USE OF PROBIOTICS IN ALLERGIC RHINITS: A PILOT STUDY

Abstract

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a nasal inflammatory disease. It manifests itself with nasal obstruction/blockage, rhinorrhea, itching and sneezing in response to contact with allergens. Its diagnosis is clinical and confirmed with allergy tests. Its treatment may involve antihistamines, topical corticosteroids, as well as immunotherapy, which is considered the only treatment capable of altering the clinical history of the disease. To evaluate the use of probiotics to control allergic rhinitis symptoms. This is a comparative experimental pilot study in which 11 adult employees were evaluated in 4 weeks and, of these, 9 were also evaluated in 8 weeks. Everyone used 0.9% physiological solution, budesonide 200 mcg/day nasally and desloratadine, when necessary. Among the volunteers, 7 also used the combination of probiotics, Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 and Bifidobacterium longum R0175, one capsule a day. There was statistical relevance in the probiotic group for sneezing in the 4-week evaluation and for nasal obstruction in the 8-week evaluation. The results of this comparative pilot study may have been influenced by the small sample size. Even so, it was possible to find data with statistical relevance that confirmed the benefit of using probiotics, mainly to reduce sneezing and nasal obstruction. Despite being a promising form of RA treatment, more studies are needed on the use of probiotics for this purpose.