Quit Wasting My Oxygen

Sometimes I stumble across the strangest things. The late Konstantin Buteyko, a former Soviet-era doctor, developed the Buteyko method to treat asthma and apparently with some success according to a patient who went to the US clinic that opened last year.

While treating asthma has been the primary use of the method, Dr Buteyko apparently believed he could cure just about any disease.

In 1952, Konstantin Buteyko found out that people often consume five to ten times more air than their bodies require. An extensive amount of air creates an insufficiency of carbon dioxide in the lungs and bloodstream, which badly impacts metabolism and the immune system gradually rendering them dysfunctional. Carbon dioxide deficit also affects respiratory gas exchange and diminishes the amount of oxygen carried by the blood to the brain, heart and kidneys. This situation can cause asthma, allergies, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression, cardiological problems, growth of tumors, etc. - after a life-long research, Dr. Buteyko came to the conclusion that about 150 out of all known diseases are the result of hyperventilation. Ironically, those 150 diseases are the most widespread.

In order to overcome those diseases and develop health, Dr. Buteyko recommended reducing air consumption. It sounds like an easy solution; however, in actuality, this task was too difficult for most of his patients because they did not apply awareness towards their breathing. Then Dr. Buteyko developed a series of breathing exercises, which, if performed with diligence, have a miraculous power: they eliminate symptoms and restore well-being to the body, mind and spirit. From one healed person to another, the Buteyko Method spread all over the world, often saving lives of those who were sentenced to death by their health conditions.

And even more surprising was his claim during an interview that his method could cure AIDS.

“There are rumours that you can treat AIDS.”

"Normalization of breathing can defeat even AIDS.

“Why did you not announce that to the whole world? That would be an international sensation and could lead to recognition.”

“We do not advertise that because AIDS is the punishment for human promiscuity. If people now find out that AIDS can be defeated, epidemic of wrongdoing and perversion will be catastrophic.”

Hmm, no condom? Then breathe through your nose, baby. You won't catch an STD and your baby will be crazy healthy.

Ludmilla Buteyko, current patent holder of the Buteyko method which cured her asthma and cancer--she was clinically dead three times--and has kept her disease free for 40 years, warns us to beware of untrained and unlicensed imitators, some of whom have ethics that are not up to standards.

Um, yeah, that's what I thought, too.