Speaker 1: This is the Anxiety Bites podcast, and I am your host,
Speaker 1: Jen Kirkman. While I'm doing another episode of Anxiety Bites,
Speaker 1: I am your host, Jen Kirkman. Let's talk about the
Speaker 1: Vegas nerve. Now, I've heard this term, and I can't
Speaker 1: believe in my billions of years working on my anxiety
Speaker 1: that no one really ever mentioned it to me. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess you don't need to know what it is,
Speaker 1: but it's pretty fascinating to know that we have this
Speaker 1: nerve that send signals to almost every part of our body.
Speaker 1: And there are ways to stimulate this nerve that don't
Speaker 1: involve touching it directly. It's not like a muscle that
Speaker 1: you would get a massage on, but that when this
Speaker 1: nerve is sort of poop, doubt, it disrupts the signals
Speaker 1: it's trying to send to certain parts of our body
Speaker 1: for digestion or for you know, thinking. Clearly, it covers
Speaker 1: so many different things, and so I guess it's just
Speaker 1: more knowledge so that when you think about doing a
Speaker 1: relaxation exercise or doing a meditation, you might think, well,
Speaker 1: I don't need to do that. I feel okay mentally,
Speaker 1: I'm in a good mood. And it's like wessage just
Speaker 1: about your mood. You know, you want to stimulate your
Speaker 1: vaguas nerve so that things are running a okay in
Speaker 1: your body. And it's not something that we have to
Speaker 1: like obsess over and worry about. Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: didn't stimulate my veguas nerve today, But it's just something
Speaker 1: to be aware of that it kind of contributes to
Speaker 1: the overall And so there's so much that this nerve
Speaker 1: does that I actually have two episodes coming out about it.
Speaker 1: Today I'm talking to Dr Novaz Habib about more physical
Speaker 1: aspects of the vegas nerve, and he has a book
Speaker 1: titled Activate your Vagus Nerve. Unleash your body natural ability
Speaker 1: to heal, gut sensitivities, inflammation, brain fog, anxiety, autoimmunity, depression.
Speaker 1: And then next week's episode, I'll be talking to someone about,
Speaker 1: you know, healing emotional trauma and what emotional trauma does
Speaker 1: to the vagus nerves. So at the end of this episode,
Speaker 1: before I get to the takeaways, I will read to
Speaker 1: you from Dr Habib's book about some of the exercises
Speaker 1: that you can do, whether it's daily or ones that
Speaker 1: are better to do. Just weakly to help activate the
Speaker 1: vagus nerves. I will give you all of them. You
Speaker 1: can get the rest in his book, but just to
Speaker 1: give you an idea. So I'm just going to get
Speaker 1: right to this episode because this is all kind of
Speaker 1: newer to me. So let's just let the expert talk
Speaker 1: about it, and I don't need to keep babbling about
Speaker 1: the vagus nerve. But yeah, I mean this is almost like,
Speaker 1: you know, a like the cliff note. It's a version
Speaker 1: of what the vagus nerve does. I mean, if you
Speaker 1: know a lot about it, you're probably going to sit
Speaker 1: there and be like, oh my god, there's so much more,
Speaker 1: and it's like I know, I know. Um So anyway,
Speaker 1: my guest today, Dr Novas Habb is an author. He's
Speaker 1: also the founder of Health Upgraded, a functional medicine and
Speaker 1: health optimization clinic in Toronto, Canada. He works with high
Speaker 1: performing professionals, athletes, and entrepreneurs to dig a little deeper
Speaker 1: and find the answers to what's holding back their health again.
Speaker 1: He's also the author of Activate Your Vegas Nerve and
Speaker 1: all uh. All links will be in the show notes
Speaker 1: right here where you can get the book and find
Speaker 1: out more about dr have and for now, let's find
Speaker 1: out more about the Vegas nerve. Well, the vagus nerve,
Speaker 1: and everyone listening it's not spelled like las Vegas v
Speaker 1: A g U S. Sure they know because they're reading along.
Speaker 1: But I had heard of the vagus nerve, and throughout
Speaker 1: this podcast, smart people I've talked to have casually mentioned it,
Speaker 1: and I kept thinking, I have to do a Vegas
Speaker 1: nerve episode. And when I read your book, Activate your
Speaker 1: Vagus Nerve, unleash your body's natural ability to heal, I
Speaker 1: was blown away by everything that our vagus nerve. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if controls is the right word, but I
Speaker 1: will say casually controls or has a hand in. And
Speaker 1: so let's just start real basic. What is the vagus
Speaker 1: nerve and what are the main things in the body
Speaker 1: it controls? Yeah, the book, the book goes into a
Speaker 1: lot more depth, but we can definitely cover the basics
Speaker 1: here and so, um, we we have lots of nerves
Speaker 1: in our body. And the reason I talked about this
Speaker 1: one is because it's a special nerve. It it really
Speaker 1: does a lot more than people realize. It connects to
Speaker 1: so many different places. That's in fact why they named it.
Speaker 1: The vagus nerve came from the root word of vague
Speaker 1: or like I guess it means wandering, meaning that it
Speaker 1: goes to so many different places. So it's one of
Speaker 1: twelve pairs of cranial nerves that comes out of the
Speaker 1: brain stem, which is that little projection just below the
Speaker 1: brain as we know it where if you've ever watched
Speaker 1: Um the Water Boy, he talks about the medulla oblong dada.
Speaker 1: That's exactly where the vegas nerve actually comes out. Where
Speaker 1: it comes out. It comes out one on each side.
Speaker 1: There's four roots and then they come out and they
Speaker 1: connect and then they actually blend together. The right side
Speaker 1: and the left side blend together, and it has different
Speaker 1: branches that go to a bunch of different areas. Like
Speaker 1: all of the other twelve cranial nerves, primarily they're going
Speaker 1: to hit areas in the head and face area, so
Speaker 1: things like I control and facial muscles are controlled through
Speaker 1: the cranial nerves. But the vagus nerve does a bit
Speaker 1: more than that, so it does have a little bit
Speaker 1: of control in and around the head and neck. It
Speaker 1: actually sends a branch to the ear for skin sensation.
Speaker 1: It sends a couple of branches to the throat, to
Speaker 1: the pharynx, and to the larynx. Those are the muscles
Speaker 1: at the back of the throat that allow the airway
Speaker 1: to remain open, and the laryngeal muscles, so it helps
Speaker 1: to pull and push the the vocal cards. So that
Speaker 1: in fact, is what gives us pitch and tone in
Speaker 1: our voice. So the reason that can go really really
Speaker 1: low or really really high with my voice is because
Speaker 1: I have tone or tonally within my vagus nerve sending
Speaker 1: signals through there to stretch the muscles and pull the
Speaker 1: vocal chords accordingly. But then it continues down and it
Speaker 1: actually courses in the neck right beside the carotid artery
Speaker 1: in the jugular vein, and what makes things I always
Speaker 1: feel like you don't want to hit those exactly. So
Speaker 1: it's actually funny enough. It's inside the same sheet that's
Speaker 1: inside the same tissue as those two blood vessels. So
Speaker 1: those are the blood vessels that supply blood to the
Speaker 1: brain and take blood away from the brain. And so
Speaker 1: it just goes to show how important this nerve truly is.
