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Breathing exercises for asthma may help you feel better day to day, but they are an add-on, not a replacement. A Cochrane review of 22 trials found they probably improve quality of life for adults with mild to moderate asthma, and may ease hyperventilation symptoms (feeling like you are breathing too fast or too much). Lung function results were mixed and uncertain. Breathing exercises were studied alongside usual asthma care, never instead of it.
If you have asthma, keep taking your medicines and following your asthma action plan exactly as your doctor or nurse set it out. Check with them before starting any new breathing practice. Do not use a breathing exercise in place of your reliever inhaler or emergency steps. More in who should not do breathwork.
If you live with asthma, you may have seen claims that a certain breathing method can cure it. I didn't find anything to support that. What the research does say is more modest, and still interesting.
This post covers one thing: the best review I could find of breathing exercises for adults with asthma, and what it did and didn't show. It doesn't tell you what to do about your asthma. That's a conversation for you and your care team.
How do you try breathing exercises for asthma?
There's no single proven routine. The trials used many different methods. Here's a gentle, general version, plus a reminder to ask your asthma nurse or doctor what fits you.
- Check with your doctor or asthma nurse first, and keep your action plan to hand.
- Sit comfortably with your back supported. Don't do this if you're having symptoms. If your symptoms get worse at any time, follow your action plan.
- Breathe in gently through your nose and let your belly rise. Breathe out softly, without forcing.
- Keep it easy and unforced. No breath holds, and no fast breathing. If anything feels uncomfortable, stop and return to normal breathing.
- Start with a few minutes. The Aberdeen trial (below) used at least 10 minutes a day, but I can't say what's right for you.
There is no agreed best method, length or frequency, and the review didn't test safety. The NHS says people with asthma should have an action plan and at least a yearly review, and should see a GP within two days of an asthma attack (NHS).
Do breathing exercises help asthma?
The review is from Cochrane, a group known for careful reviews of medical evidence. It was written by Santino and colleagues and published in 2020 (Santino et al. 2020). It pooled 22 randomised controlled trials with 2,880 adults. Randomised means people were assigned to a group by chance. Everyone had mild to moderate asthma and was treated as an outpatient. The review says it couldn't assess people with severe asthma.
The breathing methods were mixed: 14 trials used yoga, 4 used breathing retraining, 1 used Buteyko, 1 used Buteyko with yogic breathing, 1 used the Papworth method, and 1 used deep diaphragmatic breathing.
Quality of life: the clearest result
Quality of life was measured with a questionnaire called the AQLQ. Compared with people who got no active treatment, those who did breathing exercises scored 0.42 points higher on average up to three months (95% confidence interval 0.17 to 0.68; 4 trials, 974 people). The reviewers rated their certainty in this result as moderate. At six months, the one trial that measured it didn't show a clear difference.
Hyperventilation symptoms
These are measured by the Nijmegen questionnaire. Scores were lower with breathing exercises at 4 to 6 months (a difference of 3.22 points; 95% confidence interval 0.13 to 6.31 lower; 2 trials, 118 people), with moderate certainty. Beyond 6 months, two other trials with 521 people didn't show a clear difference.
What about asthma symptoms and lung function?
The results here were mixed.
- Asthma symptoms. Results were inconclusive at both three and six months, and the plain language summary says breathing exercises probably didn't clearly improve asthma symptoms.
- Lung function. It depended on how it was measured. The volume of air you can blow out in one second (FEV1), measured in litres, showed no clear difference up to three months (very low certainty). FEV1 as a percentage of what's expected for your age and size was higher with breathing exercises, by 6.88 percentage points (5 trials, 618 people). The review's conclusion says breathing exercises may help lung function, but certainty was very low, so hold that loosely.
Does the Buteyko method cure asthma?
No. Only two of the 22 trials involved Buteyko in any form, so this review can't say much about it, and it gives no basis for the claim that it cures asthma.
What didn't the review tell us?
- Safety wasn't measured. Adverse effects were not an outcome in the review.
- Blinding wasn't possible. People know whether they're doing breathing exercises, so every trial had a high risk of performance bias, meaning expectations could shape results.
- The trials differed a lot. The quality of life result varied between trials (I squared 76%), many studies were small, and several outcomes couldn't be pooled.
- Medicines weren't replaced. The comparison groups generally kept taking their usual medicine, and the review treats breathing exercises as an add-on.
- Hospital visits and attacks. No included study reported hospital admissions. Evidence on attacks (exacerbations) was rated very low certainty and couldn't be pooled.
One UK trial matched this picture. Dr Mike Thomas at the University of Aberdeen taught people to spot habits like over-breathing and shallow upper-chest breathing, then regular diaphragmatic and nasal breathing, practised for at least 10 minutes a day, with three physiotherapist sessions over six months. According to the university's 2008 news release, quality of life gains were seen in the breathing group, and the researchers described the exercises as an add-on to medicine rather than a replacement (University of Aberdeen). I only read the press release for this one, not the paper.
The research in a nutshell
| Study | Who | What they found |
|---|---|---|
| Santino et al. 2020, Cochrane review | 22 trials, 2,880 adults with mild to moderate asthma | Quality of life up (0.42 points on AQLQ, moderate certainty), fewer hyperventilation symptoms, mixed lung function |
How strong is the evidence? Early to moderate for quality of life, weak for lung function and for anything else.
Who should skip this or check first
- Everyone with asthma. Ask your doctor or asthma nurse before starting, and keep following your prescribed medicines and action plan. Do not stop, skip or change inhalers because of a breathing practice.
- During symptoms or an attack. Follow your action plan and seek medical help. A guided class is not a rescue tool.
- Severe asthma. The review couldn't assess people with severe asthma, so nothing here applies to you without your specialist's view.
- Anyone who feels worse during practice. Stop. Tell your doctor or nurse.
Questions people ask
Can breathing exercises cure asthma?
No. The Cochrane review found they may help quality of life and hyperventilation symptoms in mild to moderate asthma, alongside usual care. It didn't find a cure.
Does the Buteyko method work for asthma?
Only two of the 22 trials in the review included Buteyko, so it can't judge the method well. Be wary of anyone promising a cure from it.
Can I use breathing exercises instead of my inhaler?
No. The trials were of breathing exercises added to usual care. Keep your medicines and follow your action plan, and talk to your doctor or nurse about any changes.
Why did lung function results look different in different measures?
Lung function was measured in two ways. Litres showed no clear difference, while percent of predicted did. The certainty was very low, so the safest reading is that the effect on lung function is unclear.
Is yoga breathing different from other breathing exercises for asthma?
Most of the trials in the review used yoga, but the review couldn't compare the methods properly. I can't say one is better than another.
Sources and further reading (3)
- Santino TA, Chaves GSS, Freitas DA, Fregonezi GAF, Mendonca KMPP. Breathing exercises for adults with asthma. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2020. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7096190/ (first part of the full text read: abstract, results and plain language summary)
- University of Aberdeen. Techniques to help people with asthma breathe easy, news release, 2008. https://abdn.ac.uk/news/18635 (press release only, not the trial paper)
- NHS. Asthma: living with. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/asthma/living-with/
Updated 24 October 2026. We re-check posts when new research comes out.
