7 ways to stimulate your vagus nerve and manage stress levels

Stressed? Anxious? Run off your feet? Vagus nerve stimulation can help!

 

What exactly is the vagus nerve?

The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body.

It connects your brain to many important organs throughout the body, including the gut (intestines, stomach), heart and lungs.

In fact, the word “vagus” means “wanderer” in Latin, which accurately represents how the nerve wanders all over the body and reaches various organs.

The vagus nerve is a key part of your “rest an digest” nervous system; known as the parasympathetic nervous system. This is the opposite of the “fight and flight” nervous system.

 

Why would you want to increase vagus nerve activity?

The “rest and digest” nervous system influences your breathing, digestive function and heart rate, all of which can have a huge impact on you and your life. By stimulating the vagus nerve, you can send a message to your nerve system saying that it’s time to relax and de-stress, and to do all these functions that keep our body and mind functioning well; which can only help you in the long term!

 

Benefits of using the “rest and digest” system more frequently than the “fight and flight” system can include

• Helping your body relax quicker – handy after stress at work or when you’re trying to drift off to sleep at night
• Reducing your overall stress levels and improving your mental health
• Improving your physical health – our body is designed to function best during the “rest and digest” times, “fight and flight” focuses purely on survival
• Increasing your tolerance to pain – great for our clients with chronic pain or a long term injury

 

How will I know if it has worked?

The easiest way to know is that you will feel calmer, less stressed or anxious, or better able to deal with whatever stressors you are facing. We can also measure your vagus nerve activity by tracking things like your heart rate and breathing rate which will both sit at a lower resting rate during the “rest and digest” nervous system rule vs the “fight and flight” response.

 

How can you stimulate your vagus nerve?

Here are seven easy ways to stimulate your vagus nerve naturally and set yourself on a path to relaxation, and one of better physical and mental health.

 

1. Cold Exposure

Researchers have also found that exposing yourself to cold on a regular basis can lower your sympathetic “fight or flight” response and increase parasympathetic activity through the vagus nerve.

 

A great way to do this is a morning swim at the beach or by taking cold showers. If you’re anything like me, cold showers are not your friend haha but we can start with just decreasing the temperature and aiming for 30 seconds and build our way up. Or just bite the bullet and treat yourself afterwards as a reward!

If the cold shower or a cold swim is too daunting, you could start with just putting your face into a bowl of ice-cold water.

 

2. Deep and Slow Breathing

We have all experienced how breathing can impact our stress levels. Do you use long slow breathing to help us relax while getting injections or having blood taken? And have you experienced how your heart rate quickens when somebody gives you a fright or you almost trip over?

 

The aim here is to take long and slow breaths, and to breath right down into your diaphragm/belly. A great starting point is box breathing. Try to aim for the rule of 4. 4 seconds for the in breath : 4 second hold : 4 seconds for the breath out : 4 second hold and repeat for 4 minutes (or longer!). If this goes well and you don’t find yourself feeling dizzy or faint then you can try to increase to 6 seconds for each stage of the breath.

 

You can ask your osteo to check if you are breathing into your diaphragm correctly but the best way to know is that your lower ribs and stomach should fill and expand on the in breath and your chest shouldn’t move too much. Practice by placing a hand on your belly and focusing on the movement in that area.

 

3. Singing, Humming, Chanting and Gargling

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.

 

Remember the scene in the ‘The Sweetest Thing’ with the piercing in a certain body part and the whole room singing along to help muscles relax to separate the two love birds? Maybe there was some truth to that theory after all!

 

4. Probiotics

It’s becoming increasingly clear to researchers that gut bacteria improves brain function by affecting the vagus nerve.

 

You might like to increase your natural greek yoghurt intake, or you could look at taking a probiotic supplement; best to chat to your local naturopath or pharmacist about which one might be right for you.

 

5. Meditation

We all know the benefits of meditation on our stress levels. Need I say more? It’s time to take some ‘me time’!

 

6. Exercise

Exercise has so so SO many benefits, but if you really need to hear another one – it also helps to stimulate your vagus nerve.

 

The best plan with exercise is to choose something you like doing so that you will want to do it regularly. If you don’t have specific goals in mind (like to run a marathon) then any form of exercise will be perfect for you. Aim for being active on most, preferably all, days of the week and try to accumulate 150-300 minutes over the course of the week as a minimum.

 

7. Socialising and Laughing

Laughter really is the best medicine! You can’t tell me you don’t feel less stressed after a big belly laugh or a night out with friends?? And if covid taught us anything it’s how much of an impact social isolation can have on our mental health.

 

 

We hope that you implement some of the above steps into your daily life, and that these changes help you to live a less stressful life!

Let us know at your next osteo appointment how you go!