How the vagus nerve affects our body

PAID CONTENT

There is a very important nerve in your body that makes direct connections between your brain and vital organs including your stomach, lungs, heart, spleen, intestines, liver and kidneys.

In the brain, it helps control anxiety and depression.

In the digestive tract, it increases stomach acidity, digestive juice secretion, and gut flow. Since the vagus nerve is important for increasing gut motility, so having decrease vagus activation can increase your risk of IBS.

In the liver and pancreas, it helps control blood glucose balance.

In the gallbladder, it helps release bile, which can help you break down fat.

It controls heart rate and blood pressure. Vagus stimulation can lower the risk of heart disease.

It can reduce inflammation, in the spleen.

As you can see, the vagus nerve is extremely important for keeping our bodies healthy and free from disease by regulating our immune systems, controlling stress and reducing inflammation.

To understand how our nervous system works, we must understand the two parts of our nervous system. Our autonomic nervous system, which is made up of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, work to counterbalance each other.

When the sympathetic nervous system becomes stimulated it helps us in the time of stress, injury or infection. It helps us to handle what we perceive as an emergency and activate the fight or flight response. When this occurs, our heart rate increases, blood pressure increases, breathing becomes rapid and shallow, sweating increases, and if there is an injury or infection, the area becomes inflamed.

Luckily the parasympathetic nervous system is designed to counterbalance the sympathetic nervous system by relaxing and calming the body. It promotes rest and relaxation by decreasing our heart rate, slowing our breathing and reducing inflammation.

The sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system must work in tandem so our body works properly. They must counterbalance each other in order to keep your body and your health in harmony. If either of the two systems are not kept in-check or work in harmony, it can cause many types of adverse health conditions and disease.

The vagus nerve is a crucial part of your parasympathetic nervous system. It plays a vital role in reducing stress, lowering elevated heart and breathing rates, preventing long-term inflammation and resetting your immune system so it doesn’t overreact and over respond.

If the vagus nerve is not working properly or isn’t healthy, it cannot counterbalance your sympathetic nervous system and reset your immune system which can lead to the long list of health conditions associated with chronic inflammation.

Keeping your vagus nerve and your entire central nervous system healthy and free from subluxation is vital to overall health and wellness. A healthy nervous system keeps all other systems of your body functioning properly, including your immune system. This helps prevent and address many types of health conditions like the ones associated with chronic inflammation.

So stimulating the vagus nerve is crucial to our health and wellbeing. Here are a few ways to help: exercise/yoga, deep breathing, massage, and chiropractic care, low level laser therapy (ultra violet laser), Probiotics (there’s a strong connection between the gut and brain via the vagus nerve), omega 3s and cold. Any kind of cold; cold water, cold shower, cold washcloth on the face. Studies show that when your body adjusts to cold, your sympathetic nervous system declines and your parasympathetic nervous system increases, which is controlled by the vagus nerve.

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Dr. Wayne M. Fichter Jr. is a chiropractor at Natural Spine Solutions. The business is located at 3913 Schreiber Way in Coeur d’Alene, 208-966-4425.