The Cochrane Collaboration is this transnational organization with scads of brilliant volunteers who systematically review medical literatures to assess treatment efficacy. (Pause for dreamy sigh.)
I am so excited about their work on chinese medical herbs for influenza, even though it basically just concludes that we need more research. Which all herbalists know anyway, as this applies to basically all herbal medicines. (Because after the research has happened, the phytochemical silver bullets are isolated from their potentially synergistic natural habitats, and the thing ceases to be an herbal — see also, willow bark and aspirin, cinchona and quinine, foxglove and digitalis, pilocarpus jaborandi and Salagen…)
Since it seems highly unlikely we’ll develop a flu vaccine effective against whatever mutant hybrid strain causes the next pandemic, why not fund this research?
(Artwork is “wildflower stems, ginger, and salt,” flatbed scanner image. In related news, you might want to Windex your office printer if you’ve given me a key recently.)
