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Cold showers to activate your vagus nerve and calm parasympathetic system (+ 26 other anxiety-busting tips)

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cold showers

I’ve been sharing about  early registration for my next summit… Anxiety Summit 6: Toxins/Meds/Infections!  (I’m the host of this one!)

I’ll continue to share interview snippets leading up to the summit but I want to make sure you know about another one of the summit registrations gifts: 27 Anxiety-Busting Strategies eGuide

anxiety busting strtegies

Here is one of the 27 anxiety-busting tips …#3 Take a cold shower!

cold shower

Taking a cold shower or turning the hot water off after your shower and getting under the cold water for a minute or two activates the calming parasympathetic system because it has an impact on the vagus nerve.

I always do the 2 minute cold shower after my regular shower – in summer and winter – and I highly recommend it! You’d think it would be a no-no in the middle of winter but even though there is the initial shock, you feel so good afterwards. It’s such a simple intervention! Try it and let me know how you feel!

We cover this and many other ways to activate the vagus nerve in the interview with Dr. Eva Detko – Vagus Nerve Infection and Anxiety.  It’s an in-depth interview and we cover:

  • VanElzakker’s CFS/vagus nerve infection research
  • the vagus nerve role in brain-gut axis
  • lactobacillus and GABA
  • the vagus nerve and globus pharyngeus (lump in the throat when anxious)
  • how antidepressants may adversely impact the vagus nerve
  • psychosensory havening and more

Another related interview is the one with Melissa Gallico – Fluoride: Neurotoxicity, Anxiety, Acne and Hypothyroidism.  We talk about concerns about fluoride in your shower water. You’ll also learn about other surprising sources of fluoride such as black tea, kombucha and wine!

Some questions for you:

  • Have you used this approach with success and how do you feel afterwards?
  • Do you continue through winter or would you consider this?
  • Have you used variations of this, such as swimming in the ocean or pool in cool or cold weather?
  • What other vagus nerve activation approaches do you use?

Here’s to no more anxiety and you feeling on top of the world again! And getting value out of other 26 tips starting today.

You’ve heard me say the Anxiety Summit has been called “a bouquet of hope!”  My wish for you is that this summit is your bouquet of hope!

I hope you’ll join me and these incredible speakers, be enlightened and find YOUR solutions!

When you download the eGuide you’ll get automatic access to the summit.

Get the 27 Anxiety-Busting Strategies eGuide

You can also simply register here directly for access to the summit.

Register here

 

And do stay tuned for the summit roadmap – it’s almost ready and will be a great cross-reference of root-causes/triggers, solutions and conditions.

Even if you already receive my newsletters and signed up some time ago to be notified about the upcoming Anxiety Summit 6, you will still need to register at the new link here, because Health Talks Online is doing the production and backend work for me.

If you don’t register you won’t get access to the daily summit emails with all the interviews.

You will however, continue to get these emails from me.

This is my 6th Anxiety Summit and it is all new content!

The content is research-based and practical, and is geared to anxious individuals who are health-savvy and to practitioners who work with anxious individuals.

If you are totally new to functional medicine and nutritional solutions for anxiety, you will still learn so much so just take in what you can and know you’ll get all this eventually.

Anxiety and globus pharyngeus (lump in the throat): GABA to the rescue?

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globus pharyngeus and gaba

Low levels of GABA, a calming neurotransmitter can lead to anxiety, fears and panic attacks. With low GABA, the anxiety is a physical kind of anxiety with muscle tension or muscle spasms.  Today you’ll read how low GABA may be one possible root cause of globus pharyngeus, which you may have experienced as a rather scary golf-ball-like lump or constriction in the throat.

Let me describe globus pharyngeus and then I’ll share my story with globus pharyngeus, why low GABA may be a factor (and supplemental sublingual GABA to the rescue) and other possible root causes that should be considered.

This 2015 paper, Globus pharyngeus: an update for general practice, defines it as follows:

Globus pharyngeus or globus sensation is the painless sensation of a lump in the throat and may be described as a foreign body sensation, a tightening or choking feeling.

Globus means globe or sphere and it can actually feel like you have a golf-ball sized object in your throat.

You may have experienced it without even knowing the medical name. Only a few of my clients and those in my community have ever heard the term. I also only learned about the name many years after my episode.

