Vagus not vegas

Let me tell you a story about a wanderer. It's not me. It's a nerve in your own body. It's called the Vagus nerve.

Well, is it as interesting as Vegas? It probably is.

The name “vagus” comes from the Latin term for “wandering.” Now the name apparently originated from the fact that this nerve branches off everywhere (at least important locations) inside a human body. To be more precise, it runs from the bottom of the skull to organs in the chest, neck, and abdomen. Also, known to be,

The longest nerve in the body

10th cranial nerve or Cranial nerve X

The most complex of 12 pairs of cranial nerves

It allows the brain to monitor and receive information about several of the body’s different functions.

Doesn’t seem interesting so far? Have patience da!

ok, what does the vagus nerve affect?

• Sensory: From the throat, heart, lungs, and abdomen.
• Special sensory: Provides taste sensation behind the tongue.
• Motor: Provides movement functions for the muscles in the neck responsible for swallowing and speech.
• Parasympathetic: Responsible for the digestive tract, respiration, and heart rate functioning.

The last element is what makes it popular actually. The Vagus nerve is a key part of our parasympathetic side of ANS.

To brief, Autonomous Nervous System (ANS) has two parts, sympathetic and parasympathetic.

Sympathetic nervous system is known for “flight or flight” response. And, Prasympathetic side is known for “rest and digest” response.

So, the Vagus nerve is heavily involved with the parasympathetic side and can activate this side if stimulated.

Firstly, what does it mean by activating P-ANS? P-ANS decreases alertness, blood pressure, and heart rate, and helps with calmness, relaxation, and digestion.

So, whenever you want to get through a stressful situation, you want to activate your P-ANS somehow.

Now we know that we can do that by stimulating the vagus nerve.

Imagine you found out a switch which can be toggled to feel better and relaxed. Now you know that you have a switch, but since it is inside our body, we need to find ways to “toggle” it.

How can we stimulate it?

Technically, one can open a human chest, and put an electrical sort of device inside, which can keep sending electric impulses to the nerve to stimulate it.

But there are more friendly ways. So go on reading…

• Cold shower
• Deep and slow breathing

this is the one usually get recommended to relax in a tense situation. Now we understand the logic a bit better right. When we take deep and slow breaths using the diaphragm, the information is sent to the brain using the vagus nerve, which activates the P-ANS and helps us calm down.

• Exercise
• Meditation
• Singing, chanting, humming
• Socialising and laughter
• Omega fatty acid
• Massage
• Probiotic

There are in fact FDA approved treatment methods that utilize vagus nerve stimulation. To find out about those, keep in touch :)

And to find out how to measure the activity of your vagus nerve, read another story here.

Cheerio :)