Buteyko Breathing Method Today
In 1952, a Soviet scientist, Dr. Konstantin P. Buteyko made a breakthrough in medicine – he discovered a major cause of the onset and development of bronchial asthma, obstructive bronchitis, arterial hypertension and a group of diseases associated with metabolic disorders in a human body.
K.P. Buteyko proved irrefutably the following:
The major cause of the most common diseases is the excessive depth of breathing which leads to heavy impairment of main metabolic regulator functions, as well as to persistent spasm of smooth muscles, vascular walls and bronchial tree.
Among the patients suffering from bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis and metabolic syndrome, 95% present the depth of breathing which exceeds the physiological need of a healthy body and is expressed in common values of breathing capacity.
K.P. Buteyko theoretically substantiated and worked out a unique method of treatment, based on gradual breathing normalization which contributes to the development of permanent remission and recovery at short notice and without any medicines. This is how the Buteyko Breathing Method appeared. In order to establish their clinical efficiency, a series of tests was performed with using Buteyko’s respiratory exercises as a monotherapy and as a part of a complex therapy, which yielded the favourable outcomes. As a result, the Buteyko Breathing Method was officially approved by the Ministry of Health of the USSR on April 30th, 1985 and included into the treatment protocol.
Official Documents:
- Guidelines of the Scientific Medical Council of the USSR Ministry of Health of the On Clinical Application of Buteyko’s Exercises dated 15.05.1982.
- Guidelines of the State Committee of the USSR on Inventions and Discoveries About Introduction of the Buteyko Breathing Method dated 27.06.1983.
- Order of the Ministry of Health of the USSR On the Buteyko Breathing Method Introduction into the Medical Practice dated 30.04.1985.
- Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No.161 dated 05.02.1987.
- Letter of the Main Health Care Administration of the City of Moscow dated 19.11.1987. Guidelines of the Ministry of Health of RF (I.M. Sechenov First Moscow Medical Institute (Moscow Medical Academy), Moscow, 1986; Moscow Research Institute of Tuberculosis of the USSR Ministry of Health and Central Research Institute of Tuberculosis of the USSR Ministry of Health, Moscow, 1987).
Official Approval of the Buteyko Breathing Method:
- Approval of the Buteyko Breathing Method to Treat the Patients Presenting with Bronchial Asthma (All-Union Research Institute of Pulmonology of the USSR Ministry of Health, 1968).
- Approval of the Buteyko Breathing Method to Treat the Children Suffering from Asthma (I.M. Sechenov First Moscow Medical Institute, 1981).
- State Approval of the Buteyko Breathing Method to Treat the Patients Exposed to Radiation at the Chernobyl AES (Institute of the Clinical Radiology of the All-Union Research Centre of the Radiation Medicine of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR).
- State Approval of the Buteyko Breathing Method to Treat the Patients Affected by AIDS Virus (L.V. Gromashevsky Kiev Research Institute of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases).