It is time we admitted that the current treatments appear to be making us worse, not better, and I want to take a look at the possible causes and treatment of asthma. I shall describe the work done by a Russian doctor, Konstantin Buteyko, in the 1960s; it attempted to explain why people get asthma, and offered a management regime for the disease.
Dr Buteyko’s methods were practised widely in Russia in the 1980s, and that may still be the case. They spread to Australia when an Australian doctor suffered an asthma attack while visiting Russia. He was admitted to hospital and was taught the Buteyko method for controlling his symptoms. He was so impressed that he took the method back to Australia, and it is now taught there and in New Zealand.
Buteyko blames hyperventilation for a number of civilisation-induced diseases. We all hyperventilate at times of stress.
There are some well-documented cases of people who have been helped by the technique. I understand that Jonathan Aitken, when he was Chief Secretary to the Treasury, received treatment from a Buteyko practitioner in London. His asthma was moderately severe, but over a course of consultations and home visits he made a dramatic recovery. A newspaper article quoted him as saying: ‘I have tried plenty of treatments, but this is the only one that has really worked. I think it is a remarkable one that could help many people.’
Con Barrell, a member of the New Zealand All-Black team, said after his treatment: ‘I sleep better, my pulse rate has dropped 10-12 beats on a regular basis and I feel well. This has been a big help to me as a professional and personally. I recommend asthmatics try it-things can only get better.’
As someone who has suffered from asthma for 40 years and whose condition would have been previously described as moderate, I have given the Buteyko technique a try myself. I started with a home education pack, as described on the website, www.buteyko.co.nz. Even self-teaching is effective, as by day five I had reduced the number of times I took my reliever medication from four or five times a day to very occasional use. Later I went on a course run by a qualified Buteyko practitioner. As I continued, I discovered to my delight that the asthma symptoms were rapidly reduced. I sleep better and have more energy than I can ever remember.
What I really regret is that no one told me about the method before. This year I have not suffered from any hay fever, except for a very occasional sneeze, and I wish that someone had told me about the technique some time ago. Alone, I could have saved the National Health Service hundred pounds worth of medication and myself a lot of needless discomfort. However, the Minister, whom I am happy to welcome to the Front Bench, will be less impressed by anecdote than by medical trials. Unfortunately, there is little evidence to quote so far.”

Later during the same debate, the same speaker had this to contribute:
“In referring to the effectiveness of the Buteyko method, the National Asthma Campaign remarks on its website: ‘Lack of published research makes it difficult to reach a conclusion on its effectiveness.’
Buteyko himself conducted a trial in Russia, but the results were considered to be too good, and were not believed for many years.
In December 1998 a paper by Bowler, Green and Mitchell was published in Alternative Medicine, in Australia. The paper was called Buteyko breathing techniques in asthma: a blinded randomised trial. The trial compared the effect of the Buteyko breathing technique with a control group in thirty-nine subjects with asthma. The control group was given instruction in general asthma education, relaxation techniques and abdominal breathing exercises. The experimenters looked at medication use, peak flow and quality of life, among other factors.
After three months, the subjects assigned to the Buteyko group had reduced their reliever medication by 904 micrograms, whereas the control group had a reduction of 57 micrograms  a highly significant result at the 0.2 per cent level of significance. There was also a reduction in inhaled steroid use by the Buteyko subjects, although the sample sizes were too small for that to be statistically significant.
Similarly and more importantly, perhaps from my point of view, there was a trend towards greater improvement in the mean quality of life scores of the Buteyko group. I certainly think that if someone can have uninterrupted sleep, feel better and have more energy, it is worth a great deal to that individual.
I should like to mention Jill McGowan, who was awarded the Carer of the Year award at the Pride of Britain Awards 2002. She knows a lot about asthma because she has the condition herself, and is also a nurse who has worked for many years helping other asthmatics. Like many others who have followed the course, she stopped needing her inhaler within twenty-four hours.
Jill is also a university lecturer with the skills to look into the theory behind Buteyko. When she decided that the method had merit, she was amazed to find that it was not more widely researched. She applied to universities for grants to allow her to fund a pilot study. When they turned her down, she sold her house and used the £55,000 proceeds to pay for the study herself.
The pilot study has shown excellent results  a more than ninety per cent reduction in reliever medication in the first few weeks. Because of those results, a two-year clinical study of 600 asthma sufferers is under way. Jill is also helping to pay for that work by donating three-quarters of her salary. That is real dedication. She hopes that the clinical study will prove the benefits of the Buteyko technique, so that one day it can become available to all on the NHS.
I very much hope that as a result of this adjournment debate, my Honourable Friend will ask the Chief Medical Officer to examine the available evidence. In particular, I would ask him to consider the preliminary evidence from the Scottish trial, and to have further trials conducted to ascertain the method’s efficacy in the UK.
Let me stress that the technique that I have described does not constitute alternative medicine  a term normally used to describe techniques that sometimes succeed, although no-one can quite work out why. The Buteyko technique was derived from research carried out by Konstantin Buteyko, who devised a programme from his theory. The fact that it has worked for me, as well as for many others, must suggest that at the very least it is worth investigating further. I hope that the Minister will respond positively to that suggestion. 

• Parliamentary copyright material from House of Commons Debate, June 25th, 2002, column 851-854 is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office on behalf of Parliament. The text has been edited for reproduction purposes but has not been altered in any other way.