About Doctor Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko

Dr Konstantin Buteyko Doctor Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko (1923-2003) was a Soviet (Russian) medical doctor and clinical physician who devoted his life to the study of respiration. When he was an Honors student of the First Moscow Medical Institute in the early 1950s, he observed that severely sick people usually had heavy breathing and that their breathing got even heavier when death approached. (You can visit any hospital to observe this simple fact.) The breath holding time of terminally ill people gradually decreased: 5 s, 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0, when death occurred.

Russian spaceship During the 1960’s, Dr. Konstantin Buteyko was heading a project funded by the Ministry of Aviation and Space Research as a part of the program for launching first manned spaceships in the outer space. Dr. Konstantin Buteyko was given a respiratory laboratory in Novosibirsk for this purpose. However, since he was also interested in diseases, he conducted many other studies.

Buteyko discovered that many health problems are always accompanied by abnormal breathing, usually chronic Dr Konstantin Buteyko with child hyperventilation (overbreathing) that causes tissue hypoxia (low levels of oxygen in cells) due to CO2 effects. He also found that restoration of normal breathing parameters eliminated hypoxia, symptoms of the disease, and need for medication and improved quality of life. Normal breathing, apart from other parameters, means breathing about 4-6 liters of air per minute with a breathing frequency about 8-12 times per minute and 40-60 s for the body oxygen test. In order to achieve normal breathing, he developed and, together with other Russian medical professionals, refined the Buteyko breathing method.

Medical people smiling In 1985, the Soviet Health Ministry officially approved the Buteyko breathing method. It has been used by family doctors (or GPs) and breathing practitioners in Russia for more than 100,000 asthmatics, over 30,000 people with cardiovascular problems and many other patients. The Buteyko breathing method has saved the lives of thousands of people in the Soviet Union who were officially diagnosed as terminally ill.

The method has had several successful clinical trials (England, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine, USSR). Practice shows that normalization of breathing for most people means to become disease-free. It is still unclear, due to our limited knowledge, which health problems can be treated and what the success rates for various health conditions are.

From the 1960's and until his death in 2004, Dr. Konstantin Buteyko was severely persecuted by some mysterious "Siberian medical mafia", as it was documented in many Russian sources. The most detailed account of Dr. Buteyko's life and these persecutions can be found in Doctor Buteyko's Discovery Trilogy, by Sergey Altoukhov, who spent many years learning, working and travelling with Dr. Konstantin Buteyko.

My views about the KGB-related origins of this "medical Siberian Mafia" are expressed here: Gulag KGB Mafia. Biographies of Doctor Konstantin Buteyko and his interviews can be found in the Resources.

Reference Web Pages: Breathing norms, Medical Graphs and Tables about Breathing Rates (Minute Ventilation) and Body Oxygen in Healthy, Normal and Sick People
Breathing norms Parameters, graph, and description of the normal breathing pattern
6 breathing myths 6 myths about breathing and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
Hyperventilation Definitions of hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
Hyperventilation Syndrome in the Sick. Table 1. Western scientific evidence about prevalence of CHV (chronic hyperventilation) in patients with various chronic conditions (34 medical studies)
Normal Minute Ventilation in Healthy Subjects: Easy and Light Breathing (14 Studies)
Hyperventilation Prevalence Present in Over 90% of Normal People (24 medical publications)
HV and hypoxia How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of all vital organs
Body oxygen test How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (a simple DIY test)
Body oxygen in healthy Table 4. CP (body oxygen level) in healthy people (27 medical studies)
Body oxygen in sick Table 5. CP (body oxygen level) in sick people (14 medical studies)
Buteyko Table of Health Zones with clinical description of most common zones
Morning HV Morning hyperventilation effect or how and why critically ill people are most likely to die during early morning hours

References: CO2 Effects Web Pages
Vasodilation: CO2 expands arteries and arterioles facilitating perfusion (or blood supply) to all vital organs
The Bohr effect How and why oxygen is released by red blood cells in tissues
Cell Oxygen Levels and oxygen transport are controlled by alveolar CO2 and breathing
Oxygen Transport depends on breathing and these two effects (Vasoconstriction-Vasodilation and the Bohr effect) are parts of two diagrams that summarize influences of hypocapnia (low CO2 content in the blood and cells) on circulation and O2 delivery
Free Radical Generation takes place due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia. Hence, antioxidant defenses of the human body are also regulated by CO2 and breathing
Inflammatory Response is controlled by breathing since hypoxia leads to or intensifies chronic inflammation through over-expression of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal breathing reduces these processes
Nerve stabilization takes place due to calmative or sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
Muscle relaxation or relaxation of muscle cells is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture and, sometimes, aggression and violence
Brochodilation - dilation of airways (bronchi and bronchioles) by carbon dioxide, and their constriction due to hypocapnia
Blood pH regulation and regulation of other bodily fluids
CO2: Lung Damage Healer: Elevated carbon dioxide prevents injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
CO2: Skin and Tissue Healer
Synthesis of Glutamine in the Brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
CO2 myth "CO2 is a toxic waste gas" myth
Breathing control How is our breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven and erratic

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