Porkalagatan 23, 164 76 Kista, SWEDEN
With all due respect for the fact that a single anecdote can't possibly carry a tiny fraction of the weight of a controlled trial and all that, my own experiences are completely in tune with what Buteyko practitioners have to say, and with the results of the Australian 1995 trial.
Born in 1956, I had asthma from very early childhood, and despite a wide variety of different treatments, most of which worked pleasingly for a while, the overall trend was for it getting worse rather than better. During 1997 and 1998 I had some of the worst asthma attacks of my life, and with some difficulty on at least two occasions talked myself out of being hospitalized. At around this time, a relative drew the Buteyko method to my attention, and gave me a copy of Sacha Stalmatski's book.
Since then - not with dramatic speed, but very steadily - my situation has improved. Relatively quickly I was able to eliminate salbutamol from my life, then to cut down and eventually eliminate salmeterol. It is now more than two years since I used either of these, and I have not used any other bronchodilator either, though I continue to use inhaled steroids at the minimum dose recommended by my doctor. It is at least four years since I had an asthma attack which, relative to my earlier history, could in any way be regarded as "severe".
If it's in any way helpful to you to use this information, please feel free. And if there's anything (within reasonable limits) I can do to help Buteyko achieve mainstream respectability, I'd be delighted.
Best wishes
Christopher Webster.