Want to cure your hay fever? Head for the gym and start lifting some weights

If you’re one of the millions who suffers from a runny nose and itchy eyes at this time of year, try working up a sweat.

Hay fever sufferers who followed a resistance training programme on top of medication experienced significantly fewer symptoms than those who just took pills, a study has found.

The workouts are effective because they specifically boost the body’s ability to deal with inflammation, the research revealed.

They also enhance blood flow and oxygen delivery to the body, which helps lessen allergic responses.

Researchers in China followed 156 people suffering with either a seasonal or all-year-round form of allergic rhinitis, a chronic inflammatory disorder caused by environmental allergens. The seasonal form – an allergy to pollen in the spring and summer – is known as hay fever. With the perennial form, people are sensitive to allergens such as dust mites or microscopic skin flakes from animals.

Half the group were randomly allocated to follow a resistance training programme alongside pharmacological treatment. They performed exercises targeting their major muscle groups for 45-60 minutes, three times a week, in a gym while supervised by a trainer. The other half received the medication only.

After three months, the gym-goers’ nose symptoms had reduced by 54.1 per cent and their eye symptoms by 47.6 per cent.

The pills-only group showed only an 11.3 per cent drop in nose symptoms and a 9.6 per cent decrease in eye symptoms.

Blood samples also showed that levels of the antibody immunoglobulin E (IgE) – instrumental in triggering allergic symptoms – were down 29.4 per cent in the training group, but just 3.6 per cent in the other participants.

By six months, nasal symptoms for those in the gym group had fallen by 71.6 per cent, eye symptoms 62.4 per cent, and IgE levels 35.1 per cent. Those in the pills-only group saw a reduction in nose symptoms of just 11.6 per cent, a 9.8 per cent drop in eye symptoms and an IgE fall of 6.9 per cent.

‘Many patients in the resistance training group reported noticeable relief of nasal and eye symptoms as early as three weeks into the resistance training programme – especially reduced congestion, sneezing frequency, and eye irritation,’ said study author Dr Shujun Zhang, from Chengde Medical College Affiliated Hospital.

This early benefit may be due to the enhancement of blood flow in the nose and surrounding tissues brought on by resistance training, the doctor said.

The researchers findings are published in the American Journal of Otolaryngology.