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ASTHMA IGNORANCE OR DESIGN? ASTHMA DESIGN? IGNORANCE The Buteyko method has had great success in controlling asthma, reversing symptoms and removing the need for medication, which is why it poses such a threat to the pharmaceutical companies. Introduction he burden of asthma rests heavily on children and their parents, with an estimated 25 per cent of children and 10 per cent of adults being afflicted in most Western countries.' It is frightening for any parent to watch the hollow of the throat being sucked inwards with every breath their child takes and listen to the wheeze and cough. However, it is the elderly who struggle most with this condition and are more likely to die as a result of its strangulation.” It comes as no surprise that, as asthma affects such a wide range of people, there is a thriving industry with puffers, pills and potions sold around the world, promising relief from this insidious condition. GlaxoSmithKline, the leaders in the field, reported in 2004 that its sales of Seretide/Advair were up 19 per cent to £2.5 billion,* and AstraZeneca reported that its Symbicort sales totalled US$797 million for the same year, up 32 per cent.‘ Asthma costs every Western country a fortune, not only in money but also in misery. It is the only chronic condition where morbidity is increasing, *° though fortunately mortality has generally begun to decline.”* Teachers of the Buteyko method say that they can help people with asthma and in many cases eliminate symptoms and the need for drugs. If we are honest, the drugs at best only reduce the severity of the symptoms because, even when medication is taken daily, these symptoms still recur and the medication does nothing to improve the outcome of the condition.’ "Under instruction from our doctor we were giving our son Robert more and more med- ication, and it seemed that the more medication we gave him the worse he got, but because we trusted our doctors we never made the connection at the time," says Russell Stark, a long-term asthmatic, teacher of the Buteyko techniques and co-author (with this writer) of The Carbon Dioxide Syndrome. Robert Stark was a relatively mild asthmatic from the time he was two years old, taking a bronchodilator medication when he had a cold two or three times a year. When he was six, his GP prescribed an inhaled corticosteroid—which he took diligently for the next eight years in ever-increasing doses. The preventer did not appear to make any significant difference, however, as he still got asthma whenever he caught a cold. As he grew older, the attacks also began to occur during the night, especially in winter. He played a lot of sport, which gave him asthma as well; he was instructed to take two puffs of his bron- chodilator beforehand to prevent the attacks. These practices led to Robert taking this medication nearly every day for at least four years. In spite of his asthma, by the time Robert was ten he was winning middle-distance running races in his home state of Queensland, Australia, and when he was eleven he began to win national events. Robert had a severe attack when he was almost thirteen, which spearheaded the prescription of round-the-clock nebulisation of Ventolin (a bronchodilator) and the need for Prednisone (an oral corticosteroid) every few weeks for the next two years. By the time Robert was fourteen, his asthma had deteriorated so much that he was not accepted into his school's sports team and sometimes could not even ride his bicycle to school. In desperation and fear of this controlling condition, his parents took him to a Buteyko course, where miraculously his asthma stopped virtually overnight. Robert took his usual nebuliser spray before he went to the first class and has hardly needed one since. "In twelve years I have had approximately six puffs of Ventolin, and steroids only once for three days. The reduction in medication and symptoms was huge, but I had to work by Jennifer Stark © 2005 Buteyko Works Email: info@buteykoworks.com Website: http://www.buteykoworks.com Buteyko Works Website: http://www.buteykoworks.com NEXUS = 33 by Jennifer Stark © 2005 Email: info@buteykoworks.com DECEMBER 2005 — JANUARY 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com