One month of tough breathing may help asthma sufferers breathe easier in the long run with a UH pharmacology professor relying on a medical taboo to treat asthma.

Although counterintuitive, these studies are like hair-of-the-dog folk wisdom -- treating like with like -- using beta blockers instead of stimulants in asthmatics.

Termed "paradoxical pharmacology" -- treating patients with medicine that initially worsens their symptoms before eventually improving their overall health -- the studies have moved into human clinical trials.