Speaker 1: Because it gets severed or if anything within that sheath
Speaker 1: gets severed, the function of our body is going to
Speaker 1: be severely limited. And so as it goes down, it
Speaker 1: then enters into the thorax, into the chest area, where
Speaker 1: it innervates the heart to control heart rate and do
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of other stuff. It goes to the
Speaker 1: lungs to monitor the breath rate. Doesn't control it, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't monitor it, and that's really important. And it
Speaker 1: talks about inflammation, supports the inflammation response within all of
Speaker 1: these organs as well. But it doesn't stop there, continues
Speaker 1: on down with the esophagus and goes through the diaphragm
Speaker 1: into our abdomen, into our belly, where it then innervates
Speaker 1: essentially every single organ within the entire belly. There's no
Speaker 1: other nerve in the body that does anything like this.
Speaker 1: It's going to innervate the spleen, the kidneys, the liver, stomach,
Speaker 1: small intestine, large intestine, you name it. Every organ has
Speaker 1: some sort of connection to the vegus nerve. And that's
Speaker 1: what really stuck out to me about the topic about
Speaker 1: this nerve. It's always stuck out to me. I'm a
Speaker 1: chiropractor by profession, and so like nerve a system, brain
Speaker 1: function has always been a huge piece of my my
Speaker 1: journey and understanding health, and so this one always stuck
Speaker 1: out as a really important piece of the puzzle, and
Speaker 1: so that's why I wanted to share once I learned
Speaker 1: a bit more about what it does, that it needed
Speaker 1: to be told to people because there's such an important
Speaker 1: controlling mechanism here and you were using a word is
Speaker 1: it innervate? Is that what you were saying? It means
Speaker 1: supplyect right, So it means connect to and send signals to.
Speaker 1: More from I do want to talk about this concept
Speaker 1: that you do mention in the book that the vagus
Speaker 1: nerve has a function in which is gut health. But
Speaker 1: before we even get to that, I just have a
Speaker 1: really silly question why. I mean, this is just a
Speaker 1: philosophical question, but why why have this one nerve do
Speaker 1: so much? Isn't that dangerous? And shouldn't it delegate to
Speaker 1: other nerves? Is it? Or is there an advantage to
Speaker 1: having one nerve do so much? It's a really great question. Um.
Speaker 1: If I knew the full answer to that, I think
Speaker 1: it would be on par with whatever ultimate being there
Speaker 1: is out there. I don't have a full answer to that. Um,
Speaker 1: we do know that the parasympathetic nervous system, which is
Speaker 1: kind of what that rest digest recovery system is signaled
Speaker 1: through the vegas nerve. And yeah, it is a single
Speaker 1: point of failure potentially right and certain indices. But I
Speaker 1: don't think it was built out with the intention of
Speaker 1: ever having been injured, uh severely right, um And so
Speaker 1: that's why it's it's encased in a very important sheet.
Speaker 1: It connects left and right. It has a couple of
Speaker 1: different kind of backup plans. Essentially it can go up
Speaker 1: through either side and connect to the same area and
Speaker 1: send signals accordingly. Um So, so there is a bit
Speaker 1: of a backup plan built into it, but it just
Speaker 1: it's more of a therm stat type of function than
Speaker 1: it is a signaling out from the brain function. And
Speaker 1: so it's not as worries some if anything does happen
Speaker 1: that said trauma and injury to the nerve would creative
Speaker 1: does create significant challenges to a lot of people. I
Speaker 1: want to address this because the words gut health and
Speaker 1: mind body connection and inflammation are very popular in our culture.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people take those terms and
Speaker 1: run with it in ways that I think are damaging.
Speaker 1: So let's demystify these things, because your book goes so
Speaker 1: well into explaining and honestly, it's like taking a college
Speaker 1: course in you know, biology, but you say in this
Speaker 1: bum to read your book to you. One of the
Speaker 1: most likely low grade stressors that you may not be
Speaker 1: aware of is the bacteria living in and around you.
Speaker 1: The population of bacteria living in your gut and on
Speaker 1: your skin has a significant effect on us, and if
Speaker 1: that population is optimally balanced, it can be a major
Speaker 1: stressor on your body. So so let's start there. What
Speaker 1: what does that mean? What is gut health? How does
Speaker 1: it relate to being a stress around the body, which
Speaker 1: I assume would come up in the form of stress, anxiety,
Speaker 1: even pain. Yeah. Absolutely. Um. The best way to kind
Speaker 1: of simplify this and understand it within context is that
Speaker 1: we have between forty and sixty trillion human cells in
Speaker 1: our body, and these forty six trillion human cells can't
Speaker 1: function on their own in the environment that we are in.
Speaker 1: They require support from some external ah cells and organisms,
Speaker 1: and these are things that we generally can't see, and
Speaker 1: those are the bacteria, parasites, viruses, east horns that are
Speaker 1: all around us. With the majority of these other organisms.
Speaker 1: We have a sim biotic relationship, meaning that we work
Speaker 1: really well with them, and they work really well with us.
Speaker 1: Our body provides them with nutrients that they need, they
Speaker 1: assimilate and provide us nutrients that we need, and over
Speaker 1: the millennia of our revolution, we have evolved to have
Speaker 1: this very positive relationship with the vast majority of these
Speaker 1: microbiome supporting a microbiome producing populations. So I said, we
Speaker 1: have between fourty and sixty trillion human cells in our body.
Speaker 1: Just in our large intestine alone, we have over a
Speaker 1: hundred trillion bacteria HM. So that population is really quite important.
Speaker 1: And I know it sounds a little hokey when we
Speaker 1: talk about gut help when we talk about microbiome, but
Speaker 1: the scientists finally starting to catch up and it's actually
Speaker 1: starting to identify exactly where these challenges can come from
Speaker 1: and what this disbiosis meaning imbalance within the gut can
Speaker 1: lead to. Okay, I having instituted testing in my own practice,
Speaker 1: so I actually help people identify where the challenges are
Speaker 1: coming from. Adam microbiome level using stool testing, using DNA
Speaker 1: based stool testing to identify exactly what types of bacteria
Speaker 1: are around. Yeah, you know, I talk a lot about
Speaker 1: on this podcast about the concept of chemical imbalance when
Speaker 1: it comes to treating anxiety depression with medication. There's just
Speaker 1: no test, you know, and something like this we hear
Speaker 1: gut health. I'm glad to hear that there is actually
Speaker 1: a way to find out what's in there, what's imbalanced. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this is what what I kind of practice in
Speaker 1: my own life and my own journey. I found functional
Speaker 1: medicine which really helped me to support my own health.
Speaker 1: I used to way to enter fifty pounds, high blood pressure,
Speaker 1: borderline diabetes in my twenties and just was dealing with
Speaker 1: significant health challenges. Energy was always low, and when I
Speaker 1: was introduced to this it was a bit of a
Speaker 1: shock to my system. I was going through chiropractic college.
Speaker 1: I thought I knew everything about health. I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: able to share this with so many people, but I
Speaker 1: wasn't implementing it myself. And then when functional medicine came around,
Speaker 1: it really helped open my eyes too beyond what we
Speaker 1: tend to kind of see in the conventional system. And
Speaker 1: the testing was key to this. When we understand biochemically
Speaker 1: what's truly going on within our body when we have UH,
Speaker 1: the step by step process is shown to us based
Speaker 1: on the actual testing that we see through gut testing,
Speaker 1: through urinary organic acid testing, through hormone testing. These can
Speaker 1: help us to really pick out the specific areas where
Speaker 1: we as an individual or having issues. And then this
Speaker 1: is where we can kind of marry new world scientific
Speaker 1: insights and tools that we have through testing with old
Speaker 1: world wisdom that's been there through traditional Chinese medicine, ire
Speaker 1: vetic medicine, Mediterranean medicine, and has truly slowly transformed into
Speaker 1: kind of this natural alternative care type of idea. Even
Speaker 1: though it's not truly alternative, it's something that's been there
Speaker 1: for much longer than the conventional system that we're in. Right,
Speaker 1: it's an alternative to the newer thing we made up
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. So, I've worked with many people that are
Speaker 1: dealing with mental health struggles, a lot of people with
Speaker 1: autoimmune conditions, a lot of people with these underlying root causes.
