Fresh is best
In a clinical trial conducted on Echinaforce, fresh plants were shown to contain up to ten times the number of active components when compared to those that went through a drying process. These medicinal herbs may contain compounds that break down or degrade when they've been exposed to the heat used to dry the plants. If you use a product with little in the way of therapeutic components, you need to use more to achieve the benefits.
Though fresh herb is far from the only thing that sets Echinaforce apart as the product must meet over one hundred quality parameters and checks before it reaches your home. The organic plant parts are tested for over one hundred pesticides and heavy metals and the tincture undergoes thin-layer chromatography to ensure consistency of the medicinal constituents between each batch produced. It's that kind of oversight, demanded by the national medical authority Swissmedic, that ensures an herbal product on par with certain pharmaceuticals.
When a company has been around as long as A.Vogel, almost one hundred years, there is time to get things right.
To work out the kinks and understand how the product functions. The medical leap that was made with the age of antibiotics is a milestone of human ingenuity. However, we have seen bacteria learn and evolve to a point where antibiotic resistance is now listed as a serious risk to human health by the World Health Organization. With that said, what are we, as a species, to do?
With over 20 clinical trials, ranging from in-vitro to human, Echinaforce is turning out to be a reliable herbal defense that doesn't induce antibiotic resistance. In the largest randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with 755 subjects involved, Echinaforce prevented and helped treat viral colds. They were taking the product daily for 4 months, and that's important from a safety perspective for all of our global neighbors as we battle the high infection rates that accompany the winter months. The best part? Echinaforce is safe to use in pregnant and breast-feeding individuals.
One of the most detrimental aspects of coming down with the cold or flu is not just the initial illness, but what follows.
Think of your body like a fortress with different types of soldiers moving to and for. When an enemy invades, we quickly ready the troops and head to battle. Our soldiers fight valiantly, and in the end, we lose some and hopefully the invaders lose more. This would normally be a time to celebrate a well-earned victory as the soldier's rest and recuperate. The danger lies in tired soldiers having to fight another battle right after wrapping up the first. We may not have the resources to fight of a secondary infection, otherwise known as a superinfection.
Bacterial species such as Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae take advantage of our weakened state. During the influenza pandemic in 1918, data implicate the influenza virus combined with a bacterial superinfection as the primary cause of death. We see this trend repeat itself during the influenza pandemics of 1957 and 1968. Clinical trials conducted on Echinaforce demonstrate that the herbal preparation has the ability to reduce the risk of secondary infections and complications. Researchers from the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia demonstrated that Echinaforce does this by preventing virus-induced bacterial adhesion and inhibiting cytokine storms.
Truly a testament to clinically-supported herbal formulas.
With such a focus on working in harmony with the environment and nature, A.Vogel takes active measures to be at the forefront of sustainable manufacturing practices. Vogel believed in the synergism of herbal remedies by ensuring the whole plant is used to create our products, reducing plant waste by including stems or leaves. The products are packaged and shipped to size to reduce unnecessary cardboard and plastic waste. The glass bottles and labels are 100% recyclable, and products are not tested on our furry friends. In addition, the company servers that host A.Vogel websites are powered in part by energy generated from water, sunlight, wind and bio-mass.
References:
Jawad, Moutaz, et al. "Safety and efficacy profile of Echinacea purpurea to prevent common cold episodes: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial." Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012 (2012).
Lindsay, Malcolm I., et al. "Hong Kong influenza: clinical, microbiologic, and pathologic features in 127 cases." Jama 214.10 (1970): 1825-1832.
Morens, David M., Jeffery K. Taubenberger, and Anthony S. Fauci. "Predominant role of bacterial pneumonia as a cause of death in pandemic influenza: implications for pandemic influenza preparedness." The Journal of infectious diseases 198.7 (2008): 962-970.
Rynda-Apple, Agnieszka, Keven M. Robinson, and John F. Alcorn. "Influenza and bacterial superinfection: illuminating the immunologic mechanisms of disease." Infection and immunity 83.10 (2015): 3764-3770.
Schapowal, Andreas, Peter Klein, and Sebastian L. Johnston. "Echinacea reduces the risk of recurrent respiratory tract infections and complications: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials." Advances in therapy 32.3 (2015): 187-200.
Sharma, Manju, et al. "Induction of multiple pro-inflammatory cytokines by respiratory viruses and reversal by standardized Echinacea, a potent antiviral herbal extract." Antiviral research 83.2 (2009): 165-170.
Shrivastava, Saurabh R., Prateek S. Shrivastava, and Jegadeesh Ramasamy. "Responding to the challenge of antibiotic resistance: World Health Organization." Journal of Research in Medical Sciences 23.1 (2018): 21.
Vimalanathan, Selvarani, et al. "Prevention of influenza virus induced bacterial superinfection by standardized Echinacea purpurea, via regulation of surface receptor expression in human bronchial epithelial cells." Virus research 233 (2017): 51-59.
