If you or someone you love struggles with asthma, you know how frustrating and scary it can be. The wheezing, the tight chest, the feeling that you can't get enough air – these symptoms can disrupt your daily life and leave you dependent on inhalers and medications.
Asthma affects over 300 million people worldwide, making it one of the most common chronic diseases. Despite medical advances, many people continue to experience symptoms that limit their activities, disturb their sleep, and create anxiety about when the next attack might occur. The constant worry about having medication on hand and the side effects of long-term medication use add another layer of burden to living with this condition.
Many people with asthma find themselves caught in an endless cycle of managing symptoms without addressing what might be happening between attacks. This is where the Buteyko breathing technique enters the picture, as it has gained attention as a potential tool to help control asthma symptoms naturally.
Developed by Russian doctor Konstantin Buteyko in the 1950s, this breathing method takes a different approach to respiratory health. Rather than simply treating symptoms, it aims to retrain your breathing patterns fundamentally.
But does it actually work? Can something as simple as changing your breathing really make a difference for asthma? In this article, we'll explore what the Buteyko technique is, how it might help with asthma symptoms, and what you can do to improve your condition.
The Connection Between Breathing Patterns and Asthma
Asthma is far more than just occasional breathing difficulties. The term "asthma" comes from ancient Greek, meaning "laborious breathing" or "panting," and has been recognized in medical writings dating back thousands of years. While our understanding has evolved significantly, the core experience remains similar: periods of normal breathing interrupted by episodes where airways narrow, causing breathlessness, wheezing, and distress.
During an asthma attack, the airways narrow as their muscles tighten, inflammation increases, and excess mucus is produced. Between these episodes, breathing may feel relatively normal, creating a pattern of good days and bad days that many people living with asthma find frustrating and unpredictable.
Modern medicine has identified various triggers for asthma, including allergens, exercise, stress, and certain environments. While medications help manage symptoms, many people don't realize that their everyday breathing habits might be making their condition worse.
How Breathing Volume Affects Asthma
Research reveals something surprising: people with asthma typically breathe much more air than necessary. While healthy adults normally breathe 5-8 liters of air per minute at rest, people living with asthma often breathe 10-15 liters per minute. This creates a harmful cycle:
- When airways narrow, we feel short of breath
- To compensate, we breathe faster and deeper
- This increased breathing actually irritates the airways further
- The airways respond by narrowing even more.
Nose vs. Mouth Breathing for Asthma
Whether you to breath through your nose or mouth can worsen your asthma symptoms. Many people with asthma also deal with nasal congestion. When the nose feels blocked, the natural response is to breathe through the mouth. However, this seemingly innocent habit can significantly worsen asthma symptoms.
A 2016 study of nearly 10,000 people found mouth breathing associated with poorer lung function, even in non-asthmatic participants. Scientists discovered increased sensitivity to allergens and concluded that mouth breathing makes airways more vulnerable to irritants. A separate study confirmed that habitual mouth breathers with mild asthma experienced reduced lung function and more severe symptoms during asthma attacks.
Why does mouth breathing cause problems? Your nose is designed to warm, filter, and humidify air before it reaches your lungs. Mouth breathing bypasses this natural protection, allowing cold, dry, unfiltered air to irritate sensitive airways. This can trigger inflammation and constriction – exactly what happens during an asthma attack.
Recognizing Dysfunctional Breathing
Many people living with asthma develop abnormal breathing patterns without realizing it. These patterns might include:
- Fast, shallow breathing into the upper chest
- Visible shoulder movement during normal breathing
- Frequent sighing or yawning
- Feeling unable to take a satisfying breath
- Breathing through the mouth instead of the nose
Research suggests at least one in four people with severe asthma also have these dysfunctional breathing patterns, which can cause additional problems like fatigue, poor concentration, and increased anxiety.
How Breathing Retraining Supports Asthma Management
While standard asthma treatments focus on medication to open airways and reduce inflammation, addressing the underlying breathing pattern can be just as important. By learning to breathe more gently, primarily through the nose, many people experience significant improvement in their symptoms.
When people with asthma retrain their breathing this way, they often notice benefits beyond just easier breathing – including better sleep, improved focus, and reduced anxiety. These improvements can happen relatively quickly, with many people seeing noticeable changes within just a couple of weeks of consistent practice. But what exactly is the Buteyko breathing method, and why can it help with asthma?
What is the Buteyko Breathing Technique?
The Buteyko Breathing Method was developed in the 1950s by Ukrainian physician Dr. Konstantin Buteyko after making a fascinating observation: patients who were more ill tended to breathe harder and faster. Dr. Buteyko tested his theory on himself and discovered that consciously slowing and reducing his own breathing helped normalize his high blood pressure.
At its core, the Buteyko Method is built on a simple but powerful idea: many people with respiratory conditions breathe too much air. This overbreathing can trigger or worsen symptoms, creating a cycle that's difficult to break without intervention.
The method emphasizes several key principles:
- Breathing through the nose instead of the mouth
- Taking smaller, calmer breaths
- Using the diaphragm rather than the upper chest
- Slowing down the breathing rate
These principles aim to restore natural, efficient breathing patterns that many people have lost through modern lifestyle habits.
How the Buteyko Technique Helps with Asthma
Danish physiologist Christian Bohr influenced Dr. Buteyko's work, who discovered that carbon dioxide (CO2) in the blood helps transfer oxygen to cells. This phenomenon, known as the Bohr Effect, suggests that having the right amount of CO2 in your system is crucial for oxygen delivery.
