MedWire News: Smokers and people with allergic rhinitis, commonly known as hayfever, are more likely to experience food-related rhinitis symptoms, such as a runny nose, than other people, researchers have found.

"Gustatory rhinitis is a type of nonallergic rhinitis that is usually associated with ingestion of hot or spicy foods," explain Dr Kirk Waibel and Dr Chih Chang, from the Dwight D Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Fort Gordon, Georgia, USA.

However, they add: "Characteristics of this condition and its impact on food choices have not been studied."

To address this, the researchers surveyed 571 children and adults who were attending an outpatient skin clinic.

All the participants completed questionnaires detailing their history of allergic diseases, how often they experienced a runny nose after eating, the severity of symptoms, their intake of foods that caused them to experience gustatory rhinitis, and whether they avoided such foods.

The team found that 69% of the participants reported that at least one type of food caused them to experience gustatory rhinitis symptoms. The most common type of food associated with gustatory rhinitis was hot chilli peppers, cited by 69% of participants, while the least common was bread, cited by 6% of those surveyed.

Patients with allergic rhinitis and smokers were more likely to experience gustatory rhinitis than other patients.

However, 65% of patients who experienced gustatory rhinitis said that they never avoided the type of food that caused such symptoms and 46% said that their symptoms were not particularly troublesome.

Patients who reported that a lot of foods caused them to experience gustatory rhinitis were also more likely to use medications before eating to lessen their symptoms than other patients.

Drs Waibel and Chang conclude: "The results presented herein suggest that almost all foods can be implicated, both children and adults develop this condition, and patients with a history of allergic rhinitis or smoking are more likely to report gustatory rhinitis symptoms.

"Most patients though do not avoid the causative food(s) and are not significantly bothered by symptoms."

The research is published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.