Best Ways to Stimulate the Vagus Nerve

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Hey, what's going on, everybody.

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Welcome back to the elemental Evan show.

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Thank you all very much for tuning into this wellness Wednesday episode.

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As you all already know, this is a full length episode.

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Uh, still pretty compact in general, compared to some other episodes and

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other shows, because I like to try to give you the maximum amount of

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information in a short amount of time.

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Uh, so that is what the show is all about is providing you with some really

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valuable knowledge that's digestible and is applicable to your life.

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So you can apply it right after this episode and make some changes to

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your health and wellness right away.

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And today's episode is going to be no different.

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This is a topic that is something I just recently started

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diving in on the research on.

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So it's still a relatively new topic for myself.

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Although I have known about it for awhile, the specifics of it

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are still relatively new to me.

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So I'm happy to be sharing this with all of you finally.

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And that is the Vegas nerve.

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So this is not Vegas like Las Vegas, right?

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No, this is Vegas V a G U S.

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And, uh, it is a nerve that has also been called the wanderer

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nerve, uh, just due to the amount of wandering that it does in your body.

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So for example, it has a very extensive range and, uh, of signals

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from the digestive system and organs

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The brain and vice versa, and it extends from its origin in the

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brainstem, through the neck and the thorax down to the abdomen.

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So as you can see, that is why it's called the wanderer nerve.

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And the Vegas nerve represents the main component of the parasympathetic

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nervous system, which oversees a vast array of crucial body functions such as.

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Controlling of your mood, immune response, digestion and heart rate.

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It establishes one of the main connections between the brain and

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gastrointestinal tract and sends information about this state of,

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of the inner organs to the brain.

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Uh, that is all coming from the article from the frontiers in psychiatry journal.

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Uh, much of what this podcast.

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Uh, the information in this podcast is going to be coming from there.

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Uh, so I will try to be sure to link that in the show notes.

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So you can also check that out in a read over that if you would like as well.

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So, uh, as I stated, what's really cool about the vagus nerve.

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It is one of it is one of the main components of the gut brain access,

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or, sorry, not access axis a X I S.

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What's so amazing about that is this is really kind of

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new, at least to the public.

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Maybe the science realm has already been, you know, on top of this for a while.

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Cause I've heard something like it's around 20 years where, uh, it take, or

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it takes 20 years from The science and research to actually reach the population.

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So yeah, this could have been, well, I'm sure this has been well-known for awhile

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in the science realm, but in terms of the general public, this is definitely some

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really groundbreaking new stuff here.

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This gut brain access axis, the fact that it is able to communicate with

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each other, you know, and have, has this little like highway of communication.

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Uh, so that is really interesting for me specifically, because I've dealt

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with gastrointestinal issues and, uh, you know, I believe just like,

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uh, this, the quote says, you know, like all disease begins in the gut.

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I really do agree with that.

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I think everything starts in our digestive system, in our gastrointestinal tract.

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So.

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That's why I'm really, really excited about this.

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And I think there's a lot of correlation between myself and

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this, uh, the, in the vagus nerve and, and my issues that I've had.

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So.

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Um, also, I want to apologize.

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I know there might be a bit of medical terminology in here, and I do try to

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make this as digestible as possible.

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But sometimes there's just no getting around it, but, uh, it's not too bad.

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I don't think so.

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Anyways.

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Okay.

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So the vagus nerve connects obviously a bunch of your organs to your brain

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essentially, and allows communication to happen, which is extremely important.

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So.

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Uh, so of the very important functions of the vagus nerve include providing the main

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parasympathetic supply to the heart and stimulating a reduction in the heart rate.

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Uh, in the intestines, it regulates the contraction of smooth

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muscles and glandular secretion.

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It also connects to other important organs, such as the pancreas, liver,

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stomach, small intestine and esophagus, where it has receptors and sensory endings

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in which it can receive information from these organs to send to the brain.

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Once again, this is, you know, pretty wild and really, really interesting.

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There is this it's like a communication highway.

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Being able to relay information from either the organs to

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the brain or vice versa.

