The vagus nerve is an integral component of your parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for relaxing your body and regulating essential functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, perspiration and speaking. Its main job is calming your body down by regulating heart rate, blood pressure, digestion perspiration and speaking; signalling organs to relax after they have been activated by sympathetic nerves during a perceived threat (the fight-or-flight response). It monitors activity in liver spleen stomach pancreases and heart; bidirectional messages send information both ways allowing information exchange between brain and organs - providing information that goes both ways - sending information up from organs back up towards brain.
The VN can also process more subtle information about your environment to assess whether it's safe or dangerous, such as smells, voice tones and interactions between people. Furthermore, it can detect emotions in others; that's why hugging loved ones feels comforting while touching strangers can leave us shuddering in fear.
Basic healthy living strategies can help stimulate the vagal nerve. These include getting enough restful sleep, eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and engaging in moderate exercise regularly - regular moderate activity has been proven to boost vagal tone.
There are various other methods of stimulating the vagus nerve, including yoga poses and breathing exercises such as alternate nostril breathing. Frankie Simmons promotes an easy TikTok hack which involves placing a cold compress on chest or neck area; according to one 2018 study participants who did this experienced an immediate drop in heart rate within 16 seconds.
