immunization

It works, it does not, it seems, ...

Whether prevent Echinacea, or zinc Umckaloabo colds or relieve, is in the eye of the beholder. Since studies say one thing, then another.

It sounds so simple: Each day a teaspoon of vegetable juice or a few tablets to swallow and the body builds up a protective shield against colds, cough, hoarseness. The strengthening of the immune system can cost the Germans a little. Each year they take more than 300 million € for herbal cold medicine in pharmacies and drugstores. But they expect that the extracts of coneflower (Echinacea), or zinc Umckaloabo also work and would like confirmation of the studies. But with the scientific evidence of effectiveness is such a thing.
For common immune-boosting substances, there are numerous international studies. Few meet the highest scientific standards, and the results are contradictory. The more values ​​the public opinions of renowned Cochrane Collaboration. The network of international scholars assess the quality of individual studies in meta-analysis, whose methods are as flawless. A positive Cochrane assessment comes a knighthood for a drug or a drug the same. For many doctors it is a standard by which they express doubt in treatment recommendations. But Cochrane's judgments are not set in stone and "not free from criticism," as Frank Kunath by the German Cochrane Centre in Freiburg said.
Reinhard Saller, a professor at the Institute for Natural Medicine of the University of Zurich provides Cochrane investigations for other reasons critical. The scientists were only the evidence, that the detectability, apply when it comes to effectiveness. "In everyday practice, it is next to the evidence but also on the empirical method, so the observation and experience," says the doctor......