Echinacea: benefit, harm, application

Some gardeners prefer to grow in their plots not only beautiful plants, but also beneficial ones. These include a variety of medicinal crops. Among them there are plants that combine decorative properties and medicinal benefits. One of these plants is echinacea.

Benefits of Echinacea

For therapy, different parts of echinacea are used - flowers, roots and leaves. It is successfully used as an anti-inflammatory agent to fight fungal diseases, viruses or bacteria. The main property of echinacea is to increase immunity. Therefore, the plant can be successfully used as an immunomodulator. This quality is explained by the presence of polysaccharides in the composition of echinacea, which activate the production of interferon in the body and tissue repair.

Echinacea is known to have a stimulating effect on the adrenal glands. This allows you to increase the production of hormones responsible for anti-allergenic and anti-rheumatic properties. Echinacea juice speeds up the blood clotting process, and when applied to a wound, it activates healing.

Echinacea is used almost all over the world; many experts recommend using it to eliminate colds and other inflammatory ailments. Echinacea contains many substances necessary for the proper process of hematopoiesis, bone formation, development of teeth, nails and hair. The use of drugs based on echinacea helps free the body from free radicals and can be used to prevent early aging and cancer.

Echinacea harm

When used correctly and in the right dosage, Echinacea will not do you any harm. If you use Echinacea more than you should, then symptoms of mild poisoning will appear - dizziness, nausea and salivation.

With violations of the liver, as well as with prolonged poisoning of the body with alcohol or drugs, you cannot use alcohol-based echinacea preparations.

If you have high blood pressure or ischemia, you should always consult a doctor before using echinacea medications. Thoughtless use of drugs based on this plant with such a diagnosis can worsen the condition.

Do not use echinacea preparations with other natural substances that form immunity, for example, with garlic or ginger. You can get unwanted effects when the immune system begins to destroy the internal systems.

Echinacea contraindications

It is worth giving up the use of the plant itself and preparations based on it if you have an individual sensitivity to echinacea. At the same time, it is not recommended to use not only a decoction or tincture, but also other medicines containing echinacea.

Women who are expecting a baby do not need to consume echinacea in the first months of pregnancy. It activates the immune system, which can treat a new life as a threat to health and provoke a miscarriage. In the future, it is necessary to rely on the opinion of a doctor who will soberly assess how much the body needs this drug and will give the necessary recommendations.

Other conditions in which echinacea is prohibited include:

• Children and old age.
• Atherosclerosis.
• Polyarthritis.
• Leukemia.
• Systemic scleroderma.
• Collagenosis.
• Autoimmune disorders.

Echinacea use

For use as a treatment, only an adult plant, at least two years old, is suitable. In this case, echinacea remedies are recommended to be used for healing from colds, blood poisoning or ailments of the bladder. With such diagnoses, echinacea is required to be administered orally. For the external version, echinacea can be used with burns, wounds, urticaria, herpes and other skin ailments.

Medicines with echinacea are also used for more serious diseases, for example, diabetes mellitus, liver ailments or poisoning of the body with heavy metal compounds and fungicides. Echinacea successfully treats streptococci, Escherichia coli and the flu virus.

It is effective to use the preparations of this plant in the treatment of prostate diseases, osteomyelitis, rheumatism or respiratory diseases. When treating skin diseases, it is useful to make lotions with a decoction of this plant. They also treat peptic ulcer disease, normalize blood pressure and increase the immune defense.

To brew a decoction from this plant, take a teaspoon of chopped leaves and brew with a glass of boiling water. Warm up in a water bath for a quarter of an hour. Then leave it for a while to infuse and drink half a glass three times a day.

To eliminate pain in the head, grind the plant into powder (you can use all parts), mix with honey in a 1: 3 ratio. Eat this mixture three times a day. It helps to eliminate headaches well, soothes the nerves and systematizes the sleep pattern.

For colds, we recommend drinking an echinacea drink. It will need roots and leaves. Grind both components and take a teaspoon of raw materials. Add three echinacea flowers to this mixture and brew with boiling water (two glasses). Wait 40 minutes until infused and drink a glass three times a day. If you use this tea only as a preventive measure, then it is enough to drink only 1 glass.

Echinacea tincture

Echinacea is most commonly used in tincture form. It is very convenient - such a drug is sold in every pharmacy and is very inexpensive. The classic version of this tincture contains 20 grams of roots and 60% ethyl alcohol. The tincture is sold in dark glass bottles, since daylight destroys the beneficial substances contained in the product.

Echinacea tincture can be used both as a remedy and for prophylaxis. You can treat the widest list of diseases, which includes all ailments of the respiratory organs, infectious processes in the oral cavity, infections of the gastrointestinal tract and genitourinary system, peptic ulcers.

For external use, a tincture from this plant can be used for non-healing wounds, trophic ulcers and inflammation of the skin.

Echinacea for children

For children, preparations with echinacea are useful as a preventive measure against colds. This will strengthen the body's defenses and increase resistance not only to colds, but also to other viral infections. In general, Echinacea can be used as a general tonic. It is useful after a complex of treatment for recuperation and rehabilitation with radiation therapy or antibacterial therapy.

Older children (over 12 years old) are prescribed in small quantities a tincture of echinacea, previously diluted with water in a ratio of 1 to 3. It must be taken three times a day.

Younger children from 4 years old, give tablet echinacea. The drug Immunal is suitable. Children over one year old are given Immunal in the form of a solution. For infants, echinacea is allowed in the form of tea leaves.

Echinacea for immunity

According to the research results, experts have come to the conclusion that echinacea activates the formation of leukocytes, which are responsible for the body's immune defense. For this, echinacea contains phenolic compounds that work in combination and enhance immunity.

To enhance the immune properties of the body, echinacea is best taken at the very onset of the disease, as soon as you feel the first symptoms of the disease. Do not stop taking echinacea immediately after you recover. For full protection, use the drug for 2 more days after the disappearance of all symptoms of the disease. Do not take echinacea all the time as a preventative measure. This can lead to the destruction of internal organs. Therefore, preparations from this plant should not be consumed for more than two months in a row.

Echinacea: reviews

According to the results of use, many people talk about a significant improvement in their condition from taking echinacea preparations - there is an increase in the body's immune properties, increased efficiency, colds run easier and faster. But there are also people for whom echinacea did not help in any way or, on the contrary, caused an allergic reaction. Therefore, when taking such drugs, you should pay attention to your own health and the body's response.