Breathing drug free life into asthma patients

Buteyko breathing exercises have reduced drug use by up to 80 per cent in asthma sufferers, the UK press reported today.

The results of the study, conducted by Professor Christine Jenkins in Sydney have replicated the results of similar earlier Australian studies.

Asthma UK research fellow Dr Mike Thomas commented: "There have been a number of studies recently suggesting that at least some people with asthma may benefit from different types of breath exercise."

Well, knock me down with a feather. What an epiphany!

As far as I am aware most doctors never monitor how we breathe - and perhaps they are not aware of what correct breathing entails. Certainly the doctors in the practice I visit invariably encourage me to manage my asthma with drugs - both with reliever inhalers, the broncholilators which offer immediate relief from troubling symptoms and steroid based preventers for long term suppression.

They show no interest in my attempts to manage my condition with breathing and until recently seemed to regard my efforts as bordering on the suicidal. A weary tolerance of my eccentric behaviour seems to have crept into the dialogue of late.

But such choice remarks as: "Asthma kills 2000 people a year in this country" continue to pepper the exchanges.

And asthma now means a hefty hike in life insurance premiums - which I have recently discovered to my cost.

With almost one in ten people in the UK suffering from breathlessness, you would have thought that some kind of education programme would be instituted, and major research on the effects of breathing exercises on asthmatics would be instigated by a health service, which we are forever told is strapped for cash.

Past studies have yielded positive results, And children who make up more than 25 per cent of asthmatics can use the Buteyko method from a very early age....

So what's the problem? The cosy arrangement the medical profession seem to have with drug companies who must be making a fortune with over five million patients in the UK alone? Their inherently cautious nature - which is no bad thing in other circumstances? The fact the recommending a patient for a breathing programme will require monitoring - and doesn't offer the quick fix of presription drugs?

Whatever the reasons, the incredible ability of the human body - and mind - to learn and adapt to better breathing techniques is being badly overlooked - and the rise in asthma sufferers will continue to climb as will the death toll.