Speaker 1: And when we identify what that root causes, and it's
Speaker 1: often about the time I can identify that microbiome imbalance,
Speaker 1: that disbiosis that's going on within the gut, that's affecting
Speaker 1: the gut health, and so we actually have scientific like
Speaker 1: proof of why the problem is occurring, why we're leading
Speaker 1: down this path of inflammatory reactions within the gut that's
Speaker 1: leading elsewhere. We also, just as a side note, seventy
Speaker 1: percent of our immune cells by volume are located in
Speaker 1: the lining of the gut, and so this is where
Speaker 1: inflammation will often come up. We have this protective mechanism
Speaker 1: because we know that not all good things are in
Speaker 1: the gut. It's not all good bacteria, um parasites, worms,
Speaker 1: candid to all these things do pop up, and so
Speaker 1: we need to protect ourselves from it. And if we're
Speaker 1: not providing the right tools for the immune system to
Speaker 1: be able to handle those threats, that's where the problems
Speaker 1: tend to occur. Um That comes down to diet, that
Speaker 1: comes down to breathing, That comes down to vagus nerve activity,
Speaker 1: because the vagus nervous supplying information to that area, to
Speaker 1: the gut lining, to the inflammatory cells that in fact
Speaker 1: controls an entire system called the coolinergic anti inflammatory system
Speaker 1: literally is controlled through the vagus nerve. If that signaling
Speaker 1: isn't present, then we can't put the brakes on an
Speaker 1: accelerator basically, So what I like to say is our
Speaker 1: our bodies aren't like a car, and the accelerator is
Speaker 1: like the sympathetic nervous system where we go in to
Speaker 1: fight or flight. We're in go mode. But when we
Speaker 1: get to a red lighter, when we get to a
Speaker 1: yellow light, we need to slow down. We need to
Speaker 1: be able to shut off or decrease the speed by
Speaker 1: which we're going. If we can't do that, we're gonna
Speaker 1: cause major issues. Right we're going to go through a
Speaker 1: red light, We're gonna hurt somebody potentially. And so the
Speaker 1: brakes are the parasympathetic nervous system. The vaguest nerve is
Speaker 1: the brakes to the entire system. We'll be right back, Okay,
Speaker 1: So the vagus nerve monitors what's going on in the
Speaker 1: gut and and again at the end of the episode
Speaker 1: will get more solution based. But so there's a world
Speaker 1: where not just through diet, which I know does affect
Speaker 1: the vaguest nerve, but certain exercises we can do, whether
Speaker 1: it's acupuncture or massage or changing our sleep that can
Speaker 1: change how the vagus nerve monitors the gut and somehow
Speaker 1: help heal or am I kind of relating that in
Speaker 1: a way that's not correct. Oftentimes, what exacerbates the issues
Speaker 1: that we are experiencing is the fact that the vegas
Speaker 1: nerve is under too much pressure. So when we if
Speaker 1: we go back to the brakes a little bit, as
Speaker 1: a very simple example, brake pads wear out the same
Speaker 1: way the vegas nerve can get overworked. If we're constantly
Speaker 1: providing inflammatory um challenges to the body, the brakes are
Speaker 1: gonna wear out. The vegas nerve can't handle a ton
Speaker 1: of constant chronic inflammatory issues that are constantly coming up,
Speaker 1: and so slowly and surely the vegas tone is going
Speaker 1: to decrease. The ability for our vegas nerve to send
Speaker 1: these signals on a regular basis is going to come down.
Speaker 1: And so what we need to do is to do
Speaker 1: the exercises, do the tools, and provide the vagus nerve
Speaker 1: and opportunity to do the work that it needs to
Speaker 1: do without providing more chronic inflammatory reactions on a regular basis.
Speaker 1: So this is what they do. Um when when we
Speaker 1: do the deep breathing exercise, when we do the meditation,
Speaker 1: when we do the the good gut health cleanses and
Speaker 1: the detoxes, if that's the plan that you want to
Speaker 1: go down. Um, what we're essentially doing is we're decreasing
Speaker 1: the inflammatory triggers and we're giving the body a chance
Speaker 1: to heal itself. The body truly does know how to
Speaker 1: heal itself, but we have to give it the right environment,
Speaker 1: the right tools, the right inputs to be able to
Speaker 1: do so. And so that's where the exercises will help
Speaker 1: to provide that initial step. And for some people we
Speaker 1: might need to go a step further where we actually
Speaker 1: change the microbiome using probiotics, where we actually address specific,
Speaker 1: potentially genetic, some somewhat functional imbalances with certain supplements or
Speaker 1: certain ingredients that need to be included within their diet.
Speaker 1: And that's where we can work on the optimization side
Speaker 1: of things, where we can actually help the body to
Speaker 1: function at a slightly better level. It's almost like a
Speaker 1: bio hacking type of idea, but in a very clinical
Speaker 1: and very test based sense, so we know exactly what
Speaker 1: we're trying to accomplish. And that's why the vast majority
Speaker 1: of people that work with a properly trained functional medicine
Speaker 1: practitioner somebody that understands the function of the body really well,
Speaker 1: often have really good results. When I think about inflammation,
Speaker 1: I often say, if I'm feeling off, I don't know
Speaker 1: how to allow us to put it. I might say,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's inflammation somewhere. I don't know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, but it's just become a new word
Speaker 1: in my life. And what exactly is inflammation? I mean,
Speaker 1: I assume something is literally inflamed or uh. And then
Speaker 1: so how does it happen? How do we bring it down?
Speaker 1: And kind of demystified this other buzzword I hear a
Speaker 1: lot totally. So inflammation is our body's response to trauma
Speaker 1: and stress within different ways. And there's there's four different
Speaker 1: types of stressors that can trigger inflammatory responses. Emotional stress
Speaker 1: is one. We can have this brain inflammation that pops
Speaker 1: up that leads to brain fogginess and ability to think clearly,
Speaker 1: memory challenges. And this can happen because we're dealing with
Speaker 1: relationship stress or financial stress on a day to day basis, kids, etcetera.
Speaker 1: And really rough nite with my kids last night, so
Speaker 1: I can um. So, emotional stress is one, Psychological stress
Speaker 1: is another one. And you may say, well, what's the
Speaker 1: difference between emotional and psychological. Psychological is more kind of
Speaker 1: past related. What are the challenges that we experienced potentially
Speaker 1: as a child, potentially as we were growing up that
Speaker 1: created the scratches on the lens through which we see
Speaker 1: the world. Right, So I only see the world in
Speaker 1: this way because I was affected in a negative way
Speaker 1: in the past. Right, What are those emotional attachments that
Speaker 1: we have that have created that that scuff on the lens? Okay,
Speaker 1: so a little bit different. We always want to look
Speaker 1: at the timeline when we're looking at a certain case,
Speaker 1: when somebody's experienced potentially trauma or something they were younger,
Speaker 1: and then we have physical stress. These are the things
Speaker 1: that we think of when we think of inflammation. More commonly,
Speaker 1: we're thinking about car accident and we've hurt ourselves whiplash, etcetera.
