The professor: Of course there is effective help when you catch a cold

Every autumn we can read articles about whether there is something that helps against colds. The vast majority of virologists say no, there isn't, but then the professor of pharmacognosy, Jan G Bruhn, reacts and says they are wrong. He believes that there is certainly help to be had - plant-based medicine that reduces cold symptoms and that you recover faster.

What is this due to Jan G Bruhn?

- I think it is simply due to ignorance. It is based on meta-analyses that were done ten to twelve years ago where the conclusions were not clear-cut. It takes time to settle into studies, and I think there are few doctors in Sweden who have time to do that, given the workload that prevails. Perhaps you are not interested in natural remedies either. In countries such as Germany, Switzerland and Austria, natural medicine is integrated into traditional care. That is, you cooperate and take the medicine that is best for the patient. In Sweden, it is unfortunately not like that. I would say that Sweden is a bit like a developing country when it comes to herbal medicine.

DIFFERENT GOOD RECORDS IN THE BODY

When Jan G Bruhn talks about ignorance among the medical profession, he says that it is not just about reading studies. It is just as much about understanding the origin of the plants and how the raw material is produced, because precisely that is decisive for how well the preparation works.

When the common cold herb echinacea is harvested and used, it is prepared, for example, as dried or fresh. Studies show that fresh echinacea has a better absorption in the body than dried raw material. If two family members with a cold use two different products and one gets better faster (when they follow the recommended dose), the difference may be that the one who gets better faster uses a preparation with better absorption in the body.

- In my lectures, I usually make a comparison with that, you don't go into Systembolaget to buy a bottle of red wine, but you have a specific thought with your red wine. It's all about the grape, the country and the vintage to get the taste experience you're looking for. It is the same with plant-based products. There, the effect of the preparation differs a lot depending on how the plant is grown and produced, explains Professor Jan G Bruhn.

RESULTS MAY BE MISLEADING

A meta-analysis is a study in which information is collected from several different studies and combined to produce a result. A problem that is found among natural medicines, and which is not found among the synthetically produced medicines, is that the raw materials differ greatly. They have a biological variation. To get a reliable result, you need to use studies on one and the same product.

– The meta-analyses on echinacea are conducted on several different products, and therefore one does not get a correct result. For example, one cannot mix a product like Alfred Vogel's Echinaforce, as it is made from fresh organic raw material, with a product that contains dried echinacea. In a product like Echinaforce, the flower, stem, and root are included. Alfred Vogel, who is the father of this product, believed that the whole was more important than the individual parts of a plant. In other products, only the flower is included, and it goes without saying that the end result will be different, explains Jan G Bruhn.

- The product-specific studies on Echinaforce show that the herbal medicine can shorten the number of sick days and reduce symptoms of colds. That is, you feel better and recover faster. Echinaforce has also been shown to have a small protective effect against the coronavirus and there are not many preparations that have shown this.

MANUFACTURE AND ORIGIN DETERMINE EFFECT

It is estimated that there are around 400 different viruses circulating worldwide and many of them change form. Even if you become immune to many viruses over a lifetime, you will still catch a cold. Some manage to avoid viral infections for several years, while others catch colds quite often during the course of a year.

What counts as the number of average colds for an adult is three to four per year. Older people are affected more often because their immune system may be impaired for various reasons. Children tend to catch colds more often. When children in kindergarten catch a cold, then the whole family can be dragged down with viral infections for a large part of the winter.

Unlike cold viruses, which are always around us, flu viruses are usually seasonal and appear in significantly fewer variants. Thanks to this, it is possible to get vaccinated against influenza. However, a vaccination does not provide 100% protection, but the risk of contracting it decreases and the symptoms of those who get the flu are usually milder. Getting vaccinated against the flu does not provide increased protection against the common cold virus.

- Colds and flu together cause more sick leave than any other illness. Common to both diseases is that they are caused by viruses, which antibiotics do not attack. But nature has a solution and it's called red sun hat (echinacea), and the effect has scientific evidence. Echinaforce is the best studied echinacea preparation on the market. Vogel has conducted several clinical studies with good results and the product has a very well-studied antiviral effect. It is approved by the Swedish Medicines Agency as a plant-based medicine and is not a dietary supplement. Both safety, effect and quality are guaranteed at a higher level, concludes Professor Jan G Bruhn.

FACT

When comparing echinacea products in studies, it has been confirmed that Echinaforce has an average ten times greater antiviral ability than other echinacea preparations. The explanation is the manufacturing method that the Swiss Alfred Vogel once developed. He believed that the whole was more important than the individual plant parts and created organic farms, extracting the whole herb when it was fresh, that is, only a few hours after harvesting.

The cold preparation also has an immunomodulating effect. This means that the immune system is activated if it is impaired by things such as stress, illness, aging or lifestyle, but a strong immune system is not affected.

The symptoms are relieved even if the treatment starts during an ongoing cold/infection. Fever, headache and sore throat are a reaction to the body sending out pro-inflammatory substances to fight off the virus. Red sun hat balances reaction and relieves symptoms.

When you get your first symptoms, such as a tickling in the nose or irritation in the throat, you can take the herbal remedy that can prevent the cold from breaking out. But if you still catch a cold, symptoms and the number of sick days can be reduced.

The text is published in collaboration with Mandarin Media for a healthier Sweden.