Buteyko with TheBreathingMan

Buteyko Method - thebreathingman.com

2014-03-07T12:29:00.001-08:00

In this video is health information that everyone should know about (it could be your breathing)

"Mystic Fire" Wim Hof Iceman New York Lecture, "Tummo" with Dr. Kenneth Kamler

2011-11-27T05:53:00.000-08:00

"Mystic Fire" Lecture by Dr. Kenneth Kamler, an expert in high-altitude medicine and Wim Hof a master of the Tibetan tantric practice of tummo, the ability to control the temperature of the body and Ramon Prats Senior Curator at the Rubin Museum of Art and the transation of the book The Tibetan book of the dead in to Spanish.
Video was taped on the January 26th, 2008 This event was presented as part of the Brainwave Festival held by the Rubin Museum of Art, dedicated to the art of the Himalayas.
Ramon Prats says...
Traditional practice of Tummo has 5 points…
Constant conditioning of the cold, not to wear anything warm (Tummo Practitioners are called Repa meaning "cotton clad" from the name "Milarepa" Milarepa is one of the most widely known Tibetan Saints http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milarepa) stay out of the sun, not to approach fire
1) visualisation - our body is empty and hollow
2) visualisation - channels of subtle energy or Psychic vessels
3) Breathing Exercises - important part is "the retention of breath" (Kumbhaka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbhaka)
4) visualisation - nucleus of energy that are distributed in different parts of the body and the need to be heated
5) physical exercise of "Levitation" Jumping

Full lecture on this link...

http://www.thirteen.org/forum/topics/mystic-fire/38/#comment-7792

Tummo: The Yogi Power Of Warming The Body

Alexandra David-Neel wrote in the 1920s, "To spend the winter in a cave amidst the snows, at an altitude that varies between 11,000 and 18,000 feet, clad in a thin garment or even naked, and escape freezing, is a somewhat difficult achievement."

I'd say calling it 'somewhat difficult' is playing it down slightly! What David-Neel was referring to is the Tibetan Buddhist Yogis'Art of Warming Oneself Without Fire Up In The Snows.'

This warming process is known as tummo or tumo. David-Neel explains:

"The word tummo signifies heat, warmth, but is not used in the Tibetan language to express ordinary heat or warmth. It is a mystical terminology.

It is kept secret by the lamas who teach it, and they do not fail to declare that information gathered by hearsay or reading is without any practical result if one has not been personally taught and trained by a master who is himself an adept.
Sometimes, a kind of examination concludes the training of the tummo students.
Upon a frosty winter night, those who think themselves capable of victoriously enduring the test are led to the shore or a river or lake. If all of the streams are frozen a hole is made in the ice. A moonlight night with a hard wind blowing is usually chosen.
The neophytes sit on the ground, cross legged and naked. Sheets are dipped in the icy water, each man wraps himself in one of them and must dry it on his body. As soon as the sheet has become dry, it is again dipped in the water and placed on the novice's body to be dried as before. This operation goes on until daybreak.
It is said some dry as many as forty sheets in one night.

It is difficult to get a perfectly correct idea about the extent of the results obtained through tummo training, but these feats are genuine. Hermits really do live naked, or wearing one single thin garment during the whole winter in the high regions I have mentioned. It has been said that some members of the Mount Everest expedition had an occasional glimpse of these naked anchorites.

Some take such claims with a pinch of salt but I believe they are perfectly possible, we are only scratching the surface of our capabilities which stem from the mind.

In the 1980s a group of scientists from Harvard Medical School, led by Dr.Herbert Benson, went to check out three Tibetan Buddhist monks.

The scientists attached temperature sensors to the monks' bodies. They found that after meditation the temperature of the monks' fingers and toes rose by as much as 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Their internal temperatures remained normal.

Dr.Benson feels that, following meditation, the monks are able to dilate the blood vessels in the skin. This increases the blood flow, which in turn raises the surface temperature. This is actually the opposite of what normally happens. Following extreme cold the normal body response is to constrict blood vessels and thus lower the temperature of the extremities.

The likes of tummo indicate what might be possible with the power of the mind. Problem is, most of us would prefer to be slumped in front of the television with the central heating on high - but what if we tried to train out minds instead ... the possibilities are mind boggling.

http://www.67notout.com/2011/04/tummo-yogi-power-of-warming-body.html

Buteyko Breathing Exercises No.1 more detailed training

2011-08-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

This is part of the practical guide for students of the Buteyko breathing method. It can give significant results if reinforced by preliminwary study of the Buteyko Course by Sergey Altukhov
Author of the trilogy: “Dr Buteyko’s Discovery”
Twic e certified trainer in the Buteyko Method
Director of the Centre for the Effective Study of Dr K.P. Buteyko’s Method

Horse rider exercise
Buteyko Breathing Exercise No 1. The Right Hand Rule. (postural position, known as the Horse rider exercise).

more infomation on Buteyko Breathing Exercises on this link http://www.doctorbuteykodiscoverytrilogy.com/buteyko-breathing-exercises.cfm

NHS Scotland SIGN App (Guildlines) on BBC News

2011-06-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

Scottish doctor's health app downloaded 8,000 times
By Eleanor Bradford BBC Scotland Health Correspondent
"A new app for smartphones and tablets designed by the Scottish NHS has become one of the most popular free medical apps available for download.
It outlines what kind of care patients should expect when they suffer from particular medical conditions...
...The SIGN app (SIGN stands for the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) was the idea of Prof John Kinsella..."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-13847790

The link to the Health App..
The NHS Scotland SIGN App which was on BBC News is linked from the SIGN Guildlines website, it will link you through to the Apple App Store where you can download it to your iPad or iPhone
http://www.sign.ac.uk/guidelines/apps/index.html
or go to the Appstore http://itunes.com/apps/signguidelines

NHS Scotland SIGN Guidelines App
"The SIGN Guidelines app has recently been updated and now includes the 2011 edition of SIGN 101 The British Guideline on the Management of Asthma featuring a new section on asthma in adolescents.
Also included is SIGN 124 Management of adult testicular germ cell tumours and SIGN 125 Management of atopic eczema in primary care/
Developed by the SIGN Executive in collaboration with Root Creative, Glasgow, the app contains Quick Reference Guides (QRGs) of these recently published SIGN guidelines:
Management of atopic eczema in primary care
Management of adult testicular germ cell tumours
Early rheumatoid arthritis
Venous thromboembolism
Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis in adults
Chronic venous leg ulcers
Stroke: identification and management of dysphagia
Stroke: rehabilitation, prevention and management of complications, and discharge planning
Management of sore throat and indications for tonsillectomy
Management of diabetes
Management of obesity
Non-pharmaceutical management of depression
Diagnosis and pharmacological management of Parkinson’s disease
British guideline on the management of asthma"
http://www.sign.ac.uk/guidelines/apps/index.html

The most important development is the Introduction of the Buteyko Breathing Method for the treatment of Asthma
British guideline on the management of asthma

British Guideline on the Management of Asthma11 grants permission for British health professionals to recommend Buteyko, stating that the method "may be considered to help patients control the symptoms of asthma". The guideline grades clinical research on Buteyko with a 'B' classification - indicating that high quality supporting clinical trials are available (Table 2).
http://knol.google.com/k/buteyko-information-for-doctors-health-professionals#

Root Creative Blog: SIGN iPhone and Android App
Posted by Barry Brown On Friday, 25 March 2011
"...Root Creative Ltd have been selected to design and develop both an iPhone/iPad App and Android App on behalf of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), part of NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland.
...The official FREE App will contain 11 extensive quick reference guides (QRG), covering recently published SIGN guideline areas such as obesity, diabetes, stroke, depression, ulcers and arthritis.
The iPhone App, available for launch in April, will be closely followed by the Android version."
http://www.rootcreative.co.uk/read-our-blog/45-sign-iphone-and-android-app

Keep nose breathing
warm regards
TheBreathingMan
"‘…Normalisation of breathing immediately triggers a healing process..." Buteyko Trilogy Volume 1 Chapter 17: The First Handbook

Breathing Devices & The Buteyko Breathing Method

2011-01-21T14:01:00.000-08:00

Question to Sergey Altukhov
Why did Doctor KP Buteyko not like the use of breathing devices.

Answer:
Dear Alex.
Here's what K.P. Buteyko spoke about respiratory training apparatus:

As the scientist and the inventor I only would welcome creation of respiratory training apparatus…
BUT! Under one condition!!
These training apparatus should be created with the account of THEORIES and PRACTICE (!) of the illnesses of deep breath.

Unfortunately, it is not so. Respiratory training apparatus put the purpose to SAVE up CO2. It is, - like, well.
But how they "save" it? I have suggested to save CO2 by means of reduction of depth of breath. The breath is not visible and is not audible. Breath is almost DIFFUSION’S. Breathe ONLY by the NOSE!!

And what do respiratory training apparatus! They INCREASE … depth of breath!! The tube is inserted into the MOUTH!
To breathe it is necessary by the MOUTH!! Thus breaths are DISTINCT!!
Moreover under the ACCOUNT of SECONDS!!!
What here diffusion breath. Here DEEP breath is developed. The patient is accustomed to deeper breath, than he was earlier!!

While he breathes in a training apparatus, yet so it is not so terrible.
But he breathes in a training apparatus TWO hours. And then he DEEPLY breathes WITHOUT a training apparatus … the whole TWENTY TWO HOURS in every days!!!

And it KILLS patients!! That we also observe.

KP Buteyko.

Excerpt from speech at a seminar in Novosibirsk, March 1996 in the flat of Doctor KP Buteyko

Yours.

Sergey Altukhov

http://www.doctorbuteykodiscoverytrilogy.com/breathing-devices.cfm

Can the Buteyko Method be imitated with the help of devices and/or air mixes?

The rules and laws researched by K.P. Buteyko prove it is impossible. The authors of such devices and/or mixes should have own explanation why they are necessary. Use of K.P Buteyko’s name for marketing of such mixes and/or devices is frauds and deceit of consumers.

