The Gut-Brain Connection: Why the Vagus Nerve Matters

Author's Bio: Marcie Vaske, MS, LN, CNS

Hi, and welcome back to our channel.

Today we're going to be talking about the gut-brain connection and answer the question of why the vagus nerve matters. First, we'll go through what the gut-brain connection is. Then we'll talk about how it benefits us specifically in different areas in our body, and then I'll follow it up with how you can keep or strengthen your vagus nerve.

But before we begin, my name is Marcie Vaske and I'm a functional medicine nutritionist with Oswald Digestive Clinic. And at Oswald Digestive Clinic, we work with many people who struggle with their own gut health. I'm going to link our website here where you can easily make an initial appointment. And I'm also going to link our free guide, which is Five Ways to Improve Your Gut Health.

So without further ado, let's jump back into our topic today, which is all about the vagus nerve.

[Video Transcript Below Video - it is the same information]

What Is the Gut-Brain Connection?

In recent years, the vagus nerve has become more and more popular, and you may have heard about the vagus nerve and this gut-brain connection. So really what does this mean? Well, the gut-brain connection is often referred to as the gut-brain access, which is a complex bidirectional communication system that links our brain to our gut. Now, this access actually works or relies on certain pathways within our body, and it uses the vagus nerve as it serves the critical component to this communication.

The Role of the Vagus Nerve in Communication

The vagus nerve actually transmits signals through the combination of using sensory fibers and motor fibers to make it really important communication channel between our brain and our digestive system. The fibers that are most typically used within the vagus nerve to carry this information to different organs like our gut, our heart, our lungs, and our brain is 80 to 90% of these fibers are sensory fibers.

Then the rest of that or the 10 to 20% is going to be motor fibers. But these sensory signals are primarily relaying the communication or information that we need to keep our body working well.

Now not only are fibers used for our communication, but the vagus nerve also uses neurotransmitters and it primarily uses the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This activates target tissues and helps to modulate physiological processes such as reducing inflammation or controlling muscle contractions within the gut. So this bidirectional communication between the brain and the gut really helps to command and play a vital role in maintaining just balance or homeostasis within the body itself.

Vagus Nerve and Gut Health

So now we understand what the vagus nerve does within our body, but let's break it down a little bit further and just kind of dig into some of these certain pathways that are very critical to our overall health. And of course, because we are a gut health clinic, I'm going to start with gut health.

The vagus nerve plays a major role in our gut health and its parasympathetic nervous system really orchestrates our rest and digest response. It regulates digestive processes, it controls gut motility. It also supports the secretion of specific digestive enzymes and it releases hormones like gastro. The vagus nerve also helps to or transmits sensory information from the gut to the brain, allowing the nervous system to really monitor and adjust digestive functions in real time. And also a healthy vagus nerve will also help to maintain the integrity of our gut lining and supports a balanced microbiome, both which are very critical and crucial for optimal digestion and our immune response.

So you can see what a big role the vagus nerve plays within our gut health. And if you struggle with IBS or irritable bowel syndrome, you can feel these changes or the way that your vagus nerve, your brain and your gut are speaking to one another. If you've ever had the sensation where maybe your gut's feeling a little off and then you have maybe feeling more anxious that day, your gut symptoms can become worse because your brain is talking to your gut and vice versa.

The Vagus Nerve and Mental Wellbeing

Now, another way that the vagus nerve is extremely important is with our mental wellbeing. The vagus nerve is really a key player in our gut-brain access, and it transmits these signals that influence our mood or stress level and our cognitive function. So if we feel like we have a lot of brain fog, maybe our vagus nerve isn't working as well as we want. The vagus nerve also affects our certain brain regions that are involved in our emotional regulation, and it helps to modulate the production of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and serotonin. About 90% of it is actually made in our gut. Now, when the vagus nerve is functioning optimally, it really can help to reduce inflammation and it supports the resilience against even anxiety and depression.

Now, if we have disruptions in our vagus nerve signaling, and this can be due to gut dysbiosis or an increased gut permeability can also be linked or has been linked to mental health conditions, including more anxiety, more depression, and even some neurodegenerative disorders.

