Vagus Nerve

Increase vagal tone and discover the power of your vagus nerve for calming stress, improving digestion, and enhancing overall well-being.

THE VAGUS NERVE IS PRETTY AMAZING

The word vagus is Latin and means wanderer. The Vagus Nerve is the longest cranial nerve in the body and starts in the brain. Living up to its name, it wanders down our neck and vocal cords, passes our heart and lungs, wanders down to innervate many abdominal organs- making sure of the connection between them and our brain. Thanks to the Vagus nerve, our gut and brain are always communicating.

The nerve is associated with the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) that controls rest and involuntary responses like digestion, heart rate, and our immune system. The main job of this afferent nerve is to bring information from our organs to the brain to let it know if we're safe and can relax or if we must flee or fight. So it's clear what happens in vagus doesn't stay there.

How well our vagus nerve functions and transmits signals is known as vagal tone. A higher tone means we can easily return to a calm, relaxed state after a stressful experience. A healthy vagal tone is also associated with good physical, mental, and emotional health, lower blood pressure, fewer gastrointestinal issues, better mood, reduced panic and anxiety, and reduced risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease. During a stressful experience, our sympathetic nervous system's (SNS) survival mechanism kicks in and releases cortisol to help us fight or flee, negotiate contracts, climb corporate ladders, break glass ceilings, pay bills, and worry. If we keep this up after a while, we're on our way to burnout, which affects the health of our entire body, physically and mentally.

In an ideal body, our life is in balance, in homeostasis, as these two systems (SNS,PNS) work together. When we need to be in survival mode and get things done, the sympathetic nervous system does the job, and when the job is finished, the parasympathetic nervous comes in to bring us back to rest.

This is ideal until it isn't, and we can't shift back with ease to the PNS. When our brain doesn't receive the message that we're safe, we stay in sympathetic overdrive. How do we get out?

Learning how to shift is a gift we can give our bodies, and we can help it by stimulating the vagus nerve.

The vagus nerve has much to do with the mind-body connection we talk about in yoga, and if we look at the nerve through a yogic lens, we truly sense its awesomeness. We can improve our vagal tone to help us cope with challenges and then return to rest.

There are ways to improve vagal tone that don't involve yoga, like implanted electrical impulses, but we want a natural route with things we can do at home. Cold showers aren't for me, but they stimulate the PNS. Exercising in any way that moves your body is great! Laughter, positive vibes, and anything that makes you feel safe works. Massage and reflexology also stimulate the vagus nerve.

Regarding yoga, the breathing practices are readily available anytime we need them!

Humming and chanting work well. The Ujjayi breath (ocean breath) in yoga stimulates the vagus nerve near the vocal cords.

Meditation and slow, conscious breathing increase vagal tone by slowing things down, shifting into the PNS. When the vagus nerve tells the brain that there is no longer a need to fight or flee we can relax.

We don't have to let our nervous system run our life; we can control it through the vagus nerve and restore peace and tranquility to our body and mind. Yoga helps! Come to Amenia Yoga and see for yourself.

Sources: Vagus Nerve. Cleveland Clinic. my.clevelandclinic.org https://my.clevelandclinic.org.... Breit,S.Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain-Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders. Frontiers in Psychiatry. March 13, 2018. PMID:29593576. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...