Dear Alice,

I wish I had read your response to the Echinacea query re: November 6, 1998 earlier, as I have an auto-immune disease (Sjögren's Syndrome), and when I got the sniffles last week, my wife suggested I start taking Echinacea, which I did, but to my surprise, my salivary glands went nuts and the left side of my face blew up. I suggested to my wife that the Echinacea may have been the cause, and decided to stop taking it. Thanks for the confirmation.

A new reader to Go Ask Alice!,
SJ

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Alice,

Very important thing to note in your response: Echinacea is closely related to ragweed. I have a very, very minor reaction to ragweed, yet I had an awful reaction to echinacea. My eyes itched, they were swollen... I was absolutely miserable until I figured it out.

Please advise your readers. Echinacea is not all that it is cracked up to be!