Professor Konstantin Buteyko was born into the small farming community of Ivanitsa (about 150km from Kiev) on January 27, 1923. In 1946, he enrolled into the First Medical Institute in Moscow to train as a medical doctor. During this time, he discovered that incorrect breathing caused a range of health problems. Thereafter, most of his professional life was devoted to researching and refining the breathing method which has helped thousands of people throughout the world to overcome their asthma and other breathing conditions.
In 1946 Konstantin Buteyko enrolled at the First Moscow Institute of Medicine and gained his degree with Honours in 1952. During his medical studies he made observations on patients breathing rates in relation to the severity and prognosis of their illness. In 1953 he was given a practical assignment which involved monitoring patients' breathing, and spent hundred of hours recording their respiration rates. He came to the conclusion that there was an association between these two factors, realising that as a patient's condition became more severe so their breathing rate increased.
Professor Buteyko reasoned that if there really was a connection between hyperventilation and illness, it should be possible to reverse this through deliberate breathing control. He was already aware of exercises in breath restriction, through his study on yoga, and so began to experiment both on himself and with his patients. These early trials became known as the Buteyko Method.
Developing the Method
By the early 1980s the Russian authorities were sufficiently impressed with Buteyko's results to allow him a formal trial with asthmatic children in a Moscow hospital. Although different in design from the standard controlled trial now carried out in the west, the results were sufficient to persuade the Russian State Medical System to approve the method for widespread use. It is now estimated that over a hundred thousand asthmatics in Russia have been helped by Dr Buteyko's research, with as many if not more in the rest of the world.
The Spread of the Buteyko method
In the late 1980s an Australian businessman was admitted to hospital in Russia with an angina attack. He was introduced to the Buteyko method (known in Russia as Voluntary Elimination of Deep Breathing or VEDB) and found it extremely helpful. The Australian sponsored two Russian practitioners to teach the technique in his home country and within a short period of time one of these practioners, Alexander Stalmatski, was also training new Buteyko teachers in Austratlia.
The first controlled trial of Buteyko was carried out in 1994. Since then the Buteyko method has spread across the world and the number of people teaching the method grows every year.
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