The Director of Good Health: Our Vagus Nerve Holds the Key
Our vagus nerve sits in master control of our overall well-being; and why it’s important to keep it in balance
Before you begin to read this blog, let’s take a deep breath and take a moment to reflect on how you feel.
Expand your lungs as far as they can go as you inhale from through your nose, and as you exhale focus on pushing the air out by drawing your belly button towards your spine and releasing your lungs.
Probably felt a little uncomfortable to pause and pay attention to your breath if you’ve never done it before.
Breathing is something we do automatically, controlled by our “autonomic” nervous system. When we pay attention to this automatic process, it immediately releases hormones that turns on the part of the nervous system that allows us to feel calm and relaxed.
This part of our nervous system is called our parasympathetic nervous system, and it is in charge of our “rest and digest.” This is simple to remember because the opposing system is called the sympathetic nervous system and it is “fight or flight.”
Two systems that do opposing things, represented by two rhyming words. This can help you remember their functions in our body.
Everything exists in oppositions, it demonstrates the universal function and intent of the universe that is incessantly reflected in nature. Existing in balance, opposing sides, is the nature, of nature and it is intended to be in this yin and yang flow to be optimal. When one side goes out of balance, that is when chaos ensues, or when within our bodies, disease maninfests.
We need a healthy amount of stress, controlled by our sympathetic nervous system, with an equally healthy amount of rest, controlled by our parasympathetic nervous system.
Sadly, most of us live controlled by our sympathetic nervous system, in fight or flight. Therefore, the things that our parasympathetic system controls (heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination, elimination, and sweating) are consistently out of balance which leads to many health problems in our body.
Everyone is looking for solutions to stress and anxiety. They want to feel at peace and clear-minded at all times, because in that state, we can feel and allow love to flow through us, we feel excited about life, we can think reasonably, we reduce anger, we make better health choices, we live longer, and we feel better.
So how can we feel like that more and how can we combat common health ailments and stress? That’s where the Vagus nerve holds the key.
Everything you Need to Know About the Nervous System
Your nervous system is responsible for most of what your body does.
Most of the nervous system functions automatically in response to external stimuli in ways like breathing, swallowing, sweating, walking, digesting, and many more. This stems from what is stored in your unconscious mind.
These are unconscious abilities because we don’t have to think before we do them, our body just does them for us. Imagine if you had to think everytime you had to take a breath, “ok body now inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale,” these automatic functions have evolved overtime to allow us to do multiple things all at once (read a book, while breathing, while our body digests our lunch, while we sip on water.) Its a miraculous evolutionary process.
Everything you Need to Know About the Vagus Nerve
The body has many nerves, but the most influential by far is the vagus nerve.
One of twelve cranial nerves, many people are unaware of this nerve and the important role it has within our body. It is part of our parasympathetic nervous system and must stay in balance in order for us to regulate stress levels along with many other functions.
This cranial nerve is the longest, and has branches to nearly every gland and organ in the thorax and abdominal regions.
It is responsible for the following functions:
resting heart rate
swallowing and digestion of food
decreasing inflammation
producing anti-stress hormones like acetylcholine and oxytocin
keeps the lungs breathing
supports immune and stem cell function
Obviously, this one nerve has many important functions that directly relate to our health and wellbeing. If one of these functions is out of balance, it can cause many different symptoms and disruptions in your life.
The Vagus nerve directly communicates with your brain to start “resting and digesting.” It takes signs from around the body, what’s happening in our gut, what our emotions look like, how we’re breathing, ultimately, how we’re taking care of ourselves, and tells the brain if we are in a state to efficiently digest the food to fuel our body and feel calm.
What Happens When Your Vagus Nerve is Out of Balance
When we have a disregulated vagus nerve, our body exists in “fight or flight.”
This can look like:
increased anxiety and nervousness
poor digestion
a lower immune response
increased inflammation
difficulty swallowing
unusual heart rate or breathing problems
All of these problems, can result in disease in the body. Ensuring your Vagus nerve is toned and strong, is imperative to the body.
How Can You Balance the Vagus Nerve
Cold Water Therapy:
I wrote about the powers of cold water immersion in an earlier blog before I knew about the power of the Vagus nerve. Cold exposure has been proven to relieve stress and anxiety and stimulate the Vagus nerve. When you submerge your body in a cold environment, it provides a stimuli for the Vagus nerve to relay to the brain that it is time to breathe deeper and slower which improves heart rate and promotes calmness.
Meditation:
I am a strong advocate for meditation and will always believe it is a key to finding your peace within which you can then promote with-out. Sitting with yourself in stillness for even just 5 minutes and breathing, is an amazing way to strengthen your Vagus nerve and slow your heart rate. This promotes healthy circulation and can easily help prevent diseases of the cardiovascular system.
3. Yoga
Yoga promotes deep, diaphragmatic breathing that is an exceptional way to balance the Vagus nerve. Just like we started this blog, it all starts with breathing. With breathing being the core of yoga, spending 15, 30, 60 minutes in a yoga class will ensure a balanced, restful state that will immediately take you out of a “fight or flight” state.
4. Pranayama
In yogic practice, pranayama are breathing techniques that promote stillness and connection to the body through the breath. It draws us within ourselves and instantly gives a relaxation response to the body. It is so simple than even taking a few long, drawn out breaths, with an emphasis on the exhale can balance the Vagus nerve, just as we did at the beginning of this blog.
The Vagus nerve runs through the vocal cords and the throat so these pranayama techniques can be incredible powerful for strengthening this nerve. Brahmari breath is one type of pranayama that incorporates a “humming” sound which can also be very soothing for the Vagus nerve.
Continue to make the breath the core by which you improve your health and you will reveal amazing results.
5. Singing
Similar to the style of Brahmari breath learned before, singing allows a vibrational pulse to be sent through the Vagus nerve which signals the brain to relax. Next time you start to feel stresed or overwhlemed try putting on your favorite song and singing along out loud or humming a song in your throat, you will feel immediate relief and it will feel impossible to return to that stressed state.
6. Gut Health
Our immune system health starts in our gut, and our Vagus nerve actually connects our gut to our brain in something called our gut-brain axis.
This is why gut health and mental health are so closely related and what we eat directly affects how we feel.
Your brain fog or mental health disorder can be directly related to your indigestion problems, bloating, or constipation.
Keeping both these areas of your body healthy starts in your gut, so eating a well-balanced, whole foods diet is important for digestive health and strengthening of the Vagus nerve.
Read more about gut health here.
When we understand our bodies better, we heal faster. Knowing how everything interacts and works with one another to keep us healthy and thriving is something I love to learn and share with others. Breaking down science into digestible blogs is what I love and I hope you enjoy continuing to learn with me, and implementing the lessons in your life so that we may all live healthier and longer lives.