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Easy ways to stimulate your vagus nerve!

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Nightingale:
Here's a great article on how to "Train your brain for gut health".  Interestingly, there are a few, easy suggestions included that stimulate the vagus nerve!: http://www.elderandsage.com/1/post/2014/11/train-your-brain-for-gut-health.html

Here's that piece of the article:


--- Quote ---So here are some simple exercises Dr. Kharrazian recommends to re-train your brain for better bowel health.

Gargling - Gargling with water stimulates the vagus nerve which helps bring blood flow to the gut. Dr. Kharrazian suggests gargling forcefully with water several times a day. If you?re doing it right, he says, you may even start to have tears come to your eyes. This is because it also stimulates an area of the brain right next to the vagus nerve called the the superior salivatory nucleus, which causes you to tear. You may need to start with a small amount of water and gargle for a short period of time but slowly building up the duration and intensity will exercise those neurons and strengthen them.

Induce Your Gag Reflex - Using disposable tongue depressors, press on the the back of your tongue just enough to induce your gag reflex. Be careful not to go too far into the back of the throat to cause injury. Stimulating the gag reflex may also cause you to tear up which is once again a sign that you have stimulated your vagus nerve.

Coffee Enema - Most people who have heard of coffee enemas will know that they are used for detoxification. But Dr. Kharrazian suggests using a strong coffee enema daily so the caffeine in the coffee will stimulate something called the gastrointestinal nicotinic cholinergic receptors which encourage gut motility. If you are using a strong enough concentration of caffeine you should get the urge to have a bowel movement. Then he says you need to suppress your urge to eliminate for as long as possible.

?As they suppress their urge they?re firing their frontopontine vagal enteric axis. If they keep doing that, they build endurance and they start to regain their brain-gut axis.?

Sing - Another way to stimulate the vagal muscles at the back of the throat is to sing really loudly, which is probably the easiest and most fun of all the other suggestions!
--- End quote ---

I've tried gargling and inducing the gag reflex, it helped me get out of a fog I was in after eating my dinner (a common problem for me)! Does it help you feel any better?

Prancer:
I'd be careful about taking advice/information from a website focused on selling their 'naturopathic' consultations starting at $100 an hour. Just saying.

Nightingale:

--- Quote from: Prancer on April 08, 2015, 07:18:23 PM ---I'd be careful about taking advice/information from a website focused on selling their 'naturopathic' consultations starting at $100 an hour. Just saying.

--- End quote ---
Yikes! Thanks for pointing this out! That's a shame. I was having such a hard time finding an article that contained a variety of things to try, but most just mentioned one or two. I know there are studies that have been done on at least 2 of these techniques, I need to find those, and I'm quite confident the science is sound behind the rest. But no reason to take this as fact just because I said so. I'll work on making this a better post, but for now I've gargled and done cold water immersion for the face (not in the article) and find it quickly yet temporarily effective.

Quantum:
Hi Nightingale,

Is your search for this technique related to the Rutgers team study?  Is it part of their hypothesis that POIS is related to a low vagal tone?  I hope not.

I ask, because I personally have a very high vagal tone.  I do not have cluster 3 symptoms - I have no brain fog, no memory problems, no gastro-intestinal problems, etc).    I have easily 2 bowel movement a day, and more if I am too mentally active and boost my vagal tone.

So, increasing vagal tone is not good for all POIS sufferers, and for all POIS symptoms.  I guess it is best for clusters 3 symptoms.  It is no good for me, and for my emotional symptoms, anyway, and not good for me in itself, it makes me feel too 'vagal' - nausea, dizziness, etc... I must avoid anything that stimulates the vagus nerve, because that makes me easily dizzy and nauseous.



I can add some techniques to your list, if stimulating the vagus nerve helps you, because I must avoid those....hehe.  For example, spinning on yourself is excellent to stimulate the vagus nerve, through inner ear stimulation.  Do only 5 to 6 spins, and be sure to decrease spinning speed slowly on the last 2 to 3 spins, in order to avoid dizziness.  You can also gently massage the temples, doing a slow rotation with your fingertips, up and in front of the tragus of the ear, just above the bony protuberance found there. If I massage there, I feel nausea and "vagal" within 30 seconds!

Prancer:

--- Quote from: Nightingale on April 08, 2015, 08:21:12 PM ---
--- Quote from: Prancer on April 08, 2015, 07:18:23 PM ---I'd be careful about taking advice/information from a website focused on selling their 'naturopathic' consultations starting at $100 an hour. Just saying.

--- End quote ---
Yikes! Thanks for pointing this out! That's a shame. I was having such a hard time finding an article that contained a variety of things to try, but most just mentioned one or two. I know there are studies that have been done on at least 2 of these techniques, I need to find those, and I'm quite confident the science is sound behind the rest. But no reason to take this as fact just because I said so. I'll work on making this a better post, but for now I've gargled and done cold water immersion for the face (not in the article) and find it quickly yet temporarily effective.

--- End quote ---

No problem. And for the record, I don't want to seem like a high-strung prick about these things, but as we all know, we have a problem with spam. Obvious spam sites/referrals are unhealthy for a fresh, resourceful community like this and will set us back. Sometimes it's unintentionally posted though, since there's so much junk out there. But like you said, the techniques aren't necessarily the issue. The spam site was.

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