How to Stimulate the Vagus Nerve

Did you know that your vagus nerve is the main component of your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS)? And that your parasympathetic nervous system, aka your "rest and digest" state, plays a crucial role in everything from your mood, immune response, digestion to your heart rate. If you want to know how to stimulate the vagus nerve, you're in the right place.

By stimulating your vagus nerve, you can activate this "rest and digest" state, allowing your body to relax and get your body back into balance after periods of stress.

If you are struggling with a chronic illness, you may want to participate in certain activities that lead to increased vagal tone (aka stronger vagus nerve), so your body can then focus on healing rather than defending stressors.

What is the Vagus Nerve?

The vagus nerve, or cranial nerve X (ten), is one of the 12 cranial nerves in your body that contains sensory and motor neurons. It's the longest nerve in your body, starting at your brain's base and leading down into your gut area. 

Your PNS puts your body into a state of relaxation after experiencing a stressful situation. This relaxed state allows your body to digest foods, absorb nutrients better, and set its energy into enhancing your immune system.

Stress Halts Your Vagus Nerve

However, the issue with many people today is that we are stressed out all the time! We stress over finances, keeping up with Jones', relationships, being overworked at our jobs, and rushing the kids around to their 10+ activities a week. You may be guilty of this as well. You never allow your body to go into this parasympathetic state... Not good!

Your body, unfortunately, stays in a heightened alert state known as your "fight or flight" mode. This activates your sympathetic nervous system and keeps it activated, blocking your parasympathetic nervous system from working.

When your body is constantly in a sympathetic state, studies show it can increase inflammation, reduce your immune response and elevate your risk of chronic diseases.

Vagus Nerve Connection with Digestion

You might have heard of the gut-brain connection. Well, your vagus nerve is what allows that communication to occur. If you feel stressed out, your "fight or flight" mode kicks in, and your brain sends signals to your gut to inhibit digestion via your vagus nerve. 

When your digestion is inhibited, your body's ability to absorb nutrients, regulate hormones, and detox is less than optimal. When this occurs, your body's cells can even experience negative consequences.

Vagus Nerve and Immune Response

When you're in a constant state of stress, your HPA axis becomes overworked, your vagal tone weakens, and your cortisol levels increase.

This stress hormone can suppress the effectiveness of the immune system by lowering the number of lymphocytes. Lymphocytes are white blood cells that help fight off infections like viruses and infections. 

If you have underlying Lyme disease, a weakened immune response leaves you more susceptible to its repercussions.

Not only that, but, your vagus nerve is a major constituent of the inflammatory reflex. This controls your innate immune responses and inflammation during pathogen invasion. Decreasing vagus nerve activity can lead to more inflammation and suppressed immune function. 

Vagus Nerve Dysfunction Contributes to Inflammation

Your vagus nerve helps regulate inflammation in your body by bringing it back into homeostasis. If your body gets stuck in a sympathetic state, your vagus nerve won't be stimulated, and your body will experience continual pro-inflammatory cytokine activity and excessive/ chronic inflammation.

Chronic inflammation can occur, leading to numerous health issues, including diabetes, heart disease, anxiety/depression, neurological diseases, and a more challenging time to recover from illnesses.

Vagus Nerve and Mitochondria Connection

While your mitochondria's primary role is to make ATP (aka energy) for your body and your cells, it also plays a role in cell danger response. This helps defend and protect itself and your body from toxic foreign substances.

However, they can get stuck in a protective mode, halting them from making energy for the body. This is why many people who have constant stressors may struggle with extreme fatigue.

When you activate your vagus nerve, it can transition your body out of that stress mode and into a relaxed state. This allows your mitochondria to go back to their primary role of making energy for the body and helping your body heal from illnesses. 

Stimulation of the vagus nerve will help address chronic illness, reduce inflammation, and stimulate more healing functions.

Unfortunately, your vagus nerve can get damaged when your body is faced with constant stress on a daily basis. So how do you heal your vagus nerve?

How to Determine if the Vagus Nerve is Working Correctly

Heart Rate Variability: which measures the variation in time between each heartbeat. When your body is in fight or flight mode, the variation between heartbeats is low. 

However, when your parasympathetic nervous system is activated, your HRV increases, showing a healthy vagal tone.

Bowel Transit Time: this is the time it takes the food you consume to travel through your digestive tract. Since the vagus nerve plays a role in digestion, it can tell you if it is not stimulated as much as it should be.

Heal The Vagus Nerve and Improve Your Health

You can stimulate your vagus nerve to increase high vagal tone (aka strong vagus nerve) and reduce inflammation, boost immune response, decrease anxiety and get your body out of it's fight or flight response. 

Ways to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve:

Yoga: vagus nerve stimulation yoga can bring your body into a parasympathetic state by reducing stress and allowing your body to "rest and digest." This type of yoga incorporates mindfulness, conscious breathing, and physical postures- all of which helps balance your body's stress response.

Acupuncture or Massage: You may wonder, "How do you massage the vagus nerve?". Well, you can get an anterior neck and foot massage. These types of massages or even acupuncture can stimulate vagus nerve pressure point areas.

Deep Breathing: Deep breathing, especially during mediation, can help stimulate your vagus nerve. This is because vagus nerve activity is regulated by respiration. The activity is suppressed when you inhale and encouraged when you exhale and slow your respiration cycles.  Be sure to practice slow breathing and ensure your belly rises and falls to engage the diaphragm muscle.

Get a Cold Shower (and sing while you are in there!): Studies have suggested that cold temperatures increase vagal activity and activate neurons (nerve cells) through vagus nerve pathways. Not to mention that cold therapy can enhance immune function and decrease inflammation (both needed to fight chronic illness).

Did you also know your voice box connects to your vagus nerve? So while you are stimulating your vagus nerve in the cold water shower, you can also belt it out to have even more of an effect!

Foods that Stimulate Vagus Nerve

Seafood or other whole foods that contain Omega 3's are a great addition to your diet for vagus nerve support. They can strengthen vagal tone and heart rate variability, leading to a decreased heart rate at rest.

Since a strong vagus nerve is associated with positive emotions and good physical health, why wouldn't you want to give these a try!

Contact Function Medicine Provider, Dr. Jaban Moore

If you want to know more about how to stimulate the vagus nerve, please reach out to Dr. Jaban Moore. He specialized in treating chronic illnesses with functional medicine approaches rather than just covering up symptoms. You can give the office a call to make an appointment at  (816) 889-9801.