Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko was the creator of the Buteyko method

Buteyko method

The Buteyko method or Buteyko Breathing Technique is a form of complementary or alternative physical therapy that proposes chronic "breathing retraining" as a treatment for asthma as well as other conditions. The method takes its name from the late Ukrainian doctor Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko ,...

 for the treatment of asthma and other breathing disorders.

Early life

Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko was born on 27 January 1923 into a farming family in Ivanitsa, near Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

, Ukraine

Ukrainian SSR

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...

. His father was a keen mechanic and he followed this passion, studying mechanical engineering at Kiev Polytechnic. World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 interrupted this study however and he was sent to join a motorcade

Motorcade

A motorcade is a procession of vehicles. The term motorcade was coined by Lyle Abbot , and is formed after cavalcade on the false notion that "-cade" was a suffix meaning "procession"...

 supplying the front lines. During the war, Buteyko had become tired of mechanics and made the decision to go into medicine.

Medical training

In 1946 Buteyko enrolled at the First Moscow Institute of Medicine

Moscow Medical Academy

I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University is the oldest and the largest national medical higher educational institution in the Russian Federation. For more than 250 years I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, previous name - I.M. Sechenov First Moscow Institute of...

. He gained his degree with Honors in 1952 and became a resident. During his medical studies he was given a project of making observations on patients’ breathing rates in relation to the severity and prognosis of their illness. He soon came to the conclusion that there was an association between these two factors, such that as a patient’s condition became more severe so their breathing rate increased.

Buteyko reasoned that if there really was a connection between hyperventilation and illness it should be possible to reverse this by deliberate breath control. Having already made a study of several texts on yoga he was aware of exercises in breath restriction and so began to experiment both on himself and with his patients. These early trials became known as the Buteyko method.

Developing the method

By the early 1980s the Russian authorities were sufficiently impressed with Buteyko’s results to allow him a formal trial, or ‘approbation’ with asthmatic children in a Moscow hospital. Although very different in design from the standard controlled trial now predominant in the west, the results were sufficiently impressive to persuade the State Medical System to approve the method for widespread use.

The spread of the method

In the late 1980s an Australian businessman was admitted to hospital in Russia for treatment of an attack of angina. He was introduced to the Buteyko method (known in Russia as ‘Voluntary Elimination of Deep Breathing’ or VEDB) and found it extremely helpful. The Australian sponsored two Russian practitioners to teach the techniques in Australia. Within a short time, one of these people, Alexander Stalmatski was also training new teachers. The first blinded, controlled trial of Buteyko was carried out in 1994. Since then the Buteyko method has spread to numerous countries around the world with multiple organizations started to teach the method.

External links

• A Breathing Technique Offers Help for People with Asthma by Jane E. Brody, New York Times