Umbilical cord transplantation can relieve the common cold – Dagens PS

Persistent runny nose? Now there is a new solution. A new study shows that umbilical cord transplants can be effective.

It may not sound appealing, but mucus cultures can be effective in relieving chronic rhinitis, according to a new study.
In concrete terms, it is about rinsing your nose with someone else’s snot.

A new study at Helsingborg Hospital looked at whether a so-called cord transplant could relieve symptoms in chronic, long-term rhinitis.orskning.se

Rinse the nose with a thread

Early results are positive. The treatment helped 70 percent of the patients who participated in the study, which involves rinsing the nose with a solution of mucus from a healthy nose.

The explanation has to do with the normal bacterial flora of the nose, which has been shown to be less diverse in people with chronic sinusitis.

The entire bacterial flora

“We wanted to see if we could rebalance the good and bad bacteria in the nose and thus alleviate patients’ symptoms. Since it was difficult to find out which bacteria were missing, we decided to try culturing the entire bacterial flora,” he says. Anders ServinChief Physician at the Helsingborg Hospital and Lecturer at Lund University.

Patients who participated in the study had persistent rhinitis or chronic sinusitis.

Any inconvenience was alleviated by allowing everyone to choose their own donor – often a partner or a close family member.

It was sprayed into the nose

The donor rinses the nose with a saline solution, which is then sprayed into the patient’s nose.
The outcome was then measured by a subjective estimate and by comparing the bacterial flora in the nose before and after treatment.

“Many of the people we reached out to about the study thought it sounded disgusting, but they were willing to try anything to get better,” he says. Anders Martinson, Chief Physician in Helsingborg and PhD Student at Lund University.

16 out of 22 is better

“They often had problems for many years and neither conventional antibiotic treatment nor surgical interventions helped them. Up to 16 of the 22 patients who participated in the study, Martinson adds, saw significant improvement.”

An estimated 12 percent of Swedes suffer from chronic rhinitis, which often leads to sleeping and breathing difficulties, fatigue, and loss of taste.
This means that many suffer from a lower quality of life.

“don’t test yourself”

The treatment is not yet available to the public and more research is needed to confirm the findings in the study.

Currently, a larger clinical study is underway at the University of Queensland in Australia, where Anders Cervin previously worked as a professor.

“Hopefully this will benefit more patients in the future, perhaps in the form of a nasal spray. Until then, we don’t want to encourage you to start poking each other up your nose on your own initiative — the risk is high that you’ll pick up an infection, or tell sometimes,” Cerven points out. .

Also read: FHM reflects: “I go to work despite the cold” [Dagens PS]