Pregnancy Outcome Following Gestational Exposure to Echinacea
So now we have research outlining the safety of echinacea in pregnancy. It still amazes me that the safety was in question despite hundreds of years of safe use. On the other hand, with only several years of use of many pharmaceuticals that have shown some potential for damage in pregnancy, the “risk vs benefit” idea is used to justify their use. Another good example is vitamin A and pregnancy. Everyone knows to avoid high dose vitamin A during pregnancy (greater than 10,000 IU/day), and yet the number of recorded birth defects from vitamin A (not including retinoic acid) is a mere handful.
Pregnancy Outcome Following Gestational Exposure to Echinacea: A Prospective Controlled Study