Asthma-Free Naturally ~ Buteyko Breathing Method

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Asthma-Free Naturally ~ Buteyko Breathing Method

Postby Username » Thu May 21, 2009 5:15 am

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Buteyko Breathing

"...paradox of breathing: the bigger and deeper we breathe, the less oxygen gets into our tissues."
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Asthma-Free Naturally: Everything You Need to Know About Taking Control of Your Asthma

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Review from Amazon uk

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Wake up medical profession and learn something new, 2 Mar 2006
By P Blake (New York, USA) - See all my reviews


This review is from: Asthma Free Naturally: Everything You Need to Know About Taking Control of Your Asthma (Paperback)

Asthma free naturally. The medical profession have overlooked probably the only factor guaranteed to help solve your asthma. For some reason, people are not told to close their mouth or to correct their breathing. Why is this?

Is there too much income to be earned from the existing structure? The Asthma Society who are suppossed to be our friends are funded by drug companies and so are afraid to rock the boat.

Give asthmatics inhalers for the rest of their life and spend no research on hyperventilation. The medical profession have a lot to answer for.

Meanwhile millions suffer- people like you and me.

If you are asthmatic- you will understand what I mean from reading this book. Read this book and post your replys and let your voice be heard. You have suffered long enough.

I cannot understand the logic, of why this is not taught to every adult and child.


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Postby Username » Fri May 22, 2009 6:41 am

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LINK

THE HISTORY OF BUTEYKO

A Background to: The Buteyko Breath Reconditioning Technique.

The man and his discovery.

Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko was born on the 27th January 1923, into the small farming community of Ivanitsa (about 150km from Kiev). Inheriting his fathers enthusiasm for machines, Konstantin was enrolled into the Kiev Polytechnic Institute until his studies were interrupted by World War II when Buteyko joined his country's armed forces. After his experiences during the War, Buteyko felt compelled to study what he called "the most complicated piece of machinery of all" - the human organism.

In 1946, he enrolled into the First Medical Institute in Moscow. During his third year he started working in the clinical therapy group under the departmental head, academician Evgeniy Mikhailovitch Tareiev.

During this third year at the Institute, Buteyko was given a practical assignment which involved monitoring diseased patients breathing. He spent hundreds of hours sitting by patient's bedsides, recording their breathing patterns prior to death. He noticed a considerable and uniformed deepening in patients breathing with the approaching of death. By recording these increases, Buteyko found that he was soon able to form a prognoses on how many days or hours were left before the patient's death occurred. This event determined the area of Buteyko's future interest.

In 1952, having graduated from the Institute with Honours, Buteyko continued his experiments independently along similar lines. He asked healthy subjects to breath deeply for a period of time, and found that they became dizzy and nauseous, developed asphyxiating symptoms such as wheeziness and coughing, and eventually fainted. This (he had been told) was due to oxygen over-saturation of the brain.

During the second month of this independent work it occurred to Buteyko that certain diseases may develop as a result of deep breathing. He himself had suffered form hypertension for some time, and had often pondered its causes. By measuring his carbon dioxide levels, Buteyko discovered that his body's carbon dioxide level was lower than recommended. It was known that over breathing lowered carbon dioxide levels in the body. He theorised that if his low levels were caused by over-breathing, then by correcting his breathing he may able to cure his disorder.

He immediately began experimenting on himself. Soon he had trained himself to breathe in a more shallow fashion. He found that by reducing his breathing, some symptoms such as headache and rapid heart beat also reduced. When he increases the depth of his breathing, the symptoms returned. Buteyko concluded that he had discovered the reason for his disease. He immediately set out to devise a programme by which a patient's breathing could be quickly and effectively measured and then, if need be, reconditioned. He had shortly healed himself completely.

Buteyko checked and rechecked his theory on patients. He measured the breathing patterns of sufferers of asthma, stenocardia and other diseases. Discovering, without surprise, that they too were hyperventilating. Once again by correcting these patients' breathing to an acceptable level Buteyko was able to normalise their carbon dioxide shortfall and their attacks stopped immediately. When they were asked them to return to their previous breathing patterns, their attacks resumed. It was clear, that Buteyko had stumbled across a very important discovery, a global discovery, and that current medical thinking was upside down.

Through further research, Buteyko was able to lay down the theoretical foundation for this idea - hyperventilation causes a depletion of carbon dioxide; low levels of carbon dioxide in the organism cause blood vessels to spasm and also cause oxygen starvation of the tissues. This results in a whole range of "defence mechanisms" that have been previously misunderstood and labelled as diseases. It was not difficult to surmise that vessel spasming occurring in hypertension could occur also with other types of diseases, for example: stenocardia (angina pectoris) with the resultant myocardial infarction (heart attack): end arteritis (inflammation of the innermost coat of an artery, usually occurring in legs) or ulcerative stomach disease. Scientific data associated with the physiological role of carbon dioxide is discussed in more detail in the "Buteyko Theoretical Manual".

