[1] During his medical studies he was given a project of making observations on patients' breathing rates in relation to the severity and prognosis of their illness.

"[1] Buteyko himself suffered from malignant hypertension (at age 29, his systolic blood pressure was 212 mmHg), whose symptoms included debilitating headaches and pain in the stomach, heart, and kidney.

While on duty, Buteyko says "a thought occurred to me that the hypertensive disease which I was developing very rapidly could be a consequence of the deep breathing."

[2] By the early 1980s the Soviet authorities were sufficiently impressed with Buteyko's results to allow him a formal trial, or "approbation" with asthmatic children in a Moscow hospital.

Although very different in design from the standard controlled trial now predominant in the West, the results were sufficiently impressive to persuade the State Medical System to approve the method for widespread use.