Asthma-Free Naturally: Everything you need to know about taking control of your asthma. Patrick McKeown

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      A close-up of Alveoli (air sacs)

      the blood to tissues and cells. There are approximately three hundred million alveoli in the lungs, each of which is surrounded by tiny blood vessels.

      To put this huge number in context, think of Wimbledon and imagine a tennis court. The area of contact between your alveoli and blood capillaries is equivalent to the size of a tennis court; as you can imagine, this massive area provides scope for an efficient transfer of oxygen from the air to your blood. Carbon dioxide is produced as an end product of the process of breaking down the fats and carbohydrates that you eat, and this gas is brought by your venous blood vessels to your lungs where the excess is exhaled. Crucially, part of your body’s quotient of carbon dioxide is retained when you exhale, and correct breathing results in the required amount of carbon dioxide being retained in your lungs.

      There are two main aspects to the way you breathe. Your rate is the number of breaths you take in one minute and your volume is the amount of air drawn into your lungs. Although the two are separate, one generally influences the other.

      The volume of air we inhale and exhale is measured in litres, and measurements are usually taken over one minute. In conventional medicine, the accepted number of breaths a healthy person takes in one minute is ten to twelve, with each breath drawing in a volume of 500 millilitres. In a full minute, this provides the body with a total volume of five to six litres. If a person is breathing at a higher rate of twenty breaths, for example, then the volume will also be higher, and vice-versa. To visualise this amount of air, imagine how much air would be contained in a two-litre soft drink bottle.

      Where to now?

      So, now you know how the respiratory system works, and you or someone close to you has been diagnosed with asthma. Where to now? A lifetime of drug therapy? Or a proven, natural, physiology-based way of reversing what can be a debilitating condition?

      A new beginning is emerging in the treatment of asthma, aimed at getting to the root cause of the problem. By addressing the cause rather than the symptoms that are the effect, sufferers finally have the ability to be able to take control of their own condition, naturally and permanently. This new beginning is based on the life’s work of Russian scientist, Professor Konstantin Buteyko. Before we can begin to look at how you can change your own life, we must take a brief look at his.

      Over four decades, Professor Buteyko completed pioneering work on illnesses which develop as a result of breathing a volume of air greater than the body requires. His work provided mankind with probably the greatest discovery to date in the field of medicine.

      As a medical student, Konstantin observed hundreds of sick patients, and realised that their breathing was closely related to the extent of their illness. The greater the volume of air which a patient inhaled, the greater their sickness, he discovered. This relationship was so precise that he was able to predict accurately the exact time when ill patients would pass away.

      Through his research, he devised a breathing programme for his patients based on reducing the amount of air that passed through their lungs. When each patient applied reduced breathing, all their bodily functions including pulse, volume of breathing per minute and blood pressure were monitored. The resulting data enabled him to refine and improve his method. Buteyko’s theory is based on the life force of any organism: breathing.

      Like many other revolutionary findings, it can often take many years before a discovery is acknowledged and incorporated into everyday practice. Take Professor Lister, for example. He discovered that many illnesses such as sepsis could be passed by the contaminated hands of a doctor to a patient. Lister tested his hypothesis by disinfecting his hands before each operation and this resulted in a decrease in the death rate of his patients. It took many years for this discovery to be accepted by the medical community; it was only really accepted when patients’ relatives started demanding that doctors disinfect their hands before operating.

      Although research conducted in Russia in 1962 proved unequivocally the soundness of Buteyko’s method, it was not until 1983 that the Committee on Inventions and Discoveries formally acknowledged his work. This recognition was backdated to January 29th, 1962. That backdating alone begs the question: if Konstantin Buteyko’s discovery had been acknowledged earlier, how many more ill people would have been helped?

      The first trials held in the Western world were at the Mater Hospital in Brisbane in 1995. After three months, the Buteyko group had seventy per cent less symptoms, ninety per cent less need for reliever medication and forty-nine per cent less need for steroids. Furthermore, those who corrected their breathing the most reduced their symptoms and need for medication the most. An article published in Australian Doctor on April 7th, 1995 was headed ‘Doctors gasp at Buteyko success’.

      A second trial was conducted at Gisborne Hospital, New Zealand in 2003 and published in the New Zealand Medical Journal. After six months, the Buteyko group showed an 85 per cent reduced need for reliever medication and 50 per cent reduced need for inhaled steroid.

      In the forty-odd years since Buteyko’s discovery, it has improved the health and saved the lives of many thousands of people. Now that his enlightening revelation is becoming better known in the Western world, it will improve the health and save the lives of many more. You could be one of them.