Oxygenation and exercise performance-enhancing effects attributed to the breathe-right nasal dilator.

Recently, many professional football players have elected to wear spring-loaded nasal dilators during competition. Many athletes believe that wearing the "Breathe-Right" nasal dilator will increase nasal gas conduction and oxygenation to their body, subsequently improving their performance. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the advantages of wearing a nasal dilator while performing aerobic and anaerobic exercise, as opposed to not wearing a nasal dilator. It was hypothesized that the "Breathe-Right" nasal dilator, manufactured by CNS, Inc (Chanhassen, MN) would increase nasal gaseous conduction and increase oxygenation to the body. Nasal gaseous conduction and oxygenation are essential components for using aerobic power. We examined whether wearing a nasal dilator improves performance by using a ramped cycle ergometer stress test on athletes until they reached VO(2) maximum progressing from aerobic to anaerobic exercise. Baseline data were collected (ie, VO(2), VO(2)/Kg, respiratory exchange ratio, anaerobic threshold time, and onset of VO(2) max) using a MedGraphics CardiO(2) System. The subjects included 16 college-aged male athletes. Dependent t-tests implemented on each physiological response; VO(2) max, peak VO(2) kg, onset of anaerobic threshold, onset of VO(2) max, respiratory exchange ratio at VO(2) max, and maximum WATT output, showed there was no difference in the athletes' performance when they wore the nasal dilators and when they did not wear the dilators.