The history of Deep Breathing illnesses Discovery
On 2nd May 2003, the great Russian medical scientist, academician Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko, died at the age of 81. Millions of ill people in the whole world lost their big patron and rescuer. I am asking people who are reading this text to honour his memory by standing up. I am his many-year disciple and I know what a big loss humanity has suffered.
Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko was born in 1923 in Ukraine. He finished Moscow Medical Institute in 1952. And he made his great medical discovery in October of that 1952 year…
Buteyko was 29 years old in 1952. He was a young man, but he was a very ill man in that period. He had malignant hypertony. It is a very terrible illness. A healthy man has blood pressure 120/80. Buteyko had blood pressure 260… Such ill men do not live a long time. Death comes within one year.
On 7 October 1952, a young physician was on evening duty in his hospital in Moscow. There were some young girl students with him that evening. Konstantin Buteyko showed them his skill to make a correct diagnosis. The girl students showed Buteyko an ill man. Buteyko quickly defined his illness. All Buteyko's diagnoses were right. Suddenly Konstantin saw a very ill young man. He breathed very, very deeply. He swallowed air through his mouth. "This is an asthmatic!" Buteyko said first. "Excuse me, please, doctor! I am not an asthmatic. I have malignant hypertony…"
Young Buteyko was stunned. He could not define his own illness!! Buteyko quickly left the girl students. He went into his consulting room. "Asthma and malignant hypertony," thought Buteyko. "These are different illnesses. Different textbooks describe them. And suddenly these illnesses have one common sign! Deep breathing!!"
That thought stunned him. It was a discovery. The great medical discovery of the 20th century! The discovery of deep breathing illnesses. In that moment Buteyko felt a fit of malignant hypertony. His heart beat very strongly. His pulse intensified. His right kidney gave strong pain. Blood pressure rose from 140 to 260…
Konstantin Pavlovich wanted to take a tablet. But he decided to use his discovery. He sat down on the chair. He shut his mouth. Began to breathe not deeply. Very, very not deeply. A miracle took place in 4 minutes! His heart calmed down. His kidney stopped being ill. Pulse became rarer. Blood pressure went down. Buteyko could not believe himself. His terrible illness got frightened of not deep breathing? The strong tablets could not help him. But a simple decrease of breathing depth drove away such a terrible illness!… Buteyko thought that he was going mad. The whole country, the whole world thinks that deep breathing is very useful for health. And suddenly he thinks quite the opposite… He! A simple young physician.
Buteyko was a young physician but he was a very good young scientist. He decided to repeat his experiment. Konstantin Pavlovich made 30 very deep breaths. A fit of his illness repeated very quickly. Buteyko diminished the depth of his breathing. And the fit of his illness quickly stopped. Konstantin Pavlovich repeated that experiment four times during an hour. Decreasing the depth of breathing gave a magnificent result.
Buteyko understood that a very big discovery was in his hands. The deep breathing illnesses discovery!! He ran to his patients. A sick man, Sidorenko, could not sleep for two nights already. He was an asthmatic. Sidorenko greedily swallowed the air through his open mouth. "Shut your mouth. Breathe not deeply," ordered Buteyko. Sidorenko shut his mouth. He began to breathe not deeply. And the fit of asthma went away in 7 minutes… Buteyko went to the third storey. The sick man Dmitrienko could not sleep because of an attack of stenocardia. He could sleep after 8 minutes of decreasing the depth of his deep breathing. Konstantin Pavlovich understood that the great medical discovery was in his hands by the end of that night. He thought that all professors would be very glad about such a discovery! Buteyko was strongly mistaken… His discovery gave way to a medicine-less method. And the tablet mafia stood in his way…
Buteyko attempted to struggle with the tablet mafia for six long years. Up to 1958. But the Moscow medical mafia was stronger than he. Konstantin Pavlovich was forced to go away. He settled in Siberia. The method of Volitional Elimination of Deep Breathing (VEDB method) was elaborated by Buteyko exactly in Siberia. In the Novosibirsk academic town.