Working out and getting your body moving can affect your vagus nerve, research shows. Interval training and endurance training can increase your vagus nerve activity and improve your heart rate variability.
Mounting research has suggested that stimulating the vagus nerve through various exercises can have a therapeutic effect by helping reduce stress and improve overall well-being. Here's what to know about the benefits of vagus nerve stimulation — and how to do it at home.
1. Breathe deep. Breathing exercises are often recommended when it comes to stress and anxiety, and here's another great reason to give it a try. When we breathe deep and slow from our abdomen, we stimulate the vagus nerve.
Researchers have also found that exposure to cold can lower your sympathetic “fight or flight” response and increase parasympathetic activity through the vagus nerve. Slow, deep, rhythmic, diaphragmatic breathing. A prolonged exhale with the use of straw is a great way to achieve this.
The vagus nerve is connected to your vocal cords and the muscles at the back of your throat. Singing, humming, chanting and gargling can activate these muscles and stimulate your vagus nerve.
The most common symptoms of vagus nerve dysfunction include chronic pain, fatigue, dizziness, lightheadedness, spinning or pulling sensation (in a particular direction), weight loss, poor focusing, exercise intolerance, emotional lability, inflammation, heartburn, bloating, diarrhea, tinnitus, headache, anxiety, ...
What the wellness community recommends for stimulating the vagus nerve—eye movements, meditation, massage, cold-water immersion, and singing and humming—, if it works, is likely to be beneficial through a very simple concept: relaxation.
Vasovagal syncope occurs when a vagus nerve to your heart overreacts to certain situations like extreme heat, anxiety, hunger, pain or stress. Blood pressure drops very quickly (orthostatic hypotension), making you feel dizzy or faint.
However, chronic stress can impact the vagus nerve in a negative way. 2 This can lead to problems such as anxiety and depression. It can also make the body more susceptible to infections and diseases.
Something calming and easy that's not vigorous, like taking a walk, is a great way to destress and also help your vagus nerve. People who engage in regular walks see a significant reduction in anxiety and perceived stress, as well as a better overall mood and physical health.
The vagus nerve can become damaged for various reasons, including stomach or oesophagal surgery and type-2 diabetes. Symptoms of damage include hoarseness of voice, a deficient gag reflex and difficulty swallowing. Besides these symptoms, vagal damage can manifest itself through digestive issues.
Drinking cold water or splashing cold water on your face may be enough to stimulate your vagus nerve. You can also take cold showers, and take a swim in an unheated pool. Check out Vim Hoff for more information on this. Yoga increases vagus nerve activity and your parasympathetic system.
By stimulating your vagus nerve with cold temperature, you are activating it which helps to signal your body to relax. To activate your vagus nerve try placing a cold compress on the back of your neck or chest for several seconds up to 15 minutes.
This can happen because of stress, pain, heat, having a bowel movement, or even standing too long. In some cases, vasovagal syncope—a typically brief episode of passing out—can also occur.
High levels of stress and anxiety can also trigger the vagus nerve. When overstimulated, it can cause symptoms such as vomiting, dizziness and abdomen pain. However, it is possible to soothe and relax the vagus nerve by utilising breathing exercises that slow the heart rate and relax the body.
Your vagus nerve helps disengage your sympathetic nervous system — your fight-or-flight response. “When you're stressed or scared, your heart rate and blood pressure increase, and you become focused on survival,” Dr. Lin explains. “Being in that stressful 'fight-or-flight' state can wear out your body.
Considering the course of the vagal nerve in the cervical region, it is thought that conditions such as stiffness, tightness and decreased elasticity in this region may compress the vagal nerve andmay affect vagal function.
Other symptoms suggestive of vagus nerve degeneration. increase stress – Emotional stress: Anxiety, Depression and Panic Attacks: A neurologic and psychiatric like condition caused by cervical spine instability.
Eat foods rich in tryptophan.
Dietary tryptophan is metabolized in the gut and may help the astrocytes—cells in the brain and spinal cord—control inflammation, which may improve communication from the gut to the brain via the vagal messenger pathway. These foods include spinach, seeds, nuts, bananas, and poultry.
The left vagal nerve runs down the left side of your neck, and the right vagal nerve runs down your right side. This nerve extends all the way from your brain to the large intestines: down your neck, through your chest, around your heart, around your lungs, and through your abdomen and intestines.
There are two main causes of vagus nerve dysfunction: previous infection or inflammation and physical or psychological stress.
Trauma disrupts the function of the vagus nerve(s) and can lead to dysfunction in other parts of our body.