Speaker 1: And now we have to send all of these cells
Speaker 1: to this area to help repair the damage. And that's
Speaker 1: what inflammation is. Initially in the acute sense, inflammation is
Speaker 1: sending these cells to an area that's damage to help
Speaker 1: support repair of it. Inflammation is a good thing in
Speaker 1: an acute scenario. When that inflammation can't be controlled is
Speaker 1: when it becomes a bad thing. And so the physical
Speaker 1: sense is like, let's think of a bruise on our arm.
Speaker 1: We get this big swelling, we get that inflammatory warm response.
Speaker 1: That's because the blood flow is going to that area
Speaker 1: to help to repair that damage. So that's a really
Speaker 1: simple way to think about it. But physical uh, stress
Speaker 1: will create that. And then the last one is biochemical stress,
Speaker 1: and this is generally the stuff that we don't see
Speaker 1: until it's maybe a little bit late. This is where
Speaker 1: food sensitivities can come in for a lot of people
Speaker 1: that are dealing with specific sensitivities too. For some people,
Speaker 1: gluten for some people, dairy for some people, um, nightshade,
Speaker 1: vegetables can do it, for some people, meat can do it. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: different people have different triggers that can create this biochemical response,
Speaker 1: So for some people it's a food based thing, but
Speaker 1: for a lot of other people. We have to add
Speaker 1: it to this entire realm of toxic ingredients that are
Speaker 1: around us, right, the pesticides that are sprayed on our foods,
Speaker 1: the inorganic laundry detergent that we use, or the chemicals
Speaker 1: that are on receipt paper when we get our receipt
Speaker 1: from Costco or from wherever we're shopping. As we walk out,
Speaker 1: we're holding this receipt paper which is sending bisphenol a
Speaker 1: b p A into our bloodstream. The longer you hold that,
Speaker 1: by the way, the more you're gonna absorb. So do
Speaker 1: your best to just toss your receipt onto the carpeople
Speaker 1: as much as you can. Yes, the CBS receipts are
Speaker 1: killing us, that's exactly right. So we want to be
Speaker 1: really careful about this toxic burden because that excess toxin
Speaker 1: load that our body then has to handle will only
Speaker 1: add to the inflammatory response that our body is going
Speaker 1: to create. We have a lot that we have to
Speaker 1: deal with. Our liver is detoxifying constantly, and if our
Speaker 1: body doesn't have the capacity to handle it, then as
Speaker 1: a toxic burden goes up, that biochemical stress increases, our
Speaker 1: inflammatory response gets hindered more and more. And so the
Speaker 1: response is what's mediated through the vagus nerve. How do
Speaker 1: we help to limit how much inflammation is occurring. Inflammation
Speaker 1: is good, like I said, in an acute scenario, it
Speaker 1: helps to repair tissue. It sends the cells to the
Speaker 1: area that are going to help repair the white blood
Speaker 1: cells the fibroblasts. They don't need to get into the specifics,
Speaker 1: but it's gonna send the specific cells to that area
Speaker 1: through the blood to repair damage. If that does not
Speaker 1: get controlled, then our immune response and our inflammatory response
Speaker 1: is uncontrolled, and that's where the problem will occur when
Speaker 1: we have chronic inflammation. Chronic uncontrolled inflammation is essentially we're
Speaker 1: stepping on the accelerator and not allowing the brakes to
Speaker 1: do their job, not allowing the brakes to slow it
Speaker 1: down and to limit inflammation. The way inflammation occurs within
Speaker 1: the body is a traumatic incident of some sort occurs,
Speaker 1: we send cells to the area. There's a ton of
Speaker 1: chemical reactions. Don't need to get into the specifics, but
Speaker 1: that's going to send more and more cells to the
Speaker 1: area to repair. If it happens in certain areas like joints,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get things like rheumatoid ar thornies. If it
Speaker 1: happens in the thyroid, we're gonna get hashimotos there. If
Speaker 1: it happens in the brain, we could get things like
Speaker 1: MS or brain fog or significant challenges that occur long term.
Speaker 1: We need to control the inflammation, and that signal is
Speaker 1: sent through the vagus nerve via that col allergic anti
Speaker 1: inflammatory system which is mediated there, so where the vaggest
Speaker 1: nerves the brakes to help control what that inflammation is
Speaker 1: going to do. So if I a person who is
Speaker 1: suspect that maybe I have some inflammation in my body,
Speaker 1: I am feeling whatever that feels like because of the
Speaker 1: vagus nerve. Is that correct it. When the vagus nerve
Speaker 1: identifies that there are inflammatory signals around our body, it
Speaker 1: can signal upwards via signals that go from the body
Speaker 1: to the brain through the vagus nerve. Yes, but it's
Speaker 1: not the same as like when you feel somebody touching
Speaker 1: your hand. Those are going through scaltal nerves that those
Speaker 1: are the nerves that go via our spinal cord. So
Speaker 1: there's different nerves that will have different functions. We can't
Speaker 1: truly feel through our vagus nerve. It's not feeling from
Speaker 1: like a sense perspective. It's more of autonomic monitoring. So
Speaker 1: think of it more like the thermostatic of our of
Speaker 1: our body. Anxiety bites will be right back after a
Speaker 1: quick little message from one of our sponsors. You mentioned
Speaker 1: that acute inflammation is part of how the body heals
Speaker 1: and a really good example of something on your arms swelling.
Speaker 1: We're going to have a little lump there for a while.
Speaker 1: But when something is chronically inflamed, that's when it's moved
Speaker 1: into a disordered area. And that is again another through
Speaker 1: line that happens throughout this podcast. Is the same for anxiety.
Speaker 1: You know, we need our acute moments of anxiety so
Speaker 1: that we don't get hit by a car or we
Speaker 1: know to respond to something, and then it's disordered when
Speaker 1: we feel that way all of the time. If I'm
Speaker 1: experiencing brain fogged because of inflammation in my brain, is
Speaker 1: my brain literally swollen. I'll give you an example. My
Speaker 1: dad um ten years ago. He's fine now, thank god,
Speaker 1: but fell down, hit his head and had a subdural
Speaker 1: hematomy and his brain a swelling. Because I'm not telling
Speaker 1: you this, but you know, to the listeners and correct
Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong. But the there was blood starting
Speaker 1: to pool and his brain was swelling and moving away
Speaker 1: from it so you know, to protect itself. And then
Speaker 1: of course that caused him not to be able to speak.
Speaker 1: He was making no sense. He had to have a
Speaker 1: surgery to drain the blood. Now obviously that's not what
Speaker 1: my brain is doing when I'm having brain fog, But
Speaker 1: is it not to a small extent that's exactly right,
Speaker 1: to a very very small extent, not to the point
Speaker 1: where it's actually going to trigger a pressure increase within
Speaker 1: the cranial cavity like it does in the case of
Speaker 1: your father's with subderal hematoma. So with an acute physical
Speaker 1: trauma where you hit your head, whether it's a traumatic
Speaker 1: brain injury of some sort, whether it's a whiplash style
Speaker 1: or concussion style injury, those are physical reasons for inflammation
Speaker 1: to occur within the brain, uh in and around the brain,
Speaker 1: And subderal means just below in the ninjis, so it's
Speaker 1: in the casing around the brain. When that happens, when
Speaker 1: there's bone that's kind of blocking it, then we actually
Speaker 1: have this swelling that's physically pushing on the brain. Right.
