Health Tip: Echinacea Not a Panacea

(HealthDay News) -- Echinacea doesn''t help prevent colds or lessen their severity or duration, recent research found.

Researchers at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine gave 437 volunteers either the herb or a non-medicinal placebo.

Neither the echinacea nor the placebo prevented or lessened the severity of a cold, the scientists found.

-- Deborah DiSesa Hirsch

Last Updated: Feb. 14, 2006