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So it is also responsible for regulation of internal organ functions, such

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as digestion, which is a huge one, obviously, uh, heart rate respiratory

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rate, and Bazell motor activity such as controlling the internal diameter

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of blood vessels and certain reflex acts actions such as coughing,

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sneezing, swallowing, and vomiting.

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The Vegas nerve is the main contributor of the parasympathetic nervous system.

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If you have already heard my other previous episodes on, I believe it was

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like dealing with your breath and stuff.

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Uh, I do dive into the parasympathetic nervous system on there.

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So definitely go back and check that out.

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Uh, if you have not heard that though, I will go ahead and

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kind of break some of it down.

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In this episode.

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And, uh, so for the sake of this episode, the autonomic nervous system is.

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You know, like think of it at the top here.

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So you have the autonomic nervous system and it can be

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broken down into three branches.

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The three branches of the autonomic nervous system include the Interra nervous

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system, the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.

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For this episode, we're just going to focus on two.

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We're going to be focusing on the parasympathetic nervous system and

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the sympathetic nervous system.

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It's such a tongue twister.

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Sorry.

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Um, okay.

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So the sympathetic nervous You can really just think of this as the gas pedal.

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I might even refer to it as the gas pedal in the rest of this episode.

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But the sympathetic nervous system is your get up and go, right?

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So it is activating.

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It is, you know, like the release of certain hormones, like, the

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release of like things like cortisol.

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And really, you know, it's.

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The thing that is like motivating, get you out of bed, get your mind working.

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It's a little bit stressing, but a good kind of stress, right?

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Uh, you need it when.

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You need to respond to, uh, maybe a car merging into your lane or, um, you know,

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thinking of a very complex problem, whatever it may be, this gas pedal state

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is what you would want to be activated.

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Then you have the other side of that, which is your parasympathetic, which

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can be thought of as your brake pedal.

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So this is going to be more relaxing.

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This is going to activate your, um, Digestion your, uh, they literally call

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it the rest and digest state, right?

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Because it puts you into this state where you are much more calm.

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Maybe your heartbeat goes down a little bit.

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Uh, you don't have this release of cortisol.

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You are now getting into a state where you're more mellow and you're able

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to actually, you know, digest your food and, and take it easy, right?

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Like there's no eminent threat in front of you like a tiger trying to

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chase you or something like that.

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So you have these two kind of different parts of the autonomic nervous system.

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You have the gas pedal and the brake.

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Now.

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When we're talking with the Vegas nerve, this is what stimulating

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your parasympathetic nervous system.

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The reason this is important is because the sympathetic nervous

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system, the gas pedal is activated all too often in our day and age.

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Right.

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We have all these crazy things to worry about, like rent, um, you know,

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your job, maybe your bosses on, you know, getting on your case or, uh,

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the traffic that you have to sit in.

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And every single day and the, and the people cutting you off and, you know, all

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these different things where, uh, back in the day, it would have You know, very

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straightforward, uh, things that would activate your sympathetic nervous system.

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Like for example, if you were to be attacked by an animal, like a bear.

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Your sympathetic nervous system would kick in.

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You would go into this mode where you are ready to react and respond,

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whether that's fight or run.

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But when you have things that are not.

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You know, like a bear chasing you, but rather rent.

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And you're constantly worried about it, even though there's nothing

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in front of you that's causing it.

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It is something that you were constantly worrying about.

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And so we stay in this low level of stress at, you know, very, very often.

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And over time, this takes its toll, right?

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It can be taxing on the adrenal glands that are releasing the cortisol.

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Uh, you know, and then on top of that, we're probably drinking coffee, which is

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also going to stimulate more, uh, release of cortisol and tax the adrenal glands.

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And just overall, it's going to create a stressful environment for your body,

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which is just not good for your health.

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So getting into the parasympathetic nervous system is important and it's

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something we need to be doing more of.

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And I will speak a little bit on how we can do so.

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But.

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To kind of give you an idea of what happens when the

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parasympathetic, as opposed to sympathetic state is, uh, activated.

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When the brake pedal parasympathetic state is activated, you have dilation of

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blood vessels and bronchiole uh, sorry.

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I'm probably saying this wrong bronchiole is I believe bronchial.