What is very surprising is that, according to the above paper, up to 45% of the population have experienced it.

My story with globus pharyngeus

I’m one of the 45% and for me it was a terrifying experience.  As you may know, I experienced anxiety, PMS, fears and panic attacks in my late 30s and early 40s (it’s why I do this work).

Fortunately I only had one episode. It truly felt like I had a golf-ball in my throat and was horrifying. I knew I needed to swallow so I could get rid of this obstruction but at the same time I was terrified to swallow in case it got stuck and choked and killed me.

I remember going to the mirror to try and see this golf-ball sized object in my throat. I was so surprised that I couldn’t see anything.

Looking back, I suspect the addition of GABA Calm to my protocol prevented further episodes. I was also using progesterone cream at the time and this promotes GABA production too.

I’ve had many clients report that looking back they also realized their episodes stopped once they addressed their low GABA levels.

I was also under a great deal of stress at the time: work stress (long hours and my adrenals were a mess) and physical stress (due to amalgam removal, gluten issues, perimenopausal changes and much more).

Globus pharyngeus and GABA

The fact that the throat or pharynx “is a muscular tube that runs from the back of your nose down into your neck” is one reason for considering a muscle spasm and low GABA as a root cause.

The amino acid GABA, when used sublingually, eases muscle spasms within 15 seconds to 2 minutes. Some examples where we see this:

If you’re in the midst of an episode it’s impossible to open a capsule of GABA into your mouth. Until a client knows how much they can tolerate we start with 100-125 mg and increased based on the trial.  Taking the powder and dabbing it with a wet finger and putting the finger to the inside cheek a few times is the best way for quick relief.

A product that is GABA-only in a capsule such as Enzymatic Therapy GABA or ProThera 500mg GABA are my choices for in-the moment relief (more on these in my supplement store here).

Source Naturals GABA Calm is my most popular GABA product and is my choice for everyday use.

Of course, I recommend this approach to doing nothing. The authors state: “simple reassurance may be all that is required” or “Advise patients to resist the urge to dry swallow.” We can do better.

Once your GABA levels are sufficient, it’s less likely to happen unless you’re under a great deal of stress and/or there are psychological factors at play:

There is increased reporting of stressful life events prior to development of symptoms and research suggests that as many as 96% of patients with globus sensation report an exacerbation of symptoms during times of emotional intensity.

During times of added stress, folks may experience other “physical symptoms such as palpitations, poor sleep, and feelings of panic.”

Other root causes and possible solutions

The above paper does also list other root causes and solutions that would need to be investigated if GABA doesn’t help or possibly in conjunction with GABA support: tonsil issues, hiatus hernia, reflux in 23 -68% of individuals (I would look for the root cause rather than using a proton pump inhibitor/PPI), sinusitis, post-nasal drip, goitre, an actual foreign body, high consumption of alcohol/caffeine/tobacco and cancer (which they state is rare).

Interestingly, speech and language therapy has been shown to improve globus pharyngeus in two studies, possibly due to the reassurance experienced.

The paper concludes as follows:

Finally the link between anxiety and globus sensation must be considered. Evidence supports the use of cognitive behavioural therapy, but very little evidence exists for the use of anxiolytics or antidepressants.

I’ll add to this: the link between low GABA and globus sensation must also be considered, especially if you experience the physical type of low GABA anxiety. GABA to the rescue!

Based on the research, low serotonin, vagus nerve function, thyroid health and h/pylori may also be factors. I suspect food sensitivities play a role. And pyroluria too, because of the additional loss of zinc and vitamin B6 which is needed for GABA production. I’ll leave all this for a follow-up blog.

Have you experienced a globus sensation episode? And what did it feel like?

Did you get a diagnosis or is the term new to you?

Has GABA helped … in the moment or if you look back on your use of GABA for anxiety?

Did you discover other root causes and solutions? Please do share.

Please share if  you have pyroluria and your episodes were triggered by a very stressful event

And feel free to post your questions.

If you’re a practitioner I’d love to hear your feedback too.

Social anxiety caused by pyroluria: oxytocin, the vagus nerve, pectus excavatum and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

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social anxiety pyroluria

Pyroluria is associated with a type of anxiety characterized by social anxiety, avoidance of crowds, a feeling of inner tension, and bouts of depression. If you have pyroluria you may experience varying degrees of anxiety or fear, often starting in childhood, and you usually manage to cover it up and push through. You may build your life around one person, become more of a loner over time, have difficulty handling stress or change, and have heightened anxiety symptoms when under more stress.

