Every human spends an extraordinary amount of time breathing. In the past five minutes, you likely took somewhere between 60 and 100 breaths. You might take another 100 by the time you finish reading this story. And your daily breath count can easily top 23,000.
These figures are based on the so-called normal resting respiratory rate of about 12 to 20 breaths per minute in adults. (Other sources say 12 to 16 breaths, or 12 to 14, is more accurate.) But some emerging breath research suggests that much slower and deeper breathing may be more optimal.
