Konstantin Buteyko is a Ukrainian doctor who has developed a simple set of breathing exercises to help control asthma. The basic idea is that asthma is often made worse by over-breathing. This is not the whole story and it is important not to throw away your inhalers, but there is good scientific evidence that these exercises can help and they have been recommended by no less an authority than the British Thoracic Society (who produce the definitive guidelines on managing asthma in the UK). Studies suggest that up to 50% of sufferers derive significant benefit from this exercises, which anyone can do and only take a week or so to master.

What to do: The exercises comprise three simple components and can be done at any time, though it may be best initially to set aside 25 minutes uninterrupted time three or four times a day to master the techniques.

Step 1 : The "Control Pause" Breathing Test

Take 2 normal breaths, then breath out, and then see how long you can hold your breath for (holding your nose may help). Your goal is to be able to hold it for up to 60 seconds. Initially you may find you can only manage 10 to 15 seconds but you should notice this improve quite rapidly as you do the exercises regularly.

Step 2 : Shallow Breathing

Breathe, only using your nose, for 5 minutes. Take shallow breaths, using only your nose to breath through. Keep your mouth shut. Then take the "control pause" test again to see if your count has improved. It’s that simple.

Hint: if your nose is blocked up, try pinching your nostrils together for a few seconds. This helps clear your nasal passage.

Step 3 : Putting it Together

Repeat steps one and two 4 times in a row. It will take about 25 mins. Repeat this training session 3 or 4 times a day, every day, for a week.

Don't worry if you miss a session or 2, but do carry on. The goal is to increase the length of time you can hold your breath after breathing out (the 'control pause' time of step one).

That's it. Its that simple. After a week, you should be able to hold your breath after breathing out for much longer, and hopefully, your asthma will be much better. You do not need to go on a paid Buteyko course – but there are books available if you need more detail.

How It Works

Breathing is controlled by the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the blood (not by the amount of oxygen).

Normally, when the amount of CO2 in your blood rises, you breathe. This replaces some of the CO2 with oxygen, and so lowers the CO2 level back to normal. During an asthma attack, people become naturally anxious and tend to overbreath too quickly i.e. they are breathing in a far greater volume of air than normal. This causes the amount of CO2 in the blood to fall too low. The body reacts by causing the airways in the lungs to narrow and reduce the amount of air inhaled in each breath... which panics the patient into trying to breath even harder and so a vicious cycle builds up.

This technique will break this "negative feedback" cycle by teaching you to :

·  breath more shallowly, i.e. decreasing the volume of air reaching the lungs with each breath.

·  tolerate a higher concentration of C02 in your blood.

There are probably several root causes of the symptom that we call asthma. Some of these causes respond very well to this breathing technique, some do not.

Hence, if you follow this technique, there is a very good chance than your asthma will greatly improve, but there is a chance it will not. However, it’s easy to do, it’s free, and it’s recommended to try by the experts!

Adapted from: http://www.btinternet.com/~andrew.murphy/asthma_buteyko_shallow_breathing.html