It’s not well-recognized in the medical profession and has long been considered a genetic condition. More recently some practitioners have been proposing that it may be triggered by environmental toxins and that it’s not only genetic. Either way, symptoms can start to resolve within a week when low levels of zinc and vitamin B6, together with some other nutrients are addressed. Stress management is key. This can be emotional stress and the stress of toxin exposure, infections like Lyme disease, mold toxicity and even low blood sugar and gluten issues.

We would typically not connect social anxiety/pyroluria with low oxytocin, vagus nerve function or connective tissue disorders but if you read on you’ll see there are some interesting connections.

Oxytocin, social anxiety and zinc

Research has found that oxytocin levels correlate strongly with levels of social anxiety. A paper published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research looked at how variations in the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene is associated with an increased risk of anxiety, stress and depression in individuals with a history of exposure to early life stress. Supporting low levels of oxytocin can ease the threats of social interactions.

What is interesting is that zinc, a key nutrient for pyroluria, is needed for binding oxytocin to its receptor. You can read more about all this here: Oxytocin, social anxiety, pyroluria and autism

Sociability improves vagus nerve function and thriving at home alone

Increased sociability helps improve vagus nerve function. It’s all good and well to recommend getting out and hanging out with more people but if you have pyroluria it’s really challenging. It’s also hard work, very stressful and the added stress makes your pyroluria symptoms worse so it becomes a vicious cycle.

You can read all about this here: Increased sociability improves vagus nerve function: the role of social anxiety, pyroluria and low zinc. There is an updated section on social isolation during coronavirus and how some people are thriving being home alone.

Pectus excavatum and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

Pectus excavatum is an indentation in the chest wall and is related to problems with connective tissue. When it comes to pyroluria and pectus excavatum, this is what we see in common: social anxiety and depression, low zinc and low vitamin B6, dental crowding and sometimes Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). I write more about this here: Pectus excavatum and pyroluria: is there a connection?.

I’ve written an entire blog on Joint hypermobility / Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and pyroluria. Anxiety, depression, attention deficit (and hyperactivity) disorder, autism spectrum disorders, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders are all common with EDS. Many folks with EDS report better less social anxiety, improved mood and often improved physical symptoms/reduced pain on the pyroluria protocol of zinc, vitamin B6, evening primrose oil and a good copper-free multi.

Resources for you

Please do share if you have pyroluria or score high on the questionnaire and have seen improvements in your social anxiety and any physical symptoms.

The vagus nerve impacts mood, anxiety, immune response, digestion and heart rate

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vagus nerve impacts

The vagus nerve forms a bi-directional “super-highway” between your brain and the majority of your internal organs. Unless your vagus nerve is in good shape and activates readily when it is supposed to, the communication between your brain and the body will be disrupted.

This modern world can lead to overstimulation of the nervous system and you can become desensitized to chronic stress. Over time, this can lead to low vagal tone, which has been linked to a variety of mental and physical health issues, including chronic inflammation, poor gut function, neurodegeneration, autoimmunity and cancer.

And we know this to be true: you cannot FULLY heal leaky gut, microbiome function or brain issues WITHOUT optimizing your vagus function.

Host of the Mind, Body & The Vagus Nerve Connection Summit, Eva Detko, PhD, MSc, BA (Hons), mIAHT, shares the above wisdom about the vagus nerve. I’ll add this: this overstimulation of the nervous system is especially high right now during this coronavirus pandemic.

In my interview, Balancing Neurotransmitters to Optimize Vagus Function, we start with a review paper that reports how the vagus nerve is intricately connected with anxiety and mood (and immunity).

I share from Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain–Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders:

  • The vagus nerve represents the main component of the parasympathetic nervous system, which oversees a vast array of crucial bodily functions, including control of mood, immune response, digestion, and heart rate.
  • It establishes one of the connections between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract and sends information about the state of the inner organs to the brain via afferent fibers.

The review article goes on to state how the vagus nerve is an attractive tool for treating psychiatric and gastrointestinal disorders: “There is preliminary evidence that vagus nerve stimulation is a promising add-on treatment for treatment-refractory depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and inflammatory bowel disease.”

