Between plugging ridiculously expensive celery juice as some kind of miraculous health fad to falsely claiming that shoving jade eggs up yourself is a legit thing, Gwyneth Paltrow is come up with a few crazy fads over the last few years.
The latest celebrity fad that’s picking up steam right now is called Buteyko and it’s so mindboggingly devoid of logic that it fits perfectly with Gwyneth’s modus operandi of plugging weird crap that’s bad for you. Well sorry to disappoint but this has nothing to do with her though I imagine she’s probably a bit mad she didn’t come up with it in the first place.
So what is Buteyko? Well it’s basically a method of breath control through the nose that was developed in the 50s by Soviet doctor, Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko. It’s pretty standard staying alive stuff but the aspect that caught everyone’s attention is the part where practitioners tape up their mouth as a way to encourage breathing through the nose.
You see, Buteyko (who may or may not have been a real doctor) thought respiratory conditions like asthma are all linked to the way people breathed and claimed that his breathing-through-the-nose technique will make any lung problems magically go away. The taping of the mouth is to encourage this nose breathing thing and practitioners are known to do it when they sleep.
So why has Buteyko become popular all of a sudden if it’s been around since the 50s?
Well that’s because mega-popular Indonesian singer Andien shared a couple of photographs of her and her family with their mouths taped up to her 1.6 million Instagram followers, prompting much initial concern followed by mere confusion.
So is there anything to this Buteyko method other than, you know, breathing through the nose to live or a method to shut someone up?
Practitioners claim that breathing air through the nose keeps it moist and warm, making it easier to enter the lungs. This in turn supposedly helps things like asthma and lung problems, as well as other conditions like sleep apnoea, ADHD, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Now this sounds good on paper but real doctors and scientists say it’s about as effective as fighting off a rabid tiger with a fly swatter. There’s little evidence to suggest Buteyko does anything special since any kind of regular breathing exercise will help improve asthma and other respiratory symptoms.
If anything, taping one’s mouth is a bad idea since you could end up choking on your own vomit or something and no amount of nose breathing will save you from that.
So if you have asthma, sleep apnoea, depression, or any other ailment that people claim Buteyko can heal, best ignore this latest celebrity fad and go see a doctor.
Oh and apologies to Gwyneth for using her to set up this article but it was an open goal and I simply had to.