Speaker 1: So this is like it's going to affect a specific area. Say,
Speaker 1: for example, in your dad's case, it was affecting his
Speaker 1: speech area, as inability to speak came from physically having
Speaker 1: pressure on that area. When it comes to something like
Speaker 1: a biochemical respond to biochemical inflammation, we're looking at just
Speaker 1: activation of some of the cells within the brain and
Speaker 1: the nervous system itself, and these are called glial cells
Speaker 1: and astro sites. These cells make up they're they're called
Speaker 1: glial cells because they were initially thought to be the glue,
Speaker 1: but they're really the immune cells within the brain. And
Speaker 1: so what they do is they are the ones that
Speaker 1: are constantly making sure that there isn't any damage occurring
Speaker 1: within the brain. They're proning nerve endings, They're making sure
Speaker 1: that the nerves are are functioning at the best possible leve.
Speaker 1: But when they become hyperactivated because we're under some sort
Speaker 1: of stress, some sort of inflammatory response, usually within our gut,
Speaker 1: and we can get into that, it's going to trigger
Speaker 1: it's going to trigger the glial cells to do too much,
Speaker 1: and so they will actually shut down more neurons than
Speaker 1: they need to, and that actually slows processing speed within
Speaker 1: our brain. Oh that is so well explained. Okay, So
Speaker 1: we've got these little glial cells and they're doing their
Speaker 1: thing and they're making everything nice. So I'm experiencing stress
Speaker 1: brain fog, and now it's saying, oh boy, she she
Speaker 1: can't handle all this. Let me shut down some neurons.
Speaker 1: And that's like the last thing I need. And so
Speaker 1: now I'm having trouble maybe with memory or I'm just
Speaker 1: feeling a little bit unable to perform my tasks or
Speaker 1: my job at the level I'm used to brain fog,
Speaker 1: and that is coming from some kind of stress either
Speaker 1: in my body or emotional stress exactly right all together.
Speaker 1: So now tell me about that connection with the gut. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this is the best part where we actually get
Speaker 1: into that gut brain access gut brain connection. When we
Speaker 1: are a fetus, we develop out if things called so mights. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we've got literally these chunks of cells that are
Speaker 1: stem cells that progenerate into different types of tissues, and
Speaker 1: the same so might that develops into our blood brain barrier,
Speaker 1: literally the brain barrier that controls what blood can send
Speaker 1: into the brain and what can come out, also develops
Speaker 1: the exact same thing in the gut, and that is
Speaker 1: the gut lining that essentially is what protecting our body,
Speaker 1: our human cells from what's living within the tube of
Speaker 1: our intestines and our stomach and etcetera. And so the
Speaker 1: lining of the gut and the lining of the blood
Speaker 1: brain barrier come from the same things, meaning that if
Speaker 1: we have some sort of reaction to microbiome imbalance. We
Speaker 1: have some sort of food sensitivity that causes a leakiness
Speaker 1: with the our gut, a breakdown of that lining within
Speaker 1: the gut. It will eventually create a breakdown of the
Speaker 1: lining within the brain, and so that leads to inflammation
Speaker 1: that can get into the brain, creating that glial cell activation,
Speaker 1: creating brain fog, creating those challenges internally at a very
Speaker 1: low microscopic level, but it does occur, and this is
Speaker 1: something that's been proven time and time again in the science.
Speaker 1: More recently then, I think, is serotonin produced in a
Speaker 1: large intestine as well. Right of the serotonin within our
Speaker 1: body is located within the gut and the gut lining.
Speaker 1: So generally with the medication side of things, you're looking
Speaker 1: at an SSRI I a selective serotonin a re uptake inhibitor,
Speaker 1: meaning that the serotonin that gets released into the synapse
Speaker 1: where the actual occurrence of these narrow transmitters occurs, where
Speaker 1: the chemical reaction is that the serotonin is sent out
Speaker 1: into the synapse and the post synaptic membrane essentially where
Speaker 1: the signal is sent to. What we're trying to do
Speaker 1: is keep more of the serotonin in the synapse. We're
Speaker 1: not trying to reuptake or bring that serotonin back into
Speaker 1: the neural and so the inhibitors will create a state
Speaker 1: of more serotonin present within the synapse, within that gap area.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes it's occurring because in certain cases there's a genetic
Speaker 1: predisposition to not being able to produce serotonin, and in
Speaker 1: some cases it's because you have a methylation issue that
Speaker 1: you're not able to break that serotonin down effectively. And
Speaker 1: so there is a very common, very very real connection
Speaker 1: between taking anti anxiety, anti depressive medications and the effect
Speaker 1: that it than has in the gut, because it's affecting
Speaker 1: that ninety four percent of serotonin located within the gut.
Speaker 1: Lining and talk to me about IBS and the vagat
Speaker 1: nerve and mental health, because I always feel like a
Speaker 1: few people have mentioned on this show that they themselves
Speaker 1: had ibas and it was a direct line with panic attacks.
Speaker 1: And and again, this is one of those things where
Speaker 1: we're not saying it's in your head, you don't have IBS,
Speaker 1: and we're not saying, oh, it's your fault, you have it.
Speaker 1: You need to you know, um meditate twice a day
Speaker 1: and it'll go away. But but what is the connection there?
Speaker 1: There is a middle point there for sure, and so
Speaker 1: that is linked to that serotonin that's located in the gut.
Speaker 1: Lining Just from from kind of a personal thing, I
Speaker 1: really dislike the diagnosis irritable bowel syndr ome. Literally they're
Speaker 1: telling you that your bowel is irritable, and you're the
Speaker 1: one that told them that your bottler is are irritable.
Speaker 1: Whether it's conservation diarrhea, some sort of trigger um, so
Speaker 1: they're just turning words to say that it's something called
Speaker 1: IBS that said what's causing that? Right? Like? Why why
Speaker 1: is there an imbalance? And that comes down to two
Speaker 1: different things. Either you're not getting great signaling from your
Speaker 1: brain through your vegas nerve to those intestines where they
Speaker 1: can actually then go and do their job. Or second,
Speaker 1: there's a microbiome inbalance that's triggering it. And so no
Speaker 1: meditation twice a day is not going to solve it, right,
Speaker 1: it's not going to affect it that well. We need
Speaker 1: to be able to identify why is it a combination
Speaker 1: of those two and in what state and what sense
Speaker 1: is it a combination of those two. That's where the
Speaker 1: testing really comes in handy. So when we have dysbiosis,
Speaker 1: when we have a bacterial in balance, what's essentially happening
Speaker 1: is that relationship between our bacteria and our human cells
Speaker 1: is not as symbiotic as we want it to be,
Speaker 1: and that creates leakiness, and that creates those micro inflammation
Speaker 1: things in that se of immune cells located in the
Speaker 1: gut lining, the vagus nerve is going to signal to
Speaker 1: the intestines to keep food moving along peristalsis. And if
Speaker 1: we don't have that signal occurring, then we have stagnation.
Speaker 1: We have things that either slow it down or speed
Speaker 1: it up way too much, and that can lead to
Speaker 1: diarrhea or constipation, and in some cases both either you're
Speaker 1: completely on one side or you're completely on the other,
Speaker 1: or you flip back and forth, and so it's it's
Speaker 1: generally a vagus nerve signal that not strong because you're
Speaker 1: under it some sort of excessive stress that's burnt down
Speaker 1: the brakes and there's some sort of biochemical imbalance that's occurring.