And as we all know when we hear the term treatment-refractory depression, it means we haven’t got to the root cause of it. It just means that medications haven’t worked for it.

So this allows us to extrapolate and say, well, there’s other lifestyle and dietary, and nutritional approaches that we could use. But they’re saying that stimulating the vagus nerve, activating it, can actually help in this area. And with my work in anxiety, whenever I see depression, I feel like I can replace that with anxiety (because of similar underlying causes). The other thing that they say is that there’s this impact on inflammation: “Treatments that target the vagus nerve increase the vagal tone and inhibit cytokine production.”

And we know that when we’ve got inflammation going on in the body, that’s going to contribute to mood disorders: “Stimulation of vagal efferent fibers in the gut influences neurotransmitters (like serotonin and dopamine, and GABA) that play a crucial role in major psychiatric disorders.”

So the conclusion is that vagal tone is correlated with the capacity to regulate stress responses and can be influenced by breathing. Its increase through meditation and yoga is likely to contribute to resilience, and the mitigation of mood and anxiety symptoms. And we know from other research, and we know from just doing it, that using meditation and yoga is going to affect anxiety levels. We’ve seen research showing that yoga and meditation raises GABA levels, which is one of the neurotransmitters that helps us feel calm.  But now we’re also seeing from the research that good vagal tone has an impact as well.

So it’s really exciting to see that there’s many different ways that we can use to approach someone who does have anxiety issues.

I also talk about a very interesting study that brings the connections between GABA and the vagus nerve together very nicely. As I’m talking I see Eva nodding in agreement as I cover this. I wanted to share this study to add another mechanism as to how GABA may work, given so many people don’t believe it can because of the blood brain barrier.

This was an animal study done in 2011 and it’s titled: Ingestion of Lactobacillus Strain Regulates Emotional Behavior and Central GABA Receptor Expression in a Mouse via the Vagus Nerve. You may have had other people in the summit talking about this. I can see you nodding there. Let me just bring it back to this discussion because I’ve got something to add about this. But what they found is this – Lactobacillus rhamnosus increased GABA in the hippocampus. It reduced cortisol levels, which was caused by the increased stress, and it reduced anxiety and the depression in the animals.

When they severed the vagus nerve in some of the mice in the study they found that these neurochemical and behavioral effects were not found. So as soon as the vagus nerve was severed, the effects of the Lactobacillus rhamnosus, which was increasing GABA levels, was not reducing the anxiety and it was not reducing those cortisone levels.

The biggest question that I get about GABA is: “How could GABA possibly work if it can’t cross the blood brain barrier?”  Maybe this is one way that is having an impact on anxiety. We know that we’ve got a lot of GABA receptors in our peripheral tissue. We’ve got GABA receptors in our muscles, which probably is the reason why we feel it when we’ve got this physical tension, or we’ve got the spasms. We’ve got GABA receptors in our pancreas. We’ve got GABA receptors in our endocrine system.

But maybe this vagus nerve connection and the fact that when it’s severed we’re not getting those effects, maybe this is another way that GABA is having an impact on anxiety.

Making the vagus nerve connection to serotonin, I share some interesting new research on SSRIs/antidepressants and the vagus nerve: Oral Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors Activate Vagus Nerve Dependent Gut-brain Signalling.

SSRIs like Zoloft or Paxil or Prozac are often prescribed for anxiety, depression, autism and dementia. And there’s a whole host of issues that we have with SSRIs where you’ll have serious withdrawal symptoms in some people.

In the study, the researchers proposed that SSRIs were having an effect on serotonin and it was the vagus nerve that was now communicating to the brain leading to increased serotonin levels. Similar to the GABA study, when they severed the vagus nerve of the mice, they did not see the same benefits from the SSRI.

My thinking is this: could we possibly extrapolate and say the amino acid tryptophan may have similar effects?

We won’t hold our breath for a similar tryptophan study but we can learn from this paper and possible mechanisms.

I also share how I use GABA and tryptophan with clients so if you’re new to using targeted individual amino acids you’ll learn more about this too.

As you know, my work is primarily using the neurotransmitters precursors (such as the amino acids) and using dietary changes, but we don’t want to forget about other approaches like vagus nerve support.

If we can improve vagus function, then we’re going to get even better benefits.