THE FIRST-HAND BUTEYKO METHOD by Marina Buteyko, Vladimir Buteyko

Translation of article published in Russian magazine " Asthma and Allergy " 1, (pages 24-25), 2005

A hook for the noose: second thoughts…

2011-01-21T13:47:00.000-08:00

Free chapter:

Volume 2 The Death and Rebirth (1968-1991) chapter 1 from the more detailed Two-Volume Edition published in 1993

A hook for the noose: second thoughts…

Buteyko again fingered the washing line he’d taken down from the shelf, and thought “that’s pretty rough.” Then, feverishly, “don’t tell me I’ll need to soap it? And then there was the hook. That had to be strong too. You couldn’t hang yourself from the plumbing in the bathroom after all…
Buteyko surveyed the bathroom slowly by its infrared light. It was a bit small. Airless. Horrid. He squeezed the hank of washing line in his fist and made decisively for the large main room that looked out over the court yard. … Perhaps a hook from the chandelier would hold. Buteyko, tried to work out where best to put the stool.
“The whale expects a bolt to the belly,
but a shot in the back

Was a bolt from the blue“
The doctor nearly dropped the rope in surprise. Vladimir Vysotsky, the Moscow bard suddenly erupted through the neighbour’s adjoining wall. He’d started out as a semi-underground singer, but now was all the rage. The sound of his snarl, hit Buteyko literally like a bolt from the blue.
The doctor slowly lifted his head and scrutinised the iron hook, dusted with white plaster. It wasn’t going to be easy for him to die, because he could do without air an awful lot longer than most people. Years of training had done that for him.
“Whoever you are, you were not expected here
And you have rent, you have torn the sail.”
Suddenly furious, Buteyko flung the rope down on the yellow cover of the couch and opened the ventilator wide. The cold October breeze immediately lifted the burgundy flowered curtains …
Vysotsky’s voice literally drove him off target. Exhausted, the doctor lowered himself onto the edge of his rather firm, customised, bed. It’s not so easy to take your own life, dammit! Even now, when it seems all is lost, once and for all…. He cast vacant eyes over the room. It was almost empty, as though it had been looted from top to bottom. His wife had left him, and taken virtually every last stick of furniture from the flat, except the sideboard and cupboard, Buteyko counted, mechanically. But why would she take the cupboard when the lousy curtains were still intact? He leant back on the cool partition wall.
But what was surprising about that? That’s what wives do to failures. Academician Rebrov had given the Health Ministry such a thumbs-down after the clinical trials of his method in Leningrad, that the only surprising thing was that Buteyko was still at liberty… Comrade Zarubin had ordered his laboratory shut as soon as the trials ended; his equipment had been dismantled, and he heard that nurses had been seen steaming hospital laundry in parts of his famous laboratory
“But you have rent, you have torn the sail!.”
Buteyko could hardly take the anguished voice reaching him through the wall. To boil up filthy sheets in a unique apparatus that had saved thousands of lives…, and they were burning sheets in it!
“ But you have rent, you have torn the sail!.”
He had seen the charts of formulae for equalising the breath, ripped down and stashed by the builders’ wooden portable toilet in the court yard at the back of the hospital. Oh God! Dr. Buteyko again reached for the hank of rope at the end of the couch.
Quacks! Careerists! Money grabbers! All your academic salaries combined could never pay for the damage you have caused! And what about people? What about the poor powerless patients? Who will give them the help they tried to get from you for years on end, but only found here in the laboratory and literally within days of coming? Well, alright Mr top flight academic, you can settle your personal scores with me - let’s say I was in your way somehow. But what about your Hippocratic Oath? In your day, you all solemnly swore to help the needy. But now, one stroke of a bureaucratic pen has destroyed a totally unique scientific research laboratory. In fact it has written off thousands of human lives! Is there anything to live for now? Buteyko unwound a small length of rope and tested it for strength. It held! The thin twine, yellowing with damp and use, could probably take his mortal remains.
“ But you have rent, you have torn the sail!
To your shame, your shame,deepest shame “
Who put on this hoarse, sobbing song? The doctor pushed himself away from the wall abruptly, to distance himself from the neighbour’s tape recorder. It just tore his heart out and his heart was torn already.
Shame? He had nothing to be ashamed of: his enemies should be ashamed. Although, if Buteyko were to leave this world before his time and by his own hand, the academic Rebrovs and Pomekhins of this world were hardly likely to be ashamed. Just thinking about it, brought a light perspiration to the doctor’s brow: not just no shame; more like they’d build the bonfire higher, as a fitting tribute for the deceased, then for the next 50, or maybe even 100 years, no one would bother them in their pill and scalpel paradise. No one would trouble them with proof of the miraculous power of carbon dioxide gas. Pack the patients full of as many “compound powders” as you like, and slice them up on the operating table.
The doctor lowered his head, saddened. Whether he hanged himself or not, nothing was likely to change. He could argue the case for his discovery as long as he had access to his small, first class laboratory – because it was hard for even a dyed-in-the wool cretin to totally reject results achieved in a laboratory. But now there was no laboratory. It had disappeared, gone for ever. His closest colleagues and most skilful acolytes were jobless, with no means of survival. And Buteyko himself felt he was left with nothing but the smithereens of broken hopes.
So why cling to this crummy benighted existence? Who needs it? Not him. For someone who had first identified the illnesses associated with deep breathing, this kind of life was absolutely no use and physically repellent! To stay alive, and see queues of patients every day, flocking through narrow hospital doors that were too clogged first thing to admit them freely. He could vividly picture this stream of physical suffering, spilling out through the narrow, chlorinated hospital corridors, then pooling into different groups in front of different departments with their beloved departmental notices. He could picture the doctors reluctantly starting to examine the endless stream of patients, deadened by their excessive daily workload; and he could picture them prescribing their totally useless tablets, injections and lotions: month in, month out. Year in, year out!

To see, appreciate, and understand all this stupidity - yet be unable to influence it? No! It was more than he could bear. Buteyko walked briskly to the kitchen and returned with a heavy strong stool. Let all those official quacks get on with it without him. What could he do?

The doctor shifted the stool nearer the hook, then threw himself down on the couch again, as though wanting a short breathing space before taking his last step into the void.

