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Echinacea Cold Treatment - Taking echinacea had no significant effect on the duration or severity of the common cold, according to the results of a randomized, blinded trial. The average duration of symptoms was 6.34 days in patients taking echinacea in a blinded fashion and 6.76 days in patients who knew they were receiving the herb, according to Dr. Bruce Barrett of the University of Wisconsin in Madison and colleagues. There also was no significant difference in cold severity as assessed by the Wisconsin Upper Respiratory Symptom Survey, the researchers reported Dec. 21 in Annals of Internal Medicine. Echinacea Cold Treatment "However, the trends were in the direction of benefit, amounting to an average half-day reduction in the duration of a week-long cold, or an approximate 10 percent reduction in overall severity," they noted. Indigenous peoples of North America used echinacea for numerous illnesses, and it has been used therapeutically for nearly a century i...