Ludmila Buteyko

Dr. Ludmila Buteyko, Ph. D., is the Director of Education at Clinica Buteyko in Moscow. She was the wife of Konstantin Buteyko, his closest friend, student, and kindred spirit.

Ludmila met Konstantin Buteyko in 1969. She was 29 years old and suffering from severe asthma as well as an advanced stage of cancer. She had taken steroid medications, which had powerful side effects, including, significant weight gain, and facial hair growth. By this point, she had experienced two clinical deaths and felt utterly hopeless.

When Professor Buteyko visited her, Ludmila was too ill to understand what he was trying to teach her. The only way to help Ludmila was to teach the method to her nine-year-old son, Andrey Novozhilov.

Once Professor Buteyko left, Andrey began doing the breathing exercises with his mother and patiently explaining the idea of breath reduction to her. Within two weeks, Ludmila's asthma was reduced to the point where she could visit her oncologist. The doctor was amazed at her progress with asthma and shocked when he discovered that the tumor she had had two weeks earlier, had almost completely disappeared.

Ludmila has been symptom-free (and medication-free) of all her diseases for over forty years. She is in her seventies and sleeps about three hours per night. She eats very little. She works a lot. She is at the Clinica every day, treating patients and managing administrative affairs. She hardly takes breaks and is always full of energy, ready to help others.

In 2003, when Konstantin Buteyko passed away, Ludmila together with her son Andrey became the patent holders of his method and the owners of the intellectual property of the Buteyko Method. At the moment, Ludmila Buteyko and Andrey Novozhilov are the only ones who have legal rights to train teachers of the Buteyko Method.


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Andrey Novozhilov

As a nine-year-old boy, Andrey witnessed the clinical death of his mother, Ludmila, not once, but two times. Ludmila suffered from vicious asthma attacks and had cancer; doctors did not think she would survive. Andrey remembers this period as a dark, hopeless time, during which he would often knock on all the doors in their apartment building, asking neighbors to help his mother. People felt sorry for the little boy, but no one knew how to help.

One day in 1969, Andrey and Ludmila found a newspaper article about Professor Buteyko. Out of desperation, they wrote him a letter. At the time, Dr. Buteyko resided in Siberia where he headed a scientific laboratory. Despite his remote location, however, he was receiving over 200 letters a day from people like Ludmila.

Even though it was impossible to help everyone, Buteyko made his best effort to help as many as he could. During his next visit to Moscow, he arranged a meeting with Ludmila and Andrey. He attempted to teach Ludmila, but her awful health condition made it impossible for her to comprehend the Method. The Professor then decided to teach his method to Andrey, in hopes that he could explain it to his mother.

When Buteyko left, Andrey, gently and patiently, began teaching the Method to Ludmila, encouraging her to reduce her breathing. In two weeks, her health improved dramatically and she was able to come back to her normal life. Thus, at the age of nine, Andrey had his first medical experience: saving the life of his own mother.

Later on, Ludmila, became the wife of Konstantin Buteyko, which gave Andrey a unique opportunity to study the Method from the founder himself. In 1989, greatly influenced by Buteyko's work, Andrey completed his studies and graduated from the First Moscow Medical Institute. He began working as a general practitioner.

Andrey has said, "Even though I became a medical doctor, I cannot say that medical activities always generated my greatest interest. What is truly fascinating for me is finding an answer to the question: what is the meaning of this life? I look at medical activities as a tool, which helps us understand the greater picture of this world."

Dr. Novozhilov is currently the Medical Director of Clinica Buteyko (Moscow). He sees patients on a daily basis. It is impossible to say how many lives he has saved or how many people have regained their health as a result of his work. In his approach, Andrey never limits himself by a solely physiological perspective. He sees a clear connection between body, mind, and spirit, and believes that every health problem has a reason that often lies beyond the medical.

Dr. Novozhilov is also the author of the Asthma Cure Manual. This book is written for medical professionals and people who suffer from asthma, COPD and breathing difficulties. (It is available in our e-store to download and in paper format.)


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Thomas Yakovlev-Fredricksen
Co-founder of Buteyko Center USA
Read Thomas' Personal Account of Surviving and Overcoming Severe Asthma Using the Buteyko Method

Thomas was born and raised in Central Pennsylvania. For his undergraduate studies, he attended Messiah College, a Christian school in Grantham. In the late 1980s, Thomas became a General Partner in the Counseling Center of Central Pennsylvania. Together with Dr. Edward Crill, he wrote the anxiety-phobia treatment manual, Overcoming Fears, which was used by the Center for therapy groups. In 1991, he received a Master’s of Science in Counseling Psychology-Community Mental Health and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Education in Counseling with Clinical Supervision degree from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.

In 1993, Thomas moved to Maui, Hawaii, where he immersed himself into the study of alternative medicine — massage, raw food, rebirthing, Rolfing, Aurvedic medicine, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, Ashtanga yoga, and more. Thomas studied the Hawaiian Kahuna Teachings of Ho'oponopono. He was also fortunate to find his spiritual teacher there - the Venerable Lama Tenzin, who opened a source of inexhaustible wisdom for him, preserved by the Tibetan culture.

Under Lama's guidance, in 1993, Thomas took refuge and became a student of Tibetan Buddhism. Thomas spent 13 years in Hawaii, during which he also maintained his private practice as a psychologist.

