Daily Tip #10 The Gut-Brain Vagus Connection
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VARSHA: [00:00:00] Welcome to Functional Medicine with Dr. Var. This podcast is to help you explore the underlying root causes of your chronic symptoms and health challenges. Reset your health and reclaim your life.
Think your brain is the only part of your body that controls your mood, focus, and energy. Well think again today we're diving into one of my favorite topics. Your second brain, which is your gut. Your gut is a powerful control center for more than just digestion. It sends signals directly to your brain, influences your mood, and even helps regulate anxiety, focus, and even appetite.
And the key to that connection is the vagus nerve, the vagus nerve is like your body's communication superhighway. It runs from the base of your brain all the way down to your gut, and it affects the other organs along the way.
Your brain send signals down this [00:01:00] vagus nerve that helps control digestion. I gut motility.
But your gut can also send communication to your brain. This communication works both ways.
That's why when your gut is off, you might feel anxious or brain foggy. Or sometimes even more wired. And then when your gut is healthy, you might notice that your mood and focus and energy improved dramatically. I know when I feel more bloated or I ate something that didn't agree with me.
I just, I don't feel good the next day and I feel low energy and it's because my gut has some inflammation that's affecting its communication with the brain. Here's the interesting part.
Your gut makes over 90% of serotonin. Now, a lot of that serotonin works at the gut level to help your gut motility and help. Uh, digestion. But some of that serotonin actually gets sent up the vagus nerve to signal into the brain [00:02:00] to control your moods. There's also 50% of your dopamine, which helps control your focus and motivation is made in the gut.
And gaba, which plays a big role in relaxation and keeps you calm.
Here's the problem though. When you have inflammation. In your gut, or if your gut microbiome is off then the signals from these neurotransmitters that are made in your gut are affected,
this can lead to the vagus nerve getting scrambled signals, and your brain doesn't get the information to affect its mood, energy, and focus. And so you start to not feel good
but the good news is you can strengthen your vagus nerve naturally so that it can have optimal communication from your gut to your brain when you strengthen the vagus nerve, you're activating what's called the parasympathetic nervous system. This is your anti-stress nervous system. so your daily habit challenge today is to do an activity or exercise that [00:03:00] simulates the vagus nerve. Here are a few ways that you can do that. One of the easiest ways is to do deep, slow breathing. There are many different patterns, but some common ones are a 4, 7, 8 breathing pattern where you inhale for four, you hold for seven, and then you exhale for eight.
Or box breathing where you inhale for four. Hold for four. Breathe out for four, and then inhale for four. Cold exposure. So splashing cold water onto your face in the morning, or you can even run the cold water at the end of your shower for like 10 to 30 seconds.
But of course, you know, make sure it's okay with your doctor, especially if you have any blood pressure or heart issues. And then things like singing or humming, meditation, mindfulness, or even tapping, where you tap on certain parts of your body and you say affirmations, these stimulate the vagus nerve and help calm down that stress [00:04:00] system.
I hope this was helpful. If you like this video, please subscribe or follow head out to my YouTube channel if you wanna watch the video version or if you wanna watch other videos on various topics on functional medicine.
Thanks for listening or watching, and have a fantastic day, stay tuned tomorrow for another daily tip.
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