A new mathematical method is developed to recover the permittivity relaxation spectrum of living tissue from measurements of the real and imaginary parts of the impedance. Aiming to derive information about electrical properties of living tissue without the prior selection of any impedance model, the procedure calculates the relaxation time distribution. It provides new characteristic independent parameters: time constants, their distribution, and the amplitudes of the associated dispersion. As the beta-dispersion is the most important in the area of electrical impedance spectroscopy of tissue, the paper gives an estimate of the essential frequency range to cover the whole relaxation spectrum in that area. Results are presented from both simulation and known lumped--constant element circuit.