Topping to find out about decongestant question. Socialworker, I never noticed the date-your question is a good one. Do you think Fodors brought it back as a general interest thing? How long are the threads kept anyway?

Next time I am in Trader Joe's I will look at the Airborne and see if, by chance, it has the same active ingredient as Zicam. Zicam is, of course, not echinacea.

hi donco--it looks like NYCTS just wanted to post her article about echinacea not being effective and used the old post to make her point...I don't know how long threads are kept, but if you click on your name and keep scrolling back, you eventually get to your first post, so maybe they keep them "in perpetuity"!! :)

Massive doses of Vitamin C with the first onset of symptoms, per Linus Pauling. I've been doing it since the '60s or '70s and can't remember the last time I've had a ful-blown cold.

Yes, it produces "the runs" for a day or two. Your call.

Apparently many of you don't bother to read. I brought this thread back to reference the recent New England Journal of Medicine findings on the failure of Echinacea. I could have started a new thread but why bother?

Topping to see if someone will answer the question below. Also, NYCTravelSnob, please be kind-we're only human.

<Health Canada has banned almost every other decongestant>

I had a bad reaction to combo of aspirin and otc antihistamine so am doubly interested in the reason for the withdrawal. Thanks and hope your cold was derailed.

"I could have started a new thread but why bother?"

Okay, if you don't feel up to it. How about posting <b>Echinacea Doesn't Work - NEJM</b> followed by a link?

Hi donco--The reason given here for the increasing OTC decongestant restriction laws that are being passed is that their main ingredient, psuedophedrine, can be used to maufacture crystal meth. Is that the info you were looking for? Of course, antihistamines are a completely different class of drug...I am not sure if that helps you...

Hmmm.... Medical establishment conducts a &quot;study&quot; on a natural substance that is also known for its preventive properties, and concludes that it doesn't work. No news there, folks. One really needs to consider the source of the study, and the fact that there's no money (comparatively speaking) in preventive or natural &quot;medicine&quot;.

Well now, let's see...do we take the word of Dr. Stephen E. Straus, director of the <b>National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine</b> (the &quot;government&quot; agency that sponsored the research) who says (based on the study's results), &quot;he for one is satisfied that echinacea is not an effective cold remedy&quot; or, do we take Holly-without-her-underwear's fine dose of (medical establishment?) cynicism? After all, doesn't everybody know by now that every government funded (and medical establishment?) study is evil? This is a no brainer for me.

Speaking of money...&quot;The American Botanical Council, a nonprofit group that promotes the use of herbal supplements, says sales of echinacea products in 2004 were about $155 million.&quot; Not a bad business based entirely on placebo effect. Americans are free to piss away their hard earned money any way they prefer but $155 million sure can buy a ton of vacations.

<i>&quot;How about posting Echinacea Doesn't Work - NEJM followed by a link?</i>

An excellent suggestion, if I didn't enjoy making lazy minds work harder. It seems to me, it takes less time to see a date differential and read one small post then it does to write and post, asking why a thread was resurrected.

&quot;The reason given here for the increasing OTC decongestant restriction laws that are being passed is that their main ingredient, psuedophedrine, can be used to maufacture crystal meth....&quot;

Good grief and, thanks socialworker.

I guess someone around here doesn't know what &quot;comparatively speaking&quot; means. No surprise there.