Professor Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko was born on the 27th of January 1923 in Ivanitsa approximately 150 kilometres from Kiev. He inherited his father’s interest in machines and enrolled at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute.  World War II interrupted his studies and Buteyko joined his country’s armed forces. His experiences from the war compelled him to study “the most complicated piece of machinery of all”- the human organism.

In 1946, he enrolled at the First Medical Institute in Moscow. During his third year of study he was given a practical clinical assignment that involved monitoring diseased patients breathing. He spent hundreds of hours observing breathing patterns and how deepening in a patient’s breath increased as they approached death. He soon discovered that he was able to make a prognosis on how many days or hours were left before a patient died. This determined the area of Buteyko’s future interest.

Buteyko graduated from the institute with honours in 1952 and he independently continued his experiments with breathing. He asked healthy subjects to breathe deeply for a period of time, and found that they became dizzy and nauseous, developed asphyxiating symptoms such as wheeziness and coughing, and eventually fainted. In the second month of his independent work he observed that certain diseases developed as a result of deep breathing. Buteyko at the time suffered from severe hypertension (high blood pressure) and often wondered about its causes. He measured his own carbon dioxide levels and noted that they were lower than the physiological norm. He theorized that if he corrected his breathing then he may be able to cure himself of his disorder.

Buteyko immediately began experimenting on himself. He changed his breathing by reducing the amount he breathed in. In doing so, symptoms such as headaches and rapid heartbeat reduced. When he increased the depth of breathing the symptoms returned. Buteyko concluded he had found the reason for his disease. He then immediately devised a programme where patients’ breathing could be quickly and effectively measured and then if needed reconditioned.

He completely healed himself. He examined the breathing patterns of patients suffering from asthma, angina and other diseases. They too were hyperventilating (over breathing). By correcting their breathing to normalize the carbon dioxide deficit, attacks stopped immediately but when they returned to their previous breathing pattern the attacks returned.

Through further research, Buteyko was able to lay down the theoretical foundation for his theory-hyperventilation causes a depletion of carbon dioxide; low levels of CO2 in an organism causes blood vessels to spasm and also causes oxygen starvation in tissues, thus resulting in “defence mechanisms” that had been previously misunderstood and labelled as diseases.

Buteyko intensively researched his theory at the Central and Lenin Medical Libraries. He soon realised that no one in the history of medical science ever shared this simple thought. For centuries we were taught to breathe deeply and no one thought to ever try to reduce breathing. Buteyko found no support from peers or teachers. He knew that voicing his convictions wouldn’t bring any positive results at that stage. He knew he had to organize an experimental laboratory, gather evidence, develop it, and only then announce the fundamentals of his ideas.

Attempts to establish a functional diagnostic laboratory failed due to lack of funds, personnel, and equipment. In 1958, Buteyko was invited by Professor Meshalkin (director) to join the Institute of Experimental Biology and Medicine at the Siberian Branch of USSR Academy of Science. In 1960 he completed the task of establishing a laboratory of functional diagnostics.

The same year, he presented the results of clinical studies between 1958 and 1959 on 200 patients, which showed the relationship between the depth of breathing and the content of carbon dioxide in the body, vessel spasm and degrees of illness. Colleagues were stunned and rejected the idea. Professor Meshalkin, who chaired the forum understood the perspective and wanted the research continued, so he granted him temporary approval.

Over the next ten years Professor Buteyko and his team collected extensive data on basic human functions. Two hundred medical specialists were trained within the laboratory, most of whom suffered from a condition which was successfully treated by the method. These trained specialists were then treating patients successfully with the Buteyko method.

Official statistics show that as of 1 January 1967, more than 1000 patients suffering from asthma, hypertension, or angina had been successfully treated and had completely recovered. Regardless of this outcome Meshalkin refused Buteyko’s request to conduct a trial at the Institute’s clinic. Meshalkin’s attitude resulted in repression and confiscation of laboratory equipment.

In January 1968, the Minister of Health, academician Petrovsky, paid a visit to Buteyko’s clinic. He informed him if he was able to successfully treat at least 80% of the patients given to him, he would make recommendations for the immediate entrenchment of the method into standard medical practices. He also promised a 50 bed clinic for the continuation of Buteyko’s clinical work. The only condition was that the patients used in the trial were to be the most serious and difficult cases, not otherwise treatable by conventional methods of medicine.

44 of the 46 (95%) of the patients in the trial were officially recognised as cured. The other 2 of the 46 had a smaller positive effect. However with further treatment they were later relieved of their illnesses.

The results of the trial were monitored by the Health ministry and were sent to Health Minister Petrovsky. They were not seen by either Buteyko or the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Science. Minister Petrovsky falsely advised Lavrentiev the chairman of the Siberian Branch that the trial had failed and that only 2 of the 46 patients had been cured. This was the basis for closing Buteyko’s laboratory. On 14 August 1968, all the scientists were dismissed without any offers of alternative employment and all equipment confiscated.

Despite the odds, the method has survived. The original team of medical practitioners continued to treat patients with the method. Continued success forced the government to reconsider the method. In April 1980, the second official trial was conducted at the First Moscow Institute of Paediatric Diseases at the direction of the Government Committee for Science and Technology of the Soviet Ministry of the USSR. The study confirmed the findings of the first trial: a 100% success rate. The results were officially recognised.

Professor Buteyko trained numerous doctors and breathing instructors to apply the method in the 1980’s and 90’s.

The Buteyko method was brought to Australia in 1990 by Kyle Alberts, a businessman. While visiting Russia, Alberts had an angina attack that, to his amazement, was successfully treated with the Buteyko method. Alberts sponsored two Russian Buteyko teachers to come to Sydney. One teacher left and the other, Alexander (Sasha) Stalmatsky stayed and taught the method.

Following extensive media coverage and public pressure, five years after Stalmatsky began to teach the method, a formal study was conducted in Brisbane. Thirty nine subjects were randomized to the Buteyko group and a control group. The control group was taught a general asthma-education programme and physiotherapy exercises. The Buteyko Method group significantly reduced bronchodilator use (by 96%), steroid medication use (by 49%), asthma symptoms (by 80%), and reported significant improvement in quality of life. No improvement was recorded in the control group. The method has since been investigated by several other successful clinical trials and comprehensive reviews in different parts of the world.

The first westerners to learn and teach the method were from Australia, the UK, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. Alexander Stalmatsky taught thousands of people in Australia and later the UK. Many of his students later became Buteyko practitioners.

It is reputed that the Buteyko technique has been successfully taught to more than one million citizens of Russia and the surrounding independent republics.

Professor Buteyko made at least one trip to New Zealand and Australia late in his life to support the Western teachers. He died in 2003.

The above brief history is adapted from material produced by Peter Kolb, Biomedical Engineer.

Buteyko Breathing Clinics (Dublin and County Wicklow)