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Uh, yeah.

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Bronchiole.

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And stimulation of salivary glands when sympathetic nervous system is activated,

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you have constriction of blood vessels.

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Dilation of bronchiole is an increase in heart rate.

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And constriction of intestinal and urinary sphincters.

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Right?

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So obviously.

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Just by reading that you can tell whoever is in that state,

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they're in a, uh, like a tight.

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Uptight state, right?

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Like you are literally not able to use the restroom.

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Your heart rate is increased.

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Like you are just ready to react.

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So in the gastrointestinal tract, when you have your parasympathetic

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nervous system activated, you have an increase in bowel motility, bowel

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motility, and glandular secretion.

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In contrast, when the sympathetic nervous system is activated,

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you have reduction of intestinal activity and reduction of blood.

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Flow to the gut.

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Allowing a higher flow to the heart and muscles when the individual faces.

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Existential stress.

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Pretty much what I had already explained by a little bit more medical there.

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Um, more specific.

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So essentially what it's saying is when you are in your sympathetic

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nervous system, Your body is prepared to react and respond to whatever

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might be right in front of you.

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Um, which, like I said, back in the day might have been a very

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threatening animal or warring tribe or whatever it might've been.

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Uh, but nowadays we don't really have that as often, yet we still end

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up staying in our parasympathetic nervous system or, sorry.

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Our sympathetic nervous system too often.

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And it doesn't allow for our body to properly digest A really good way to

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think about this is if you have ever been in a fight or an argument with

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someone, right, as you're about to eat food, or even if the table next to you

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is having a wild argument and fight.

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It is very difficult to want to eat food right after that, if you actually sat

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right down after being in that argument and try to eat food, a lot of times,

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you're just not in the mood anymore.

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Like you just don't feel like eating.

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And what has happened is your body is now in that sympathetic nervous system state.

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And it does not want to eat and digest food.

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It is not in the proper state for it.

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We need to make sure that we are in the proper state for digesting food when

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we're eating, you know, a lot of the times people have trouble digesting

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food properly, but it's probably because they are not in a relaxed enough state.

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Okay.

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Gonna move on a little bit now.

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Uh, Uh, but still going to come back to this and that is how to activate your

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vagus nerve or even parasympathetic nervous system, uh, for health purposes.

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So it's very important to note that aside from all of these specific physiological

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functions, that the biggest nerve does.

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We also need to note that the vagus nerve has been recognized to benefit your

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stress levels, your PTSD, depression, digestion, anxiety, and even sleep.

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It's a lot of really, really key, important things here.

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So.

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To start, you have the term vagal tone, V a G a L tone, which essentially tells us

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how well the vagus nerve is functioning.

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Hi, vagal tone is good and low is It's measured indirectly

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by heart rate variability.

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So if you have high heart rate variability, that's good and low would

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be bad by the way, HRV or heart rate.

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Variability is a measurement of the amount of time between heartbeats.

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Typically when you inhale, you have a slight increase in.

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Your heartbeat.

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And when you exhale, you have a slight decrease in your heartbeat.

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Now, if you want to stimulate the vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous

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system and improve your vagal tone, you can do so in a few different ways.

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So once again, now we're getting, get into how we can make the biggest

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nerve or vagal tone, more healthy, which is in turn, going to help with

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our parasympathetic state as well.

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So number one is going to be exercise.

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So high intensity exercise has been shown to improve vagal tone, better

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than moderate or low intensity.

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But nonetheless, any exercise is going to definitely be of,

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of benefit for your vagal tone.

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So definitely, definitely get out and exercise, exercise

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and movement is medicine.

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Number two.

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Breath work and breath control or pranayama, whatever the

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heck you want to call it.

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Is very, very beneficial for the vagal tone.

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So.

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I have been on the breathing game for a while now.

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Uh, obviously I learned it through my yoga practice.

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It was taught to me in my, uh, yoga.

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Sorry in my yoga teacher training.

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In which we would do breath work every single day for at least an hour.

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And it was incredible.

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The benefits were very, very tangible.

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You could feel them right away.

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Uh,

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You know, it's not like something you would feel down the road, but

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literally right after doing the breath work, you can feel altered states.

