The Vagus Nerve: The Body’s Master Communicator

Today, we will be taking a deeper dive into the Vagus Nerve. 

What is the Vagus Nerve? 

We have a total of 12 cranial nerves. These nerves come off our brain and brainstem and they give us our major senses - our sight, eye movements, smell, taste, movement of our tongue, sensation of the face and jaw, and hearing.  The Vagus nerve is our 10th cranial nerve, also the longest one of all the nerves. ‘Vagus’ meaning ‘wanderer’ , it wanders very far in the body, all the way down into the stomach, intestines and pelvic area. The vagus nerve has innervations to ALL organs of the body. 

It innervates the stomach, small and large intestines, liver, spleen, gallbladder, pancreas, liver and heart.

It also supplies the Diaphragm (a large muscle that sits under our lungs that assists with our breathing - if we are breathing properly our diaphragm is doing most of the work! Not our upper trapezius and chest muscles — think tight upper back if we have dysfunctional breathing patterns!) 

Our vagus nerve is a key partner in the parasympathetic nervous system - this part of our nervous system is responsible for digestion, heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing.

If there is dysfunction in this vagus nerve we can have whole body effects from it. 

Effects such as, but not limited to:

• In adults this can look like: anxiety, poor tolerance to stress, reflux/GERD, indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, high blood pressure, orthostatic hypotension, poor sleep, “wired and tired”, exhaustion that does not let up, also linked to dysautonomia, dysregulation and the many things that can come from those issues.

• In children this can look like: colicky infants, difficulty soothing, temper tantrums, anxiety, anger outbursts, poor sleep, digestive issues, difficulty concentrating. 

The vagus nerve is 80% afferent - meaning the nerve interprets signals FROM the organ and then gives that information TO the brain, the other 20% is efferent (meaning signals go FROM the brain TO the organ). Basically it is how organs are communicating with the brain! 

We cannot cold plunge and deep breath our way out of vagus nerve dysfunction - and unfortunately this is becoming all too common in our fast paced world. 

What to do:

Chiropractic care directly impacts the vagus nerve and increases vagal tone. Along with nervous system based care and lifestyle changes, we are able to bring about healing to the Vagus nerve and therefore healing to the body. 

Measuring Heart Rate Variability (HRV) - gives us a deep look into the vagus nerve and its activity (or lack of activity) 

Until next time, take care.

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