While he had the laboratory, he had a purpose. And how they had waited, how they had striven for a clinical trial and the official sanction of the Ministry of Health! They had believed in it like some sacred object. And now the clinical trial had taken place. Just a few months ago, it had all happened. In Leningrad, at the main asthma institute, and with the chronically ill. And with the help of the laboratory team, almost all of them had been cured, in just over a month. And then this conclusion on paper, dreamt up by Academician Rebrov and forwarded to the ministry, had dealt a hammer blow to all his efforts. From Rebrov’s conclusions on the clinical trial, it seemed he and his team had nearly killed the poor patients, not cured them… Rebrov had basically scuppered the clinical trial. He had wanted to make a name for himself! And even the letter to the head of the Communist Party himself – Leonid Brezhnev -, from the 46 people who had been trialled and successfully cured by the Buteyko method, was no help.
The stool creaked in response to the pressure of Dr Buteyko’s hand. But how can you talk about a clinical method, when politicians today can do the same thing to an entire country, for the gratification of their imperial ambitions! A socialist people “of kindred spirits” had put the boot in. And they can spin things so beautifully nowadays, there’s no faulting them. “The protection of socialism is our highest international duty.” Yes: those were “Izvestiya’s” words at the end of August. And what if the whole of Czechoslovakia recoiled from this “protective” hug? What if Czechs large and small were gobbing on the treads of the “defenders” tanks, incensed by their invasion? Of course, “Izvestiya” newspaper said nothing about that…
And why not? Well a handful of intellectuals in Moscow, who’d caught the protests of our “Slav brothers” on shortwave radio last thing at night, knew something about that - and good for them. Know the truth, but keep your mouth shout! And if you are not happy with that, then please, be my guest. Go out on Red Square and get a taste of what other pointy-head intellectuals got. Let them beat you up the way they beat up the Soviet free thinkers who protested against the lawlessness of Brezhnev’s clique. (ref.1)
For a moment the doctor even forgot his own troubles. The savage picture painted by one of his ubiquitous patients, who had happened to cross Red Square at that moment was there before his eyes. …A pathetic group of seven or eight demonstrators, protesting against the invasion of Czechoslovakia (ref.2). They were giving no one any trouble. They weren’t shouting, or causing a disturbance: just sitting in a quietly and orderly way on the Lobnoye monument in Red Square, unrolling a poster saying “For your freedom and ours…”, and lifting a Czechoslovakian flag over one of their heads. A pathetic handful of people trying to dissociate themselves from state aggression -- and opposite them, a huge crowd that wanted to dismember them. “Crush the anti-Soviets! Kill the Jewish bitch!...”
The doctor nearly wretched. Lord! Human ignorance is so savage, so aggressive! And which one of them had heard the anonymous woman announcer over the radio, begging in a voice that could tear your heart apart. “ Please, Russian brothers. Leave Czechoslovakia. We didn’t ask you to come !” Apart from the plainclothes KGB men, working away in the crowd, probably no one. But everyone was lashing out, and so furious! Yet the demonstrators were only trying to protect the rights and freedoms of their attackers too. Today they crushed the Czechs, tomorrow it will be our turn. And why tomorrow?
Dr Buteyko took his hand away from the stool.
They are turning the screws today, right this minute, and they’ve been at it for a long time: it’s just that we don’t always see and hear it clearly. The way hardly anyone caught the sound of the distant Czech radio announcer, begging the Soviet troops to withdraw -- except discerning short wave radio listeners, and people whose job it is to gather intelligence.
The ruling clique knows how to keep its villainies a close secret, and so they have buried the clinical trials of the Buteyko method without firing a single shot: everything present and correct, and no fireworks. And although no doubt Leonid Brezhnev did not take the decision himself, his white-coated coven of academics, feed in the interstices of his system and they did it with the blessing of his state. A letter lay on Brezhnev’s table asking him to support Buteyko’s methodology. It was signed by the 46 patients who took part in the clinical trials in Leningrad and had been cured by the VEDB method, among them, a couple of Heroes of the Soviet Union (ref 3). Buteyko knew from an impeccable source that it was there. So what? Not being in mint condition himself, the Communist Party’s General Secretary did not want to trouble himself, for his retinue, with some clinical trials, requested by former sufferers of a chronic ailment.
In the end, the matter concluded entirely painlessly for the General Secretary following a short phone conversation with – who else? – Zarubin, who had, after brief enquiries, been helpfully brought to his attention as an “expert” on the Buteyko problem. As for what Zarubin dreamed up to tell his Lord and Master about Buteyko’s discovery – well, the doctor now had a pretty precise picture on that score.
Moreover, Buteyko was now quite clear that, when Professor Chugunov and Academician Zarubin had deliberately falsified the results of the Leningrad trial, they had in all probability been obeying a secret order from the Chief Physician himself: teach this upstart with his crazy ideas about carbon dioxide the lesson he’d got coming to him. If not, the letter from the forty six patients who’d been released from long years of suffering would undoubtedly have given rise to appropriate action … Forty six chronically ill patients cured in the space of a month!
Hardly aware of what he was doing, the doctor threw the end of rope which had unwound itself from the hank round his neck, and with his left hand pulled gently on it as it dangled free. The official clinical trials of the method – so long in the planning, and now finally realised. Who would have thought it would end like this?! The doctor’s right hand accidentally brushed against the hank of rope, which fell with a dull thud from the couch to the floor. He made no move to pick it up.
To think that this winter he, Natasha Voronova and Wilma Goncharova had travelled to Leningrad with such unclouded expectations. They’d thought that since the clinical trials were being carried out on the Health Ministry’s say-so, the whole thing would operate at the highest level, so to speak. Oh yes, it had been the highest level, alright. Only the highest level had turned out to be the highest degree of disingenuous turpitude imaginable in the scientific world.
Buteyko closed his eyes for a second. At once, the winter’s tragic events in Petersburg crowded in on him, as if it had all happened just the day before. He and the laboratory team (five in all) had arrived in Leningrad on 7th January 1968. Besides Natasha and Wilma, Buteyko had invited Svetlana Bubentsova and Kolya Skvortsov, the lab assistant, to come with him.
Academician Rebrov was a stunted little man, all kind of hunched-up. He greeted them with immense hauteur. “Despite our having made every effort on your behalf” - he scrutinised the fivesome who had appeared in his office, somewhat gloomy with its half-lowered window blinds, and with some effort pulled his tightly compressed lips into a smile - “I’m not sure you’ll manage to assemble enough patients to carry out a proper scientific clinical trial for your method …” . As he uttered that penultimate “your”, Rebrov stumbled slightly and, straightening his white lab cap which had slipped a bit squint, brought his gaze to rest on Buteyko a shade longer than on the other members of the group before him.
“But we had a letter inviting us, so we assumed …” Buteyko was suddenly angry, to the point of biting his lip.
“Yes, yes, of course!” The Academician hastily averted his eyes, which were curiously expressionless, as if faded. “Absolutely! There was indeed a letter, and a directive from the Health Ministry. But … you know how it is,” he turned his body marginally towards the doctor, “in real life things sometimes turn out differently, not at all the way they’ve been planned on paper. In any case, it’s my assistant Professor Vladislav Borzov” - the academician nodded towards an elderly, curly-headed man who had hitherto escaped their notice, sitting in a deep leather armchair in a shadowy corner of the office just to the right of the entrance - “who’s really been in charge of the matter. I’m sure he’ll explain the situation that’s arisen in more detail, and help you make the best decision.”
“I think, Academician,” Rebrov’s assistant responded animatedly from his hidden corner “I’d probably best take our guests through the wards and give them a chance to check things out for themselves on the ground.” Borzov’s superior, who had stopped forcing himself to smile, was quick to back him up: “Undoubtedly the best idea, Professor! Undoubtedly the best idea! You’re the one with it all at your fingertips, as they say.”
So they went through the wards. Not enough pulmonary patients to take part in clinical trials for the method? In Leningrad, in the top asthma institute? Buteyko paced nervously though the hospital corridors behind Borzov. It was unthinkable. Absurd. At their own clinic, people signed up on a waiting list for ten years hence. Yet here they couldn’t find thirty or forty asthma patients? … It was just not possible!
As they approached the end of their tour, however, the doctor had to admit that Academician Rebrov’s fears were not as groundless as they might have seemed at first glance.
The asthma wards were half empty. For the most part, the answers provided by the doctors in charge of the wards boiled down to roughly the same thing: patients with moderately severe asthma (said they) had recently been discharged, since (they went on) a certain level of therapeutic effect had been achieved and it made no sense to keep them as in-patients any longer. As for the severely ill (who actually weren’t that thick on the ground either) – well, here they were, such as they were, right in front of them. They could choose some to have a chat with …
As they spoke, for some reason or other the doctors tried to avoid Buteyko’s direct, uncomprehending gaze, and did their utmost to bring to an end as quickly as possible a conversation which they were clearly not enjoying and which seemed to embarrass them in some way.
Dr Buteyko turned to a patient who was lying sprawled on his back, mouth open, on a narrow iron bedstead. The man seemed to him to be in a particularly grave condition. “Have you suffered from asthma for a long time?” The poor fellow’s chest heaved continually. From the sound of it, his laboured breathing, accompanied by a whistling noise, could probably be heard as far away as the corridor outside.
“Me?” the patient wrapped his striped pyjamas round himself and raised himself slightly on one elbow. “A year or so now. Why do you want to know?” As he answered Buteyko, he for some reason looked anxiously and expectantly at Borzov, as if awaiting some sort of agreed signal.
Dr Buteyko nodded towards his travelling companions. “Well, we’re here from Siberia, from a scientific research laboratory. We’d like to invite you to try out our method of treatment. It uses what we call volitional elimination of deep breathing. What do you think of the idea?”
“You mean to say it involves not breathing at all?” the asthmatic struggled to raise himself even higher on the bed. His gaze slid again towards Professor Borzov, who was standing close by with an air of feigned indifference. He then reproachfully fixed his eyes, hotly shining and inflamed by prolonged lack of sleep, on Buteyko, who was thrown into sudden confusion by the hostile tone of the question.
“What on earth makes you think you don’t breathe at all? Where did you get an idea like that?” It was Buteyko’s turn to look at Professor Borzov, who had suddenly been taken unawares by a fit of coughing. “It’s not possible not to breathe at all, as far as I’m aware …”
The asthmatic waved a bony hand and abruptly interrupted Dr Buteyko. “No, I don’t want to! I don’t want any experiments done on me. I’m not going to let you treat me!” He turned ostentatiously to face the wall.
“Oh … right …” Buteyko shrugged his shoulders, at a loss to understand, and moved away from the bed to rejoin his colleagues, who were also astonished at the turn of events. It was the patient’s prerogative, of course. All the same, it was a bit odd …
They made their way quickly to another ward. But there too, to the Siberian visitors’ even greater astonishment, almost exactly the same scenario was repeated. At the mere mention of the VEDB method, a young man, dark-haired and completely cyanosed, who was downing one pill after another, refused point-blank to participate in the trials – he seemed almost terrified.
“You told me that in Leningrad we’d be swamped with people wanting to land a place to train with us!” Buteyko hissed angrily to Voronova when they and the rest of the group were out in the corridor again.
“But that’s how it was…” a flushed and agitated Voronova was quick to reply – she too kept her voice low so that Borzov, who was walking ahead of their little cavalcade, should not overhear. “I’ve had two trips here! I’ve successfully treated several groups of patients. And afterwards, such amazing stories were going round about our method that there was no escape from applicants chasing after me even when I was in my hotel. I just don’t understand it!”
“Me neither”, the Doctor went on, lowering his voice still further, shaken to the core by what was happening. “Although …” there was an odd look in his eyes as he watched Borzov’s lanky figure looming ahead of them. “Maybe I’m just beginning to catch on to something here … It looks as if before we arrived they made sure the asthma patients would be scared stiff of us.”
“That’s out of the question!” Voronova was so taken aback that she slowed her steps. “Doctors doing a thing like that to other doctors?”
“So Pomekhin’s not a doctor, then? Nor Martynov, nor little Miss Master’s Degree Dzagoyeva from Alma-Ata?” Buteyko went on, taking advantage of Borzov’s disappearance round the next corner in the corridor to raise his voice just a little. “It’s the same story here. It’s obvious – they couldn’t give a damn about the Hippocratic Oath .. They’re not fighting to save lives – it’s a fight to the death they’re after.” Buteyko saw that Borzov had stopped by the entrance to the next ward and so was forced to abandon the conversation.
The Doctor had made no mistake in his diagnosis. They had indeed scared the patients. Out of their wits. And Professor Borzov, who had led the group on their tour of the hospital wards, had played a bigger role than most in the affair.
Shortly before the Siberians arrived, he and Professor Chugunov had discharged all patients whose condition was relatively mild. They’d then gone to work in no uncertain fashion on the patients who couldn’t simply be turfed out of their beds. They’d impressed on these unfortunates that Buteyko was a fanatic whose method fell into the draconian category. It was very aggressive, extremely hazardous and only marginally effective. It was a method which resulted in more deaths than recoveries ... Academician Rebrov and his right-hand men had a simple outcome in view: leave the visiting Siberian group with practically no patients.
No patients. “Dear comrades,” they would say, “we’ve just no suitable patients to offer you! And as you see, even the ones we have don’t want anything to do with you.” Oh yes, that turn of events would suit everyone. The Chief Physician and comrade Zarubin, for example, who had been on the phone to Rebrov. He wanted to know the Academician’s plans regarding the forthcoming trials of the Buteyko method. From the questions the Chief Physician asked, and from the tone of the conversation, Rebrov was left in no doubt as to the preferred outcome of the trials as far as the Health Ministry’s top brass were concerned. Not that it would have been difficult to work it out. Plenty of people were aware of the extreme hostility with which Zarubin viewed the volitional elimination of deep breathing method, and its inventor.
And if the doctor left Leningrad empty-handed, that would suit Rebrov too. After all, if things happened the other way round, and Buteyko proved the efficacy of his method, what sort of light would that cast on the methods their own institute had developed for treating asthma? The aforementioned Professor Chugunov’s “complex powders”, for example?
It would be tricky, too, to explain the unusually high mortality rate among asthmatics who came to their institute for treatment. They were forever hanging themselves or taking poison, the scoundrels, despite the miracle-working powders! At present, the institute managed to get away with it. They would claim that the ill-starred establishment got landed with patients who were hopelessly gravely ill, and with cases that had been neglected. But then all of a sudden (just imagine such a thing for a moment!) - the Buteyko trials were successful. Those wretched suicides would have misused their hospital-issue towels for nothing! It would have turned out that many of them could have been rescued from the conditions they’d despaired of.
No. That kind of scenario wouldn’t have fitted into Professor Chugunov’s plans at all, nor Academician Rebrov’s. Add in the fact that the Chief Physician himself was expecting quite the reverse outcome, and it would seem that the fate of the trials – which hadn’t even got off the ground yet – was in no doubt.

http://www.doctorbuteykodiscoverytrilogy.com/vol-2/free-chapter.cfm

The Buteyko theory about a key role of breathing for human health - a knol by Alex Spence

2011-01-15T10:31:00.000-08:00

The Buteyko theory about a key role of breathing for human health - a knol by Alex Spence

Buteyko Patents and Trademarks - a knol by Alex Spence

2011-01-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

Buteyko Patents and Trademarks - a knol by Alex Spence

Hyperventilation - Carbon Dioxide - December 17, 2010 - Reasearch from Alicia E. Meuret Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

2010-12-28T03:26:00.000-08:00

EXCERPT... The following appeared in the December 17, 2010, edition of
Physorg.com and other online scientific blogs and publications.
New treatment succeeds in reducing panic and anxiety
http://www.smu.edu/News/2010/alicia-meuret-physorg-20dec2010.aspx
Read the full story or watch the related video.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-treatment-panic-anxiety-video.html

Alicia E. Meuret Assistant Professor of Psychology Ph.D., University
of Hamburg, 2003
http://smu.edu/psychology/html/people/meuret.html

Our research program explores the interaction between psychological
and biological factors involved in psychological disorders and organic
disease. Our program covers basic research in psychophysiology,
emotion, and psychopathology, as well as applied fields in clinical
psychology and behavioral medicine.
http://faculty.smu.edu/ameuret/index.html

Youtube Treating Panic Disorder Alicia E. Meuret
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQsJnLBWpE

It's good to see that.. "‘…Normalisation of breathing immediately triggers a healing process..." Buteyko Trilogy Volume 1 Chapter 17: The First Handbook... is starting to get some recognition. You can also check out the work of Dr Buteyko and his discovery on 7 October 1952. No need for any breathing devices with Buteyko
http://www.doctorbuteykodiscoverytrilogy.com/

Free Chapter: Doctor Buteyko's Discovery Trilogy by Sergey Altukhov Volume 1 : The Destruction of the Laboratory, CHAPTER 4 Buteyko discovers the Diseases of Deep Breathing

2010-12-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

Free chapter from Volume 1:

Volume 1 : The Destruction of the Laboratory from the more detailed (Volume 1&2) Two-Volume Edition published in 1993

CHAPTER 4
Buteyko discovers the Diseases of Deep Breathing

Stalin had been dead eight years, and Buteyko had hated him since childhood.

