The vagus nerve, named in Latin for “the wanderer”, extends from the brainstem and travels long distances throughout your body.
The vagus nerve is primarily associated with your body’s autonomic function (think automatic). Autonomic functions are non-voluntary functions of the body that you don’t need to think about to make happen. These include functions such as the beating of the head, breathing rate/depth, digestion, dilation, constriction of blood vessels, control of sweat glands, sexual arousal, and many more.
Can you spot the Vagus nerve?
When the vagus nerve is not functioning correctly, this can lead to an increased frequency and duration of your body in fight or flight mode, the opposite mode of which proper vagal nerve tone produces, rest, and digest.
Here are some common issues that can arise when your vagus nerve is not functioning properly
Dysfunctional breathing
Dysfunctional digestion
Chronic inflammation and immune activation
Dysfunctional microbiome
Dysfunctional heart rate
Dysfunctional liver function
Chronic stress
Poor sleep and circadian rhythm
You may be thinking, I have a few of the items mentioned above, how can I test the function of my Vagus Nerve? Luckily, there is an easy way. It’s called Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and it is a measure that I have been using for years to test if I’m overtraining or not.
HRV looks at the time variability between heartbeats. The more active your vagus nerve is, you will have increased heart rate variability, a lower heartbeat, and a healthier cardiovascular system. HRV is most accurate in a lab setting, however, there are a lot of apps that offer the ability to do this from your own home. Most will require a heart rate strap, however, there are some rudimentary versions built into smartwatches and sensors.
Understanding the function of your vagus nerve is paramount to understanding how your body is functioning. It will provide you with an inventory of the quality of your body’s autopilot, and let you know whether or not your lifestyle is causing your body to redline or not. If you are in fact “red-lining” it may be your chance to give your body what it deserves and activate your vagus nerve and put your body into a better state of health.
In the next article, I will discuss how you can activate your vagus nerve.