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Very often clients ask, "What will my doctor say about this?"
In an ideal world, the doctor would have referred them to me. Better still, the Buteyko method would be available in every doctor's surgery.
Sadly, this is not the case but that doesn't mean clients' doctors should not be informed. In fact, it's frequently necessary for me to ask the client to visit the doctor before we embark upon the course. If he or she is using one of the combined inhalers that contain both reliever and preventer, it will need to be split back to two separate inhalers quite early in the course as less reliever is required. This is because it's far too soon to cut down on any preventer at all.
Most doctors concede to this and are delighted with the positive results they observe in their patients when they have completed a course. Some doctors take a little persuading, especially if they've never heard of Buteyko. Happily, this should happen less often these days as news of the method's success floods the media and Internet.
Every surgery has a computer and it shouldn't be difficult for a doctor to find out what it's all about. Asthma charities such as Asthma UK and the British Thoracic Society, recognise that the Buteyko breathing method reduces asthma symptoms and therefore dependency on relievers. Nevertheless, they maintain that conventional medication is the answer. Still, at least they acknowledge that the method works. That's a start!
I recently addressed a group of about a dozen doctors and must admit to playing a little trick on them. I described my case history up to 1999, but didn't tell them it was mine. Then I asked them what they thought the future held for this fictional lady.
After a little discussion, they listed the medication I should be on, up to and including using a nebuliser several times a day. They were very surprised when I revealed that it was my own story, and even more so when I informed them that I had climbed Snowdon the previous month - with no medication at all.
If you think you may have asthma, ask your doctor about the Buteyko breathing method, preferably before you start using inhalers. The less you take the less you will need to give up. After all, it can't do you any harm to normalise your breathing and try a drug-free method first.
If every asthmatic in the country requested breathing retraining instead of drugs, perhaps the medical profession would take heed. It's in the interest of their budgets, their waiting rooms and most of all their patients, to do so.
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