The Vagus Nerve - Skin and Mental Health
The vagus nerve or vagal nerves are a key part of the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest system) and control a number of crucial involuntary bodily functions including your heart rate, immune system and digestion. It is a bidirectional pathway that carries information from the brain to the body and body to the brain. It is responsible for calming the body down after periods of stress, worry, fear or anxiety.
HOW DO YOU INCREASE VAGAL TONE?
By increasing your vagal tone, you decrease anxiety and increase the ability to relax faster after periods of stress or worry. There are a number of exercises you can do to strengthen your vagus nerve:
Cold Water Therapy
Regularly exposing yourself to cold water (e.g. short cold showers) can decrease sympathetic activity (i.e. your "fight or flight" response) and increase parasympathetic activity.
Breathwork
Deep, slow and controlled breathing can activate the vagus nerve. Try taking 6-8 breaths over the course of one minute, breathing in deeply from your diaphragm. This can instantly bring you into a state of relaxation and calmness.
Tending To Gut Health
The vagus nerve is involved in the gut-brain connection, and is influenced by certain probiotics. The HPA stress response, which regulates mood and emotion, is attenuated by probiotics, decreasing cortisol levels (i.e. stress or anxiety). By consuming an anti-inflammatory diet, nutrient rich, in probiotics and lots of omega 3’s, you can strengthen vagal tone.
Meditation
This relaxation technique stimulates the vagus nerve and increases overall vagal tone. By incorporating a 5 minute meditation upon waking up and before going to bed, you immediately reduce stress and anxieties. This practice incorporates different techniques that help people focus their attention and achieve a more clear state of awareness. Meditation involves sitting in a relaxed position and clearing your mind, or focusing your mind on one thought and clearing it of all others. By doing this, it affects the body in exactly the opposite way that stress does—by triggering the body's relaxation response. It brings the body to a calm state, helping the body repair itself from the physical effects of stress.
Movement
All forms of movement help to increase your overall stress tolerance, and release the “feel good” neurochemicals in the brain. Yoga and pilates especially help to activate the vagus nerve and strengthen this overtime.
HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO SKIN?
Did you know the vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body? Because of this, it is connected to the many important organs that support the body, all that can have an impact on your mental health. The skin is easily influenced by psychological stress via the mind-gut-skin connection. If you are struggling with chronic psychological stress, anger, worry, anxiety or poor vagal tone, this can impact your gut in a variety of ways:
Mild Inflammation
Gut Dysbiosis
Leaky Gut
Poor Nutrient Absorption
Our body is connected. Our gut and skin communicate. They work together via a network of bacteria - cool, right? When the bacteria within your gut are unhealthy, it can impact the overall health of your skin and manifest as blemishes, inflamed skin, eczema, rosacea and hyperpigmentation.
SUMMARY
As I continue to move through the world, I am learning to teach myself to really recognize how my body feels. What I’ve noticed is so many of us walk day to day and push aside if we may feel fatigued, overly anxious, stressed over fears, constantly bloated, never having a regular bowel movement. It has become normalized to not feel 100% on a day to day basis, when the reality is that you have the power to feel good everyday by implementing small changes into your lifestyle, and reconnecting with yourself. Pay full attention to your mind-gut-skin connection. It can definitely take time to figure out what habits work best for you (trust me, I’ve been there), but once you do (and you are consistent with them) it’s amazing to see how your body begins to thank you by working as it’s best self. In reality, our body truly is an operating machine.
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes - including you”
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