BREATHING. What could be more natural? You wake up in the morning and, lo and behold. you're breathing.

It's not something that you have to think about is it? Just another of nature's little miracles.

Ah, but if that's the way you think, you might be wrong. It is something we should think about.

If you're an asthmatic, breathing can sometimes be difficult but a technique that recently slipped out from behind the Iron Curtain in to Britain can make a huge difference, say its devotees.

Linda Meads, of Stratford, is one of those who says her life has been changed since she took a course in the Buteyko Method of breathing.

A lifelong asthmatic, she said: "It was under control until about five years ago but then started to get more severe and I was starting to take more medication.

"I found I was beginning to get allergic to a wider range of things and my reactions were more severe."

Eventually one winter she ended up in hospital and on steroid treatment and decided to put herself through a Buteyko course.

She says it proved so effective that she was able to come off her drugs. "I still carry my inhaler but I hardly ever use it," she said.

She was so impressed with the effectiveness of her treatment that she then trained so she could teach the method to other asthmatics.

Buteyko is named after the Russian medical scientist, Professor Konstantin Buteyko, who has been using the treatment ever since the 1950s, although it has only entered into Western medicine in the last 10 years and there are still very few trained teachers.

Linda sums up the treatment by saying: "It is basically techniques to normalise breathing. All asthmatics over breathe or more or less continually hyperventilate."

The science behind it is tied up in the body's need to balance its supplies of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

We need carbon dioxide because without it the oxygen in our blood simply sticks to the haemoglobin and isn't absorbed into the body tissues.

By breathing too hard we can expel too much carbon dioxide, so our bodies don't get the oxygen they need to work properly, leading to symptoms such as panic attacks and dizziness.

"The Buteyko Method," Linda explained, "shows how the hyperventilation is causing these things to happen and then by correcting the breathing the attacks occur less frequently or less vigorously, so the asthmatic can lead a more normal life or reduce their drugs intake."

The success of Buteyko has long been accepted in Russia and interest is now growing in the West.

Australian experiments with the treatment in the early 1990s showed a 90% fall in the use of inhalers amongst Buteyko breathers and reduced steroid use by 49% within three months of starting the programme.

A major trial is now being organised in Glasgow covering the treatment of about 600 asthmatics over two years to try to give a fuller picture of the treatment's chances of success.

Linda, though, is already convinced and teaches sufferers in both Stratford and Solihull.

Like other tutors from the Buteyko Institute, she offers clients a 30-day money-back guarantee if the course doesn't help them.

She can be contacted on 01789 298367.

She believes the technique is also beneficial for sufferers of emphysema, bronchitis, snoring and certain allergic reactions.

Anyone wanting to know more about Buteyko has a golden opportunity over the next week when New Zealand practitioner Russell Stark is coming to give talks in Stratford and Moreton.

The Stratford event is next Tuesday, at Lifeways, in Albany Road, when he will give talks at 1.30pm and 3pm.

The next day he moves on to Moreton for two talks at the library at 3.45pm and 5pm.