The Doctor was born in 1923 in the village of Ivanitsa in the north of sunny, fertile Ukraine. His father was a carpenter and his mother a seamstress. Kostya (as Konstantin Buteyko was known by his family) was looked after by his older brother, Volodya. By the standards of the time, they weren’t badly off; no-one in the family went hungry.

Volodya died of acute pulmonary inflammation while he was still a child, then in 1929, the Buteykos moved to the village of Popovka near Konotop in northern Ukraine so that Kostya could go to school. There, the Buteykos were caught up in ‘collectivisation’ - Stalin’s policy of forcibly consolidating small private farms into larger collective ones under State control. Behind closed doors, Buteyko’s father often cursed the Communist Party for herding people into these collective farms, seizing their grain and leaving them to starve, while his terrified mother tried to hush him.

“All those sheep just do whatever that cursed Georgian says,” Buteyko’s father raged. “But one day someone will get even with dear old Joe, and then he’ll know all about it.”

Buteyko inherited his father’s hatred of Stalin, a hatred his mother silently shared. Until he made his great Discovery at the age of 29, his most fervent wish was to destroy the dictator, whatever it took, and take his revenge for the bandits who came to people’s houses and plundered almost every last grain of corn. Only his Discovery would supplant this desire. Buteyko make his Discovery in just a few moments, but his path had been leading him towards it, step by step, for 29 years.

From his youth, Buteyko was unusually interested in machinery. When he left school in Konotop, his dream was to create an incredible craft that could burrow into the earth, sail, and fly to other planets, and to work on this idea he enrolled in the automotive engineering faculty of Kiev Polytechnic Institute in 1939. But at 6 am on 22 June 1941 Hitler’s bombardment of Kiev began, and Buteyko and his course mates rushed to join up. The others became tank commanders, but because of his youth, Buteyko was sent to be a mechanic in a convoy that supplied medicines to the front and brought back the wounded. This he did for the rest of the war. He was near Berlin when the ceasefire was announced. He brought back a column of captured German vehicles to Moscow for the Ministry of Health, and decided to stay in the capital to continue his education. This time, however, he wasn’t going to study automotive engineering but medicine. Having seen so much blood and death at the front, he resolved to study the human body as intently as he had studied machinery. Even at that time, he felt there was something wrong with modern medicine. As a child he had noticed that if he fell sick, his grandmother would treat him with herbs. Her teas, ointments and tinctures were usually highly effective, but if his mother called in eminent doctors, they would prescribe useless tablets and injections.

At the front, Buteyko learned to be such a good mechanic that he could identify a fault just by listening to a vehicle’s engine. He wanted to reach the same level of expertise with regard to the human body, and believed that the ability to reach a rapid and accurate diagnosis using the simplest means was one of the pinnacles of medical achievement. At the end of summer 1946, Buteyko entered the first year of the Medical Faculty of Moscow Institute of Medicine No. 1, but by his second year, he was already thoroughly disillusioned.

“They’re absolute blockheads!” he complained to a former comrade from the front who asked him how his studies were progressing. He gazed sadly at the columns at the entrance to the Institute, where they had met. “And I have to say that medicine in this country is in an awful mess. They’ve got everything back to front.” Noticing that his friend, usually so straightforwardly credulous, was smiling, he continued bitterly, “What use is it to diagnose diseases once they’ve developed? We should be able to prevent them long before they appear.”

“So what have you decided to do?” asked his friend, beginning to listen more attentively.

“I’m going to transfer to preventive medicine!” said Buteyko resolutely. He turned the collar of his worn army greatcoat up higher - the November wind was icy. “Prevention is far better than cure.”

“Well, give it your best shot and who knows, you might end up in the Academy of Sciences,” said his friend in an attempt to cheer him up, and dragged him off to the nearest cellar bar.

Buteyko was finishing his third year when this friend next visited on a business trip. They went to the same bar.

“Well, how’s the preventive medicine going?” asked his friend, pushing a glass of red wine towards him.

“Fine,” said Buteyko, who was drinking mineral water instead of wine. He had exchanged his army greatcoat for a pale grey jacket. “Hygiene is so important, right from birth. Or even better, from the moment of conception! That’s why I’ve started to study gynaecology and obstetrics.” He saw that his friend was dumbfounded. “Why are you making a face? Do you think that’s not for real men?” he asked.

“Well, why not, someone needs to take care of women in labour…” his embarrassed friend spluttered.

“It’s not just about labour.” Buteyko struggled to make himself heard above the music. “Mankind is becoming a degraded species and our future depends on the babies that women give birth to!”

“I suppose you’re right,” said his friend in a conciliatory tone, again sliding a glass towards him. People had started staring at them.

“A baby’s health depends 80% on its mother.” Buteyko swallowed half his bottle of mineral water in a single gulp. “Mothers conceive and then carry their children for nine months. And then they breastfeed.”

“Of course, of course,” his friend hastily agreed and gestured to the waiter.

“It’s important whether the mother smokes or drinks while she’s pregnant,” continued the animated Buteyko. “And who monitors this process? Who looks after women in childbirth? Obstetricians! So they’re the most important doctors!” he concluded triumphantly.

Throughout his life, Buteyko put his heart into practically whatever he did, but he studied medicine with particular enthusiasm. He was a straight A student and top of his year. The Institute’s library was not enough for him. Only qualified specialists were normally allowed to use the larger central medical library, but a special exception was made for him because of his excellent marks. Buteyko dived into the vast ocean of books.

Academician Kvater, the Institute’s Head of Gynaecology, noticed Buteyko’s extraordinary efforts and suggested he investigate a particularly tricky illness: preeclampsia. And his teacher and idol, Academician Dariev, advised him to look at malignant hypertension. According to some, these are in fact the same disease, but it is known as ‘preeclampsia’ in pregnant women. So from his third year, Buteyko researched these two topics like a man possessed. And as a result, the same thing happened to him as to many other medical students before him: towards the end of his studies, he too developed this virtually incurable disease. He had been an excellent sportsman who trained for hours, boxed well and feared nothing, but now he was helpless in the face of impending death. His graduation with distinction from the country’s top medical school and postgraduate studies under Academician Dariev meant nothing to him if he only had 18 months to live. At times his blood pressure reached over 212 systolic, he had a terrible headache and his heart felt as if it was being squeezed in a vice. Buteyko was in the Soviet Union’s largest centre of medical expertise and yet no-one could save him. Even cancer seemed mild in comparison. Cancer could be treated in its early stages, malignant tumours could be cut out and the patient could have radiotherapy. The progress of the disease could be temporarily halted, sometimes for long periods. But patients stood no chance with malignant hypertension - it would destroy the strongest body within a year or two, as Buteyko knew only too well. He had access to scarce medicines and even drugs from abroad. He was studying under the country’s top specialist in hypertension, Academician Dariev, and still he was doomed! Drugs would have no effect and he was afraid to tell Dariev the whole story in case he was excluded from postgraduate study. But to judge by his sympathetic expression, Dariev had guessed most of it - he looked at Buteyko as if he was already lost. Dariev considered Buteyko one of his best students and had sometimes hinted at big plans for him.

Then suddenly at the beginning of 1952, a miracle happened. Buteyko not only slowed his progress to the grave, but reversed it. His face became suffused with a healthy glow and his grey-blue eyes shone for the first time in months.

The miracle occurred on 7 October 1952, a night that Buteyko would remember for ever. Although his secret hatred of Stalin had recently become particularly acute (Buteyko was dying and had not managed to finish off the mortal enemy of the Ukrainian people), it now paled into insignificance along with his other dreams and plans. That night, Dr Buteyko would make the Discovery for which the medical mafia would vilify him for years and make nine attempts on his life - including poisoning, road accidents, and attempts to lock him in a psychiatric hospital. He would pay for his Discovery with estrangement from his wife and family.

But Buteyko’s Discovery was capable of saving hundreds of millions of lives - of which his own was only the first. It could have given him a comfortable life in the West had he wanted. His Discovery signalled a revolution in medical science as it had existed for thousands of years. One day people all over the world would celebrate the anniversary of his Discovery, for which the Doctor deserved a Nobel Prize and his name to be written in golden letters in the annals of world medicine for centuries to come. People saved from suffocating asthma attacks, hypertensive crises and diabetes would worship him as an icon, and patients would queue for days to see him.

On that Moscow evening he found a way to save himself (and millions of others) from physical suffering, but subjected himself to years of emotional anguish that was no easier to bear. The medical establishment stuck their knives into him, both metaphorically and literally - if Buteyko’s Discovery became standard medical practice, their scalpels would rust from lack of use. And what would happen to pharmacologists if his Discovery made mountains of pills redundant and left warehouses brimming with the prized medicines that were in such short supply? A furious army descended on the pioneer and tried to crush him. Dr Buteyko was forced to live with the weight of their enmity for the rest of his life.

It just seemed like an ordinary day. It was evening and Buteyko was on duty in a hospital, surrounded by a horde of noisy students who were also staying for the night shift. He was enthusiastically describing how his ideal doctor would diagnose illnesses.

“Just think,” he stepped to one side to let past a nurse wheeling a trolley of medicines, “how do doctors mostly conduct an appointment with a patient? The patient has hardly come in before the doctor tells him to undress, turn around and breathe in.” Buteyko acted it out to show what he meant. “We send urine, blood and faeces to be analysed.” Buteyko turned his head away from the imaginary patient and handed an invisible sheet of instructions to one of the students. “No-one actually looks at the patient - no-one notices his eyes, the way he walks or his mood. But you can tell a lot from these things - sometimes almost everything.”

Buteyko had only been working as a doctor for about a month, but he wasn’t just sharing his own experience. He had absorbed the opinions of his mentor, Academician Dariev, who detested the overly formal and bureaucratic way doctors treated their patients.

“The patient is right in front of you. He hasn’t said a word, but you can tell a lot about him. Here’s a concrete example.”

The Doctor turned to a well-built young man in grey striped pyjamas who was walking towards them with an awkward gait.

“Here’s a typical asthmatic!” stated Buteyko categorically. “You can see that he swallows air like a fish.”

The young man was indeed breathing with difficulty. The students glanced at each other in wonder. They liked this energetic teacher with his lack of vanity.