Dr. Buteyko observed that asthmatics often take large breaths through their mouths when experiencing breathing difficulties. Combined with common nasal congestion, this pattern allows cold, unfiltered air to reach the lungs directly, causing more inflammation and triggering a vicious cycle.
Because it teaches patients to control their breathing volume, the Buteyko Method aims to normalize CO2 levels, which in turn helps relax airway muscles and reduce inflammation. When practiced consistently, this approach can lead to profound improvements in asthma symptoms.
In summary, when someone with asthma experiences breathing difficulty, they often respond by taking big breaths through their mouth. While this feels instinctively right, it creates several problems:
- It cools and dries the airways
- It brings unfiltered air directly to sensitive lungs
- It disrupts the balance of gases in the lungs.
The Buteyko approach for Asthma works by reversing these patterns. By breathing less air, but more efficiently, through the nose, several positive changes occur:
- The airways remain warmer and more humid
- The air is filtered by nasal passages
- Carbon dioxide levels stabilize, which helps relax the airways.
Research Evidence
Clinical studies on the benefits of the Buteyko technique for asthma have shown impressive results. In a landmark 1994 trial at Brisbane's Mater Hospital, participants practicing Buteyko techniques for 12 weeks experienced:
- 70% reduction in asthma symptoms
- 90% decrease in rescue medication use
- 49% reduction in steroid medication
- Reduced breathing volume from 14 liters to 9.6 liters per minute
These outcomes have been supported by additional research over the years, leading the British Medical Journal to recognize Buteyko as a technique that "may be considered to help patients control the symptoms of asthma."
Buteyko Exercises for Asthma Management
Buteyko breathing exercises can help retrain your breathing patterns, which support better asthma management and reduce asthma attacks.
The Control Pause: Measuring Your Breathing Health
The Control Pause is both a measurement tool and a breathing exercise that forms the foundation of the Buteyko approach. This simple breathing test helps track your progress and determine the severity of your breathing pattern disorder.
To perform the Control Pause:
- Sit upright in a relaxed position
- Breathe normally through your nose for a few breaths
- After a normal exhalation, pinch your nose closed
- Time how many seconds you can comfortably hold your breath until you feel the first definite desire to breathe
- Release your nose and resume breathing calmly
What your score means:
- Less than 10 seconds: Severe breathing pattern disorder with significant symptoms
- 10-20 seconds: Moderate breathing issues with regular symptoms
- 20-40 seconds: Mild breathing pattern disorder with occasional symptoms
- 40+ seconds: Normal, healthy breathing
For most asthma sufferers, the goal is to gradually increase your Control Pause to at least 25-30 seconds, at which point many symptoms typically subside significantly.
Reduced Volume Breathing Exercise
This gentle Buteyko exercise helps retrain your breathing patterns by consciously reducing your breathing volume. It's suitable for nearly everyone, including those with severe asthma (though not recommended during pregnancy).
How to practice reduced volume breathing exercise:
- Sit upright with good posture but without tension.
- Monitor your airflow by placing a finger horizontally under your nose, just above your upper lip—close enough to feel the air but not blocking it.
- Take tiny breaths through your nose, inhaling just enough air to fill your nostrils and no more (imagine taking in just a flicker of air with each breath)
- Exhale very gently, as if your finger were a feather you don't want to disturb.
- Notice the temperature of your exhaled breath—warmer air indicates larger breaths, so aim for cooler exhalations by slowing down your breathing.
- Create a mild air hunger sensation—a gentle but distinct feeling that you need slightly more air (similar to what you might feel during a casual walk)
- Maintain this feeling for about 4 minutes without becoming stressed or anxious.
The key is finding the right balance: your air hunger should be noticeable enough to be therapeutic but not so intense that it causes distress. With practice, you'll become comfortable maintaining this slight air hunger, which signals that you're successfully reducing your breathing volume. You can use the Butyeko breathing belt to help perform this exercise.
Alternative Approach for Nasal Congestion
If you have a partially blocked nose (common with asthma and allergies), try this variation:
- Identify which nostril is less congested
- Place your finger over this clearer nostril
- Breathe solely through the partially blocked nostril
- This naturally creates the necessary air hunger sensation
- Maintain for about 4 minutes
This technique serves two purposes: it reduces your breathing volume while simultaneously helping to clear nasal congestion. After a few minutes of breathing through the partially blocked nostril, you'll often notice improved airflow as the congestion begins to ease.
Practice these exercises for 15-20 minutes daily, ideally broken into multiple sessions. Most people notice improvements in their asthma symptoms within just a few days of consistent practice, with significant benefits appearing after 2-3 weeks of regular training.
You Can Manage Asthma with the Buteyko Method
Asthma doesn't have to control your life. The Buteyko Method, championed by breathing expert Patrick McKeown after overcoming his own severe asthma, offers a powerful complement to traditional treatments by addressing the fundamental breathing patterns that may worsen symptoms. With consistent practice, many people achieve a 50% reduction in asthma symptoms in just two weeks.
Take the first step toward better breathing today with Patrick McKeown's free Breathing App or comprehensive Online Asthma Course. These resources provide the guidance, exercises, and support you need to transform your breathing and reduce your reliance on medication while improving your overall quality of life.
