#VAGUS NERVE STIMULATOR HOW TO#

What other bad things happen when stress kicks in? Dysbiosis in your gut, in other words, the disruption of your microbial balance, which can play a large role in triggering or exacerbating digestive disorders and mood disorders like anxiety and depression. Digestion slows, heart and breathing rates speed up – and you get that slightly panicky feeling most of us are all too familiar with. However, when stress kicks in, the VN becomes more inhibited, and the fight-or-flight response of the sympathetic nervous system cranks up. It lets the brain know it’s OK to slow heart and breathing rates, while digestion can move along at a faster clip. When all is going well and mind and body aren’t stressed, the VN sends out the ‘rest-and-digest’ messages, via the parasympathetic nervous system. Your gut and brain communicate with help from the VN. The VN is so intimately involved in so much of your basic day-to-day bodily functions, life without it would be virtually impossible. And, wouldn’t you know it, it’s tied in to your immune system as well. What’s more, the VN helps manage heart rhythm as well as the involuntary muscles, helping to stimulate peristalsis, the muscle contractions in your digestive tract which moves food through it. The VN also plays an essential role managing what goes on in the muscles and the nerves that control them, for instance, those involved in speaking, swallowing, eye movements and facial expressions.

You could think of the brain as the boss, and the VN as the superstar assistant working to issue orders, communicate with the staff and keep the trains running on time. The VN communicates and sends signals back and forth between the brain and the internal organs, including heart, lungs, kidneys, spleen, intestines, and liver, to name a few. If you’re wondering what exactly the VN (and all its branches) are up to, the answer is quite a bit. The vagus nerve controls much of your internal show. It also calms down your organs, including your digestive tract, after your system has been ratcheted up by the sympathetic nervous system in response to a perceived threat, the so-called “fight-or-flight” response. The VN is an essential part of your parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for calming and balancing your nervous system, as well as regulating critical body functions, among them, heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, perspiration and even speaking. (The literal translation of “vagus” is “wanderer.”) The VN starts in the brain stem, emerging through the skull and heads south, passing down though the carotid sheath, and branching out across the torso, influencing the function of different organs throughout the body.

#VAGUS NERVE STIMULATOR HOW TO#

Here’s a topline on this powerful tool, and how to use it to help your body and mind thrive through stressful times: Introducing the vagus nerve.īefore we get into VNS, let’s meet your vagus nerve, which actually consists of two nerves that ‘wander’ through the body.

The good news is that inside every one of us in an actual nerve whose job it is to do exactly that - the vagus nerve (VN). To tap into its calming powers on-demand, I recommend practicing ‘vagus nerve stimulation’ (VNS). One silver lining: most of us are more aware of what sends our stress levels into the stratosphere, with the tricky part being how to bring them back down to earth. If nothing else, this difficult time has shown us just how fragile physical and mental health can be, and how important it is to protect and preserve them both. For most people, the last 19 months have been a roller coaster ride and it’s not over just yet.

Vagus nerve stimulator