If you’re on a gut health journey you may have heard about the mind-gut connection. This connection refers to the way your gut health impacts your brain health and vice versa. But what is actually connecting them? Meet your vagus nerve.
What is the Vagus Nerve?
The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body and runs from the base of your brain all the way down to your abdomen while branching out through the chest and touching almost all your major organs, including your digestive system. It acts as the main communication pathway between your gut and your brain.
The vagus nerve also plays an important role in your parasympathetic nervous system, the collection of nerves responsible for calming you down and activating a relaxed state. This is also known as the “rest and digest” state and, as the name implies, your digestive system was designed to work with this side of your nervous system.
The Vagus Nerve + Gut Health
Chronic stress and nervous system dysregulation are major contributors to poor gut function. They can be the root cause of digestive symptoms like bloating, diarrhea or constipation and can also create an environment for deeper issues to develop such as imbalance of bacteria in the microbiome (aka dysbiosis), infections, overgrowth or inflammation.
The effect is bi-directional, however, so when these gut imbalances occur for other reasons they can also impact nervous system function, mood and stress resiliency. This is why it is so important to address gut and nervous system healing together!
Whether you are struggling with occasional, mild digestive upset, chronic IBS symptoms or major imbalances like SIBO or dysbiosis, nervous system support needs to be part of your healing process (along with nutrition, of course!)
Ways to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve
Stimulating or “toning” your vagus nerve promotes stress resiliency and makes it easier for your body to transition between an active (sympathetic) and relaxed (parasympathetic) nervous system. This is one way of promoting a balanced nervous system and minimizing the impact of stress on the digestive tract.
There are many ways you can support or stimulate your vagus nerve. These are some of my favorites:
- Deep breathing
Deep breathing, the act of inhaling fully into your lungs AND belly, is a very simple way to activate your vagus nerve and calm your body. You can start by practicing with even inhales and exhales or, to increase the benefit for your vagus nerve, extend your exhales so they are a few breaths longer than your inhales. If you’re looking for a little more guidance with your breathing practice, try an app like Open.
- Humming/Singing
Your vagus nerve is connected to your vocal cords and the vibration created from humming and singing promotes vagal tone! It has also been shown to increase heart rate variability (HRV) which is a measure of stress resiliency. If you aren’t already, this is your sign to start singing in the shower or humming along with the radio while you are driving. You could also practice the “OM” chat, often used in yoga classes, to get the same vibrational benefit.
- Practicing yoga
Yoga combines both breath and movement for a calming effect on the nervous system. It gently stimulates the organs while lowering heart rate and releasing tension stored in the muscles. Studies have shown yoga’s ability to improve digestive function and relieve common gut-related symptoms. This is due to both yoga’s stimulatory effects on the digestive tract and its stress relieving benefits related to improved vagal tone.
- Gua sha
Gua sha is a traditional Chinese massage technique that involves scraping your skin with a stone tool. It is often used on the face but can be used on any part of the body. The repetitive, rhythmic motions of the technique can have a relaxing effect itself but it can also be used on specific points on the neck to stimulate the vagus nerve. This tutorial by Wildling Beauty will show you how.
- Spending time in nature
Studies show that spending time in nature has a positive effect on stress levels and the nervous system. If you live in the city, getting outside and exposing yourself to as much nature as possible is still helpful. Walking barefoot on the ground is another way to boost vagus nerve stimulation!
- Cold exposure therapy
Cold plunges and cold showers are very popular “bio-hacking” tools right now and have a long list of benefits, one of them being vagus nerve stimulation and activation of the parasympathetic response. If ending your warm and cozy shower with a blast of cold water doesn’t sound appealing to you – honestly, it doesn’t sound appealing to me either – you can try mini-cold exposures by plunging just your face or hands into a bowl of ice filled water. This may not have as profound of an effect as a full body cold plunge but you’ll still be stimulating your vagus nerve, your nervous systema and your gut health.
Taking care of your nervous system is just one part of supporting gut health. Nutrition (not just what you are eating but also how you are eating) of course plays a big role as well. A healthy nervous system allows your body to better utilize the foods you eat and when advanced gut healing protocols are necessary (to treat dysbiosis or SIBO, for example) your body will respond more effectively to those, too.
If you are looking for more support with gut health and getting rid of chronic digestive symptoms, you can learn more about working with me 1:1 here. I’ll help you target the root causes of your symptoms and learn to tune into your own body so you can finally feel better for good!
