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Diabetes and Hormonotherapy by K.P Buteyko

To the theory of diabetes mellitus pathogenesis & basic principles of hormonotherapy.


Science consultant, Institute of Clinical Experimental Medicine,  

Siberian branch, Academy of Medical Science, USSR


 My theory of the diabetes mellitus pathogenesis was firstly published in the "Inventor and Efficiency Expert" magazine, 1962, #5. Strictly speaking, in that article the whole theory of deep breathing was presented and you should learn and pass to your patients its basic clauses.

 The theory of the deep breathing disease is based on the principles of physiology. However, our opponents holding higher positions in our medicine are still not able to grasp the fundamental idea stating that the deep breathing causes hypoxia. Let me get back to (laws, which underlie the theory) the deep breathing disease.

 1. Hyperventilation, or deep breathing, does not add oxygen to arterial blood. Under normal breathing the blood contains maximum amount of O2 (normoxia) and simply not able to absorb more.

It is known that regardless of how long one will breathe pure oxygen, the level of oxygen in their haemoglobin increases insignificantly. at 1 - 1.5% only. With that the O2 partial pressure in plasma increases and bronchi and vessels spasms occur. That is why pure oxygen supply to the patients suffering from asthma and vessel pathology causes the increase of hypoxia. Thus to inhale more pure oxygen means to pump O2 into an organism without taking into consideration the mechanism of hypoxia.

2. Hyperventilation does not intensify metabolism. In other words, the organism is nor a furnace: the more one blows into it, the better it works. On the contrary, The deeper and more intensely the organism breathes, the less oxygen goes into blood. As a result, hypoxia develops, metabolism products become underoxidised. That is the way our body works. Next, the metabolism deteriorates, blood pH increases in the alkaline direction and the blood itself begins to accumulate underoxidised products. This is how metabolic acidosis occurs.

1st stage of hyperventilation is respiratory, or gaseous, alkalosis caused by CO2 deficiency. 2nd stage is the development of metabolic acidosis. It is caused by the accumulation of underoxidised products, which happens due to hypoxia and represents a compensatory reaction against gaseous alkalosis. Our opponents are still not able to understand the reason for deep breathing of asthmatics to comprehend what was studied and explained by us a long time ago. Confusion about the acid-alkaline balance continues. But we have sorted it out; such patients have got both gaseous alkalosis and metabolic acidosis. They compensate each other (a dynamic process for a short period of time). However, both gaseous alkalosis and metabolic acidosis can be liquidated by normalising the breath.

While reducing the depth of breathing some oxidising occurs due to gaseous acidosis. When lactic and pyruvic acids along with other underoxidised products get oxidised, non-gaseous metabolic acidosis decreases. That means everything goes back to normal with a normalisation of a breath. However, we have the impression that nobody looked into the matter except us.

3rd stage: in consequence of changes caused by 1st and 2nd laws, all enzymes and vitamins activities become erratic. That leads to destruction of all types of metabolism. Consequently, diabetes mellitus develops. So, diabetes mellitus is nothing else but a destruction of carbohydrate metabolism. Thereby, I offer the theory that diabetes mellitus is caused by CO2 deficiency.

CO2 deficiency is causing the whole range of metabolism destruction at all levels of the organism up to the cell level. What is happening during those processes? All body organs and systems are getting depressed. I consider that deep breathing is a body stress.

Any stress, whichever you are going through, inevitably leads to deepening of breath. That is an ancient body reaction. Its role is to avoid CO2 deficiency in the organism. The point is that in cases of positive or negative emotions, an intensive CO2 exhalation from the body occurs.

As a result, the central nervous system becomes over reactive and the breathing deepens. Because of deep breathing the oxygen content in lungs slightly increases. Finally a strong tension develops, which is necessary to mobilise physical strength to attend the stress - in the form of fighting, attacking, defending, fleeing, etc. We have to view the increase in CO2 exhaling, the boost of energy and the intensification of metabolism as compensatory factors. That is why any emotion must be discharged physically. That is our point of view. I.P. Pavlov failed to explain why undischarged emotions are so bad for the organism. We did it.

I want to emphasise once again that we consider deep breathing to be a stress. It means that during stressful situations, in order to eliminate stress, one has to lessen his depth of breathing, in other words, to use our method and by doing that to calm the nervous system down.

During a stress some psychotropic substances - such as adrenaline noradrenaline and others -are produced. They stimulate our defence and attack reactions, enhance our muscle strength, and so on. At the same time the production of insulin goes down and its concentration in blood drops. Deep breathing causes some body reactions leading to the increase of sugar content in blood, which helps the body cope with the energy upsurge. The increase of blood sugar is useful when there is enough insulin in the body because it enhances the gaseous substances flow into muscles, brain and cells and consequently normalises their functions. However, if deep breathing lasts longer, the compensatory mechanism turns into a pathological one as with time an insulin deficiency develops. Together with CO2 deficiency it leads to all kinds of metabolism destruction. For example, due to stress and deep breathing, arthritis patients have got increased cholesterol content. We have confirmed by experiments that by decreasing the depth of breathing the cholesterol content in blood returns to normal.

Coming back to diabetes, it is important to stress that the deep breathing leads to increasing production of some substances such as glucagon which assist in increasing blood sugar content. The Krebs cycle changes direction, other chemical processes also alter aiming to reduce sugar decomposition and to increase its concentration in blood. The whole system of biochemical reactions comes to work in order to increase blood sugar content. That is why hyperglycaemia along with insulin deficiency should be viewed as a defence reaction against energy deficiency.

