How the Wandering Nerve can bring stability to your health
The Vagus Nerve
Literally translated as “The wandering nerve” the vagal nerve starts in the brain (cranial nerve #10) and then travels down the neck, across the chest and into the abdomen where it communicates with the organs of the digestive tract (stomach, liver, intestines) as well as the heart, lung, spleen, and kidneys.1
Because 80% of the nerve fibres are sensory the vagus nerve is mostly relaying information from the organs back to the brain…when you sense something “at a gut level” that’s the vagus nerve talking. But the other 20% of the nerve fibres are motor nerves bringing information to the organs. Particularly, when we’re relaxed and in a state of “rest and digest” the vagus nerve is hard at work activating the stomach, liver, and intestines to break down food for nourishment.2
Vagal Tone
Vagal tone refers to the strength and resiliency of the vagus nerve. Some people are born with great vagal tone and are naturally adept at returning to a relaxed state after a stress, while others stay wound up and have a hard time calming down from life. Heredity is hard to change but luckily there are actions that can help to improve your vagal tone.
Vagal tone is easily measured on an ECG. As we inhale and the lungs fill with air, heart rate increases in order to pump the incoming oxygen through the body, and as we exhale the heart rate drops. The variability in heart rate between inspiration and expiration indicates the power of our vagal tone – the bigger the difference in heart rate, the higher the vagal tone.
Higher vagal tone helps the body to regulate blood sugar, which in turn lowers risk of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, and helps to regulate inflammation. Research is now exploring and demonstrating the link between low vagal tone and diseases characterized by chronic inflammation such as rheumatoid arthritis.3 It appears that the vagus nerve serves to “reset” the immune system and in doing so it plays a major role in modulating inflammation.
Strikes against the Vagus Nerve
Your vagus nerve may be naturally weaker and more susceptible to stress, thanks to genetics. It can also be damaged from life events such as through concussion or head injury, or low vagal tone may results from digestive imbalances such as altered gut flora (dysbiosis) due to antibiotic exposure, antacids, surgeries, food allergies, and more.
Vagal “Exercises”
Just as specific exercises can tone and strengthen a target muscle group, so too can various actions and activities help to boost our vagal tone. Genetics can’t be changed but they can be overcome!
Breath exercises
- Playing a wind instrument requires full inhalation followed by slow and steady exhalation. This in turn improves vagal tone.
- Singing works via the same mechanism as a wind instrument so pick your preferred musical expression and work it into your routine for stress management that goes beyond the song itself.
- Humming is an excellent option too and more discreet so you can add it to your chores and possibly your commute.
NB: These are truly “exercises” so be mindful of challenging yourself with practice by increasing the length of musical phrases, and the power of the breath (volume) within each phrase.
- Yoga ujaii breath or meditation or any form of focused deep belly breating.
Count the number of seconds for each inhale and exhale and vary them within each practice as to the frequency, intensity, and duration of the breath.
- Gargling. Start at 10 seconds twice a day and build to 30 seconds three times a day as tolerated.
Hydrotherapy
- The list of conditions, diseases, and afflictions that have been successfully treated with nothing more than water is astounding. And perhaps explained in part by the effect of cold water on the vagus nerve.
- There are several options for improving vagal tone with water, listed below from the most gentle (beginner) to the most effective (vagal pro!).
Option A: Splash cold water on the face morning and evening.
Option B: Fill bathroom sink or a bowl with cold water and dunk face once or twice, or more if desired.
Option C: During a warm/hot shower step out of the water stream and turn off the hot tap so that the water runs cold. Cup cold water in your hands and rub it into your face a few times, then onto the neck, then the chest, the belly, and the mid-low back (as high up as you can reach). Ideally end the shower after the cold water stimulation, but in the beginning you can return to the heat before stepping out of the shower.
Option D: After showering turn off the hot tap and rinse your entire body, including the head, in very cold water.
Option E: A cold shower from beginning to end!
Option F (for Finland): Alternating sauna and snow bathing!
References