“I’m afraid you’re wrong, Doctor,” the patient croaked. “I don’t have asthma, I’ve got malignant hypertension.”

Buteyko saw the eyes of a dark-haired, pretty student cloud over with embarrassment and felt he was burning with shame. She had been gazing at him with such adoration just a few moments before.

“It can’t be malignant hypertension!” exclaimed Buteyko as he followed the patient’s slow progress along the corridor with his eyes. “That careful, restrained gait, shortness of breath, open mouth - they’re typical signs of asthma. But he says he’s got malignant hypertension. How could that be?”

The pretty student’s face, flushed with discomfiture, and the hushed mutterings of the other students only spurred him on. Dr Buteyko’s diagnoses were rarely wrong, let alone so short of the mark! Suddenly a thought flashed across his mind: what if the deep breathing that was typical of asthmatics and so pronounced in this hypertensive patient was not an external sign of the disease, but the reason for it? He felt dizzy with excitement. Saying he was urgently needed elsewhere, he sent the students away and hurried after the hypertensive patient.

A short conversation with the patient confirmed his nascent hypothesis. This 21-year-old patient was a weightlifter, which meant he inhaled and exhaled deeply as he squatted then lifted barbells. Buteyko remembered his own training. He too had lifted heavy weights and puffed like a steam engine. He had been forced to give up sport when he became ill, but he still breathed deeply.

Buteyko shut himself in the staffroom alone. The cramped room was dimly lit by a table lamp and outside it was dark. The window panes rattled slightly from the gusts of north wind. He had managed to leaf through about half of the patient’s case notes when he felt a hypertensive crisis beginning. They usually came on in the evening or at night. He would feel the blood throbbing like a hammer in his temples, a sure sign of a sharp rise in blood pressure. The back of his head would feel as if it was on the point of splitting, his pounding heart would be seized with pain and his right kidney would ache. From habit, Buteyko put his hand in his pocket for the medicine that he always carried, then abruptly pulled it out again. What good was medicine if the underlying cause still existed? And that very evening, he had begun to suspect that deep breathing was the reason for his hypertension. So he needed to take the bull by the horns. ‘Physician, heal thyself’ echoed through his mind.

Buteyko laid the patient’s case notes to one side. He took his hands from the desk, leaned against the chair’s hard back, and began to breathe more shallowly. No deep inhalations or strong exhalations, he told himself. Breathe as shallowly as possible. Just breathe a little.

He felt as if he was running out of oxygen. He wanted to open his mouth and swallow great gulps of air, but he restrained himself. A minute passed, then two, then three, and the miracle occurred. A true miracle. Buteyko’s headache began to disappear and the pounding in his temples ceased. The pain in his heart subsided, leaving him feeling wonderfully relaxed. His aching right kidney felt as if it had been soothed with a hot compress.

“It worked!” Buteyko pushed up the left sleeve of his lab coat slightly. The yellow hands of his watch showed quarter to eleven. “It actually worked!” Buteyko couldn’t quite believe it. He deliberately took several deep breaths and his symptoms instantly began to return. He reduced the depth of his breathing, and the symptoms disappeared again.

He had been right! His hypothesis had been proven in a very concrete fashion. He couldn’t stay in the cramped staffroom a moment longer - he needed to confirm his findings using seriously ill patients! He was a scientist after all (albeit a young one) and knew that a successful experiment on himself was insufficient proof.

In Ward 14 on the third floor, Buteyko found an elderly patient who was blue from an asthma attack and looked as if he was about to lose consciousness. Nurses were rushing around. They had already tried everything, including pure oxygen.

“Close your mouth and don’t take long breaths,” Buteyko ordered him in a deliberately peremptory tone.

“But I can’t…” gasped the old man, trying to grab the rubber oxygen pipe from Dr Buteyko.

“Close your mouth!” urged Buteyko. “And press your hands to your chest.” He crossed the old man’s bony hands on his chest. “Stay as quiet as possible. Don’t breathe deeply.”

He gently pressed the patient’s hands to his chest. In two minutes, the terrible bluish tone disappeared from the man’s cheeks. He no longer grasped for the oxygen pipe, but instead gazed at Buteyko as if bewitched. The attack had clearly started to pass.

Until 3 am Buteyko visited as many wards as possible. Asthma attacks, angina, ischemia, and hypertensive emergencies all seemed to succumb to shallow breathing. Patients who had been rescued from terrible attacks stared at him in wonder as he left their bedsides.

At 3.10 am, Buteyko was again sitting at the desk in the staffroom. He hadn’t put on the overhead light, but was using the old table light with its green shade. The wind had started to die down and the window panes rattled less. The lampshade cast a shadow on the uneven surface of the wall opposite his table. Buteyko had his elbows on the desk and his head cupped in his hands. The powerful technique that he had discovered that night had undeniably worked. Encouraging a seriously ill patient to breathe more shallowly would bring him out of semi-consciousness and enable him to lead a full and healthy life. Encouraging him to breathe more deeply would lead him directly to the Pearly Gates.

It was possible to cure people without pills, injections and surgery! Buteyko raised his head. The high priests of the cult of medicine would never believe it - or they wouldn’t want to. They would think he was mad. Who was he, after all? A greenhorn. And his Discovery would turn modern medicine on its head. Buteyko clutched at the desk top. If the medical establishment had not believed poor Ignaz Semmelweis and murdered him in an insane asylum for suggesting that surgeons should wash their hands with chlorine solution before operating, then they would certainly not believe him.

The lamp flickered and for a moment lit up the far corner of the room, where old files were piled up. To the over-wrought Buteyko, it seemed that sympathetic eyes were gazing at him from the dark corner. He had seen those eyes once in an old engraving in a book - they were the eyes of the murdered Semmelweis…

http://www.doctorbuteykodiscoverytrilogy.com/vol-1/laboratory.cfm

GLOBAL ASTHMA CRISIS by Alina Vasiljeva MD Russia

2010-12-11T06:04:00.000-08:00

Recent newspaper reports about the prevalence of Asthma in the UK makes for alarming reading.

