Like more than 20 million Americans, Liv Browning suffers from asthma, a lung disease that makes breathing difficult and sometimes impossible. It can be triggered by such unavoidables as exercise, stress and pollen—even changes in the weather. Until 1997, Browning kept her airways open by using an inhaler up to four times a day. She lived in fear of being suddenly unable to breathe and the horrible panic that followed. "You don't realize that you make your life smaller by compensating for the next attack," says Browning.

While living in France, Browning read a newspaper article about a new asthma treatment known as the Buteyko breathing method. Skeptical but tired of her daily ordeals, she traveled to London for a seminar on Buteyko. The method, invented in the 1950's by Russian doctor Konstantin Buteyko, holds that asthma attacks are set off by a shortage of carbon dioxide in our bodies. Buteyko believed that people breathed too much, stripping themselves of the CO2 needed to metabolize oxygen.

Over five days, Browning learned to breathe shallowly through her nose rather than her mouth, and to wait longer between each breath. At first it felt strange to her—many people quit because of the initial discipline required—but soon seemed natural. Two weeks later, Browning stopped using her inhaler, and has hardly touched it since. "Several months afterward, I woke up and realized that I couldn't remember the last time I had asthma symptoms," says Browning, who eventually became a Buteyko counselor. "I ran my first triathlon that year."

The method spread to Russia, Australia, New Zealand and later Western Europe, but is yet to catch on in the U.S. Experts don't agree on why it seems to work, and the early fervor of some proponents, who hailed it as a complete replacement for medicine, caused a backlash. "The medication should not be thrown out. People should keep their inhalers," says Tom Fleming, a respiratory therapist who teaches the Buteyko method at the Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He stressed that anyone interested in Buteyko should learn from an accredited teacher, as treatment varies from person to person and may not be safe for individuals with high blood pressure, heart disease and other conditions.

Fleming says that a majority of his patients have benefited markedly from Buteyko. While larger, more thorough studies are needed, several clinical trials conducted abroad have showed significant reductions in asthma symptoms and bronchiodilator use.

Asked why the Buteyko method is only now catching on in the United States, Fleming says, "A lot of people said: 'If it's as easy as breathing, it can't be good.' We don't want to take the time to do it. We're so medication-oriented, and have such a high-stress lifestyle. We just want to take our inhalers and get back to work quick. But people are coming around."