The Nerve That Connects Your Brain to Your Belly (and Everything In Between)

Feb 17

Understanding the vagus nerve's role in rest, digestion, and why tight neck muscles make you nauseous.

Also known as Cranial Nerve 10, this wandering nerve exits our brainstem, travels down our neck to our lungs and heart, back up our neck and around our esophagus and trachea to supply the larynx. It continues to descend, with a branch of it supplying our diaphragm, then through our diaphragm to supply our pancreas, liver, stomach, spleen, intestines, and kidneys. It provides both motor and sensory information and is a main component of our parasympathetic nervous system.

Sympathetic is our fight/flight/freeze system. Parasympathetic is our Rest/Digest/Socialize system.

Not only does the vagus nerve provide information to the body from the brain, but it also takes information from the body back to the brain.

This one nerve can have significant impacts on how we feel and how we function throughout our day, both consciously and unconsciously. If you have ever had a headache or really tight muscles in your neck and you start to feel nauseous, that is your Vagus nerve. It helps keep your heart rate between a very comfortable 60-80 beats per minute, and is vital for good heart rate variability (HRV).

We often live too much in our sympathetic nervous system – life is overstimulating, and we are all running in different directions to get it done. When was the last time you just sat and enjoyed the moment? Without doom scrolling on your phone, checking your emails, or making tomorrows to do list?

How do we help our Vagus nerve?

There’s a lot of misinformation out there about things that we can do to help stimulate our vagus nerve. Most have very minimal research to back them up, and they also have very few adverse reactions except perhaps separating you from your hard-earned money, or using your most precious commodity – time.

Vagus nerve stimulation uses very specific electrical-medical devices and has been shown in research to have benefits. Often, this is medically implanted in the case of specific types of epilepsy. Hand-held devices such as a TENS machine can also be used on the skin.

Cardio-respiratory stimulation has also shown benefits for the vagus nerve. Modalities include deep breathing, yoga, and aerobic exercises.

Sources

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4017164/

Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Robert H Howland (1)