There are about 10 million asthma sufferers in Britain. The worst affected area is Scotland where over 18% of the population show symptoms of asthma. In Wales the figure is nearly 17%, and in England 15.3%.
The figures in some other parts of the world are almost as bad: Ireland 14.6%, Australia 14.7% and Canada 14.1%.
Compare these figures with those of other countries where asthma is far less prevalent, such as Switzerland (2.3%), Russia (2.2%), China (2.1%), Georgia (1.5%), Nepal (1.5%).
[This map taken from BBC news web site.]
the map is in the pdf file
What do Britain, Australia and Canada have in common to make their populations so susceptible to asthma.
Could it be climate? This is unlikely. Canada and Russia have similar climates, and the climates of Russia and Nepal are very different.
Pollution? Unlikely.Canadahasrelativelylowpollution;Russiahashighpollution.
Genes? This cannot be the cause. The main genetic make-up of each country goes back many centuries whereas the asthma problem has come about only in the last 50 years or so.
Food? Again there is no discernible pattern.It appears that this global asthma crisis affects mainly English-speaking countries. I believe this is because English-speaking countries have a similar medical approach to asthmatic ailments and their management.
From my experience, the management (diagnosis and subsequent treatment of the airways diseases) are completely different in Britain and Russia.
Acute or chronic or bronchitis is not a standard diagnosis for chest infections in Britain, unlike other countries such as Russia. This gives us a clue as to the root cause. Asthma follows untreated chronic rhinitis, colds, and bronchitis with a wheezing component. Asthma never starts without warning in a completely healthy person.
No doctor in Russia would prescribe bronchodilators for cold or bronchitis to stop a wheezing cough. In the UK this is common practice with a prolonged cough. The Daily Mail has reported (June 2001): "Wheezing disorders have doubled among babies and young children in ten years experts say. The study also shows that the cause is not simply a rise in allergic reactions".
I discussed the asthma situation with Professor KP Buteyko in the summer 2002. The following are the questions I asked him and his answers.
Question:Your method for treating asthma was introduced in Australia more than ten yearsago. Howwouldyoucommentonthis?
Answer: Wearelivingintheeraofadevelopingepidemicofbronchialasthma(BA) The situation with asthma in the world today is very worrying, and I would say terrible. Fifty years ago BA was a rare phenomenon. Nobody would even think that playing with a dog or a cat could cause an attack of breathlessness and that emergency medical help would be necessary to save a patient’s life. Today asthma is some kind of a "monster" which has devoured whole continents. If the illness takes its worst course, in a short period of time patients can become disabled and it can even lead to death. All methods for asthma treatment and prevention currently being used can neither save patients from asthma nor stop the spread of the disease.
The majority of leading scientists working on the treatment of asthma believe that we moving into an era of bronchial asthma epidemics. The prevalence of asthma in adults and children in Europe, America and Australia is so high that these countries may even be considered to be “countries with no future”.
Question: Every fourth child in Australia suffers from BA, and every eighth child in the UK. In the USA there are 16 million people suffering from asthma and nobody can explain why the figure is so high. Every year the increase in BA cases outstrips the most pessimistic forecasts, and this situation cannot be explained simply in terms of pollution of the environment and climatic conditions. Do you have an explanation?
Answer: Very often asthma is a result of modern medical drug treatments for
bronchitis, rhinitis, allergies, etc. Due to scientific discoveries medicine nowadays is able to control the spreading of many infectious diseases with prophylactic measures so preventing epidemics. However, in the case of BA the situation is more difficult. Until now we do not know the main mechanism for the spreading and progression of this disease. Each patient suffering from any form of allergy or ordinary chronic bronchitis is at great risk of developing BA. Very often we can observe in such cases, when using drugs for simple colds or prolonged cough, the appearance of the first BA symptoms. Our strong view is that for asthma management generally, attempts to eliminate the first symptoms of asthma (difficulty in breathing out) with bronchodilators or hormones are not correct. They can give short- term relief but when the symptoms occur more and more often, it becomes almost impossible to stop taking the drugs. With time, BA progresses by becoming more severe in proportion to the strength of the medicines being used. So medical treatment in the majority of cases helps to eliminate the symptoms but promotes quick and severe progression of BA. The situation seems to be irreparable because it is almost impossible to survive with asthmawithouteliminationofsymptoms. Takingawaythesymptomswith the help of medication leads to worsening of the disease itself - a kind of vicious circle”.
Question: Your method is now well established in Russia. However, it is known as a quick "miracle" rather than a medical treatment for (BA) in the West. Why is this?
Answer: Itisnotamiracle.Themethodhasaphysiologicalbasis[seeappendix]and takes time to work. And it is not just a treatment for BA. With asthmatic patients, you can take away asthma attacks in a few minutes. With other conditions, such as hypertension, it will take months.
For a practical evaluation of the Buteyko method we conducted a clinical trial in the Medical Institute of Setchenov. Children with BA who were selected for the trial underwent various tests. But even without these tests, it was easy to demonstrate the quick improvement of symptoms. For treating patients with asthma it is not necessary to involve special equipment or special tests. We had asthmatic patients with cyanosis (a condition of oxygen deficiency accompanied by blue colour of the skin, lips, and nails) and with noisy spastic breathing. Patients during practice make their breathing less. This leads to lung ventilation decreasing to normal and if done correctly a positive immediate effect is guaranteed.
Question: So taking drugs in the early stage of BA for any prolonged cough makes the prognosis worse. Can you explain this further with an example? In the UK the usual practice when treating a cough, even in very young children, is to use bronchodilators. This applies whether the cough is related to viral infection, bronchitis or laryngitis. How do you evaluate this approach?
Answer: Thisapproachistotallywrong. Letustakelaryngitis(inflammationofthe larynx) as an example. This condition often occurs in very young children.
Because of the anatomy and physiology of a child's larynx, it tends to become swollen very quickly from any irritating agent such as viruses, bacteria, or allergens. A cough here is a symptom but not in itself a disease and so it is the cause of the cough that must be treated. A cough is a protective reflex that tries to rid the windpipe and the bronchial tubes of anything that is blocking or irritating them. Why should bronchodilators be prescribed in such cases? They are not effective for inflammation or swelling of the larynx. Besides, in the case of laryngitis the bronchus is not involved. Bronchodilators dilate the muscles of the bronchus and can soon disturb their normal function. So as well as being absolutely unnecessary for the treatment of laryngitis (or other cough), using them can contribute to the mechanism of BA development
Question: What is the mechanism of BA development?
Answer: AlmosthalfacenturyagotheInstituteofExperimentalBiologyand Medicine of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR made a special study of BA. It was found that BA can occur as a result of a long lasting discrepancy between the volume of air flow passing through the lungs and the volume of air necessary for metabolism. We are talking about the development of so- called "chronic alveolar hyperventilation", in other words a “deep breathing condition”. Though this term is more literary than physiological, it was found in practice from thousands of cases that there would not be any asthma without “deep breathing”. The term “deep breathing ” is a clue to the development of an entirely new way of asthma treatment and indeed treatment for many other diseases as well.
People suffering from asthma have excessive lung ventilation (the condition called “deep breathing” or hyperventilation), even when they are relaxed and their breathing cannot be seen or heard. If there is asthma then there is hyperventilation. What is more, BA may be simply the body's way of resisting hyperventilation; i.e. the body's defence mechanism against excessive breathing with the aim of stopping the loss of CO2. Narrowing of respiratory passages is the main cause of attacks of suffocation in asthma. We consider that an asthma attack is an attempt to reduce the airflow passing through the lungs in order to reduce CO2 loss. Our method is based on the elimination of “deep breathing”. To be more precise, it is based on the elimination of excessive ventilation of the lungs with respect to the
ventilation necessary for metabolism.
Question: What is the cause of hyperventilation?
Answer: Even30yearsago,hyperventilationinpeoplewasnotsocommonandcases of BA were comparatively rare. Researching thoroughly the causes of chronic hyperventilation in modern humans, we can affirm that the modern way of life with low physical (muscular) loading , lack of movement and exercise (hypodynamia), and constant stress (vessels constriction and hyperventilation) is the cause. In other words, a wrong style of life is the main cause of hyperventilation. (More Hyperventilation by DNias). BA is a kind of reaction by the body to hypodynamia which is why different forms
of asthma can be successfully treated with the help of physical loading and participation in sport.
We are the first in the world to have stated that an asthmatic is not a disabled person who is hardly able to move because of constant attacks of suffocation. More than this, people with asthma are able to live normal active lives and to participate in sport (at the highest level) without taking
any medicines at all.
Professor Martyn Partridge, chief medical adviser to the National Asthma Campaign, said: “It is essential that patients receive prompt and accurate diagnosis and skills to control their condition”
Good clinical judgement should be exercised in dealing with asthma. It requires accurate diagnosis and the intelligent use of bronchodilators and steroids and/or reasonable alternatives. Caution is necessary with other drug prescriptions, such anti- inflammatory or antibiotics for their allergic, trigger-like effects. Unfortunately, usual practice of “accurate diagnosis and skills to control their condition” can lead in 20 years the lungs of asthma sufferers to full degeneration and the mortality rate is increasing. Doctor’s desperation in a patient with asthmatic status (prolonged attack) difficult to describe: no bronchodilators or steroids work any more. Buteyko found in patients with severe asthma that oxygen does not improve situation "In mild form of bronchial asthma hyperventilation leads to decrease of carbon dioxide in alveolar air and in the blood and little increase of oxygen. More severe asthma attack more hyperventilation occurs; in severe asthma during attack ventilation of lungs can be increased in 4-5 times. Increasing ventilation in lungs wash out carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide level in alveolar air decreases and oxygen increases. At the same time, contrariwise, in the blood carbon dioxide increases and oxygen decreases and as a result blood supply in tissues worsens and cells will suffer from hypoxia. In this condition patients can die (full of oxygen in their lungs)."
From "The Buteyko method" edited by K Buteyko (1990).
Asthma sufferers need more information and good advice. They have a right to know that there is a safe alternative offering hope and inspiration and this is not false. I welcome your considered choice.
Yours sincerely Alina Vasiljeva MD Russia
About Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Our ancestors’ illnesses were often caused by too much hard physical exertion, insufficient food, acute infectious diseases, lack of medicines and ignorance in matters of health. Nowadays we become ill because of insufficient physical exertion, too much stress, overeating, chronic infections, overuse of strong drugs, and ... ignorance in matters of health.
Why is it that so many people today are tired and stressed, have head and backache and are overweight? It is easy to get chronic diseases, but is it possible to prevent and cure them? Are there people who remain healthy? To answer these questions we should take note of ancient wisdoms and also of modern day science (physiology) including space research. Yogi, who breathe just once a minute during meditation, enjoy excellent health. People who live in the mountains, do lot of walking, and have good natural food tend to live long healthy lives.
What is common to these people is normal levels of carbon dioxide in the alveoli of their lungs.
The main role of CO2 on the physiology of the body:
This is important to know that CO2 is not merely a waste gas. CO2 as an important body substance has been studied by many scientists over the past century, including Albitzkiy, Bohr, Henderson, Hamilton, Verigo, Buteyko and Agadganyan. As a result of this research the mechanism behind many chronic diseases was found to be caused by physiological and biochemical imbalances in the body caused by lack of CO2 in the blood and cells (known as hypocapnia). When blood circulates through the alveoli (in the lungs) it makes contact with the inhaled air. Molecules of oxygen bind to haemoglobin and are carried by the blood to all internal organs. At the end of 19th century, scientists Bohr and Verigo (independently) found that CO2 is responsible for breathing processes in tissues and cells through their oxygen supply. I.e. a certain CO2 level in the blood (about 6.5 %) is necessary for oxygen to be released from haemoglobin to the tissues.
They discovered what seemed a strange law: a decreased level of CO2 in the blood leads to a decreased oxygen supply to the cells in the body including the brain, heart, kidneys, etc. CO2was found responsible for the bond between oxygen and haemoglobin. If the level of CO2 in the blood is lower than normal it leads to difficulties in releasing oxygen from haemoglobin to the cells. Hence this law.
Appendix
Reading a student text book
1. The expression “we breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide” is not correct either physiologically or literally. We breathe in air containing about 21% oxygen
Inhale Exhale
2. The formula for Carbon dioxide is O-C-O. C is carbon, O is oxygen. How can they be antagonists?
3. Oxygen oxidises nutrients in the cells in order to produce energy and build cell material.
Glucose + Oxygen ‡ Carbon dioxide + Water + Energy (ATP)
4. For an efficient oxygen supply the difference between oxygen levels in alveolar blood and arterial blood (A-a) is important. Normally it is 10mm Hg. It increases with age over 30and in sick people, it depends on the CO2 level in the alveoli and the blood (lower level greater[A-a] .
5. If barometric pressure drops by 1mm Hg, the oxygen level in inspired air
Nitrogen
79%
79%
Oxygen
21%
19%
Carbon dioxide
0.03%
~2%
decreases, and the carbon dioxide level in the arteries increases correspondingly. This is an adaptive mechanism to mountain height (the barometric pressure halves every 5.5 km). Less oxygen provides optimum metabolism due to better oxygen assimilation by the cells thanks to increased carbon dioxide (Bohr effect).
Carbon dioxide is responsible for the following (in the blood mainly 95% dissolved in plasma): - Keeps capillaries functioning - open-tone regime. - Relaxes bronchi’s muscles.
- The ratio of CO2 to bicarbonate determines pH which in the blood is 7.36-7.44. Responsible for alkaline-acid balance in the organism, plays vital role and changes rapidly through ventilation. Vice versa, Hyperventilation decreases level of carbon dioxide leading to disturbances caused by respiratory alkalosis (hypocapnia).
- Reduction in cerebral blood circulation. - Both hypotention (central mechanism) and hypertention from capillaries spasm. - Minerals level such potassium, calcium, and chlorine decrease. - Arrhythmia to fibrillation. - Convulsions.

http://members.westnet.com.au/pkolb/alina_V.pdf

Just Breathe: Building the case for Email Apnea by Linda Stone posted in the TheHuffingtonPost Posted: February 8, 2008 02:58 AM

