How to improve your vagal nerve tone to reduce stress

As we've covered in a previous article, our vagus nerve affects almost every system in our body, and helps regulate inflammation, stress, heart health, brain health and gut health (to name a few!!), as its the signalling pathway for the parasympathetic nervous system.

It's what tells our body we're safe from danger, and that it can relax, recover and slow down.

Unfortunately in our fast paced society, we end up spending most of our time in the ‘fight flight or freeze’ state (due to our sympathetic nervous system being constantly stimulated), meaning we never switch off and slow down!

This can lead to a variety of health issues, such as poor sleep, fatigue, gut problems, recurrent infections, brain fog, tension headaches, palpitations, poor libido, anxiety, and even fertility issues.

In contrast, making a deliberate effort to slow down and ‘exercise’ our vagus nerve can help us switch more easily into the rest and digest state (even when we're under pressure), massively improving our ability to cope with day to day stresses.

Vagal tone can indirectly be measured by resting heart rate (lower range of normal is better) and heart rate variability (how much heart rate varies with breathing - higher is better)

Higher vagal tone means our body has a more controlled response to stress, and also recovers faster

Interestingly vagal tone is even passed from mother to baby - if mothers are stressed/ depressed/ anxious during pregnancy their babies are born with lower vagal tone and lower levels of serotonin and dopamine - reinforcing why caring for our pregnant women is so vital ❤️

Ways to improve vagal tone include the following :

✔️Meditation - many studies show meditation improves vagal tone and reduces sympathetic nervous system activity. It's one of our absolute favourites - check out the meditation recordings in our movement and mind section if you'd like to try it for yourself

✔️Exercise - this is highly effective for improving vagal tone, and is why as fitness improves resting heart rate and blood pressure drops. Yoga is especially helpful, we have some great yoga recordings in our movement and mind section.

✔️Slow deep controlled breathing - aim for around 6 breaths per minute. Holding the breath and slowing the exhale stimulates the vagus nerve. It's one of the quickest ways to switch off the fight or flight response. There are also some videos showing you how to do this in our movement and mind section

✔️Physical touch- c tactile afferent nerves in the skin are stimulated by touch and  lower cortisol and stress levels. Slow steady strokes at 3-5cm/s seem to be the most effective. Certain acupressure points on the foot can also stimulate the vagus nerve

✔️Kindness, compassion, laughter, and social connection - these stimulate release of oxytocin (love hormone) and improve vagal tone - even the act of thinking about positive social experiences stimulates the vagal nerve!

✔️Cold exposure - cold showers, ice baths, and cold swimming all improve vagal tone. Even cold water on the face helps

✔️Chanting, humming, and 'om' - the vocal cords are connected to the vagus nerve, and these activities all stimulate vagal tone.

✔️Time restricted eating and improving the gut microbiome may also improve vagal nerve tone, although the research on this is still limited

Why not try it and see how you feel - you might be pleasantly surprised!