Diseases of Deep Breathing
Doctor Buteyko’s Discovery, The Destruction of the Laboratory by Sergey Altukhov
Forword to Volume 1
The Destruction of the Laboratory
Two-Volume Russian Edition published in 1993 & English translation ebook published May 2nd 2009
For over 30 years – from October 1952 to September 1985 – the medical establishment hushed up my discovery. It did everything to trample on and destroy the strongest weapon in the fight against many modern diseases. I was called a charlatan, a schizophrenic and a raving nutter, among other names. They tried to poison me three times, and organised two car crashes. There were several attempts to put me in a psychiatric hospital. They physically destroyed my laboratory, which was unique throughout the world. And all of this because I had discovered a lever that patients could pull to be free from their piles of pills and complicated surgical procedures that were far from safe. But of course, this is the mainstay of pharmacology, and thousands of surgeons have won State prizes. What, after all, is easier: to recognise a discovery and decrease your own specific weight or to accuse the author of pseudoscience? The latter is easier and more profitable…
Much has changed today, but those who simply criticised the Method previously are now trying to ram the genie back into the bottle from which it had begun to emerge. The discovery seems to have been recognised, but there’s just one tiny catch. A trifling reservation crept into the decision.1 They say the Method only cures asthma, mild asthma at that, instead of the list of 150 diseases that I compiled during my decades of medical practice. Well, what of it. I spent 30 years working with diseases, and in five millennia, everyone will recognise my work, you’ll see. Of course, there might not be anyone left to treat…
Nevertheless, for you who are suffering from the basic diseases included in the significantly shortened list below, I resolutely declare: they can be treated with my Method! Every last one! But there’s no need to shout about it being a panacea – only the uneducated would think so. How can it be a panacea when the list contains a few dozen illnesses but modern medicine recognises around 30 thousand. This is a mere fraction, but they are the most common. That’s the whole point. I would stake my life on every line, but only for those who believe that the Method is the only chance of deliverance. People who believe in massages, acupuncture and yogi-mogis and shmogis had better not practice the Method. It only helps those who are its complete supporters. Not because it involves some kind of hypnosis or some other kind of suggestion, as my enemies claim. No, the Method is completely physiological – but half-hearted belief is always worse than disbelief.
1 Translator’s note: this may be a reference to the Order of the Soviet Ministry of Health on Measures to introduce the method of the volitional regulation of the depth of breath in the treatment of asthma, 30 April 1985.
150 DISEASES OF DEEP BREATHING that can be treated by the VEDB (Volitional Elimination of Deep Breathing) also know as the Buteyko Breathing Technique.
1. Pre-asthmatic conditions:
a. allergic respiratory disease
b. polyvalent allergy
c. laryngospasm (voice loss)
d. allergic conjunctivitis
e. food allergies
f. drug allergies
g. pseudocroup
h. pharyngitis
i. laryngitis
j. tracheitis
2. Asthmatic bronchitis
3. Bronchial asthma
4. CNSLD (chronic nonspecific lung disease):
a. chronic bronchitis, including obstructive bronchitis
b. chronic pneumonia
c. bronchiectasis
d. pneumosclerosis
e. emphysema
f. silicosis, anthracosis, etc.
5. Chronic cold
6. Vasomotor rhinitis
7. Frontal sinusitis
8. Maxillary sinusitis
9. Sinusitis
10. Adenoids and polyps
11. [no number 11]
12. Chronic rhinosinusitis
13. Pollinoses (hay fever)
14. Quincke’s oedema
15. Hives
16. Eczema, including
a. neurodermatitis
b. psoriasis
c. diathesis
d. vitiligo
e. ichytosis
f. acne
17. Raynaud’s disease (spasms of the vessels of the upper extremities)2
18. Obliterating endarteritis
2 Translator’s note: Raynaud’s disease affects all the extremities, but Buteyko specifies the upper extremities.
19. Varicose veins
20. Thrombophlebitis
21. Haemorrhoids
22. Hypotension
23. Hypertension
24. Autonomic neuropathy
25. Congenital heart disease
26. Rheumatism of the joints
27. Rheumatic heart disease
28. Diencephalic syndrome
29. Ischemic heart disease (IHD)
30. Chronic IHD (CIHD)
a. rest and effort angina
b. postinfarction cardiosclerosis
31. Cardiac arrhythmia:
a. tachycardia
b. extrasystole
c. paroxysmal tachycardia
d. atrial fibrillation
32. Generalised atherosclerosis
33. Arachnoiditis (post-traumatic, influenzal, etc.)
34. Post-stroke conditions:
a. paralysis
b. paresis
35. Parkinson’s disease (early stage)
36. Hypothyroidism
37. Hyperthyroidism
38. Graves’ disease
39. Diabetes
40. Irregular menstruation
41. Toxaemia of pregnancy3
42. Menopausal problems
43. Cervical erosion
44. Fibromyoma
45. Fibrocystic breast changes
46. Infertility
47. Impotence
48. Threatened miscarriage
49. Radiculitis
50. Osteochondrosis
3 Translator’s note: It is not clear here if Buteyko means early toxaemia of pregnancy (morning sickness) or late toxaemia of pregnancy (pre-eclampsia) or both.
51. Metabolic polyarthropathy
52. Rheumatoid polyarthropathy
53. Dupuytren’s contracture (contracture of the palmar fascia)
54. Gout
55. Pyelonephritis
56. Glomerulonephritis
57. Nocturia (need to urinate at night)
58. Cystitis
59. Kidney stone disease
60. Obesity of all degrees
61. Lipomatosis
62. Chronic gastritis
63. Chronic cholecystitis
64. Biliary dyskinesia
65. Chronic pancreatitis
66. Gallstone disease
67. Duodenal ulcer
68. Irritable bowel syndrome
69. Peptic ulcers
70. Multiple sclerosis
71. Epileptic syndrome, (epilepsy)-convulsive syndrome
72. Schizophrenia (early stage)
73. Systemic autoimmune disease (scleroderma, systemic lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis)
74. Glaucoma
75. Cataracts
76. Temporary squinting
77. Long sightedness
78. Radiation sickness
79. Acute and chronic hepatitis
80. Cirrhosis of the liver
81. HIV (AIDS)
Yes, now, today, and not in 5,000 years time (when it will be possible, but too late), being of sound mind and memory, I declare: my discovery of the diseases of deep breathing revolutionises the whole of medicine!
K.P. Buteyko
The Breathing Man 