Question: Many professional athletes are wearing the small Band-Aid-like strip on their noses to improve their performance. Do these small nose strips really work? I would appreciate your input.
Answer: The device you are describing is called Breathe Right. It consists of a piece of adhesive tape with imbedded plastic springs designed to open your nose so that you can breathe more easily. I have seen no research concerning this device, but there was an article about it in the latest issue of Running & FitNews (March 1996).
According to this article, the manufacturer of the device claims a decrease in nasal airway resistance of up to 31 percent. However, since the narrowest part of the nasal passage is higher up the nose than where the strip is placed, the editors of the newsletter doubted the claim, and they could not get the manufacturer to send any data to support it.
They quoted a study at the University of Charleston in West Virginia that showed no difference in endurance performance in athletes performing a maximal cycle stress test with and without the strips. Another study, which will be presented at the next American College of Sport Medicine Meetings in June, showed no difference in performance in repeated 40-yard sprints when athletes wore either Breathe Right or a placebo strip.
There are two other factors that make me doubt the effectiveness of these nose strips: During heavy work, most of us breathe through our mouths. Therefore, a small decrease in nasal resistance would make little difference to the total amount of air we breathe; There is little evidence that breathing is a limiting factor to work; most of us can increase the amount of air we breathe to a much higher level than we can increase the amount of energy we produce. Therefore, there is little chance that the small change that might occur in nasal breathing would have a significant effect on performance.
Another claim made for the nose strip is that it decreases snoring in mild snorers. The Running & FitNews board questioned this claim because, "Snoring is usually in the pharynx, involving the tongue and soft palate, not the nose." However, if snorers breathed more from their noses because of the strip, it could decrease snoring.
If you have a stuffy nose and sinuses, there is no doubt that it feels good to have your nose opened up some. This may be the major reason that people use the strips. But, do they really make a difference in the narrowest part of your nose? The answer to that question is probably not known. At best, Breathe Right strips may help some kinds of breathing difficulties. And they may make some people feel better.
Do they improve performance? In the absence of data, it seems likely that there is a placebo effect at work; if you put tape on your nose believing it helps, it might.