That's Fit

Do Nasal Strips Help Improve Exercise Performance?

Liz Neporent — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:00:00 EST

Corbis Images In the early part of the century, horses began showing up to races and events with large bandages stretched across the lower parts of their muzzles. The makers of the bandages and the owners of the horses swore by these nasal strips, declaring they made the horses perform better, recover faster and bleed less. When you have a product that claims to improve win percentage by nearly 3.5 percent and decrease the interval between races by 15 percent, this is no small thing in the equine world. This sort of thing translates to big bucks. It doesn't seem to be hearsay, either; some decent research backs it up. So it's no surprise that miniature versions of these nasal strips soon found their way onto the noses of two legged athletes. Nasal dilator strips are plastic splints you tape across the bridge of your nose. The idea is that they expand your nostrils to open up your airway, making it easier for you to breathe. They certainly look cool -- you'll see the bright, snappy colors on everyone from top marathoners to professional football players. But just because they work on horses doesn't mean they have the same positive effect on human performance. For people, nasal strips were originally designed to reduce snoring. And, indeed, some studies show that they can help cut down snoring, up to 75 percent in some cases, by diminishing the amount of resistance that air encounters when it enters your nose. They also seem to divert air from the mouth to the nose, at least for a short period of time, thus reducing mouth dryness. This is great news for people who have a tendency to saw logs and the people who sleep with them. Some experts also speculate that wearing a nasal strip might offer some advantages if you suffer from exercise-induced asthma. The inability to breathe entirely through the nostrils forces mouth breathing, which leads to more rapid water loss and heat loss, both of which increase the likelihood of exercise-induced asthma. Because it seems to delay mouth breathing for a short period of time and helps to keep your airway moist, wearing a nasal strip may delay the onset of an asthma attack. A few small research studies back up this statement, but it would be nice to see more work in this area to confirm the theory. Alas, if you have no history of respiratory problems and your goal is to get a higher placement in whatever your version of the Kentucky Derby is, then wearing a nasal strip isn't likely to do you much good. One recent American College of Sports Medicine study found that people engaged in moderate-to-vigorous exercise switch from nose breathing to mouth breathing relatively early on in their workouts anyway. Since that's the case, nasal strips don't offer much, if any, advantage. Subjects were tested for oxygen consumption, work output and perceived exertion (how hard they felt they were exercising) during a less-than-all-out effort and during an all-out effort. No significant differences were observed in any of the measured parameters between those who wore a strip and those who didn't. An even more recent study done by the University in Oregon revisited this topic in 2008. The conclusions were consistent with those of many other studies that have found no differences in aerobic measurements between groups that used the nasal strips and the groups that used a placebo and no effect on anaerobic power (high intensity), rate of perceived exertion or cardio respiratory markers during recovery from intense exercise while using the nasal strips. The conclusion is that nasal dilators do increase nasal passages and decrease nasal airway resistance but these changes don't result in improved physical fitness and don't improve performance. Despite this lack of evidence, people still seem to be paying $13 a box for nose bandages. I just came back from a trip to Boston, one of the epicenters of distance running in the U.S., and was amused to see a fair amount of brightly colored schnozzes jogging around the Charles River. Are you one of them? Or do you have some other breathing tip you'd like to share with the group? After all, proper breathing is important to athletic performance. Post it here or tweet it to me. This is one time I am all ... let's say ears and leave it at that. Related Stories Ward Off Allergies With Nasal Irrigation Nasal Allergy Linked to Chronic Ear Drainage Forget Coffee, Combat Drowsiness With a Nasal Spray!

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