If you're one of the 10 million people in England with hay fever, you might find that eating a pot of probiotic yoghurt each day could ease your symptoms.
A new study has found the friendly bacteria found in some yoghurts can ease hay fever symptoms such as sneezing and itchy eyes.
Doctors at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine reviewed 23 studies involving more than 1,900 people to draw their conclusions.
They found that people who had consumed probiotics reported significantly reduced symptoms of hay fever compared to people who had consumed a placebo.
"The current study suggests that probiotics have the potential to alter disease severity, symptoms and quality of life in patients with allergic rhinitis (hay fever)," the study authors said, according to The Telegraph.
“Positive outcomes were reported in a majority of studies with no significant adverse effects.
"Much about the role of probiotics in the human response remains poorly understood and additional translational studies will likely be needed to clarify this in the future.”
The research is published in the journal International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology.
The study supports a growing school of thought that allergies may be caused by a lack of bacteria in the gut.
As well as hay fever, probiotics have been shown to protect individuals from other allergies, including peanut allergies.
Studies have suggested the rise in people suffering from allergies could be because we are "too clean".
"We have co-evolved with our microbiota for millennia," Cathryn Nagler, an immunologist at the University of Chicago previously commented.
"It seems that a consequence of some of our 21st-century lifestyle habits has been the disruption of our relationship with the communities of commensal (friendly) bacteria that reside on our skin and mucosal surfaces, and particularly in the gut."
