Lend a nose to help test cold remedy (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Lend a nose to help test cold remedy

10:26am Monday 15th January 2007 in

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It is the most widespread viral infection and costs employers thousands of working days every year. Now a family-run business is working on a garlic-based remedy for the common cold and T&A Reporter Clive White has been to find out more.

A company is calling in the public to help in its fight to beat the common cold.

Volunteers are wanted for a study aimed at confirming the benefits of using wild garlic.

At least 100 people are needed to be guinea pigs over the eight weeks of the pilot study.

Half will take the new product and half a placebo - a dummy alternative.

The treatment, Nasaleze Cold, will eventually join the other Nasaleze products - designed to fight hay fever and allergies - already sold nationwide and manufactured in the Isle of Man by a Keighley family firm set up four years ago.

The product is already for sale in Finland, Bulgaria and Greece but before UK high street stores, such as Boots and Tesco, will take the product independent tests have to be conducted.

Charlotte Duxbury, Nasaleze sales office manager at the Hard Ings Road sales and marketing building, said: "We need at least 100 people so that we can do a proper test.

There is already lots of data and studies that show the effectiveness of garlic.

"The volunteers will need to take one puff up each nostril every day for eight weeks to see if it prevents people catching the winter cold."

The garlic is carried in a natural cellulose formula which, when it hits moisture in the nose, forms a barrier gel, she said. It is applied directly by squeezing the sides of the small plastic applicator.

Because it is a completely natural product and not a drug - according to the Medicines Control Agency - it can be used by pregnant women, children and hay fever sufferers, she said. The applicator has been approved by the Medical Device Agency.

"The sales in Finland are already doing amazingly well. We know it is working," she added.

Peter Josling, at the Herbal Research Centre in Battle, East Sussex, and Professor Hiltunen, at the University of Helsinki in Finland, are carrying out the pilot study. Mr Josling said the aim was to offer a simple method for fending-off the cold virus.

Many people take garlic supplements orally as a preventive and report an absence of colds or cold symptoms.

And during an influenza epidemic in Russia, some years ago, 500 tons of garlic cloves were imported to help in the fight against the outbreak.

The pilot study is to see if the common cold can be prevented by using the cellulose and garlic combination.

Mr Josling said: "We shall be excluding anyone who has had a flu vaccination or is currently taking supplements that include garlic, vitamin C, echinacea or zinc.

"The common cold is the world's most widespread viral infection, with most people suffering between two and five colds a year.

"The many garlic supplements marketed in the UK, USA and Europe vary widely by type and definition of active ingredients.

"Increased evidence has shown that certain forms of supplement may have significant beneficial properties."

A cure would substantially reduce the number of work days lost each year as a result of the classic symptoms of infection - tiredness, headaches and a runny nose, sneezing, coughing, watery eyes and impaired concentration, he said.

People interested in taking part in the study should send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Herbal Health Centre, Freepost, TN7259, Battle, TN339BR.

e.mail:clive.white@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

FACT FILE

• Research has indicated that garlic is of benefit when fighting colds, infections and digestive disorders.

• A poll of 2000 people in 2005 revealed that garlic was the sixth-favourite culinary vegetable in the UK.

• Gilroy in California promotes itself as the garlic capital of the world and hosts a garlic festival every summer.

• Garlic was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians and chewed by Greek Olympian athletes.