Speaker 1: So it's a chicken in the eggs scenario. It can
Speaker 1: be vagus nerve only, it can be dis biosis only
Speaker 1: by the when it's combined, that's when we really get
Speaker 1: this diagnosis of IBS. And then because it's so heavily
Speaker 1: linked to the serotonin levels and so heavily linked to
Speaker 1: neurotransmitters and the entire nervous system, there's a heavy linked
Speaker 1: between anxiety, depression and got health issues like IBS. So
Speaker 1: that makes sense because the vegas nerve has so many
Speaker 1: things to monitor. If it's busy monitoring my suritable bowels,
Speaker 1: as you say, it's not really what it is, but
Speaker 1: which I appreciate it. I totally get that. Um I
Speaker 1: hate the way some things are named. It makes me
Speaker 1: crazy if I'm doing things, and we'll get to it
Speaker 1: to activate my vagus nerve if I am meditating and
Speaker 1: do breathing. One thing that's helping is that it's decreasing
Speaker 1: some of the stress on the vagus nerves, so that
Speaker 1: in a way philosophically, it should be helping two distress
Speaker 1: that vagus nerves that has those worn outbreaks so that
Speaker 1: it can do its jobs. But we still have to
Speaker 1: attend to the actual body part that it's affecting. But
Speaker 1: if you are only attending to your IBS and you're
Speaker 1: stressing about it, you know, maybe give yourself a little
Speaker 1: bit of a leg up by trying to reduce the
Speaker 1: stress around your chronic illness. That's exactly right. It's counterintuitive
Speaker 1: to be stressed out about something while trying to fix it. Again,
Speaker 1: I think with the casual way that people throw around
Speaker 1: things like mind body connection, I think when people are
Speaker 1: in that really sensitive state of stress around something physical,
Speaker 1: it really sounds like someone is saying it's all in
Speaker 1: your head, or the only way to solve it is
Speaker 1: in your head. And and so I'm glad we just
Speaker 1: broke it down. So a couple other things in your
Speaker 1: book that we're very interesting to me was the vegas
Speaker 1: nerve and its effect on heart rate, breathing, vocal cords
Speaker 1: even but there was one I just want to clear
Speaker 1: this one up because you talk about someone having a
Speaker 1: dysfunctional heart rate and someone who may faint, and you
Speaker 1: say that you know, at that point the autonomic system
Speaker 1: is unable to regulate the heart and blood vessels. Could
Speaker 1: be genetic, could be some kind of outside trauma, like
Speaker 1: you know, a pregnancy or something. But so there are
Speaker 1: there people that they don't just have what we have,
Speaker 1: which is occasionally the vagus nerve has some worn down
Speaker 1: brake pads, but they have a chronic thing that is
Speaker 1: vegas nerves specific. Yeah, I wouldn't go as Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think when you get into something like vasil vagel sync
Speaker 1: could be where there's ing, where there's actual like pots.
Speaker 1: For example, when you get up from a standing or
Speaker 1: from a laying position into a standing position and you
Speaker 1: have an immediate hypotension, meaning your blood pressure drops significantly.
Speaker 1: Because it's monitored through the vegas nerves, the vagus nerve
Speaker 1: can't signal that information up. Then often people will have
Speaker 1: balance issues, falling, fainting, etcetera. Um, I think it's just
Speaker 1: that's that's when there's actual physical breakdown of the vegas
Speaker 1: nerve function. So it's a the brakes are borne down
Speaker 1: even further but in a different area, so it's more
Speaker 1: heart focused, more lung focused, rather than it being gut focused.
Speaker 1: And so those people may and again it may be
Speaker 1: genetic like there's nothing they can't do about it. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't No, I would say that there is absolutely something
Speaker 1: they can do about it, but sometimes the therapy needs
Speaker 1: to be a bit more aggressive. It's probably the best
Speaker 1: way to put that. Whether it's like a a stib
Speaker 1: other type of therapy. Whether there's something else from like
Speaker 1: a functional neurological perspective that can be addressed to help
Speaker 1: rebuild the brake pads in the other areas, we we
Speaker 1: can go and do that. Genetically, there are some predisposition,
Speaker 1: but genetics never pulls the trigger. Genetics only loads the gun, right,
Speaker 1: And so I hear it way too often that, well,
Speaker 1: my family had this, so I'm going to have it.
Speaker 1: I have family history of this, so I'm yeah, you
Speaker 1: might be at a higher risk. Genetics really only plays
Speaker 1: about a thirty role in the production of an issue
Speaker 1: in the next generation. It's it's that's something that's been
Speaker 1: proven over and over again. Now, but um, about of
Speaker 1: what you are actually experiencing is because of your environment
Speaker 1: and because of the stressors and how you respond to
Speaker 1: those stressors emotional, psychological, biochemical, and physical. So that's what
Speaker 1: I would say would probably be the best way to explain,
Speaker 1: like how to distinguish between genetics and environment is if
Speaker 1: you know what genetics are saying, then you can make
Speaker 1: your environment do what it needs to do to support it.
Speaker 1: We'll continue the interview on the flip side of a
Speaker 1: quick message from our sponsors. Lastly, Okay, so you talk
Speaker 1: about in your book breathing incorrectly, which again is you know,
Speaker 1: nobody wants to hear this out there in the anxiety world.
Speaker 1: We want a quicker fix. But most of us can
Speaker 1: be just breathing incorrectly, not even in a moment of panic,
Speaker 1: just the way we exist every minute of the day.
Speaker 1: What I'm assuming we're hyperventilating ourselves by taking short, quick breaths,
Speaker 1: is that is that what you mean by breathing incorrectly
Speaker 1: in your to some extent, Yeah, exactly. If you watch
Speaker 1: a newborn baby breathe, just have them laid down. Like
Speaker 1: next time you're around somebody with a young baby, just
Speaker 1: watch what they're doing when they're laying down, especially, watch
Speaker 1: what the breathing pattern is. Check to see if their
Speaker 1: lungs are expanding at their chest level or if it's
Speaker 1: their belly that's going up and down. I guarantee you
Speaker 1: you will see it. It's their belly. Their belly is
Speaker 1: rising and falling ever so slightly enough. But that's a
Speaker 1: sign that we should be breathing in that pattern. Now
Speaker 1: of people breathe incorrectly often times that's something that we've
Speaker 1: learned to do. Okay, So I see it in my kids.
Speaker 1: I have a five year old daughter, I have a
Speaker 1: one year old daughter. I get anxious because of it
Speaker 1: a lot myself, but I see, even with my five
Speaker 1: year old that her breathing patterns have shifted into becoming
Speaker 1: a lot more chest based when we breathe with just
Speaker 1: our chest muscles. And so i'll act. For example, I'll
Speaker 1: get her to take a deep breath when she's getting
Speaker 1: stressed out, when she gets riled up, she's at a
Speaker 1: theme park or doesn't want to eat the food. She
Speaker 1: gets into this hyper mentality state and she's just using
Speaker 1: her upper back muscles for her accessory breathing muscles around
Speaker 1: her lungs, and she's sucking in her belly when she's
Speaker 1: trying to take in that deep breath. It's exactly paradoxical
Speaker 1: to what we should be doing. If you watch the baby, right,
Speaker 1: the baby in their non stressed state is going to
Speaker 1: be breathing with their belly. When we get into this
Speaker 1: paradoxical breathing where we're actually sucking our diaphragm up, and
Speaker 1: that's creating um, not a great vacuum. By which we
Speaker 1: then can suck in air. It's a not allowing the
Speaker 1: diaphragm to do the job that it needs to do.
Speaker 1: The diaphragm is the primary breathing muscle, and so we
Speaker 1: need to be breathing through a diaphragm first, no question
Speaker 1: about it. That's the biggest thing that most people, both
Speaker 1: within the anxiety world and well outside the anxiety of world,
Speaker 1: I should I assure you vast majority of breathing incorrectly.
