Nasal breathing exercise and its effect on symptoms of allergic rhinitis

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a common and chronic health problem with a high prevalence and a significant effect on the health care expenditure. Intranasal steroid spray is recommended as the first line therapy for patients with moderate to severe AR. Our study clinically analysed the use of nasal breathing exercise (NBE) as an adjunct to intranasal steroid spray as a cheap and effective mode of management of AR. A 3 month, parallel, randomized study was carried out in a zonal and tertiary care referral center. In this study, participants (N = 60) with symptomatic AR were administered either a intranasal steroid spray fluticasone propionate (group A) or fluticasone propionate nasal spray and NBE (group B). Participants assessed their symptom severity daily over the 3 month treatment period. The mean total nasal symptom scores were lower in both the groups (5.1 vs. 3.8333 for group A and 5.2 vs. 2.6777 for group B) and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The patients showed a definite improvement in overall and individual symptoms for both groups with significantly greater reduction in individual symptoms in the group B (P < 0.05). In our study we have found that both treatments provided clinically meaningful responses, but the overall results favored fluticasone propionate and the NBE group. Hence NBE is a simple and cost effective measure to reduce symptoms of AR and improve patient satisfaction.