The vagus nerve is the longest and most complicated of the 12 cranial nerves. It transmits info to or from the mind’s floor to tissues and organs elsewhere within the physique. It’s accountable for regulating inside organ features, comparable to digestion, coronary heart charge, and respiratory charge, in addition to vasomotor exercise and reflex actions, comparable to coughing, sneezing, swallowing, and vomiting.

An irregular vagal tone with minimal coronary heart charge variability has been related to circumstances comparable to diabetes, coronary heart failure, and hypertension. Conversely, the perfect vagal method might characterize a excessive variability between heartbeats.

Within the early 2000s, researchers began to indicate that vagus nerve stimulation may assist some sufferers who had been severely depressed and had not responded to different remedies. By 2005, the Meals and Drug Administration had accredited implantable pulse-generating gadgets that despatched electrical indicators to the vagus nerve to be used in sufferers with treatment-resistant melancholy. 

Related gadgets have additionally been supported for weight problems — to assist management emotions of starvation and fullness. As well as, inside vagus nerve stimulation to deal with irritation can also have purposes for psychiatric issues comparable to PTSD. Different circumstances improved by stimulating the vagus nerve embrace epilepsy, diabetes, and inflammatory autoimmune circumstances comparable to Crohn’s illness or rheumatoid arthritis. 

Residence treatments that enhance vagus tome embrace holding the breath and submerging the face in chilly water. The method can set off the “diving reflex,” a response that slows the heartbeat and constricts blood vessels. Some individuals who have tried it report that it has a relaxing impact and may even cut back insomnia. Others wrap an ice pack in a fabric and place it on their chest to alleviate nervousness.

Picture credit score: Manu5, by way of Wikimedia Commons

Learn the article: This nerve influences practically each inside organ. Can it enhance our psychological state, too?