Subject: Re: Allergy to Echinacea??

From: Michael Moore <[email-masked]>
Date: 11 Jan 1995 20:07:26 GMT

Subject: Allergy to Echinacea??
From: Megen Smith, [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 03:13:58 GMT
In article <[email-masked]> Megen Smith, [email-masked]
writes:
>With the encouragement of a friend I've begun taking Echinacea to boost 
>my immune system.  When my daughter (6) was in the beginning stages of a 
>cold, I gave her one capsule.  She came home from school 6 hours later 
>having a full blown asthma attack. Nothing was out of the ordinary for 
>her at school, only the echinacea.  She does have hay fever and suffers 
>with asthma all fall - but this was really out of the ordinary.  Any 
>suggestions?  

     I have not observed an allergic or atopic response to the use of
Echinacea root in a couple of decades of selling it, picking it or
recommending it. This includes E. angustifolia, E. pallida, E.
atrorubens, E. sanguinia and E. purpurea.  Rather importantly, however, I
found that the presence of Echinacea flowers or seed-heads (normally a
sound practice, since they act almost the same way the roots do) were
causing an allergic reaction when used with some CFS, EBV, CMV and MCS
folks (comfortably reduced to the cursed acronyms), an observation
confirmed by Andrew Weill with his EBV patients.  These infrequent
allergic responses ceased when only the root was used.
     How were the capsules labeled?  It is common to use various parts
and species, fresh and dry, wildcrafted or cultivated in the current
somewhat senseless attempt to create an alledgedly unique Echinacea
"product".  Was it one of those many Echinacea/Golden Seal combos?
(irritating, since Golden Seal is rapidly disappearing the wild, and,
with periodic European crop failures and some US growers having been
flooded out last spring, the demand for wildcrafted roots is taking a
huge toll on the remaining populations)
     I have found that, when working with kids (this includes my
own...and now my granddaughters) a heating or vasodilating herb needs to
be added to Echinacea.  Out here I would use Oshà (Ligusticum porteri),
but one of the Pennyroyals (Mentha or Hedeoma), some Elder Flowers or
Pleurisy Root will work fine.  Echinacea is "cold", and, although a
useful stimulant to SOME immunologic responses, often the stimulation
just stays there.  Sometimes you need to increase peripheral circulation,
liver and kidney function AND skin secretions in order to move out of the
body the detritis and immuno-complexes that may result from using
Echinacea.  Besides, there are far more effective ways to deal with an
early cold than Echinacea.
     And, of course, the whole thing could be coincidental.

Respectfully,
Michael Moore ([email-masked])
(GOPHER and WWW)
gopher://president.oit.unc.edu:70/11/../.pub/academic/medicine/alternat
ve-
healthcare/SW-School of Botanical Medicine 
(ANONYMOUS FTP)
sunsite.unc.edu  /pub/academic/medicine/alternative-healthcare/SW School
of Botanical Medicine

---

From: [email-masked] (Jay Mann)
Date: 12 Jan 1995 16:12:43 GMT

Megen Smith ([email-masked]) wrote:
: With the encouragement of a friend I've begun taking Echinacea to boost 
: my immune system.  When my daughter (6) was in the beginning stages of a 
: cold, I gave her one capsule.  She came home from school 6 hours later 
: having a full blown asthma attack. Nothing was out of the ordinary for 
: her at school, only the echinacea.  She does have hay fever and suffers 
: with asthma all fall - but this was really out of the ordinary.  Any 
: suggestions?  

Yes.  She should stop taking Echniacea because she is presumably allergic to
it.  It is a plant, after all.

Jay D Mann  <[email-masked]>
Christchurch, New Zealand

---

From: [email-masked] (Robert Stor)
Date: 14 Jan 1995 14:36:32 -0500

: Megen Smith ([email-masked]) wrote:
: : With the encouragement of a friend I've begun taking Echinacea to boost 
: : my immune system.  When my daughter (6) was in the beginning stages of a 
: : cold, I gave her one capsule.  She came home from school 6 hours later 
: : having a full blown asthma attack. Nothing was out of the ordinary for 
: : her at school, only the echinacea.  She does have hay fever and suffers 
: : with asthma all fall - but this was really out of the ordinary.  Any 
: : suggestions?  

A few years ago I started taking the echinacea capsules, after my kids were
bringing home colds to me all the time. I noticed that my body began to
itch. I stopped the echinacea and it stopped, started again and it started.
I also have hayfever and am prone to asthma in the fall. Maybe there's a
connection.

This year after my 3 yo had 3 ear infections and pneumonia, in the course of
2 months, I started giving the kids the drops. I tried them myself and had
no reaction. I would be more nervous about trying again if I had reacted
with an asthma atttack the first time.

Take care,

Ruth (using my husband's account)