ReviewProbiotics for the treatment of allergic rhinitis and asthma: systematic review of randomized controlled trials
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
Atopy affects more than 30% of the population. Its prevalence and the prevalence of the most common allergic diseases, such as allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma, have been increasing in the Western world during the past 20 years.1 In 2002, in the United States, almost 31 million adults had been diagnosed as having asthma during their lifetime,2 and approximately 40 million have seasonal AR (SAR) or perennial AR (PAR). Although we have a variety of effective therapeutic options for AR and
DISCUSSION
The main conclusion of this systematic review is that probiotics may be beneficial for the treatment of AR. Treatment with probiotics showed clinical improvement in patients with SAR and PAR in most of the published studies. Most of the RCTs show a reduction in symptom severity and decreased use of relief medications in patients treated with probiotics. Overall quality of life also tended to improve in patients receiving probiotics. Trials of the effects of probiotics on asthma are few and show
CONCLUSIONS
It is clear from the review of the literature that this issue cannot be resolved at this time. The idea is very promising, and there is good experimental evidence from animals to suggest its effectiveness. Basic science studies on each probiotic strain that include genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data and their effects on the immune system followed by systematic evaluation of the effects of the most promising strains in specific allergic diseases are required before we can draw any definite
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Disclosures: Authors have nothing to disclose.