Misconceptions regarding asthma and the Buteyko Method
1. Asthma is incurable.
It certainly is when the underlying overbreathing (hyperventilation) is not addressed. Hyperventilation causes the lowering of carbon dioxide, which is a natural bronchodilator. Asthmatics are far less likely to suffer another asthma attack if they learn how to breathe well at all times.
2. Buteyko will make you stop your medication.
The first priority of Buteyko is safety. Clients are advised only to alter preventive medication after consultation with their doctor and to follow National Asthma Campaign guidelines on medication. By breathing correctly they find that they can very quickly reduce their reliance on reliever medications.
3. There is a new wonder drug that will fix asthma.
An asthma medication released recently is Montelukast. It costs approximately $100 per month and suits only a minority of asthmatics and will likely need to be taken on an ongoing basis, for life. The cost of a Buteyko course is $420 to $500. The length of benefit is a lifetime and the percentage helped in two Australian clinical trials was 100%. The results show an average 96% reduction in use of reliever medications 3 months after learning the Buteyko Breathing Method.
4. Buteyko may have side effects.
Consistently reported side effects of breathing correction are: better sleep, no snoring or apnea, reduction in mucous and cough, increased energy, improved exercise capacity.
5. Buteyko is only for asthmatics of certain types or ages.
People of all ages and severity and whose asthma is induced by any of the vast range of triggers can improve their health by correcting the characteristic underlying problem of chronic hyperventilation.
6. Buteyko only helps those asthmatics who hyperventilate.
Two trials in Russia, a pilot study in New Zealand and two clinical trials in Australia have shown chronic (hidden) hyperventilation in ALL subjects with asthma. No exceptions. Published research shows that hyperventilation and hypocapnia (low carbon dioxide) are characteristic of the breathing pattern of someone who suffers asthma. The problem is that this is not commonly known because testing for hyperventilation is not routine and it is chronic and "hidden".
7. Objective tests show no improvement.
Critics claim that the asthmatics ONLY THINK they are better! The objective test the critics refer to is the FEV1 test. The FEV1 test itself provokes asthma as it involves hyperventilation. As a test of the efficacy of the Buteyko method it is therefore scientifically invalid. Research has shown that there can be improvements in asthma that are not necessarily reflected in a change in FEV1.
Buteyko clients certainly attest to feeling better, exercising better without medication, sleeping better, sounding better and needing no or less medication. However in some cases they are able to bring on asthma symptoms in the early stages by forcing hyperventilation during the FEV1 test procedure. The FEV1 test results for a control group also showed nil improvement despite the control asthmatics continuing to need and to take ten times more medication than those who learnt the Buteyko Breathing Method.
8. Buteyko is a fad.
Professor Buteyko has been practising the same method in Russia since 1952. Since the method was introduced into Australia in 1990, over fifteen thousand asthmatics have benefited. Further trials with the Buteyko Institute are soon to begin in N.Z. and UK.