Vagus nerve stimulation is a very promising area of longevity technology.
If you’ve spent much time learning about managing your stress levels, you’ve likely come across the terms ‘sympathetic’ and ‘parasympathetic’. These often appear with the phrases ‘fight or flight’ (sympathetic) or ‘rest and digest’ (parasympathetic), and as the story goes – we are far too often in one state and should ideally spend much more time in the other.
For most of us, this knowledge sits with us, but we are challenged by actually changing our behaviors enough to really shift the state of the nervous system meaningfully across our busy day.
But what if I told you there was an ‘on switch’ for that rest and digest or parasympathetic part of your nervous system? You might want to know more about that!
Well it turns out, there is, and it is called your vagus nerve, which just so happens to be the longest ‘cranial’ nerve in your body, connecting your brain to nearly every major organ. From the Latin word for ‘wandering’, it is responsible for sending the calming signals (via neurotransmitters) that shift your body into rest and digest.