Speaker 1: It's not you, it's what we've been taught. We've been
Speaker 1: taught that big bellies are bad. We've been taught that
Speaker 1: the when we're stressed, we have to kind of get
Speaker 1: into the state. And it's a subconscious thing. It's not
Speaker 1: something that we've been aware of. And so what we
Speaker 1: need to do is retrain ourselves to get into the
Speaker 1: state that Okay, we're in an anxious state. Close your
Speaker 1: eyes for a second, and I'm sure you've heard this
Speaker 1: a billion times, but take a deep breath? Right? What
Speaker 1: does that mean when you say take a deep breath?
Speaker 1: Often times we're gonna go and we're gonna take that
Speaker 1: deep breath in our chest and we're not doing it correctly.
Speaker 1: We need to breathe with our belly. So simple exercise
Speaker 1: for everybody to do. If you put your one hand
Speaker 1: on your chest, one hand on your belly, and I
Speaker 1: ask you to take a deep breath, but I want
Speaker 1: you to keep an eye on is which hand is
Speaker 1: moving when you take that deep breath in, And the
Speaker 1: answer should always be the hand that's on your belly.
Speaker 1: It should expand as you breathe in, and it should
Speaker 1: retract and go back in as you breathe out. What
Speaker 1: that means is you're using your diet fram and so
Speaker 1: if you can think of it this way. Even with
Speaker 1: my five year old, I do this, so it tends
Speaker 1: to work most of the time. I tell her we
Speaker 1: have two balloons. We have a balloon in our chest
Speaker 1: and we have a balloon in our belly. And when
Speaker 1: she's stressed out, I asked her and I put my
Speaker 1: hands on her belly. I get her to lie down.
Speaker 1: If it can sure go with it, and I'll say,
Speaker 1: I want you to blow up this balloon over here,
Speaker 1: and I have to touch it so that she feels
Speaker 1: this is where I wanted to come. And so when
Speaker 1: she takes that deep breath in the first few times
Speaker 1: it's going to be a chest breath, and I say no,
Speaker 1: over here, we need to do it on your belly.
Speaker 1: And so we eventually, after three or four or five breaths,
Speaker 1: will see all of a sudden, the breath is shifting
Speaker 1: into the belly and we're expending that balloon. So I
Speaker 1: want everybody as a very simple visualization, as a really
Speaker 1: easy tool. We don't want to inflate this balloon. We
Speaker 1: want to inflate the balloon below. What it's going to
Speaker 1: do is it's going to create a vacuum within our
Speaker 1: diaphragm and we're actually gonna inflate the lungs. Further. What
Speaker 1: that's going to do is when the diaphragm is going
Speaker 1: up and down the way it should be, that is
Speaker 1: actually creating this signal in the vagus nerve. It's actually
Speaker 1: physically prodding the vagus nerve to say, we are in
Speaker 1: a calm state, and now you can turn on Now
Speaker 1: you can do your rest digestive recover work. You can
Speaker 1: turn on the digestive system again, you can turn on
Speaker 1: the anti inflammatory system again. The breath truly is the
Speaker 1: answer to this. What we want to do is allow
Speaker 1: us to shift into this parasympathetic belly breathing state and
Speaker 1: train our bodies to be able to do so. And
Speaker 1: that's how the breathing pattern is going to positively affect
Speaker 1: your vagus nerve activation in which state you're in. You know,
Speaker 1: in the first ten years of my anxiety recovery, everyone
Speaker 1: told me to take deep breaths, and most people did
Speaker 1: not explain to me how to do it. And I
Speaker 1: finally learned. But for me, uh, that created an extra
Speaker 1: anxiety for me in that I didn't trust it. You know,
Speaker 1: you get obsessed with feeling the air in your lungs
Speaker 1: almost and think the only way to do it is
Speaker 1: to do it. I just did go and I lift
Speaker 1: up my shoulders, and it took a while for me
Speaker 1: to be able to transition from not being so obsessed
Speaker 1: with feeling that completion um which you still can get
Speaker 1: from diaforgmatic breathing. But I would have to calm down
Speaker 1: first some other way, and then I would be able
Speaker 1: to do diaphorgumatic breathing because I was. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I just trained myself wrong for for so many years.
Speaker 1: What I love about your book and I'll leave everyone
Speaker 1: with this to get it on their own. So few
Speaker 1: books do this. They'll say, oh, do this exercise you
Speaker 1: really spell it out at the end chapter. Here, you've
Speaker 1: got weekly practices for activating the vegas nerve. You tell
Speaker 1: people how many times a week they should do it.
Speaker 1: Monthly practices, and you know when you talk about social
Speaker 1: interactions one to two times weekly, listening to music, meditation,
Speaker 1: and mindfulness practice three to seven times weekly. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are things that you can incorporate into what you're
Speaker 1: already doing, you know, right before you go to bed
Speaker 1: or something like that. And now that we know how
Speaker 1: much the vagus nerve controls and all the stress that
Speaker 1: it has, I'm hoping that people understand how important it
Speaker 1: is to do these things, not just when we're feeling stressed,
Speaker 1: was my point exactly. Yeah, it's something that needs to
Speaker 1: be practiced and and built out as like a day
Speaker 1: to day practice. So even if you go back one page,
Speaker 1: there's even the daily practices there as well, which talks
Speaker 1: about gargling and humming and gag reflex activation if you
Speaker 1: want to go that far, Like there's there's quite a
Speaker 1: few things that we can do that we can simply
Speaker 1: tie to, like brushing our teeth, for example, when brush
Speaker 1: your teeth, then gargle. Here's a great like thirty second
Speaker 1: add onto what you're already doing. If we can piggyback
Speaker 1: a lot of these newer habits onto older habits, make
Speaker 1: it an easy thing that it becomes a practice that
Speaker 1: we can do on a regular basis. And this is
Speaker 1: where the compound effect really truly comes into play within
Speaker 1: our body. If we can be consistent and regular with
Speaker 1: these things, you can create really positive changes. All right,
Speaker 1: And as almost I have some exercises for you, dr
Speaker 1: have you when I were talking a little bit off
Speaker 1: Mike after rerecorded, and he said that something he's training
Speaker 1: himself to do is to turn the shower on extremely
Speaker 1: cold at the end of the shower. And you know
Speaker 1: how if you do that, you normally tense up, and
Speaker 1: so he's relaxing and doing you know, calm breathing exercises
Speaker 1: during that, because bursts of cold like that and staying
Speaker 1: calm through it are really good for the vegas nerve.
Speaker 1: You know, I wish I could do that. I can't believe,
Speaker 1: you know, Usually there's nothing I within reason won't try,
Speaker 1: and I think it's within reason, but I can't bring
Speaker 1: myself to do it, but that's something you could try
Speaker 1: if you aren't terrified of things that are freezing on
Speaker 1: your skin. There are some daily practices you can do
Speaker 1: to activate the vegas nerve that you might be doing already.
Speaker 1: But gargling. Um. You can gargle twice a day when
Speaker 1: you brush your teeth in the morning and at night. Humming.
Speaker 1: You can hum on your daily commute to bookend your day.
Speaker 1: Practice humming deep in your throat and your day with
Speaker 1: a cold shower. Start with um, you know, just thirty seconds,
Speaker 1: and as it becomes easier, increase the time by thirty
Speaker 1: seconds to sixty seconds every three days, until maybe even
Speaker 1: your entire shower is taken under cold water. Something you
Speaker 1: can do daily is practice three to five minutes of
Speaker 1: deep breathing in a quiet space before each meal. This
Speaker 1: will help you calm down and improve your digestion. Sunlight exposure.
