Healthy adults take approximately 10-14 breaths per minute, but some people breathe 20 or more times—this can lead to feeling out of breath and a range of other symptoms such as tingling in the fingers and around the lips, heart palpitations, tiredness, inabilityto concentrate on and irritable bowel syndrome, explains Fiona 1Troup, a physiotherapist at Six Physio in London. The symptoms are a sign you're breathing through the mouthinstead of doing deeper breathing through the nose. This leads a 2fall in carbon dioxide levels in the blood—as a result of, oxygen 3can't be released to the muscles and organs. This causes muscle spasms, often in the colon where can 4exacerbate or lead to IBS; meanwhile if the brain is derived of 5sufficient oxygen levels, it can cause confusion and dizziness. "Fast breathing is basically a bad habit, often results from 6period of elevated stress, back or neck pain, emotional trauma or 7surgery," says Ms Troup. One seminal study suggested as many as10 per cent of those attending general practice suffered this 8problem. Over-breathing, as it is known, shouldn't have any long-term health implications, says Stephen Spiro, professor of respiratory medicine at University College London Hospitals anddeputy chair of the British Lung Foundation. Therefore, rapid 9breathing and breathless can be a sign of lung disease, particularly 10asthma and bronchitis. With these conditions, the airways in the lungs narrow, so it's physically harder for the air to travel in and out.