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You can feel being relaxed or being activated.

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And for the purpose of this.

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Obviously, we want to focus, focus on the parasympathetic,

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which is more of a calming.

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Uh, type of breath.

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So we want to do types of slower breathing, like.

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Breathing in for five seconds and then exhaling for five seconds

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or maybe doing an inhale of.

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Uh, five and then exhale to the count of eight.

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So kind of increasing the exhale to really stimulate the vagus nerve and the

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parasympathetic nervous system, which is going to, uh, stimulate relaxation

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and decrease stress and anxiety.

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There is also a breath work.

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Uh, where you hum during your exhale.

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And this is also really good for the vagus nerve.

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And honestly, all of these breath works that I've pretty much just

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mentioned are in my breathwork course.

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So I will have those linked, if you want to go ahead and learn these five

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different breath, uh, breath works.

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Go ahead and check that out.

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Most of them are.

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For, uh, you know, the parasympathetic state.

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So trying to get us into a calm state, because I feel that we

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are obviously way too activated.

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There is a activating breath work in there called the breath of fire.

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But nonetheless, the other ones are all for the parasympathetic nervous system.

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And if you wanna check that out, that is in the show notes and

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it is a awesome, awesome course.

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Really was.

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Happy to put that together.

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And I think there's a ton of benefit in it.

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So be sure to check that out.

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And also along with breath work, we have meditation.

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So number three is going to be the meditation.

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Which much like breath work is going to stimulate your vagus

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nerve through calming the mind, calming the body becoming present.

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And also during meditation, a major part of it is connecting to your breath.

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Obviously, you know, following the breath.

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Uh, becoming aware of it.

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This can also help to increase your vagal And then we have

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number four, which is your diet.

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So.

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Pretty much anything that is good for the gut or brain is going to be good

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for the Vegas nerve since it's obviously the connection of the two, right?

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So you want to focus on things like probiotics, prebiotics postbiotics.

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Uh, nutrient dense foods, such as, you know, very like whole

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foods like fruits and vegetables.

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And, um, healthy meats like grassfed beef and lamb and bison and things like that.

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Right.

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And on top of that, obviously you want to avoid the inflammatory foods such

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as fried foods, which is a huge one.

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Huge, huge one.

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Uh, definitely avoid fried foods.

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You want to avoid bad oils, which typically are in the fried foods, right.

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Which are canola oil, soybean.

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Uh, corn vegetable, all of those oils are terrible.

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Uh, Grains can often be inflammatory causing as well.

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So we do want to be careful with those.

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And on top of that, a lot of grains are heavily sprayed with

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pesticides, which are also not good.

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Uh, definitely flour is a heavily sprayed one.

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So being careful with that.

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Sugar and heavily processed Those are the foods that you definitely want to avoid.

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They are the ones that are causing inflammation and

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messing with your vagal tone.

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Now, one more thing I want to throw in here.

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And I thought this was really cool that this was part of

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it, and that is cold water.

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So something that is, you know, everyone has a shower

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that can get pretty dang cold.

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Uh, so pretty much everyone has access to this.

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And it has been proven that cold showers or ice bats have

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been proven to improve your HRV.

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So heart rate variability.

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So this isn't just a trend or anything like that.

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You know, obviously you see a lot of people kind of getting into it.

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Um, but there is some definite benefit to it.

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Uh, you know, along with increased, uh, improving your HRV, it also

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helps with muscle recovery.

Evan: 00:18:58

And also what I think is kind of the most important portion of it is your

Evan: 00:19:02

mental fortitude or your mental strength.

Evan: 00:19:04

Being able to get into that cold water, doing something that you don't want

Evan: 00:19:08

to do, but you make yourself do it has a lot of benefit for the brain.

Evan: 00:19:12

So.

Evan: 00:19:13

That is pretty much going to do it in terms for the Vegas nerve.

Evan: 00:19:17

Um, I think this is a topic I will definitely be revisiting, going deeper

Evan: 00:19:23

on, uh, tying in other parts of it.

Evan: 00:19:25

And, you know, it's just really interesting to see this connection

Evan: 00:19:29

between the gut and the brain.

