Echinacea Benefits

Ranked #16,303 in Healthy Living, #250,710 overall

Echinacea is Used For Colds, Pregnancy, and Other Health Problems

The Benefits Echinacea

Perhaps the most popular and well known herb on the natural market today is called Echinacea.  This is an herb that has been used for a number of years and it is currently one of the most popularly used herbal treatments.  It is primarily used to treat upper respiratory infections, influenza and other common infectious diseases.

Echinacea Basics

Echinacea's most common name is the purple coneflower.  In reality, however, it is an herb that is made up of nine different varieties.  Three of these varieties are used in herbal medicine.  These include:

*Echinacea purpurea
*Echinacea engustifolia
*Echinacea pallida


Much of the purple coneflower plant is used to make Echinacea, including the leaves, stems, roots and flowers.  They are used in a wide variety of different natural products made from these parts. How the Echinacea is made plays a role in what it is used for and how much is used.  Certain of the preparations are used for the treatment of immune system disorders, bacterial infections and viral infections.

Healing powers of Echinacea

There is reason to believe that Echinacea improves the healing process of skin wounds.  It may also control inflammation.  Among natural herbalists, Echinacea has been tried in the treatment of skin sores, inflammation, abscesses, eczema and canker sores.  One can actually put the herb directly on the affected area or take it by mouth to achieve basically the same effect.  

One uncommon use for Echinacea is that of the treatment of CFS or chronic fatigue syndrome. Not everyone has shown improvement, many of those with CFS have improved in their symptoms after using Echinacea.

You can purchase Echinacea in many formulations, including dried tablets, tinctures, soft gels and liquids.  You can also get Echinacea in a simple dried form.  This can be steeped in hot water to make a nutritious tea.  There are even cream preparations of the herb that is used topically on sunburns and skin rashes.

Make sure you read the back of the label whenever you are purchasing Echinacea.  You'll find that certain formulations will involve more than one variety of the purple cone flower, while others will be of just one variety.  Choose the type of Echinacea in the formulation that best suits your particular need.

Echinacea And Other Links You Might Enjoy

Loading

Get More About Natural Health By Clicking The Link Below

Foods With Fiber
Fiber helps keep your colon running smoothly

Echinacea News

Flower of the Week: Purple Cone (Echinacea purpurea)
By Jonathan Moynihan Archaeologists have found evidence that Native Americans may have used Echinacea...

Echinacea Photos

Distelfalter (Vanessa cardui) by blumenbiene
120527_Terrasse_44 by weisserstier
wild up : manhattan (2003) by torbakhopper
echinacea by stoolhog
automatically generated by Flickr

Echinacea for your immune system

Echinacea's main effectiveness is as an immune stimulator and, as such, it has a safe and potent effect on the body's ability to fight of various infections. Echinacea also stimulates the body to make more interferon, which contributes to the fighting of viral infections.

The best feature of Echinacea is its ability to prevent the common cold or influenza. People sometimes take it all through cold and flu season and others take when they first feel these conditions coming on. Experts say it is best when taken at the first indication of the flu or a cold If you already have symptoms, the herb can shorten the amount of time you'll have the illness.

Other conditions like strep throat, bronchitis and sinus infections are being looked into as possible illnesses that can be affected by Echinacea's immune-enhancing powers. As in the other illnesses, it's best to take the Echinacea when you first know you have some kind of illness.

What Do You Think About Echinacea?

by

MaleanaCeles

I enjoy living a healthy life, and taking care of my body. I feel my best when I'm in the company of positive people.

Feeling creative? Create a Lens!