G'day Richard, I note your referenced experiment and clinical study
findings, but they don't appear to have achieved any practical benefit
for problem sufferers.
I have just been informed of an interesting finding regarding Sudden
Infant Death Syndrome, that was to the effect "giving a child a "dummy"
appeared to reduce the SIDS possibility". (this was one of those items
on national radio from one of the American clinical studies) As you can
imagine, it immediately got my attention. Mention was made that the
dummy had an effect of reducing the childs breathing volume, and this
somehow made the child's breathing more regular, which reduced the SIDS
problem possibility.
Although this may not be directly relative to this subject it does have
some possible involvement.

Actually I never originally practiced Buteyko even though I had heard
of it back in the seventies.
I have tried it since, more to try to understand the effect and "how it
feels".  I see no benefit for deep breathing when a person has no
reason to, and as you say, you do "enjoy" quite an effect if you do
"overbreathe".
Considering amniotic fluid and normal atmosperic gas concentrations
there is room for argument, but even looking at improvement with
breathing more dense or cooler air, there generally is also some
improvement. You will note this is commonly mentioned even from
sufferers on this site.
My asthmatic problems were addressed entirely by the shock and
avoidance methods etc. (commonsense really!)
Simple avoidance alone does not have any great effect, most people
would attest to this!
I became interested in the Buteyko thing somewhere along the way when
various problem people whose homes I had examined had unusually good
responses after susbtances were identified and removed etc. (like
carpet problems and chemical presence)
I formed the opinion that the major benefit was really more from the
reduced problem substance intake by reduced volume of inhalation and
depth, which is easily understood.
You might appreciate how asthmatics homes are more commonly involved
with their problem. When these people feel ill they mostly want to
retire to a warm bed and sleep, which most likely places them in the
problem environment more constantly, usually with poor aeration.
When you meet these people, normally they are sucking all kinds of
drugs and using all kinds of meds.
But when you check their homes it is common to find simple logical
causes, one chap was an avid reader, he read every newspaper every day,
three guesses as to his long term unidentified problem!
Strong aromatic substances are commonly present in homes, used in the
belief it will help their problem, eucalyptus is the most common!
Their history, probably because of poor resistance generally and
ongoing sickliness, also means a much more focussed degree of bug
consideration and presence of strong disinfectancts in their
environment.
Generally as sufferer's become more desperate they begin to try
alternative ideas, (as in my case, that is an understatement!) this is
incredibly common, Buteyko is one of these remedial ideas on that list.

Some people are supposed to get really good benefit, but I must say I
have come across an awful lot that when I ask a few questions as to
what they may have done to help themselves apart from different
medications, mentioned they had tried Buteyko without noticeable
success. Many of these cases have been simply addressed by problem
substance identification and removal etc. (usually in their homes) then
practicing the "cold-shock" method.
Congestion removal regularly, daily, really does have remarkable
effect!
Over the years, my interest in this kind of thing (as an amateur)
increased, if I found some poor person in a typical desperate
situation, I was able to usually understand pretty accurately what was
happening, and by suggesting various things to that person was usually
able to show them how to address their problem. I am inferring "more
often benefited" here, because some persons had no real noticeable
benefit.  Recovery in these kinds of circumstances was good, but as
knowledge was increased with a lot of feedback it was obvious that
people also practicing Buteyko principles were getting better results
on average, so it became obvious that anything that may have benefit,
regardless of degree should be included with the original remedial
procedure.
As you are aware Buteyko does not really have any real benefit with
assisting easing heavy substance exposure sufferer's problems, so in my
opinion if you had someone that had simple allergy related asthmatic
problems (say a food allergy) then it may have remarkable effect,
especially with young people, but with people with constant chemical or
other typical potent exposure kinds of problem it is really not all
that effective, especially if they have had long-term steroid exposure
and significant immunity loss.
I do not have any experience first-hand with persons using Buteyko on
its own having overcome their problem, to be able to comment on its
effectivness that way, but as I mention it is extremely helpful using
the ideas coupled with others.
I have discussed the system with some pretty clever medical people and
it was mentioned that the general opinion was that there is something
in it. One chap mentioned an evaluation with good results, but it had
been carried out in an atmosphere (hospital) different to the sufferers
homes, so I imagine any benefit would have been skewed. I do feel that
a Russian doctor I asked about it's effectiveness summed-up pretty well
by answering "It has merit".
The actual "Buteyko movement" does have a "ring" of considerable
successes and a lot of possibly well meaning persons with a potentially
beneficial procedure, but they are riding a lucrative cash-cow! If you
consider a procedure with an element of merit and an army of persons
believing they are saving mankind you do have a pretty powerful
religion.
I have found repeatedly when I have attended persons suffering attacks
that sitting them down in a cool, clear place and instilling in them
that they would be OK in a few minutes if they followed my directions,
that were "short breathing, relax, reduce the frequency of trying to
breathe and basically calming them was extremely effective.
Whilst anxiety and thermal effect plus increased blood flow may be a
major effect in these circumstances it is interesting to watch them
recover. Offering a cold drink also appears to help considerably.
So from an amateur's point of view that has observed a lot of
associated circumstances, the answer would have to be "Buteyko
obviously has observable merit, dependent on application
circumstances"!
It most definitely is worth any asthmatic type person having this
knowledge.
An interesting footnote is if you are breathing easy and relaxed, and
you completely exhale, how many seconds can you exist with reasonable
comfort before you need to inhale? Compare a healthy person to an
asthmatic. If an asthmatic practices this it is interesting to see
their comfort time increase from a few seconds to a considerable
period, it also appears there is most often an improvement for them
with their attack control.
I think by definition quackery is "somewhat over the top"
Cheers, Merlin.

Me or you?

The passage you quote does not contradict what I said.

As for mold - I'm sure it does contribute to some asthma (so there is no
need to post liks saying so). However, the timing of asthma exacerbations
with thunder storms seems a bit fast for me to think that is a major part of
it.

I get it. I am confusing the Red with the Black. I always liked Red better.
Thanks. Still no word from the NYC herbalist. I promise to fill you in if I
get anything.

Joy