Psychotherapists, yoga teachers, and self-help types such as Mel Robbins have been talking about stimulating the vagus nerve as a way to “reset” the nervous system and calm anxiety for years. But growing evidence suggests it could do far more for our health: By helping keep inflammation at bay, the vagus nerve could be the key to living a longer, healthier life.
In our modern world, “inflammation has replaced infection as the greatest threat to healthful human longevity,” Dr. Kevin Tracey, a neurosurgeon, inflammation researcher, and the president and CEO of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, writes in his new book “The Great Nerve: The New Science of the Vagus Nerve and How to Harness Its Healing Reflexes.”
Non-infectious diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, which Tracey described to Business Insider as “diseases of inflammation,” were responsible for three-quarters of deaths worldwide in 2021, according to the World Health Organization. And that figure doesn’t take into account the one in 15 Americans affected by autoimmune diseases, which research indicates stem from chronic inflammation, each year.
Stimulating the vagus nerve seems to reduce inflammation
The vagus nerve is made up of 200,000 nerve fibers, which run from the brainstem, down each side of the neck, to the gut — touching almost every organ in the body.
It helps turn on the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for putting the body in a “rest and digest state” (the opposite of “fight or flight”) and is crucial for several automatic bodily processes, including digestion, reducing blood pressure and heart rate, breathing, mood, and immune function.
Neuroscientists are still working to uncover the role of each nerve fiber. They know that vagus nerve activity, known as vagal tone, reduces heart rate, for instance, but they don’t know which of the 200,000 fibers are behind that mechanism.
The Food and Drug Administration approved a vagus nerve stimulation device, which is similar to a pacemaker and implanted into a patient’s neck, to treat epilepsy in 1997 and depression in 2005. But it’s also being studied as a therapy for several inflammatory conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis.
In 1998, Tracey and his team at the Feinstein Institute became the first to discover this link. When they stimulated the vagus nerves of mice with a handheld stimulator, it reduced their inflammation, measured via levels of inflammatory biomarkers, in their blood by 75%.
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Day-to-day activities can activate the vagus nerve
There’s ample content online claiming you can stimulate your vagus nerve through things like cold showers, breathing exercises, body tapping, and applying pressure around the neck. But the reality is, the science to prove that any of these hacks work just isn’t there yet, Tracey said.
“It’s probably a good thing. But can we say for certain we understand how it all works? No, not yet,” he added.
Still, Tracey believes in his own data and that of his colleagues, so he does most of these things just in case they can help prevent chronic diseases. “It’s a Pascal’s wager,” he said.
He shared three things he does regularly in the hopes of stimulating his vagus nerve and reducing inflammation.
1) Cold showers
Tracey turns the water temperature to cold for the last two to three minutes of his daily shower. He does this because cold exposure triggers the body’s fight-or-flight response, which evidence suggests can suppress inflammation.
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Studies suggest that after the initial shock of the cold ramping up the heart beat, the parasympathetic nervous system is then activated, slowing down your breathing and heart rate. This suggests the vagus nerve is activated by cold exposure, however, any role it has in reducing inflammation is still unclear, Tracey wrote.
2) Thirty minutes of daily exercise
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Tracey works out for 30 to 45 minutes around five times a week. He does a mixture of cardio, weight and resistance training, stretching, and yoga.
Everyone knows that exercise is good for you, but you may be surprised to learn that scientists don’t fully understand the mechanisms behind the health benefits, Tracey said.
Take running: we know that over time it reduces resting heart rate and increases heart variability (the time in between heartbeats), which indicates the heart is working efficiently. It’s possible that this is a result of exercise increasing vagal tone, because it is responsible for slowing the heart down, but more research is needed to confirm this.
Whether this turns out to be true or not, working out regularly is a no-brainer investment to make in your health. “Strength training preserves muscle mass, improves metabolic function, and prevents injuries. Aerobic exercise, such as walking, cycling, or swimming, enhances cardiovascular health and endurance,” Tracey said.
3) Meditation
Tracey meditates for ten minutes most mornings, often using apps like Headspace.
Early research suggests that meditating can reduce inflammation, but more is needed, Tracey said. A 2022 meta-analysis that reviewed 28 randomized controlled trials involving 4,638 people found that those who meditated had fewer inflammatory biomarkers in their blood compared to those in control groups.
It’s possible that meditation could increase vagus nerve activity, which in turn reduces inflammation, Tracey said, but we lack direct proof. Regardless, he has found that regular meditation has enabled him to be more present and less reactive to things he can’t control.
