THE VAGUS NERVE
The vagus nerve, the main nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system, helps us to calm down, feel balanced, experience joy, and connect with positive emotions. It is the longest and most branched cranial nerve, connecting all the major organs in the body—like the heart and arteries, stomach and intestines, lungs and bronchi—to our brain. When the vagus nerve is active, the body responds with relaxation and a sense of well-being. The parasympathetic nervous system is active when the body conserves energy and restores normal functions after stress and action.
The vagus nerve is a mixed nerve consisting of 80% afferent (upward) signals from the body to the brain and 20% efferent (downward) nerve fibers sending signals from the brain to the body. Afferent refers to signals traveling from the body to the brain, while efferent refers to signals moving from the brain down to the body. This means that many signals are sent from the body to the brain via this nerve network.
The Vagus Nerve's Superpowers
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The Main Nerve of the Parasympathetic Nervous System: Responsible for rest, recovery, repair, and restoration.
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Reduces Stress
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Two-Way Communication Between Body and Brain
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Connector Between Gut and Brain via the Gut-Brain Axis
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Key Player in the Inflammatory Reflex: Fights inflammation.
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Links the Body’s Various Systems and Functions
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An Intricate Neuro-Endocrine-Immune Network: Continuously works to maintain homeostasis.
Symptoms of reduced vagus function
Symptoms of reduced vagus function can be inner restlessness, difficulty breathing, digestive problems, muscle tension, fatigue and exhaustion, impaired memory and poor concentration. Easy access to negative emotions, mental stress and a lack of joy. Gets easily stressed and restless. Frequent bladder emptying, sensitive to light and sound, dry mouth and a sense of alertness.
You are not alone if you look at the picture of the lump of pain and think that my name is written on that figure. The good thing is that with knowledge and personal effort we can often influence and do something about these symptoms.
If you have what we call low vaginal tone and an automatic nervous system in sympathetic activation, you may experience, for example, anxiety, depression, digestive problems, body pain, low energy, problems relaxing, reduced empathy, lack of joy, hormonal imbalance, breathing difficulties, poor sleep, reduced concentration and memory, ear infection, headache, exhaustion, nausea, high stress reduction on everyday things and lack of effect from training.
Good vagus function
A good start to activate the vagus function is calm and deep conscious inhalation and exhalation through the nose with the aim of getting down to 4-7 breaths per minute. You can start by connecting with your breath. At the start, it may be enough to observe and become aware of where the air takes its path. Eventually you can breathe calmly in and out through your nose x 7 one or more times each day.
Laughter, singing, gurgling, humming and humming, yoga and meditation. Movement, dance and exercise or being in nature. Sleep, rest and relaxation have a positive effect on the vagus function. Thoughts, feelings and relationships also have a big impact.
Vagus stimulation
The vagus nerve has a branch to the ear. You can benefit by massaging the flap that is outside the ear canal to stimulate this nerve.
At the pain clinic, we use a lot of what is called TENS vagus stimulation, where an ear electrode is placed at this point on the left ear and with the help of a TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) device, the vagus nerve is stimulated and activated for 15 minutes twice a day.
In order to connect more with the vagus nerve and resume good vagus function, we need to stop
for a moment, clear space in the calendar and allow us to be - not do!
Photo: Private