Buteyko worked very intensively at the Central and Lenin Medical Libraries researching his theory. Was it really possible that for the entire existence of the medical science such a simple thought had never occurred to anyone else? He learnt very quickly that the answer to this question was yes. For centuries, the majority of the human race had taught their children to breath deeply, and no-one, even for a moment, tried to reduce breathing. During his research, Buteyko was lucky to learn of a few experiments supporting the viability of his thinking. (See- Bohr, Holden, Priestly, Henderson, De Kosta). This then led to Buteyko sharing his thoughts with his teachers, but he found no support from any of them.

He knew well, through his studies, that many medical discoveries had initially been dismissed and suppressed officially only to become accepted practice years later. He recalled the story of sepsis on 1846. A doctor friend of Zemelweise had cut his finger while performing an autopsy on a woman who had perished of sepsis (or "puerperal fever" as it was then known). Three days later, the doctor also contracted the "puerperal fever". Zemelweise concluded that "something" had been passed from the corpse and into the doctors cut, via the blood. At the time microbes were not yet known of, they were discovered by Pastor 20 years later.

With the desire to confirm his supposition, Zemelweise began washing his hands prior to operations, disinfecting them with a chloride of lime solution. He suggested his assistants also follow this routine. In those times, about one third of all new mothers and surgical patients died of sepsis. A three month experiment confirmed Zemelweise's hypothesis, and he lost no patients thereafter. He informed his societ of surgeons and suggested they follow his example. He was declared to be mentally disturbed.

Similar destiny befell Professor Lister, an Englishman, who ten years later also called for disinfection of hands prior to operations. Only after this discovery had reached the ears of the public, and hordes of patients' relatives started to turn up at the operations demanding to know if the surgeons had washed their hands before operating, did this procedure become accepted by the surgeons. This happened half a century after the initial discovery by Zemelweise.

Historical knowledge of this nature made it clear to Buteyko that voicing his convictions was not likely to bring any positive results at that stage. He knew he must organise an experimental laboratory . He had to gather evidence, develop it, and only then, announce the fundamentals of his ideas.

Later that year Buteyko became a clinical therapy intern under Academic Tareiev again. Here he was given his chance to establish a functional diagnostics laboratory, This project failed due to lack of funds, personnel and equipment. An attempt to establish the laboratory under the auspices of the Ministry of Health in Moscow was also unsuccessful - the necessary equipment was made available, but not the scientific personnel. In 1958 Buteyko was invited by Professor Meshalkin to join the Institute of Experimental Biology and Medicine at the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Science (where Meshalkin was the director). Once again he set about the task of establishing a laboratory of functional diagnostics. This project was completed in 1960.

In 1958 - 1959 Buteyko conducted clinical studies on nearly 200 people, both healthy and sick. When the first data, various measurements, association, deductions, correlations, regulations, etc., were obtained. All of these confirmed the correctness of Buteyko's discovery. On 11th January 1960, he presented his work to the Scientific Forum at the Institute and tried to explain the concepts of his thinking. He told those present of the experiments, which showed the objective linear relationship between the depth of breathing, the content of carbon dioxide in the body and vessel spasming and degrees of illness.

Buteyko's colleagues were stunned. Surgeons took the studies as some dirty trick, because Buteyko offered to treat such diseases as asthma, hypertension, stenocardia, without a knife. Invasive surgery never cured these disease anyway, everybody knew that, and mortality was high. But the Buteyko method gave a quick, almost 100% recovery. Quite naturally, Buteyko had expected the surgeons to be delighted but unfortunately their reaction was quite the opposite. Never the less, he did receive temporary approval from Professor Meshalkin who chaired the Forum. He said he understood the perspective and wanted the research continued.

Over the next ten years of the laboratory's existence, Buteyko and his team were able to obtain extensive information on the basic functions of the human organism - whether healthy or diseased. The laboratory was equipped at the highest level. There was a compendium of over forty various instruments capable of registering almost all basic functions of the human organism, and producing approximately 100,000 pieces of data per hour. Analysis of this information was done on computers, mathematically deriving physiological measurements and the various conformities of the body's processes.

Two hundred medical specialists were trained in the laboratory, most of whom, by the way, had suffered from one condition or another and successfully treated themselves with the method. Soon they were all treating other patients utilising- Buteyko's method. Official statistics showed that as at 1 January 1967 more than 1000 patients suffering from asthma, hypertension or stenocardia had been successfully treated and had totally recovered from their illnesses.