2010-12-11T03:56:00.000-08:00

This artical is very intersting by Linda Stone!
Just Breathe: Building the case for Email Apnea by Linda Stone posted in the TheHuffingtonPost.com Posted: February 8, 2008 02:58 AM
I've just opened my email and there's nothing out of the ordinary there. It's the usual daily flood of schedule, project, travel, information, and junk mail. Then I notice...I'm holding my breath.
As the email spills onto my screen, as my mind races with thoughts of what I'll answer first, what can wait, who I should call, what should have been done two days ago; I've stopped the steady breathing I was doing only moments earlier in a morning meditation and now, I'm holding my breath.
And here's the deal. You're probably holding your breath, too.
I wanted to know - how widespread is "email apnea?" I observed others on computers and Blackberries: in their offices, their homes, at cafes -- the vast majority of people held their breath, or breathed very shallowly, especially when responding to email. I watched people on cell phones, talking and walking, and noticed that most were mouth-breathing and hyperventilating. Consider also, that for many, posture while seated at a computer can contribute to restricted breathing.
Does it matter? How was holding my breath affecting me?
I called Dr. Margaret Chesney, at the National Institute of Health (NIH). Research conducted by Chesney and NIH research scientist, Dr. David Anderson, demonstrated that breath holding contributes significantly to stress-related diseases. The body becomes acidic, the kidneys begin to re-absorb sodium, and as the oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitric oxide (NO) balance is undermined, our biochemistry is thrown off.
Breath-holding and hyperventilating disturb our body's balance of oxygen, CO2, and NO. Nitric oxide, not to be confused with the nitrous oxide used in dental offices, plays an important role in our health. From a briefing document prepared for the Royal Society and Association of British Science Writers, Pearce Wright explains, "The immune system uses nitric oxide in fighting viral, bacterial and parasitic infections, and tumors. Nitric oxide transmits messages between nerve cells and is associated with the processes of learning, memory, sleeping, feeling pain, and, probably, depression. It is a mediator in inflammation and rheumatism."
As I researched the literature, and spoke with physicians and researchers about breath-holding, a relationship to the vagus nerve emerged. The vagus nerve is one of the major cranial nerves, and wanders from the head, to the neck, chest and abdomen. Its primary job is to mediate the autonomic nervous system, which includes the sympathetic -- "fight or flight," and parasympathetic -- "rest and digest" nervous systems.
The parasympathetic nervous system governs our sense of hunger and satiety, flow of saliva and digestive enzymes, the relaxation response, and many aspects of healthy organ function. Focusing on diaphragmatic breathing enables us to down regulate the sympathetic nervous system, which then causes the parasympathetic nervous system to become dominant. Shallow breathing, breath-holding and hyperventilating trigger the sympathetic nervous system, in a "fight or flight" response.
The activated sympathetic nervous system causes the liver to dump glucose and cholesterol into our blood, our heart rate to increase, our sense of satiety to be compromised, and our bodies to anticipate and resource for the physical activity that, historically, accompanied a physical fight or flight response. Meanwhile, when the only physical activity is sitting and responding to email, we're sort of "all dressed up with nowhere to go."
Some breathing patterns favor our body's move toward parasympathetic functions and other breathing patterns favor a sympathetic nervous system response. Diaphragmatic breathing, Buteyko breathing (developed by a Russian M.D.), some of Andy Weil's breathing exercises, and certain martial arts and yoga breathing techniques, all have the potential to soothe us, and to help our bodies differentiate when fight or flight is really necessary and when we can rest and digest.
Now I want to know: Is it only the Big Mac that makes us fat? Or, are we more obese and diabetic because of a combination of holding our breath off and on all day and then failing to move when our bodies have prepared us to do so? Can fifteen minutes of diaphragmatic breathing before a meal tune us in to when we're full? If, when we're doing sedentary work, and O2, CO2, and NO are optimally balanced, through healthy breathing, will we escape the ravages of an always-on sympathetic nervous system? Can daily breathing exercises contribute to helping reduce asthma, ADD, depression, obesity, and a host of other stress-related conditions?
I predict, within the next 5 to 7 years, breathing exercises will be a significant part of every fitness regime. In the meantime, why not breathe while doing email? Awareness is the first step toward wiping out email apnea!
Email apnea - a temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email (Linda Stone, February 2008)

TheBreathingMan suggestion... Learn about the Buteyko method and start to breathe correctly

Breathing, Carbon Dioxide and the Immune System

2010-12-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

The more you overbreathe, the more you lose Carbon Dioxide from your lungs, then the less Carbon Dioxide you have in the blood, making the oxygen stickier to the haemoglobin (this has been known by the medical profession for over 100 years it's call the "Bohr Effect"http://knol.google.com/k/bohr-effect# ) creating OXYGEN STARVATION to the brain, organs, muscles and cells, which disrupts the set of chemical reactions (Metabolism) of the body.
Immune System...
Disturbances to the biochemical environment in which the immune system has to function can be expected to lead to variable forms of immune system failure. As a result the system may over react to pollens or other non-pathogenic invaders. It may fail to deal effectively with bacteria and viruses and could even attack the body’s own cells. http://knol.google.com/k/buteyko-hyperventilation#Immune_System
Ref. Doctor Buteyko Discovery 1952
Asthma Trial - Dr. Robert Cowie - University of Calgary, Canada on Asthma UK's page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1315422225654&oid=40952091012

Asthma is one of The Bodies Protective Mechanisms

2010-12-10T04:06:00.000-08:00

Asthma is one of The Bodies Protective Mechanisms

I'm not sure if this idea of "Asthma is one of The Bodies Protective Mechanisms" can go onto the main article at this time may be in the future when there is more reseach, but I do feel it has a place on the discussion page. This idea is from the work of Doctor Buteyko, here is the link to one of his translated Buteyko Breathing Charts he used in teaching the Buteyko method: The Bodies Protective Mechanisms

Referance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Asthma#Asthma_is_one_of_The_Bodies_Protective_Mechanisms

Buteyko Translation Project...

2010-12-09T16:36:00.000-08:00

Dr Buteyko

Buteyko Translation Project...
Russian to English Translation 2007-2011

The translation of Volume 1 has been completed and you can buy online from the Buteyko Trilogy website.

Would you like updates on this imortant project if so register your interest on this website. Register your interest (click here)

All of Sergey Altukhov extensive written work is to be being professionally translated from Russian text to English text, you can keep track of what has been translated to date by clicking the Buteyko Translation Project link below

BE PART OF THE BUTEYKO HISTORY by donating to the Buteyko Translation Project and Sponsor a chapter or two.

Author of the trilogy: “Dr Buteyko’s Discovery”

Twice certified trainer in the Buteyko Method

Director of the Centre for the Effective Study of Dr K.P. Buteyko’s Method

Sergey Altukhov

New York Times Buteyko

2010-12-06T06:40:00.000-08:00

New York Times
A Breathing Technique Offers Help for People With Asthma
By JANE E. BRODY
Published: November 2, 2009
Jane Brody is the Personal Health columnist for The New York Times

I don’t often write about alternative remedies for serious medical conditions. Most have little more than anecdotal support, and few have been found effective in well-designed clinical trials. Such trials randomly assign patients to one of two or more treatments and, wherever possible, assess the results without telling either the patients or evaluators who received which treatment.

Now, however, in describing an alternative treatment for asthma that does not yet have top clinical ratings in this country (although it is taught in Russian medical schools and covered by insurance in Australia), I am going beyond my usually stringent research criteria for three reasons:

Jane Brody is the Personal Health columnist for The New York Times

The treatment, a breathing technique discovered half a century ago, is harmless if practiced as directed with a well-trained therapist.

It has the potential to improve the health and quality of life of many people with asthma, while saving health care dollars.

I’ve seen it work miraculously well for a friend, David Wiebe, who had little choice but to stop using the steroid medications that were keeping him alive.

My friend, David Wiebe, 58, of Woodstock, N.Y., is a well-known maker of violins and cellos with a 48-year history of severe asthma that was treated with bronchodilators and steroids for two decades. Ten years ago, Mr. Wiebe noticed gradually worsening vision problems, eventually diagnosed as a form of macular degeneration caused by the steroids. Two leading retina specialists told him to stop using the drugs if he wanted to preserve his sight.

He did, and endured several terrifying trips to the emergency room when asthma attacks raged out of control and forced him to resume steroids temporarily to stay alive.

Nothing else he tried seemed to work. “After having a really poor couple of years with significantly reduced quality of life and performance at work,” he told me, “I was ready to give up my eyesight and go back on steroids just so I could breathe better.”

Treatment From the ’50sThen, last spring, someone told him about the Buteyko method, a shallow-breathing technique developed in 1952 by a Russian doctor, Konstantin Buteyko. Mr. Wiebe watched a video demonstration on YouTube and mimicked the instructions shown.

“I could actually feel my airways relax and open,” he recalled. “This was impressive. Two of the participants on the video were basically incapacitated by their asthma and on disability leave from their jobs. They each admitted that keeping up with the exercises was difficult but said they had been able to cut back on their medications by about 75 percent and their quality of life was gradually returning.”

A further search uncovered the Buteyko Center USA in his hometown, newly established as the official North American representative of the Buteyko Clinic in Moscow.

“When I came to the center, I was without hope,” Mr. Wiebe said. “I was using my rescue inhaler 20 or more times in a 24-hour period. If I was exposed to any kind of irritant or allergen, I could easily get a reaction that jeopardized my existence and forced me to go back on steroids to save my life. I was a mess.”

But three months later, after a series of lessons and refresher sessions in shallow breathing, he said, “I am using less than one puff of the inhaler each day — no drugs, just breathing exercises.”

Mr. Wiebe doesn’t claim to be cured, though he believes this could eventually happen if he remains diligent about the exercises. But he said: “My quality of life has improved beyond my expectations. It’s very exciting and amazing. More people should know about this.”

Ordinarily, during an asthma attack, people panic and breathe quickly and as deeply as they can, blowing off more and more carbon dioxide. Breathing rate is controlled not by the amount of oxygen in the blood but by the amount of carbon dioxide, the gas that regulates the acid-base level of the blood.

Dr. Buteyko concluded that hyperventilation — breathing too fast and too deeply — could be the underlying cause of asthma, making it worse by lowering the level of carbon dioxide in the blood so much that the airways constrict to conserve it.

This technique may seem counterintuitive: when short of breath or overly stressed, instead of taking a deep breath, the Buteyko method instructs people to breathe shallowly and slowly through the nose, breaking the vicious cycle of rapid, gasping breaths, airway constriction and increased wheezing.

The shallow breathing aspect intrigued me because I had discovered its benefits during my daily lap swims. I noticed that swimmers who had to stop to catch their breath after a few lengths of the pool were taking deep breaths every other stroke, whereas I take in small puffs of air after several strokes and can go indefinitely without becoming winded.

The Buteyko practitioners in Woodstock, Sasha and Thomas Yakovlev-Fredricksen, were trained in Moscow by Dr. Andrey Novozhilov, a Buteyko disciple. Their treatment involves two courses of five sessions each: one in breathing technique and the other in lifestyle management. The breathing exercises gradually enable clients to lengthen the time between breaths. Mr. Wiebe, for example, can now take a breath after more than 10 seconds instead of just 2 while at rest.

Responses May Vary
His board-certified pulmonologist, Dr. Marie C. Lingat, told me: “Based on objective data, his breathing has improved since April even without steroids. The goal now is to make sure he maintains the improvement. The Buteyko method works for him, but that doesn’t mean everyone who has asthma would respond in the same way.”

In an interview, Mrs. Yakovlev-Fredricksen said: “People don’t realize that too much air can be harmful to health. Almost every asthmatic breathes through his mouth and takes deep, forceful inhalations that trigger a bronchospasm,” the hallmark of asthma.

“We teach them to inhale through the nose, even when they speak and when they sleep, so they don’t lose too much carbon dioxide,” she added.

At the Woodstock center, clients are also taught how to deal with stress and how to exercise without hyperventilating and to avoid foods that in some people can provoke an asthma attack.

The practitioners emphasize that Buteyko clients are never told to stop their medications, though in controlled clinical trials in Australia and elsewhere, most have been able to reduce their dependence on drugs significantly. The various trials, including a British study of 384 patients, have found that, on average, those who are diligent about practicing Buteyko breathing can expect a 90 percent reduction in the use of rescue inhalers and a 50 percent reduction in the need for steroids within three to six months.

