Welcome

Welcome to the Buteyko Breathing Therapy website. If you suffer from asthma, COPD* or hyperventilation, Buteyko (pronounced ‘bu-tay-ko’) will allow you to take charge of your illness and control your symptoms.  Buteyko is more than a series of breathing exercises: it is a profound re-education in breathing, one that eliminates bad habits, and gives you the tools to make yourself well. What is more, Buteyko is a non-pharmacological treatment – that is, it doesn’t involve the use of drugs, other than the ones you may have been prescribed by your doctor – and there is reliable evidence to show that it helps you to cut your drug use substantially at the same time as improving your symptom control.

Buteyko requires discipline: if you can’t be bothered to do the exercises every day for a few weeks, you won’t derive any benefit from it. But if you can, it will make a lasting difference to your quality of life. This has been proved definitively by a number of clinical trials, which you can read about on this website.

Along with Buteyko, this site deals with other approaches that may help those suffering from asthma and related problems. Diet is of major importance, and the role of antioxidants, trans-fatty acids and obesity has been documented. And herbal medicine can help by tackling health issues that may provoke or exacerbate an asthma attack, such as persistent cough, colds and flu, sinusitis, allergies or digestive problems. Of course, herbal medicine is not limited to this particular area, and in my practice I see patients suffering from a wide range of pathologies.

As well as information about the therapies used, this site will provide examples of current research in the fields of Buteyko, herbal medicine and nutrition, news about events, articles, books and websites of interest, and features on seasonal and topical health issues.

I should like to thank Peter Jarrett, who contributed most of the plant photos on this site - these and many more can be found on the website of Middlesex University's Medicinal Herb Garden (see Links).

*Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.