Despite this, Meshalkin categorically refused Buteyko's request for an approbation to be conducted at the Institute's clinic. Shortly thereafter Meshalkin mysteriously implemented brutal repression, up to the forcible confiscation of the laboratory equipment. There were to be no publications, and strong reprimands were made for any public appearances or speeches on the subject. This attitude was exhibited not only by Professor Meshalkin but by all of his student-surgeons. In 1963 Professor Meshalkin had also subjected a few new ideas which challenged current opinions of surgery, to a similar treatment. As a result of these unseemly management practices, the Institute was disbanded and closed.

This disbandment may have saved Buteyko's laboratory. He was able to keep one third of all the instruments, personnel and the original laboratory premises. From 1963 to 1968 the laboratory was attached to the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Science. Professor Meshalkin's clinic was reassigned into the system of the Russian Ministry of Health. Buteyko's repeated requests to accredit his method had not met any support what so ever.

Only In January 1968, after representations made by the local and foreign press in defence of his discoveries was the approbation carried out in Leningrad, at the Institute of Pulmonology under Academician Uglov. Shortly before this, a visit was paid to Buteyko's clinic by the Minister of Health, Academician Petrovsky. The Minister informed Buteyko that if he successfully treated at least 80% of the patients given to him, Petrovsky would make recommendations for an immediate entrenchment of the method into standard medical practices. He promised also to make available a 50 bed clinic for the continuation of Buteyko's clinical work. The Minister had one condition - that the patients used on the approbation were the most serious and difficult cases, not otherwise treatable by conventional methods of medicine.

Of the 46 patients who underwent Buteyko's treatment 44 (95%) were officially recognised as cured. Only 2 from the 46 had a smaller positive effect. Some of the patients had up to twenty different conditions each. One of the female patients had been recommended to undergo a mastectomy, as she was diagnosed to have a malignant tumour in the initial stages. She had refused the operation. She was included on the list of patients because of her asthma. She recovered not only from her asthma but from the rest of her complaints, including the tumour.

It should be added that the two patients not included in the success rate were also relieved of their diseases after further treatment and had informed the Minister responsible. Consequently, in effect, Buteyko could describe the results of his method as having had a 100% success rate.

The official conclusions of the approbation, which was monitored by the health ministry, were sent to the Health Minister, academician Petrovsky. These conclusions were never seen by either Buteyko or the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Science. The Ministry later, in a phone call to the chairman of the Siberian Branch, academician Lavrentiev, advised that the approbation had failed, with only two out of the 46 patients having been cured. This unexplained falsification served as a foundation for closing the Buteyko laboratory. On 14 August 1968, all of the scientists were dismissed without any offers of alternative employment, and all of the equipment was confiscated or pilfered.

However, even against such great odds, the method survived. The originally trained team of medical practitioners continued to treat patients. Although not one official medical establishment in Moscow was using the method, it was being used in Harkov, Chernigov, Kdhovka, Leningrad, Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk, Sverdlovsk, etc...

Success after success forced the government to once again look into the method. The second official approbation was conducted at the First Moscow Institute of Paediatric Diseases in April 1980 at the direction of the Government Committee for Science and Technology of the Soviet Ministry of USSR. The study confirmed the findings of the earlier approbation, conducted in Leningrad: 100% success rate. This time the results were officially recognised.

Whilst the Russian approbations tended to focus on treatment of Asthma, it should be understood that this method is also extremely effective for a whole range of related disorders such as allergies, rhinitis, bronchitis, sleeping disorders (such as sleep apnea), breathing problems, etc.

THE "BUTEYKO METHOD" IS NOW FULLY ENDORSED BY THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT.
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LINK

Basic Principles of Buteyko therapy
K.P.Buteyko

Thirty eight years have passed since I revealed that a great number of so-called "civilisation-induced diseases" widely spread now (bronchial and vasomotor spasms, allergic reactions, etc.) are caused by one and the same factor, namely, alveolar overventilation, or in other words, by deep-type breathing. I conceived the idea of diminishing the depth of respiration, i.e. its normalisation, and I became convinced that it can contribute to recovery. Experiments have confirmed this assumption, for it has been substantiated by general laws of physiology, biochemistry, biology and other sciences.

Here are the basic postulates of our theory:

1. It is known that in deep breathing a large amount of CO2 is removed from the organism and, consequently, its content is reduced in lungs, blood and tissue cells.
Deficiency of CO2 caused by deep-type breathing produces pH alkaline shifts in tissue cells and in the blood.

pH shift interferes with the activity of all proteins (approx. 1000) and vitamins (approx. 20) and brings about alterations in metabolic processes. Consequently, when pH reaches the value of 8 the metabolic disorders can produce a fatal result.

