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THE BUTEYKO METHOD An Effective Treatment for Asthma BUTEYKO METHOD THE Effective Treatment for Asthma Russian physician Professor Buteyko developed this simple, drug-free treatment for asthma and other diseases after he noticed that over-breathing disturbs the metabolism and makes the body more prone to illness. practices and overseas postings, and in that time I have treated thousands of asthma patients. Like every conscientious medical doctor, I have kept up to date with the lat- est research and with advances in techniques and medication in order to help my patients to the best of my ability. This has been especially important to me, as I take a keen inter- est in respiratory diseases. In addition, much of my work has been in Australia, where a major respiratory disease has a strong hold. Australia and New Zealand have more asthma sufferers per capita than any other coun- tries in the world. More than one million people (some estimate nearly two million) have asthma in Australia; that is, 25% of children, 15% of teenagers and 10% of adults. In New Zealand, 700,000 people, or 20% of the population, have asthma. In 1995, one New Zealand child in five had asthma; for Maori children, the figure was one in three. Asthma is on the increase in the industrialised countries of the world. In the USA, 16 million people suffer from it, as do three million in the United Kingdom. Boys have asth- ma more commonly than girls, and about one child in four has asthma at some stage of development. About half the children with mild asthma will improve and "grow out of" the condition through their teenage years. The others have to continue with a disease that can interfere with their pleasure in life, their education, their sporting interests, their well- being and even their relationships with family and friends. Adult or "late onset" asthma also occurs, more frequently in women than in men. These unlucky people not only suffer acute discomfort, disruption of every aspect of their lives and often sheer misery from their condition, but they may also be facing a threat to their life. Not only is asthma itself on the increase, but so are deaths from asthma attacks. It is a frightening fact that in Australia in 1996, for instance, asthma attacks caused more than 800 deaths. Medicine in the 20th century has not coped well with asthma. The number and avail- ability of drugs to treat the disease have been sharply increasing since the beginning of the century, but so has the incidence of asthma. The Asthma Foundation of Australia report- ed that the incidence of asthma in children in Australia doubled between 1982 and 1992. As a doctor, I could not help wishing that there was another way of helping a child control his or her asthma, instead of having to fall back on an increase in the drugs I prescribed. Then, in the early 1990s, I first became aware of the work and methods of a certain Professor Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko, a diagnostic respiratory physi whose tech- niques, developed in the 1950s, were considered a breakthrough in Russia and still are, after decades of research and treatment of asthma patients. It was two of my patients who told me about it—a mother and daughter who had attended a clinic in Sydney and had both derived extraordinary benefit from the simple breathing technique that they were taught by the Buteyko practitioner. I became interested, and I observed the technique over a long period. Doctors are always cautious about any new research or treatments they observe, and I was no excep- tion. But there is nothing more convincing to a scientific mind than genuine, sustained and verifiable results, and I eventually became convinced, from the objective evidence, that I was looking at a dramatically effective treatment for asthma. I began referring patients to the clinic and became supervising medical officer, so this enabled me to moni- tor and help my patients and others even more effectively. Consequently I have also been able to make a study of the 8,000 patients treated so far in Australia, and when invited I have spoken on radio and television about the far-reaching, beneficial effects of this natur- al, benign method. My book, Every Breath You Take, was the result of six years of [r= been a medical practitioner for twenty-three years, with both city and country by Paul J. Ameisen, MBBS, ND, DipAc, FACNEM © 1997/99 Vita Centre 6 Patterson Street Double Bay, NSW 2028, Australia Telephone: +61 (0)2 9328 1066 Freecall (in Australia): 1800 658 818 Fax: +61 (0)2 9328 1561 Website: www.vitacentre.com.au by Paul J. Ameisen, MBBS, ND, DipAc, FACNEM © 1997/99 Vita Centre 6 Patterson Street Double Bay, NSW 2028, Australia Telephone: +61 (0)2 9328 1066 Freecall (in Australia): 1800 658 818 Fax: +61 (0)2 9328 1561 Website: www.vitacentre.com.au NEXUS - 35 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1999