The Bidirectional Relationship: Stress and Gut Health

So we know that how important it is for gut health, we can understand how important the gut-brain connection is to our mental wellbeing, and it has a big relationship to do with this bidirectional impact because the relationship is a two-way street. So our gut health can shape our mental wellbeing, and our mental stress can alter our gut function. So for example, if you have stress signals that are sent through the vagus nerve, it might change your gut motility and even your microbiome compensation. So for example, if you're experiencing stress and the stress signals are sent through the vagus nerve, that can actually change our gut motility and even the makeup of our microbiome.

How to Strengthen the Vagus Nerve Naturally

So understanding how important the vagus nerve is can also help you understand if you may be having issues with the signaling through your vagus nerve. And so let's just run through some ways that you can support your vagus nerve on a daily basis.

Breath Work

One of 'em is going to be breath work. So the first way we want to talk about, as I mentioned, is breath work, and it's a simple something you could do every day, but this helps to strengthen the vagus nerve. So essentially you would just do some slow deep belly breathing, and one of popular way to do this is like four slow breaths in hold it four breaths out what they would call box breathing. You can even do inhaling or breathing in for six counts and then letting it out for eight counts. And so this just kind of slows things down and gives our vagus nerve a chance to signal properly.

Singing, Humming, or Gargling

Another way that we can help strengthen our vagus nerve is singing, humming, or even gargling. So the vibrations from singing or the action of humming or even gargling actually signifies the vagus nerve through the vocal cords and the throat. And these activities have actually shown in research to improve vagal tone and promote a lot of relaxation.

Meditation and Yoga

Another way to support your vagus nerve will be through meditation or even yoga. So just more mindfulness practices that can help to just calm the body down and it activates your in vagus nerve. Often in many of these scenarios with meditation or even yoga, you are doing very pattern breath breathing. So there's kind of throwing it back to just doing plain old breath work. But within this, you are relaxing the body, lowering the heart rate and blood pressure, and also reducing stress.

Cold Exposure

Another way you can do this is through cold water exposure, and there's been a lot more information out on cold water exposure, either doing cold water baths or sitting in a lake somewhere, but actually even splashing cold water on your face or submerging your face into cold water actually triggers this diving reflex, which stimulates our vagus nerve. And at the end of this, your body feels more calm.

Social Connection and Laughter

There's also doing fun things like social connection or just laughing. These all activate the vagus nerve as well as exercise.

Regular Physical Activity

Getting in regular physical activity, either in endurance training, doing long walks, maybe at a brisk pace, even interval training, can also help to stimulate our vagus nerve.

Massage and Reflexology

And another one that's very helpful is even massage. So massage that may include more foot reflexology, neck massage. These are all shown to stimulate the vagus nerve.

So I think if you're noticing some of these stress responses, meaning if you feel stressed, you feel it in your gut or vice versa, or your motility slows down because of this, there's many ways to help strengthen this vagus nerve. I mean, it's really simple practices throughout the day, and not even that you have to do every single one of 'em. It's just making sure that basically you're breathing, you're moving, and you are just kind of calming that body down in some way. And even those social connections hanging out with family and friends, etc.

The Importance of the Vagus Nerve

So I hope this helps shed some light on how the vagus nerve is so important and how many pathways it works in within our body. We sometimes think, oh wow, I have such bad gut health, and you probably do, right? You have very real physical symptoms. And on top of that, we become more anxious. So those anxiety feelings increase our gut symptoms. And so to calm yourself down, and maybe it is going to be more positive for you to take a look at how stress is really impacting your gut or vice versa, of course, understanding how the vagus nerve works, understanding how very important it is is going to help you feel your very best.

Now, just as a reminder, I put our link to our website down below so you can easily make an initial appointment. I also put our free guide there, so just some more gut health information. And then always, if you have comments or questions, please put them in the comment section below. We love to see them, love to answer them.

So thanks for watching, and until next time, have a happy gut.

If you'd like to explore any of this information further or obtain an individualized nutrition plan, you can schedule an initial appointment at our clinic.  We also take insurance and some of our clients get full coverage, which is great.

Or you can just start by downloading our FREE GUIDE: 5 WAYS TO IMPROVE GUT HEALTH