folks who are allergic to specific plants, including marigolds, daisies, ragweed, or chrysanthemums, might be at a higher danger of having a serious allergic response upon contact with echinacea.

Seek prompt attention from your primary health care provider should you show allergic response symptoms including wheezing, severe itching, or facial swelling after using a dose of this herbal nutritional supplement. An allergy to echinacea might be life threatening if you lack proper medical treatment.

Drug Interactions

Speak with your doctor about any and all medicines you are taking before starting treatment using any new supplement – including echinacea. The UMMC warns that in case you are receiving immunosuppressant treatment as a result of cancer, organ transplantation, or another medical problem, don’t take echinacea. Utilization of immunosuppressants and echinacea at the same time as each other might lessen the effectiveness of the immune treatment.

Popular