The Buteyko Method
The Life of Professor Buteyko
The Buteyko Method
A new beginning is emerging in the treatment of
asthma, aimed at getting to the root cause of the problem. By addressing
the cause rather than the symptoms that are the effect, sufferers
finally have the ability to be able to take control of their own
condition, naturally and permanently. This new beginning is based
on the life's work of Russian scientist, Professor Konstantin Buteyko.
Over four decades, Professor Buteyko completed pioneering work on
illnesses which develop as a result of breathing a volume of air
greater than the body requires. His work provided mankind with probably
the greatest discovery to date in the field of medicine.
As a medical student, Professor Buteyko observed hundreds of sick patients,
and realised that their breathing was closely related to the extent
of their illness. The greater the volume of air which a patient
inhaled, the greater their sickness, he discovered. This relationship
was so precise that he was able to predict accurately the exact
time when ill patients would pass away.
Through his research, Buteyko devised a breathing programme for his patients
based on reducing the amount of air that passed through their lungs.
When each patient applied reduced breathing, all their bodily functions
including pulse, volume of breathing per minute and blood pressure
were monitored. The resulting data enabled him to refine and improve
his method. Buteyko's theory is based on the life force of any organism:
breathing.
Although research conducted in Russia in 1962 proved unequivocally
the soundness of Buteyko's method, it was not until 1983 that the
Committee on Inventions and Discoveries formally acknowledged his
work. This recognition was backdated to January 29th, 1962. That
backdating alone begs the question: if Konstantin Buteyko's discovery
had been acknowledged earlier, how many more ill people would have
been helped? The first Buetyko trials held in the Western world were at
the Mater Hospital in Brisbane in 1995. (See Scientific
Trials.)
After three months, the Buteyko group had seventy per cent less
symptoms, ninety per cent less need for reliever medication and
forty-nine per cent less need for steroids. Furthermore, those who
corrected their breathing the most reduced their symptoms and need
for medication the most.
In the forty-odd years since Buteyko's discovery, it has improved
the health and saved the lives of many thousands of people. Now
that his enlightening revelation is becoming better known in the
Western world, it will improve the health and save the lives of
many more.
Buteyko Breathing Method is a programme developed by Russian Respiratory
professor Konstantin Buteyko to recondition patients' breathing
volume to normal levels. This involves:
1. Becoming aware of correct and incorrect breathing.
2. Switching from mouth breathing to nasal breathing permanently.
3. Learning breathing exercises to re-correct breathing volume.
4. Adopting small lifestyle changes necessary to assist with this,
thus commencing the road to full recovery.
The Life of Professor Buteyko
Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko was born near Kiev
in the Ukraine on January 27th, 1923. This simple yet extraordinary
man devoted his life to studying the human organism and made one
of the most profound discoveries in the history of medicine.
Buteyko commenced his medical training in Russia in 1946 at the
First Medical Institute of Moscow. While at University Buteyko was
diagnosed as suffering from severe hypertension, which gave him a life expectancy of just 12 months.
Under the guidance of his tutors Buteyko researched his illness
in depth although it seemed that there was very little that he could
do to reverse it.
On
October 7th, 1952 after majoring in clinical therapy, he began to
wonder whether the cause of his condition, which was going from
bad to worse, might be his deep breathing. He checked this by reducing
his breathing. Within minutes his headache, the pain in his right
kidney and his heartache ceased. To confirm his discovery, he took
five deep breaths and the pain returned. He again reversed his deep
breathing and the pain disappeared. Buteyko established that breathing,
so vital in sustaining life, can be not alone be the cure but also,
amazingly, the cause of so many of diseases of civilisation.
Buteyko measured the breathing patterns of patients suffering from
asthma, but he also included in his research sufferers from other
ailments and found in many cases that they too hyperventilated between
attacks. After many years research, he devised a programme to measure
breathing and also a method of reconditioning patients' breathing
to normal levels. This involved:
1. Switching from mouth breathing to nasal breathing.
2. Relaxation of the diaphragm until an air shortage is felt.
3. Small lifestyle changes are necessary to assist with this, thus
commencing the road to full recovery.
In the years that followed, Buteyko continued his research, assisted
by a team of two hundred qualified medical personnel and using the
most up to date technology. By 1967 over one thousand patients with
asthma, and other illnesses, had recovered from their conditions
using his methods. In April 1980, following trials in Leningrad
and at the First Moscow Institute of Paediatric Diseases, the Buteyko
Breathing Method was officially acknowledged as having a one hundred
per cent success rate. This research was directed by the Soviet
Ministry's Committee for Science and Technology.The USSR Committee
on Inventions and Discoveries formally acknowledged Buteyko's discovery
in 1983 and issued the patent entitled "The method of treatment
of hypocapnia", (Authors certificate No. 1067640 issued on September
15th, 1983).
Over two hundred medical professionals teach this therapy at present
from centres located in major towns throughout Russia. Buteyko wrote
over fifty scientific publications detailing the relationship between
respiration and carbon dioxide and at least five Ph.D. dissertations
were written by his colleagues. The basis of the Buteyko Breathing
Method detailing the relationship between carbon dioxide and breath
holding-time forms part of medical curriculum at Universities.
On Friday, May 2nd 2003 at 4.05 p.m. (Moscow time), Professor Buteyko
parted from this world with some very deep inspirations. His death
came as quite a shock to the many people around the world who had
experienced excellent health as a result of his life's work.
It is our aim to continually advocate the work of this great man
and to provide patients with a natural method to overcoming their
conditions.
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