So far Western medicine believes that nature is stupid and one can interfere and recast it with impunity. Now you have learnt why nature is doing certain things and how sensibly we have to act towards it. We consider bronchospasm, vessel spasming, high blood pressure and other body reactions to be useful defence mechanisms to compensate to some defects of the organism. Exactly from that point of view we analyse hypoglycaemia. Now you understand that apart from insulin deficiency, a number of other processes also increase blood sugar content. Hence, the conclusion: one can't estimate insulin concentration in blood by looking at the sugar level although coincidentally they can agree. We are convinced that the increase of sugar level is not a pathologically damaging factor. Sometimes we observe a tenfold rise of blood sugar, and so what? Nobody died from such a hyperglycaemia. Sugar is not poisonous. That is clear for everybody.

In common practice the main criteria for choosing the insulin dosage is the sugar level. In leading Moscow clinics, insulin doses are regulated by blood sugar in spite of the fact that it is absurd and a great mistake. To define an insulin dose we need to find some true evaluating criteria for insulin deficiency. This is a very difficult task. In this respect, it appears to be necessary to define the principles of hormone replacement therapy. Working on the task we were acting in accordance with the fundamental laws of nature as applied to the human body.

How does the Western medicine act? It is based on blind empiricism It will stop short of nothing in order to find the way to conquer the illnesses which can be cured by our method. They use the most elaborate methods and medications with no avail!

However, to eliminate diabetes mellitus pathogenic factors, it was necessary to find what was causing the insulin deficiency, and to remove that cause and consequently the hormone deficiency itself.

The following are the fundamental principles of the hormomotherapy, which we adhere to and which are usually broken or not recognised by the existing medical practice.

The main principle is as follow: if there is some hormone deficiency in the body, one has to define its cause and eliminate it.

We believe the main cause of hormone deficiency illnesses is deep breathing, Why? The deep breathing upsets metabolism in those systems, which are responsible for proper regulation of the activity of hormone systems such as hypothalamus and pituitary gland.

CO2 deficiency caused by deep breathing leads to:
biosynthesis disturbances with respect to amino acids, purines, pyrimidines, fatty acids and carbohydrates; oxystructure stabilisation (Verigo-Bohr reaction moves left);  discharge of cell transmembrane potential; depletion of blood plasma buffer system;  pH alteration in blood plasma and cells.

Consequently, the following effects occur:

biosynthesis disturbances with respect to proteins as well as enzymes, antibodies, nucleic acids, lipids and polysaccharides; tissue oxygen deprivation; changes in cell stimulation and interaction patterns; change in enzyme activity and decrease in antibody-antigen affinity. 'Rat manifests itself in the form of disorders of cardiovascular, humeral, immune, hormone, digestive and nervous systems. As a result, metabolism in hormone cells also gets upset.

In accordance to our data, deep breathing people have always got practically all kinds of hormone deficiency. Even their sexual hormones, especially female hormones, are low. Obviously, not only deep breathing could cause hormone deficiency. But, in any case, the deep breathing always aggravates the process, example, under the radiation the sexual organs suffer more severely and hormone secretion decreases. If that is happening in combination with the deep breathing, pathologic changes in the body grow bigger and faster.

Patients with some upset hormone functions, especially those with diabetes, show clearly noticeable hyperventilation. Our data shows that the control pause produced by diabetes sufferers is 5-10, maximum 15 seconds. Correlated with those figures CO2 level is equal approximately to 32-34 mm of mercury, which means it is twice lower than normal. That allows me once again to declare the main cause diabetes mellitus is CO2 deficiency caused by deep breathing. If the diabetes patient has got both deep breathing and CO2 deficiency our theory can explain pathologic changes in their body.

As it is known, the majority of diabetes patients develop arteriosclerosis resulting in heart attack, stroke, thrombophlebitis complicated with gangrene, etc. The correlation between those diseases and deep breathing is proven by scientific research.

What is our medical tactic? We believe first of all it is necessary to use the hormone replacement therapy, i.e. to give patient hormones as much as the shortage of it occurs in his body. The question is the quantity: to overdose or under dose?

That one is an important and significant question. With respect to it, medicine has reached a deadlock and it is common to overdose hormones. How such doses affect the organism? They affect it in a way when the functions of one another hormone producing organs become lowered and suppressed, and then down line - if hormone medication intake continues to increase - the hormone producing organs can become fully disabled. Moreover, ideal hormone medications are not available yet. A hormone extracted from one individual contains different antigens to that one extracted from another. An introduced hormone will always be worse than that produced by the body. Obviously, the introduced hormone is more harmful than ours. And what if we do overdose it?

So what is the best solution for the situation?

1. We suggest to completely turn down those existing dangerous schemes of treatment based on hormone overdose.

2. We suggest defining hormone dosage using three parameters: a pulse, control pause and general feeling of well being. The hormone dosage should be changed daily, again - in accordance to a pulse, control pause and the general feeling of well being.

The daily dosage may be increased or decreased by 25% or even 50%. The base daily dosage is the dosage when the patient feels well and when asthma attacks (for example) can be stopped easily with a use of an inhalator or our method.  

The detailed instructions on hormone therapy are enclosed as an attachment to DVBM instructions. We wish to emphasise that the hormone therapy tactics offered by us can be very effective only in conjunction with DVBM. Only under this condition the gradual decrease of hormone dosage along with the adrenal gland tissue restoration becomes possible. Accordingly to our data, those patients who increased their control pause up to 30-40 seconds, with a pulse rate of 65-70 beat/min., have stopped taking hormone medications because they did not need them any more. Naturally, we have arrived at the following conclusion: it is compulsory to drastically alter the existing approach to the hormone therapy, to make it coherent with the scientific data which have been offered to your attention at the current conference.