Speaker 1: Go out and expose your skin to the sun within
Speaker 1: thirty minutes of sunrise in the middle of the day
Speaker 1: and within thirty minutes of sunset for at least a
Speaker 1: minimum of five minutes. And you can put a pillow
Speaker 1: between your knees to keep you firmly sleeping on your
Speaker 1: side each night. Those are daily practices that you can
Speaker 1: do to activate the vagus nerve, and if you have
Speaker 1: time during the week, yoga pilates are light exercise, any
Speaker 1: kind of abbit of movement. Sweating is important. Social interaction,
Speaker 1: maybe don't sweat um and then go meet your friends,
Speaker 1: take one of those cold showers in between. Make a
Speaker 1: point to meet with friends or family in person at
Speaker 1: least once a week. Laugh as much as you can.
Speaker 1: Listen to music at least a few times a week.
Speaker 1: Do grocery shopping, do cleaning one to two times weekly,
Speaker 1: and a meditation and mindfulness practice five to ten minutes
Speaker 1: a day at least three times a week and monthly.
Speaker 1: Check into massage therapy, chiropractic care, acupuncture treatment are all
Speaker 1: great for stimulating the vegas nerve. So let's get into
Speaker 1: the specific takeaways from this episode. So the Vegas nerve
Speaker 1: v A g U S connect to so many different places.
Speaker 1: It was named Vegas as it comes from the root
Speaker 1: word vague, meaning wandering. The Vegas nerve comes out of
Speaker 1: the Medulla Oblanca. It has different branches that go to
Speaker 1: a bunch of different areas. Like all of the other
Speaker 1: twelve cranial nerves. They hit areas in the head and
Speaker 1: the face. It sends a bunch to the ear for
Speaker 1: skin sensation. It sends branches to the throat, the parynx
Speaker 1: and the larynx. Those are the muscles at the back
Speaker 1: of the throat that allow the airway to remain open.
Speaker 1: It helps to push and pull the vocal cord, and
Speaker 1: so the vagus nerve is what gives us the pitch
Speaker 1: and the tone in our voice. The nerve continues down
Speaker 1: and choruses in the neck beside the carotid artery and
Speaker 1: the jugular vein. It also innervates the heart to control
Speaker 1: the heart rate. It goes to the lungs to monitor
Speaker 1: the breath rate. It supports the inflammation response in all
Speaker 1: of these organs, and it continues on down with the
Speaker 1: esophagus and through the diaphragm into our abdomen, and it
Speaker 1: innervates essentially every single organ in the entire stomach, the spleen,
Speaker 1: the kidneys that liver, the small intestine, in the large intestine,
Speaker 1: and innervate means to supply an organ or a body
Speaker 1: part with nerves. There is no other nerve even the
Speaker 1: body that does anything like the vagus nerve. The vegas
Speaker 1: nerve is very important. If it gets severed, the function
Speaker 1: of our body is going to be severely limited. It's
Speaker 1: not worrisome if anything happens to the nerve, but trauma
Speaker 1: or injury to it would create significant challenges to people.
Speaker 1: The parasympathetic nervous system, which is our rest and digest
Speaker 1: is signaled through the vegas nerve. The vegas nerve can
Speaker 1: be thought of as having more of a thermostat type
Speaker 1: function than a signaling out from the brain function. According
Speaker 1: to Dr Habib's book, quote, one of the most likely
Speaker 1: low grade stressors that you may not be aware of
Speaker 1: is the bacteria lining um and living in and around you.
Speaker 1: The population of bacteria living in your gut and on
Speaker 1: your skin has a significant effect on us, and if
Speaker 1: that population isn't optimally balanced, it can be a major
Speaker 1: stressor on your body. End quote. The science of gut
Speaker 1: health is that if there is um I'm going to
Speaker 1: mess up this word again, microbiome imbalance dys biosis is
Speaker 1: going on within the gut and that effects gut health
Speaker 1: and causes an inflammatory reaction which can affect autoimmune conditions
Speaker 1: and mental health. Not all bacteria and parasites in our
Speaker 1: gut are good, and we need to protect ourselves from
Speaker 1: it and give our immune system the right tools to
Speaker 1: handle the threats. And that comes down to diet and
Speaker 1: even breathing. And that's due to the vagus nerve activity
Speaker 1: because the vagus nerve is supplying information to the gut,
Speaker 1: lining the inflammatory cells that control an anti inflammatory system,
Speaker 1: and the gut is controlled through the vagus nerve. What
Speaker 1: can exacerbate issues is that the vagus nerve is under
Speaker 1: too much pressure. In the same way that our car
Speaker 1: brake pads wear out, the vagus nerve can get overworked.
Speaker 1: If we're constantly providing inflammatory challenges to the body, the
Speaker 1: brakes are going to wear out. The vagus nerve can't
Speaker 1: handle a ton of constant chronic lammatory issues that are
Speaker 1: constantly coming up, and over time, the tone is going
Speaker 1: to decrease. The ability for the nerve to send signals
Speaker 1: on a regular basis is going to lessen. We need
Speaker 1: to do the exercises that provide the vaguest nerve and
Speaker 1: opportunity to do the work that it needs to do
Speaker 1: without providing more chronic inflammatory reactions on a regular basis.
Speaker 1: When we do deep breathing or meditation or gut health detoxes,
Speaker 1: what we're doing is decreasing the inflammatory triggers and giving
Speaker 1: the body a chance to heal itself. Inflammation is our
Speaker 1: body's response to trauma and stress in different ways. There
Speaker 1: are four different types of stressors that can trigger inflammatory responses.
Speaker 1: Emotional stress that can lead to brain fog and inability
Speaker 1: to think clearly and memory challenges. Psychological stress different than
Speaker 1: emotional stress because psychological is related more to the past,
Speaker 1: the challenges we experienced as children that color the way
Speaker 1: we see the world today. Physical stress. This could be
Speaker 1: something literal like a car accident cause whip flash, but
Speaker 1: basically acute inflammatory is necessary, but it means that cells
Speaker 1: are being repaired, but any extra inflammatory action is going
Speaker 1: to cause physical stress. Biochemical stress. This can be food sensitivities,
Speaker 1: whether you're allergic to gluten or dairy, or pesticides that
Speaker 1: are sprayed on foods and organic laundry detergent, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Most people don't breathe correctly. If you observe a newborn
Speaker 1: baby breathing, their belly is rising and falling naturally. Adults
Speaker 1: breathing correctly, and they use their upper back muscles and
Speaker 1: accessory breathing muscles, which causes a hyperventilated state. The diaphragm
Speaker 1: is the primary breathing muscle and so we need to
Speaker 1: be breathing through our diaphragm first. That's it. That's all
Speaker 1: I've got for you today, and I once again thank
Speaker 1: you for tuning into Anxiety Bites. You can send an
Speaker 1: email Anxiety Bites weekly at gmail dot com. Tell me
Speaker 1: what you love about the show, what you've learned, If
Speaker 1: you want to share things that you know about anxiety
Speaker 1: that work for you, I hope I get the chance
Speaker 1: to read it on air, give it five stars on
Speaker 1: Spotify or Apple podcast, tell a friend, talk about it
Speaker 1: on social media. You can tag me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Jen Kirkman, tag me in your Instagram story, also at
Speaker 1: Jen Kirkman on Instagram. And if you want to read
Speaker 1: the takeaways from this or any episode, head over to
Speaker 1: my website Jen Kirkman dot com and click Anxiety Bites
Speaker 1: and of course that link is in the show notes
Speaker 1: as we speak. Thanks again for listening and remember Anxiety Bites,
Speaker 1: but you're in control. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
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