2. It is known that CO2 deficiency causes spasms in the smooth muscles of bronchi, cerebral and circulatory vessels, intestines, biliary ducts and other organs. Late in the 19th century Werigo, a Russian researcher from the town of Perm, discovered a peculiar dependence: as a result of diminishing the CO2 content in blood, the oxygen binds with the blood haemoglobin and impairs the transport of oxygen to brain, heart, kidneys and other organs. In other words, it can be described as follows: the deeper the breathing, the less amount of oxygen reaches the brain, heart, kidneys and other organs. This is precisely the law which forms the basis of our discovery but has not been appropriately appreciated up to now. The dependency revealed by Werigo has been concealed and ignored. At the same time similar regularities were discovered by Bohr, a Swedish [Ed: Danish] researcher, and became known as the Bohr effect much later. Unfavourable treatment of the above dependency makes it impossible to clearly understand the theory suggested.

3. Brain oxygen starvation (hypoxia) caused by deep breathing promotes more intense bronchial and cardiac spasms. Hypoxia in vital organs is counter-balanced by the rise in arterial tension (artery hypertension), enhances blood circulation and the provision the organs with blood. Oxygen starvation in combination with overventilation produces a false feeling of air deficit, excites the respiratory centre, enhances breathing intensity and adds to the progress in disease development. CO2 deficiency in the nerve cells excites all the structures of the nervous system thus making the process of breathing still more intensive.

As a result, oxygen starvation in nervous cells in combination with metabolic distortions and nervous system hyperexcitation brings about mental disorders, destroys the nervous system (sclerosis of cerebral vessels) and, finally, causes a personality degradation.


Disorders brought about by deep breathing are aggravated by environmental pollution, pesticides, chemicals and drugs found in nutrition products. If assumed as such, the basic principles of Western medicine, the remedial and preventive measures based on them which widely employ deep-breathing methods just add to the development of such diseases, since the application of strenuous exercise and the administration of drugs relaxing the bronchi and blood vessels which enhance the removal of CO2 from the body do not improve a patient's condition, but make it still worse. This is the reason why the so-called "civilisation-induced diseases" cannot be subject to treatment and are so widely spread. The discovery of the fact that the main cause of such diseases is deep-type breathing, allows to rigorously substantiate and prove by experiments the fallacy of existing remedial methods and principles.
A deep-breathing (overventilation) test suggested by the author can serve as decisive evidence that this method is true. A key point can be described as follows: a patient is offered to make his breathing deeper and to evaluate the result of a well-known command: "Take a deep breath!" In a few seconds or minutes a deep-breathing test will cause or enhance the pathological symptoms, while the reduction of the depth of respiration will remove them almost at the same rate. Thus, the only justified principle to be used for prevention and treatment is the reduction of the depth of respiration to restore the normal respiratory function.

On this basis the method of volitional normalisation of deep-type breathing or the method of volitional control has been developed. The essence of this technique is that a patient, by the exertion of will, deliberately diminishes the respiratory depth by relaxing the smooth muscles [Ed.: This should be "respiratory muscles", clearly a translation error] till he feels a slight deficit of air. The method can be assimilated by adults who do not suffer mental disorders and. by children aged above three.

The method can be widely used in obstetrics for matemity patients and the new-born, for teaching children the norms of physiology and for health-improvement programs. The ideas developed by the author can be widely used in space medicine, surgery (preparation to surgical interventions), pedagogics, training vocal singers, sports, etc.

To general opinion, medicine like other branches of science requires a comprehensive restructuring. The author considers his ideas and other similar progressive approaches which have been ignored earlier, as a basis for medicine-of- the-future.

The top priority objective, in our opinion, is to provide people with information concerning this method in order to stop the propaganda of the advantages of deep- type breathing in the mass media and to withdraw deep-breathing exercises from sanitary (ed: health care) institutions.

The method developed by the author will win when every human being realises that his in-born greediness (including breathing) to take more is the cause of disasters, diseases and collapses.

K. P. Buteyko
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Postby Perelandra » Fri May 22, 2009 1:19 pm

I actually came across your OP yesterday, User, and found it intriguing. Thanks for the followup and the link to the instructions. This comment struck me as insightful:
The method developed by the author will win when every human being realises that his in-born greediness (including breathing) to take more is the cause of disasters, diseases and collapses.

I remember talking about breath in OE's thread some time ago. He said something about Crowley's breathing exercises curing his asthma and I recommended controlled breathing as it helped me with panic attacks long ago.

Very interesting.
“The past is never dead. It's not even past.” - William Faulkner
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