The British Thoracic Society has given the technique a “B” rating, meaning that positive results of the trials are likely to have come from the Buteyko method and not some other factor. Now, perhaps, it is time for the pharmaceutically supported American medical community to explore this nondrug technique as well.

Reference
http://www.buteykoscotland.co.uk/news.htm

http://knol.google.com/k/the-new-york-times-article-on-buteyko-by-jane-e-brody#

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/health/03brod.html?_r=1

Wim Hof Training "Iceman"

2010-12-04T06:16:00.000-08:00

Wim Hof training "Iceman"
I came across this quote from Wim Hof's son Enahm Hof...
("Guys, Wim has his own Method, but indeed, Tummo is part of it! Just visit our site www.hofoutdoor.nl You can do workshops by Wim Hof or travel with us!")

I had a look at the video (above) of Wim Hof training "Iceman"

He dose Exercise, Meditation, Eyes rolled upwards, Nose breathing, Cold environment / Snow and Yoga
All of these activities normalize breathing, fascinating!!!

To find out the science behind normalisation of breathing for general health (Asthma, Blocked Nose, Coughing to name but a few of the 150 Diseases of Deep Breathing.) go to TheBreathingMan website http://www.thebreathingman.com/ you will be amazed at what you will read!!!

Wim Hof and Justin Rosales are writing a book on "Becoming the Iceman" which will be out in the near future http://www.becomingtheiceman.com
Also his website is http://www.wimhof.org
Also his fan page on Facebook (The Iceman) is http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Iceman/139200219431269

What is The Buteyko Trilogy?

2010-12-01T21:03:00.000-08:00

"‘…Normalisation of breathing immediately triggers a healing process..."
Buteyko Trilogy Volume 1 Chapter 17: The First Handbook

What is The Buteyko Trilogy?

The Buteyko trilogy is a biographical account which documents Professor KP Buteyko's theories, teachings and thoughts (1952-1997). The trilogy gives a detailed history of the Buteyko breathing method as taught by Professor Buteyko and his colleagues and outlines his belief that the method could be used to treat
150 Diseases of Deep Breathing.

In 1988 Sergey Altukhov was commissioned by Professor Buteyko to write the truth about his method. Originally published in Russian in 1993,
"Doctor Buteyko's Discovery" trilogy: Volume 1 is now available, for the first time, in English (published 2 May 2009).

The Trilogy gives a unique insight into the life and work of Professor Buteyko whose method has become increasingly popular in recent years.
Recent research into Buteyko's method include:
University of Calgary, Asthma Research Results, Canada 2008
"Buteyko group had significantly improved asthma control from 40% to 79% and improved quality of life, Corticosteroid daily dose dropped significantly only in the Buteyko group".
The British Guideline on the Management of Asthma now grants permission for British health professionals to recommend Buteyko.

There are many unanswered questions about the man,
Professor K.P. Buteyko and The Buteyko Method.
The Buteyko Trilogy goes a long way to answering these questions.

Reviews for "Dr Buteyko's Discovery" Trilogy - Volume 1

"...simply terrific and inspiring."

"...presents the story of what could have been the greatest discovery in medical science..."

http://www.doctorbuteykodiscoverytrilogy.com/

Asthma - randomised controlled trial - Interview

2010-12-01T20:42:00.000-08:00

You are listening to a Radio interview between Dr Robert Cowie & Barnett J. Weiss (Bud) New York City Radio WBAI (21st October 2010) The show talked about the Buteyko Breathing method.

A world authority on Asthma Dr. Robert Cowie from the University of Calgary, Canada who was the organiser of the randomised controlled trial of the Buteyko technique as an adjunct to conventional management of asthma. Resp Med 2008; 102:726-32.
Buteyko Calgary Trial Conclusions: Buteyko safe, effective and no adverse effects.
In the Buteyko Calgary Trial: The Buteyko method was taught by Jennifer Stark from Australia

Buteyko Interview transcript

Interview transcrit between Dr. Robert Cowie and Barnett J Weiss. (Bud) New York City radio (WBAI) 21/10/2010

The Buteyko breathing Method.

Barnett J. Weiss (Bud)
New York

Bud Weiss

Hi Dr. Cowie, thanks for being available so early, I think where you are it’s about 6.30or so, 6.30 yes.(laughter)

Dr. Robert Cowie

(laughter) 6.30 yes (laughter)

Bud Weiss

Thanks so much for being up, So why don’t you just tell us your experience with Buteyko and what your thoughts are of it being an adjunct to all Asthma treatment?

Dr. Robert Cowie

Well thank you, yes. My opinion about Buteyko is based on the study we did here at the university of Calgary, and it was published earlier this year in the British journal of society medicine, and in that study we took approx 120 subjects who had Asthma and who were on conventional treatment, and it turns out that about 40% of those people, tho’ they were on what is accepted to be conventional and appropriate treatment for Asthma, and had their disease under control, in other words 60% or the majority of them were still suffering from their Asthma attacks which led them to emergency departments, with waking at night and shortness of breath and having some aspects of their everyday lives impacted by Asthma.

We took this group of people, and randomly divided them into roughly two, and ½ of them were then subjected to the Buteyko technique by an experienced Buteyko practitioner, who we invited to come in from Australia to train this group.

Cutting the chase, the program lasted approx 5 days which is the usual for Buteyko. What we did was we got back to these people, these and the control group 6 months after they had completed their Buteyko training. So a good period afterward, then examined them to find out weather they were out of or well controlled, and it turned out that 6 months after the Buteyko intervention 80% of them 75% of them had their Asthma well controlled. So we’ve doubled the number who had diseases controlled, and in the Buteyko group this has been achieved with some reduction in medication. So we thought, I thought that that was a very good result and shows there clearly is a role for Buteyko training and people with Asthma on conventional therapy who have not achieved good control of their disease. It seems there may be a place for anyone with Asthma if it’s going to allow them to achieve control with having a smaller dose of conventional medication.

Bud Weiss

Well Dr. Cowie, I just want to thank you ‘cause those who really want to find out, Dr. Cowie has been doing work in the field of respiratory medicine for, how many years now Dr. Cowie?

Dr. Robert Cowie

(laughter) Oh you really don’t want to know that.

At least round it off to 40.

Bud Weiss

(laughter) OK.

These papers and all of the things he has done are easily accessible on the internet, if you goggle Dr. Cowie’s name, Dr. Robert Cowie, you will see how extraordinary a man this is who has done such great work in the field, and we are just so thankful that you became involved with this.

Mr. Bernard White

Dr. Cowie, I have a question for you. You’ve been in medicine for 40 years, when did you come across Buteyko and how did it become to change your mind?

Dr. Robert Cowie

Well, it happened I guess…A man who had Asthma for much of his life had gone off to New York from Calgary, quite a way to go, and had been trained by a Buteyko practitioner, and as a result was really very very pleased with the impact on his Asthma. And he came from a fairly wealthy local family, so he and his family approached the faculty of Medicine at the university of Calgary and said would they be interested in starting and holding a Buteyko program. So the Deans office contacted me, and I said “Well were jumping the gun, we really need to, first of all, find out if it works or not”

Bud Weiss

Well folks that was Dr. Robert Cowie, one of the worlds authorities on respiratory illness, who did the study that so amazed him that he...

Transcribed by Jacqui Lattenstein

I wish you good health!

2010-12-01T19:44:00.000-08:00

...“Clara!” The retired schoolteacher determinedly interrupted this brief exchange by getting up from her seat. “May I make an announcement?” From behind her back she produced a bunch of bright red flowers which she had carefully concealed until the right moment. “We found out that today is your birthday…

”At this, Clara allowed her tired arms to flop and smiled shyly: somehow or other people always got to know! She herself was so busy she’d almost forgotten about it - there was no time for anything but work. “We all of us wish you good health and happiness!” said Zoya Sosnova, giving her the flowers. “That poem I read out - I’ve dedicated it to you…” she went on, blushing like a girl.“

Thank you so much!!” said Ozertsova with genuine gratitude, clasping the sweet-scented carnations to her breast. “And thank you for wishing me good health. That’s the most precious thing you can wish for anyone. I once had a student here – a high-ranking commercial manager. She had leukaemia. She’d probably had everything she could ever have wished for, except the water of life. But she herself said that she’d always felt there was something missing. And when she fell ill, all she wanted was to get better! That’s what she said to me: ‘I don’t need anything else – just to get better!!” Clara leant on her elbows, cupped her head in her hands and looked round the group. Her eyes had misted over. “

You’re right,” agreed the trainee doctor from Omsk. “Health is the most precious gift we can ever have, that’s for sure. And,” she spread her plump hands wide, “there are not many people who bestow that gift on their fellows as generously as you do.”...

Buteyko Trilogy Volume 2 Excerpt Chapter 33

http://www.doctorbuteykodiscoverytrilogy.com/vol-2/free-excerpts.cfm

Buteyko with TheBreathingMan

Buteyko Method - thebreathingman.com

"Mystic Fire" Wim Hof Iceman New York Lecture, "Tummo" with Dr. Kenneth Kamler

Tummo: The Yogi Power Of Warming The Body

Buteyko Breathing Exercises No.1 more detailed training

NHS Scotland SIGN App (Guildlines) on BBC News

Breathing Devices & The Buteyko Breathing Method

Can the Buteyko Method be imitated with the help of devices and/or air mixes?

THE FIRST-HAND BUTEYKO METHOD by Marina Buteyko, Vladimir Buteyko

Translation of article published in Russian magazine " Asthma and Allergy " 1, (pages 24-25), 2005

A hook for the noose: second thoughts…

The Buteyko theory about a key role of breathing for human health - a knol by Alex Spence

Buteyko Patents and Trademarks - a knol by Alex Spence

Hyperventilation - Carbon Dioxide - December 17, 2010 - Reasearch from Alicia E. Meuret Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas

Free Chapter: Doctor Buteyko's Discovery Trilogy by Sergey Altukhov Volume 1 : The Destruction of the Laboratory, CHAPTER 4 Buteyko discovers the Diseases of Deep Breathing

GLOBAL ASTHMA CRISIS by Alina Vasiljeva MD Russia

Just Breathe: Building the case for Email Apnea by Linda Stone posted in the TheHuffingtonPost Posted: February 8, 2008 02:58 AM

Breathing, Carbon Dioxide and the Immune System

Asthma is one of The Bodies Protective Mechanisms

Asthma is one of The Bodies Protective Mechanisms

Buteyko Translation Project...

New York Times Buteyko

Wim Hof Training "Iceman"

What is The Buteyko Trilogy?

There are many unanswered questions about the man, Professor K.P. Buteyko and The Buteyko Method. The Buteyko Trilogy goes a long way to answering these questions.

Asthma - randomised controlled trial - Interview

Buteyko Interview transcript

I wish you good health!

There are many unanswered questions about the man,
Professor K.P. Buteyko and The Buteyko Method.
The Buteyko Trilogy goes a long way to answering these questions.