[MPWG] Not Echinacea, But Ginseng??!

[Bob Beyfuss]

The following was forwarded to me from a colleague at Cornell, the comments 
below are from  Richard Darlington <rbd1 at cornell.edu>
Bob



>>Note by RBD
>>
>>I thought it was very misleading to describe the effect of ginseng as 
>>"small." The number of people who had two or more colds was reduced from 
>>23% in the control group to 10% in the treatment group, and the average 
>>duration of the colds that did occur was reduced from 11.1 days to 8.7 
>>days. We have (10/23)*(8.7/11.1) = 0.34. Thus it seems that the total 
>>number of days of colds in the treatment group was only about one-third 
>>the number in the control group. And that's ignoring the fact that on the 
>>days with colds, symptoms in the ginseng group were described as milder 
>>than in the control group. Assuming that difference was fairly large, we 
>>may be talking about an 80% reduction in total discomfort.



At 07:47 PM 11/1/2005, myron hardesty wrote:
>ovember 1, 2005
>
>Ginseng May Reduce Number and Severity of Colds
>By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
>
>Ginseng, long recommended as a treatment for 
><http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/colds/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>colds 
>by proponents of herbal medicine, has gained some support in a controlled 
>scientific experiment. Canadian researchers tested North American ginseng 
>extract against a placebo and found that it had a small but significant 
>effect in reducing the number and intensity of colds.
>
>The study, published in the Oct. 25 issue of The Canadian Journal of 
>Medicine, tested 323 subjects. Volunteers were randomly assigned either to 
>a group that took 200-milligram tablets of a commercial product with a 
>known quantity of North American ginseng extract or to a group that took 
>identical tablets of rice powder. An independent company randomly assigned 
>the subjects, and neither the researchers nor the volunteers knew which 
>pills were given to which participants.
>
>The subjects were asked to note their symptoms - runny nose, fever, 
>headache, sore throat and six others - and to rank them on a scale from 0 
>(no symptom) to 3 (severe symptom). The participants also kept logs of 
>their symptoms, and the researchers called each volunteer once a month in 
>the four-month study to make sure that they were taking their medicine.
>
>At the end of two months, the subjects returned any unused medicine, and 
>they were given a second bottle of pills. They then returned the unused 
>amounts from those bottles at the end of the study, which was conducted in 
>2003-2004.
>
>Of those in the placebo group, 23 percent reported two or more colds over 
>the winter. Ten percent of the ginseng group had two or more. When those 
>in the ginseng group did have colds, their symptoms were milder, based on 
>the 0 to 3 rankings, and they had one-third fewer days with symptoms than 
>those on the placebo.
>
>The average duration of each cold was also lower in the ginseng group, 8.7 
>days compared with 11.1 days for the placebo group. On every measure, the 
>people taking the ginseng did better than those on the placebo.
>
>CV Technologies, the manufacturers of the ginseng-based cold treatment in 
>the study, provided financial support for the study, but had no role in 
>planning its design, collecting data or making decisions on preparing the 
>manuscript for publication.
>
>Dr. Tapan Basu, a professor of nutritional biochemistry at the University 
>of Alberta and the lead author on the study, emphasized that the results 
>pertained only to the standardized product in the study, and not to 
>ginseng in general. "This is not the same as a bottle of ginseng from just 
>anywhere," Dr. Basu said.
>
>Dr. Ronald B. Turner, a professor of 
><http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/pediatrics/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>pediatrics 
>at the University of Virginia who wrote an editorial accompanying the 
>paper, warned that the study was only a first step. "This is an unexpected 
>result," he said, "and the proper way to deal with it is to see what 
>happens when other people try to confirm it.
>
>"It's premature for the public to take off on this," he said.
>
>The authors acknowledged that ginseng's effects in the study, while 
>statistically significant, were still quite modest. They also pointed out 
>that their experiment, carried out in 
><http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/influenza/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>flu 
>season, was not set up to distinguish a cold from the flu.
>
>Nevertheless, the authors said, the results with ginseng were slightly 
>better than those reported with common antiviral drugs. North American 
>ginseng extract, they concluded, "appears to be an attractive natural 
>prophylactic treatment for upper respiratory tract infections."
>    * 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html>Copyright 
> 2005 <http://www.nytco.com/>The New York Times Company 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/>Home 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/privacy.html>Privacy Policy 
> <http://query.nytimes.com/search/advanced/>Search 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/corrections.html>Corrections 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/rss>XML 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/membercenter/sitehelp.html>Help 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/membercenter/formh.html>Contact Us 
> <http://www.nytdigital.com/careers>Work for Us 
> <http://spiderbites.nytimes.com/>Site Map 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/health/01gins.html?pagewanted=print#top>Back 
> to Top
>
>_______________________________________________
>MPWG mailing list
>MPWG at lists.plantconservation.org
>http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/mpwg_lists.plantconservation.org
>
>To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to MPWG-request at lists.plantconservation.org 
>with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
>
>Disclaimer
>Any advice given on this list regarding diagnosis or treatments etc. 
>reflects ONLY the opinion of the individual who posts the message. The 
>information contained in posts is not intended nor implied to be a 
>substitute for professional medical advice relative to your specific 
>medical condition or question. All medical and other healthcare 
>information that is discussed on this list should be carefully reviewed by 
>the individual reader and their qualified healthcare professional. Posts 
>do not reflect any official opinions or positions of the Plant 
>Conservation Alliance.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.plantconservation.org/pipermail/mpwg_lists.plantconservation.org/attachments/20051104/28626b85/attachment.html>