Evan: 00:19:31

Um, it makes me, like I said, it really does make me think of my

Evan: 00:19:34

childhood a lot when I would have this.

Evan: 00:19:38

You know, for example, I would get nervous or something like that.

Evan: 00:19:43

And my stomach would immediately start hurting and it kind of is really

Evan: 00:19:47

making me reflect now on this vehicle.

Evan: 00:19:51

Uh, this Vegas nerve connection between the gut and the brain right there.

Evan: 00:19:54

There's truly a connection there with the nervousness that might

Evan: 00:19:57

be happening up in my brain, but it's being felt all throughout my

Evan: 00:20:00

body and specifically in my gut.

Evan: 00:20:02

Uh, it just really was like an epiphany moment for me.

Evan: 00:20:05

And so I definitely am excited to dive more in on this and see kind of what

Evan: 00:20:10

connections might be But nonetheless, I think it's just very important that

Evan: 00:20:15

we understand that the vagus nerve is extremely important and trying to

Evan: 00:20:19

improve our vagal tone is going to be.

Evan: 00:20:23

You know, key and just something that we all should definitely be,

Evan: 00:20:27

uh, trying to improve and work on.

Evan: 00:20:28

So, Literally most of the ways that I provided in which you can

Evan: 00:20:32

improve your vagal tone are free.

Evan: 00:20:35

Uh, they cost you nothing and you can do them at any time.

Evan: 00:20:38

You can hop in cold water, you can breathe.

Evan: 00:20:41

Anytime of the day.

Evan: 00:20:42

I hope you're breathing anytime that.

Evan: 00:20:43

All times of Uh, you can meditate and you know, you can easily switch up your

Evan: 00:20:48

diet Uh, accommodate, uh, these healthier foods and it doesn't have to cost you

Evan: 00:20:53

a ton of money, especially, you know, getting rid of a lot of the bad stuff.

Evan: 00:20:57

Uh, cost you nothing.

Evan: 00:20:58

It just get it out of there.

Evan: 00:21:00

So.

Evan: 00:21:01

Anyways.

Evan: 00:21:01

I hope you guys really enjoyed this episode.

Evan: 00:21:04

Um, Yeah, connect with me on any of the, any of the platforms that I'm on,

Evan: 00:21:09

which mainly I'm on, uh, on Instagram.

Evan: 00:21:12

So that's probably the best place to connect with me at, aside from

Evan: 00:21:15

that, be sure to subscribe to this podcast on whatever platform you're

Evan: 00:21:18

on, whether that's apple podcast, Spotify, Google, uh, YouTube.

Evan: 00:21:23

Cause I'm also on there.

Evan: 00:21:23

I put all the video formats on there.

Evan: 00:21:25

So if you want to see this, uh, the show in a video, in a video format,

Evan: 00:21:30

then go ahead and check out YouTube.

Evan: 00:21:31

And like I said, be sure to subscribe on all the platforms because.

Evan: 00:21:34

That way you will make sure you do not miss any of the episodes.

Evan: 00:21:38

And you can leave a review on the apple podcast.

Evan: 00:21:40

Love to see that as well, helps people to find the show.

Evan: 00:21:43

And last, but not least.

Evan: 00:21:44

If you benefited from this show in any way from this episode, then please share

Evan: 00:21:50

it with someone who can also benefit from the show, helps to spread the word and

Evan: 00:21:54

also helps to benefit those around you.

Evan: 00:21:56

So.

Evan: 00:21:57

Anyways.

Evan: 00:21:57

I hope you all really enjoy today's episode.

Evan: 00:21:59

I absolutely loved it.

Evan: 00:22:01

I can't wait to do more research on the vagus nerve and just dive deeper.

Evan: 00:22:05

And yeah, that is going to do it for today's show.

Evan: 00:22:08

So anyways, uh, hope you guys can implement some of these practices

Evan: 00:22:12

into your lives today, and you already know the motto of the show.

Evan: 00:22:15

It's do everything with good intentions, connect to your elements,

Evan: 00:22:19

and I appreciate you all, so very much, much love to everybody.

Evan: 00:22:22

Have a great rest of your week.