Media
Articles
Obstructive
Sleep Apnoea and breathing retraining
Source: Australian Nursing Journal (Thursday, September 23, 2004)
Link:
http://www.anf.org.au/pdf_anj/0408_clin_update.pdf
Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a sleep
disorder where repeated upper airway obstruction during
sleep leads to a decrease in blood oxygen saturation and disrupted sleep.
Current treatment options include oral appliances, surgery, and/or the use of a
continuous positive
airway pressure (CPAP) machine.
However, breathing retraining with the Buteyko Institute Method (BIM) is a safe,
effective and
convenient approach to OSA that could help eliminate the need for surgery or
CPAP.
This paper examines the role of breathing retraining in OSA and presents a case
study to illustrate its
effectiveness.
Mary Birch, RN,BA,MBioE, Grad Dip Soc, BIBH
Clinical Update 74, Australian Nursing Journal, August 2004
Life breathed into asthma control technique as alternative to Ventolin
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Thursday, October 23, 2003)
Link:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/22/1066631507745.html
Regular use of asthma drugs
poses respiratory, cardiac dangers
Source: Cornell News June 2004 (Thursday, June 17, 2004)
Link:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/June04/beta_agonist.hrs.html
Regular use of
asthma drugs poses respiratory, cardiac dangers, Cornell, Stanford researchers
find in study critical of drug industry
FOR RELEASE: June 17, 2004
Breathing technique has potential for Asthma sufferers
Source: ABC: The World Today (Thursday, October 23,
2003)
Link:
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2003/s973798.htm
Australian study may provide some more answers
Source: Medical Observer (Australia) 26 July 2002 (Friday,
July 26, 2002)
Australian study
may provide some more answers
An Australian study due to start next month may give GPs and their asthma
patients some answers about the usefulness of breathing techniques as therapy.
The Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) on Asthma will recruit 100 adults with
asthma in Sydney and Melbourne to participate in a 30-week trial designed to
determine whether incorporating breathing exercises into asthma management can
reduce the use of inhaled steroids.
There was some evidence that breathing techniques could help patients control
symptoms with reduced recourse to reliever medication, said thoracic physician
Dr Christine Jenkins, CRC project leader at Sydney’s Institute of Respiratory
Medicine. “Reducing reliever use in substituting one sort of symptom control for
another,” Dr Jenkins said. “If you can reduce preventer use, then you are
probably influencing the underlying disease process.”
Participants in the intervention group would use breathing patterns
incorporating principles from the Buteyko method, and a placebo group would be
given breathing exercises with no known usefulness, she said.
“In the first half of the study, participants will take their usual asthma
medication and, in the second half, we will be attempting to reduce preventer
medication in all the patients in a double-blind fashion.”
The trial will also measure improvement in symptoms, airway
hyper-responsiveness, airway inflammation and assess asthma control using a
standardized questionnaire.
Buteyko
trials show drop in asthma medication use
Source: Medical Observer (Australia), 26 July 2002 (Friday,
July 26, 2002)
Buteyko trial shows drop in asthma medication use
Therapy - by Rada Rouse
Article reproduced by permission from Medical Observer (Australia), 26 July
2002.
Early results from the world's largest trial of the Buteyko breathing method for
asthma management show that almost all participants used less reliever and
preventer medication after six months of therapy.
Jill McGowan, a former GP practice nurse and university lecturer, is conducting
a self-funded, randomised controlled trial among 600 people aged 18 to 75 years
with mild to severe asthma recruited from primary care and hospital clinics in
Glasgow, Scotland.
Ms McGowan will tell the 2nd International Buteyko Asthma Conference in
Melbourne this weekend that trial participants receiving the instruction had
reduced symptoms, improved quality of life and participation in sports activity
at six months - that this was sustained at 12 months.
-
Those receiving the instruction had increased participation in sports activity,
reduced symptoms and improved quality of life at six months.
Among the active Buteyko group, almost all the participants (98%) reduced use of
reliever medication, 92% decreased their use of preventer medication, and 96%
used less oral preventer preparations. All people in this group stopped using
oral reliever preparations. The size of decrease in medication use was
uncertain, however.
No significant changes were seen in the placebo group, which received
conventional asthma management by a practice nurse, or in the control group,
which sought help and advice as required.
In response to the early results of the two-year trial, the British
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health has asked the National
Institute for Clinical Excellence, which issues therapeutic guidelines to
consider including the Buteyko method in future technology appraisals programs
for the UK.
Buteyko Breathing Technique for asthma: an
effective intervention
The New Zealand Medical Journal 12 Dec 03
Patrick McHugh, Fergus Aitcheson, Bruce Duncan
and Frank Houghton
Abstract:
Aim To assess the impact of the Buteyko Breathing Technique (BBT) on
medication use in asthma.
Methods A blinded randomised controlled trial comparing BBT with
control was conducted in 38 people with asthma aged between 18 and 70.
Participants were followed for six months following the intervention. Medication
use and indices of ventilatory function were recorded.
Results No significant change in FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in one
second) was recorded in either group. The BBT group exhibited a reduction in
inhaled steroid use of 50% and ß2-agonist use of 85% at six months from
baseline. In the control group inhaled steroid use was unchanged and ß2-agonist
use was reduced by 37% from baseline. Investigator contact between the two
groups was equal. There were no adverse events recorded in either group.
