Effect of a dairy diet on subjective levels of nasopharyngeal mucus secretion

Excessive dairy milk consumption has for generations been anecdotally reported to be associated with increased upper respiratory tract mucus production. This is known as the Milk Mucus Effect (MME). Our study was aimed at determining whether the MME can be demonstrated by comparing individuals on dairy and non-dairy diets over a period of several days. We present our prospective, randomized, double-blinded controlled trial investigating if there is a difference in the subjective awareness of nasopharyngeal mucus production between subjects on a dairy versus non-dairy diet in adult rhinitics who previously complained of persistent nasopharyngeal mucus hyper-secretion. We found a dairy-free diet was associated with a significant reduction in self-reported levels of nasopharyngeal secretions in adult rhinitics.