Welcome to the Buteyko Breathing Association

Who are we?

We are an association of healthcare professionals trained in Buteyko who wish to promote and share evidence based best practice of the Buteyko Breathing Technique.

What is the Buteyko Breathing Technique?

Buteyko (pronounced Bu-tay-ko) is a breathing technique which can ‘improve asthma symptoms, quality of life and reduce bronchodilator (blue reliever inhaler) requirement in adults with asthma’. It is not a cure for asthma but a complementary technique. This means that people using Buteyko should still continue take their inhalers as prescribed however research has shown that inhaler use can significantly reduce over time. Find out more about Buteyko and asthma…

What are Buteyko and BBT?

Buteyko and BBT are commonly used abbreviations for the Buteyko Breathing Technique.

The two words: ‘breathe correctly’ sum up the essence of Buteyko. The exercises promote nose-breathing and taking in an effective amount of air.

For example, many people with breathing problems tend to respond to everyday situations such as walking uphill or talking on the telephone by automatically breathing more than is necessary. This is called over-breathing or hyper-ventilating.

The Buteyko exercises provide you with the skills to be able to breathe correctly in these situations, and this prevents the development of a vicious cycle of over-breathing which can result in breathlessness, wheezing or coughing.

The technique originates from Russia and was named after the Russian doctor, Konstantin Buteyko, who first developed the techniques during the 1950s.