What's a pre-E pack? Lol,
Hi GLC,
My pre-E pack is the supplements I take 20 to 30 mins before release ( pre-Ejaculation pack). To see what it contains, see
http://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=2090.0 I say pre-E instead of pre-O because it happens that I have a E without absolutely no O, so for me, it is obvious that POIS is linked to E, and not to O, at least in my own case.
About the vagus nerve, it has many branches, and for a better understanding of the Polyvagal theory, you will see that there is a dorsal vagal complex ( not myelinated, and older on the evolution line of species ( phylogenetics) ) and the ventral vagal complex , or the "smart' vagus ( which is myelinated, and has appeared more recently, phylogenetically speaking). According to this theory, the old vagus reaction puts the individual in a frozen, disconnected state, as if dead, and the smart vagus is linked to the communication/socialization mode. I think the current Rutgers study want to check if POIS is related to our system being shut down in old vagus state, with lowered HRV ( heart rate variability) and bradycardia. This would means also compromised blood flow to the brain, and becoming socially impaired, which what is seen in the "old vagus" response. POIS sure shows some similarities with the description of this state. I am at the beginning of my readings on Polyvagal theory, but so far this is what I have understood from it.
When you mention in another thread that you sometime get out of POIS with a another O under Claritin-D, 24 hours or so later, I wonder if, in the light of the Polyvagal Theory, POIS is not a bad exit from the high sympathetic state of release/O, and instead of returning to the evolved, smart vagus state, our system goes down into the old, shut down vagus response. If someone find a way back to sympathetic response, and then exit "the other way", in the smart vagus response, then POIS would end..... That is just an hypothesis I make here, but it would explain the situation you describe. This would also explain why I experiment some sort of intense fatigue after sport, even if not as much as when I have an E... but it sounds like if my system, after high sympathetic state, have a tendency to exit toward "old vagus" state instead of exiting in "smart vagus", relaxed and feel-good state.
Also, It is not talked a lot in Polyvagal Theory articles, but what they call the old vagus response must also be linked to the mast cell activation talked about in this thread. This could be interesting to check about
For anyone interested, I have found a very interesting interview about the Polyvagal Theory, in lay terms, with the founder of this theory, at
http://www.sott.net/article/228410-How-your-nervous-system-sabotages-your-ability-to-relate .