Despite his healthy lifestyle, in 2008, Thomas became severely asthmatic. After a very difficult battle with the disease, he successfully cured himself by applying the Buteyko Method under the supervision of Dr. L. Buteyko and Dr. A. Novozhilov. After his recovery, Thomas completed an intensive internship at Clinica Buteyko (Moscow) and received the degree of Advanced Buteyko Specialist.

Presently, he lives in Woodstock with his wife, Sasha. He teaches at Buteyko Center USA, where he also works as Director of Education. His life is dedicated to the improvement of people's health by teaching them about Dr. Buteyko's discoveries and his method.


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Sasha Yakovlev-Fredricksen

Sasha was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. In 1986, she graduated from Moscow State University with a Master's Degree in Journalism.

In 1987, she gave birth to her daughter. The baby was born healthy but one of her breasts was slightly enlarged. A doctor suggested applying ointment. Sasha followed his recommendation but the baby's breast only became more swollen. When the doctor saw the outcome of his wrongful advice, he was shocked to find that a large tumor had formed in the baby's breast and suggested to urgently amputate the breast. Sasha was very hesitant about his advice and sought a second opinion.

She saw a number of doctors but all of them insisted on immediate surgery. Eventually, she managed to make an appointment with a famous oncologist, who had a different idea. "Don't do anything," he said, "and the tumor will disappear by the time the girl reaches puberty." Sasha thought this was great news. "However," the oncologist continued, "the tumor will vanish only under one condition: if your daughter does not become sick until she is a teenager. Any disease, even a simple flu, will make the tumor grow."

Sasha settled on this solution but had no idea how to go about implementing it. All children around her were often sick and this was considered normal. This made her think that the traditional path of western medicine was not going to work in her case and she began looking for alternatives. As an investigative journalist, she began searching for people who knew how to live a healthy and disease-free life.

She found several people who fit this description perfectly. Sasha was fascinated and wrote articles about them. Gradually she became very interested in alternative medicine, a holistic approach, and self-improvement. In 1991, at the very beginning of the Perestroika, she established a newsletter called Inward Path in hope that it would unite people for whom such subjects were as important as they were for her.

Her publication gained an enormous amount of attention because it was the first Russian publication dealing with the topics of healthy lifestyle, self-development, and spirituality. Within a few years, Inward Path Magazine became a national publication with more than one hundred thousand readers. Sasha also opened the first health food store in the country, along with a holistic seminar center.

This work gave Sasha an opportunity to meet with many fascinating teachers not just in Russia but also all around the world and to study with them. Everything that she learned, she tried to apply to her and her daughter's lives. As a result, her daughter has never been sick and her tumor has disappeared.

Sasha Yakovleva is the author of the Inward Path Anthology, which was published in Russian in 2000. She has also created many radio and television programs about spirituality, the holistic movement, and the human potential.

Over the years, Sasha developed a strong interest in spirituality and became a dedicated student of Tibetan Buddhism. In 2006, she spent a year on Holy Island  in Scotland, where she underwent an intensive meditation training in seclusion under the guidance of Tibetan lamas. During that time, she was also ordained as a Buddhist nun.

She has lived in the USA since 1998. In 2007, her husband, Thomas Yakovlev-Fredricksen, became severely ill with asthma, which created another challenge for Sasha. Even though his disease was considered incurable, the Buteyko Method successfully healed it.

Sasha also applied the Buteyko Method. She was able to cure her headaches, serious kidney problem, pain in her joints and others health issues.

In 2009, Sasha became a certified Advanced Buteyko Specialist. For Sasha, the discoveries and the method of Dr. Konstantin Buteyko became a unifying factor for all of the knowledge she acquired over the course of her life from various holistic and spiritual schools. She now lives in Woodstock, NY, and teaches at Buteyko Center USA.  She is Executive Director of Buteyko Center USA. 


Schedule a Consultation with Sasha Yakovlev-Fredricksen Online or in Woodstock, NY!

Ira Packman

Dr. Ira Packman received his Medical Doctorate in 1975 at the Hershey Medical Center of the Pennsylvania State University. He completed his Internal Medicine internship and residency at the Harrisburg Hospital in Harrisburg, PA, where he then went on to become the Chief Medical Resident.

After two years as an Emergency Room Physician at the Holy Spirit Hospital in Camp Hill, PA, Dr. Packman then relocated to Gallup, NM, and formed a multi-specialty group practice. He also became the Chief of Staff of the Community Hospital in Gallup and oversaw the construction and staffing of the hospital's first Intensive Care Unit.

After returning to Pennsylvania in 1985, Dr. Packman became the Medical Director of two Ambulatory care facilities. Two years later, he formed the group Internists of Central Pennsylvania with three of his friends. Over the following fifteen years, the practice grew into the largest Internal Medicine Practice in Pennsylvania.

In 2001, he began working for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a consultant reviewer of malpractice cases and as an advisor for the Commonwealth attorneys who consider medical licensure actions.

He is a member in excellent standing of the American Medical Association as well as an Instructor/Trainer of Advanced Cardiac Care Life Support and a faculty member of the American Heart Association.

As a life long asthmatic, Dr. Packman has tried every approach available. He now personally and professionally uses the Buteyko Method and is very impressed with its effectiveness and simplicity. Dr. Packman firmly believes that the Method perfectly complies with the physiological logic of the body. At Buteyko Center USA, Dr. Packman serves as a medical consultant and educator. He uses his medical expertise to educate physicians and clients in order to help them understand the medical science behind the Buteyko Method.