Help me win a bet with my husband – tell me how echinacea stacks up with goldenseal root
Dear Derek, My husband and I are arguing over the best herb for a chronically weakened immune system. I say echinacea root because my mother used it and my grandmother used it and I never recall ever seeing them get a cold or the flu. He says goldenseal root is farm more powerful – and really is an all natural antibiotic and good for immunity. What do you think?
I know you have a lot of experience, so your opinion – my husband and I have agreed – is one we will accept as the gospel truth.
That’s important because (not to put any pressure on you!) there is a steak dinner and night on the town riding on this. So, who’s right? - M.M. in Newberry
Dear M.M., Echinacea is a terrific herb best taken when you feel yourself coming down with a cold or flu to help ward off one of the secondary infections, such as bronchitis, that can keep you under the weather for weeks or months instead of the few days it should take for a cold or flu to run its course.
There is disagreement, of course, but unless extraordinary circumstances are in play, echinacea should be taken in short spurts of seven to 10 days on and seven days off for optimal effect and safety, as heavy uninterrupted therapy can come back to “bite” you, causing reduced immunity and increased susceptibility to infection and a diminished immune state.
The same is true of Goldenseal (or it’s kissing cousins, Oregon Grape Root and Barberry, all three of which contain the alkaloid and active ingredient, berberine).
Now, to finally address and answer your question, you guys are going to have to go “Dutch” on that dinner and date – because when it comes to herbs to strengthen a weakened immune system, astragalus, maitake mushroom, pau d’arco, panax ginseng, American ginseng and even eleuthero would be better choices, generally speaking and over the long haul, than echinacea or goldenseal. But even those powerhouse botanicals aren’t my top choice.
Cat’s claw - aka una de gato, botanical name uncaria tomentosa – is. My experience with over 20,000 users dating back to 1993 confirms that, for me, cat’s claw is the closest thing to a biblical panacea in nature.
I’ve taken it daily for 16 years. And I like and respect it so much that I even created a special blending of full-spectrum inner bark powder and a 3% guaranteed-potency extract to duplicate batch-to-batch and bottle-to-bottle (in the manufacturing process) the most potent, alkaloid-rich cat’s claw that nature produced on her own.
That cat’s claw was imported into the U.S. in 1996-97 after a once-in-a-lifetime growing season and averaged 1.1% alkaloid content compared to the average .3% to .5% alkaloid content.
A peculiar extract of cat’s claw that contains only pentacyclic alkaloids as opposed the pentacyclic and tetracyclic alkaloids that appear in other cat’s claw products also is a popular choice. Both varieties are used effectively and happily by large numbers of people. Choose based on cost and convenience.
Questions about herbal therapies for Lyme? Feel free to ask. Since 2002, I’ve interviewed over 6,000 Lyme patients through my work with herbs and as the founder-by-default of an unofficial crisis line that is dialed by people from the four corners of the globe -every week (an my phone bill, it’s true, would blow you away!)
Indirectly, 8,000 more Lyme patients, that’s a total of 12,000, have come to me for information an advice. That means I’ve got lots of feedback and experience to share with anyone who needs it.
Enjoy your week!
D
