“Vagus” is the Latin word for wandering, and it’s the ideal name for this winding nerve system in your body. It’s the 10th and longest cranial nerve that runs from your brain to your gut. Also known as the “vagal nerves,” this is the main nerve system of your parasympathetic nervous system. It automatically controls your digestion, heart rate, and immune system, and it also affects your saliva production, skin and muscle sensations, mood, speech, taste, and even how often you urinate.
If you’re having problems with this critical nerve system, you may experience abdominal pain, bloating, acid reflux, heart rate changes, blood pressure changes, difficulty swallowing, dizziness, fainting, hoarseness, loss of your voice, wheezing, loss of appetite, feeling full quickly, vomiting, and nausea. That’s a long list! And although other health problems can cause those symptoms, as you know, there are two specific conditions that are directly tied to the vagus nerve:
Gastroparesis: this is when the nerve no longer moves food from your stomach to your intestines, which can be a result of diabetes, viral infection, abdominal surgery, and scleroderma.
Vasovagal Syncope: this is a fancy word for fainting, and it happens when the vagus nerve to the heart overacts to heat, hunger, pain, stress, or anxiety. Your blood pressure will drop very quickly and it will make you feel dizzy, sometimes it will drop so low you will faint.
There are ways to stimulate this nerve, known as VNS (Vagus Nerve Stimulation), involving electrical impulses delivered through a device implanted under your skin in the chest area. This method is used for the treatment of epilepsy and depression, in cases where the patients are not responding to standard intervention or therapy.
Take matters into your own hands!
There are ways you can stimulate this nerve every day, and when you do, you are telling your body it’s okay to relax. That helps in every facet of your life – from general mood to pain management, from short-term stress reduction to long-term well-being. The term “stress kills” is not an over-statement.
Here are some things you can build into your daily routine that are free and simple. Your vagus nerve will thank you!
Foot massage I know it’s much better when someone else is doing it, but you can do a self-massage and still get the benefit. Gentle or firm, it doesn’t matter, so do what feels good to you and help your vagus nerve get the message that you can relax.
Vocal cord activation If you gargle with gusto, meaning make some noise while you’re doing it, your vocal cords will wake up and this will stimulate your vagus nerve. You can also, if you’re either courageous or shy, sing loudly. Karaoke for the former and singing in the shower for the latter maybe?
Laughter We’ve all heard that laughter is the best medicine, and now we know a little more about why that’s true. Laughter stimulates the vagus nerve, because let’s not forget, the vagus nerve strongly contributes to your mood.
Eating fiber Yes, eating your veggies was a motherly mainstay, but she was right! When we ingest fiber, the nerves in our gastrointestinal tract work with our hormones and sympathetic nervous system to determine nutrient absorption, storage, and mobilization of the nutrition we’re eating. Fiber will help slow the process, and you will feel more satiated. Fuller. That equates to less room for cookies, and that’s always a good thing.
Cold water showers This may not be for everyone! But, if it sounds good to you, give it a try. Your vagus nerve will activate, your heart rate will decrease, and your immune system will get a boost with cold water therapy. Research has seen the best results are achieved when specifically applying the cold to the lateral neck region (NIH study) which is the area in the back of the neck. This is why applying a cold compress to your neck area can help you cool down faster in hot weather. To ease into it, you may want to take your normal shower and then switch to cold water for the last 30 seconds of it! You’ll still be able to enjoy your normal shower while adding a vagus nerve boost at the end.
What will you add to your daily routine to help your vagus nerve?
References:
Comments