Parent Category: Buteyko

The Buteyko Method, or Buteyko Breathing Technique is a holistic health philosophy, primarily for the treatment of asthma, that includes a set of breathing exercises developed by the late Russian doctor, Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko. The method is taught as a complementary therapy and several small clinical trials have shown that it can safely reduce asthma symptoms and the need for reliever medication in some people, as well as increasing quality of life scores. However, improvement takes time and commitment, requiring daily exercises over a period of weeks or months and tuition can be expensive.

At the core of the Buteyko method is a series of breathing exercises that focus on nasal-breathing, breath-holding and relaxation. At present it is used to treat asthma, sleep apnea, snoring, anxiety attacks and panic attacks. These conditions are associated with disrupted or irregular breathing patterns and the Buteyko exercises aim to 'retrain' breathing to restore a natural pattern, akin to certain forms of Yoga.

Despite evidence that Buteyko can be an effective treatment for asthma, it is still subject to skepticism from the medical community. This is mainly due to the lack of a controlled large-scale trial of the method and no explanation for why the Buteyko exercises work.