Effectiveness
Advocates of the Buteyko method report a wide range of other diseases and symptoms (numbering up to 150), including diabetes, reproductive disorders and psychological disorders, which they believe is aggravated by hyperventilation and hypocapnea, and therefore are treated by use of the Buteyko method. However, research into the effectiveness of Buteyko have focused almost exclusively on asthma with a small amount of research on sleep apnea. Members of the medical community have been skeptical of the efficacy of Buteyko due to the often "exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims" earlier made by Buteyko practitioners.
There are few high quality studies such as randomized controlled trials looking at the efficacy of treating asthma with "breathing retraining" methods in general, which include the Buteyko method, yoga training and other relaxation techniques. Many of the studies that have evaluated breathing retraining have significant methodological flaws, including small sample sizes, possible patient selection bias as well as heterogeneity in design that makes coming to a firm conclusion difficult. These studies are also hampered by the difficulty in proper blinding and placebo control which could introduce more bias into these studies.
The results from these studies have found trends of subjective improvement in factors such as asthma symptoms and measurement of quality of life with use of the Buteyko method and possible reduced rescue inhaler usage. However, these studies have found no improvement in objective measures such as peak flow and FEV1 which are the typical measures for measuring the severity of asthma, or carbon dioxide level in the blood.
Based on the available evidence, reviews of the literature and expert medical guidelines have come to conflicting conclusions about the Buteyko method, though most have called for more research, including larger trials involving more patients. On the one hand, a Cochrane review found "no reliable conclusions" could be determined based on the limited available evidence, and the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute asthma guideline concluded "there is insufficient evidence to suggest that breathing techniques provide clinical benefit to patients who have asthma." On the other hand, two more recent reviews have expressed qualified support for considering breathing retraining techniques, which include techniques such as physiotherapist led breathing exercises and yoga breathing in addition to Buteyko. These reviews noted these techniques should only be used as adjuncts to typical treatment with medications for symptom control, as these techniques are unlikely to affect the underlying processes causing the asthma and that the weight of available evidence is not strong enough to come to a definitive conclusion. The British Thoracic Society stated the Buteyko method "may be considered to help patients control the symptoms of asthma" while recognizing the lack of data showing an objective improvement in prior studies. An expert guideline by the Global Initiative for Asthma noted that results from one study suggested that improvement in symptoms by breathing exercises may be due to causes other than changes in the underlying physiology of the disease, such as relaxation, voluntary reduction in medication use and increased participation of the patient in their own care. This result suggests patients who experience anxiety or who overuse their rescue inhalers in particular may benefit from any breathing techniques as an adjunct to conventional treatments, though cost of using these techniques may be prohibitive.
Read more about this topic: Buteyko Method