I share some of my favorite vagus nerve exercises. One of them – social interaction – has been challenging lately but cold showers are very do-able.

Let me share some aspects on the importance of social interaction for improving vagal tone.

Research shows that the more social interactions you have, the more it improves vagal tone. And then that improved vagal tone, improves your mood and makes you more social (and has ramifications for so many other areas as you’ll learn on the summit).

However if you have a condition called pyroluria (social anxiety, preferring one-to-one connections rather than being in large groups, not liking small talk, early morning nausea, not really big on animal protein – I go into it in depth during the interview if it’s new to you), getting out and being social can be very challenging when you are forcing yourself and putting on a brave face:

It’s a very stressful situation in doing that, and then it makes your pyroluria worse so your social anxiety gets worse. So when you have pyroluria and you have a stressful situation, you end up dumping high levels of zinc and B6. So it makes things worse.

If you do go out, it’s either very stressful or you just don’t even do it. So my contribution to the discussion is: let’s address pyroluria and that’s going to in turn allow people to get out and socialize without feeling uncomfortable, without feeling awkward, without having to stress, without feeling absolutely exhausted afterwards, and it’s going to help improve vagal tone.

Eva sums up with this important aspect:

What people need to know is that social connection is good for your vagus nerve only if it’s perceived positively by you internally. So if you’re in a situation where you’re forcing yourself to interact with other people, you’re actually not going to have a positive knock-on effect on your vagus nerve because it’s going to be the opposite. You’re going to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system response because you’re there, as you described, completely uncomfortable and basically stress out. So those social connections need to be positive.

Here are some interviews I look forward to tuning into:

  • Niki Gratrix, BA, Dip ION: Connecting the Vagus Nerve, Emotions and Gut Function
  • Ben Lynch, ND: Epigenetics of Chronic Stress
  • Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP: How Mold Toxicity Damages Your Nervous System
  • Jay Davidson, DC, PScD: Impact of Infections on Mitochondrial and Vagus Function
  • Kimm Sun, CNM: Impact of Birth Trauma Across Lifetime
  • Eva Detko, PhD, MSc, BA (Hons): Impact of Perfectionism on Heart Rate Variability
  • Misa Hopkins: Vagus Nerve Session of the Day – Vagus Nerve Sound Healing

I don’t go into the immune connection in my interview because it was recorded before the coronavirus pandemic started but keep this in mind as you tune in: you cannot have a well-functioning immune system without a healthy nervous system, and vice-versa!

vagus nerve summit

Click here to join me on The Mind, Body & The Vagus Nerve Connection Summit

This event will provide you with all the information you need to:

  • Understand the vagus nerve’s complexity
  • Know the importance of high vagal tone
  • Measure your vagal tone
  • Recognize symptoms and root causes of vagus nerve dysfunction
  • Optimize gut-brain communication
  • Address emotional trauma and chronic stress
  • Improve your relationships to increase vagal tone
  • Strengthen vagus function with physical approaches

And when you register today, you’ll gain INSTANT access to the following free gifts, including my summit interview video and transcript!

vagus nerve summit bonuses

  • Symptoms and Root Causes of Vagus Nerve Dysfunction Navaz Habib, DC, AFMCP
  • Balancing Neurotransmitters to Optimize Vagus Function Trudy Scott, CN
  • EFT, Polyvagal Theory and the Mind-Body Connection Craig Weiner, DC
  • Vagus Nerve 101 eGuide from Eva Detko, PhD, MSc, BA (Hons), mIAHT

To your continued learning and healing – and good vagus nerve function!

Click here to join me on The Mind, Body & The Vagus Nerve Connection Summit

Why social anxiety, introversion and loneliness can be lethal and a simple nutritional solution

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trudy scott mindshare

It was an honor to be selected as one of fifteen participants for The Future of Health presentations at Mindshare in August 2019. I presented this to my peers in the integrative health and nutrition space but it’s applicable to everyone and I’d like to share it with you today.

Here is my video presentation: Why social anxiety, introversion and loneliness can be lethal and a simple nutritional solution  (click below to watch the video)

Here are some additional reading resources on much of what I cover in my 5 minute presentation:

This is the the amazing and inspiring group of speakers who I shared the stage with:

  • Amie Apigan – Why Attachment is the New Field of Medicine
  • Lauryn Lax – Eating Healthy is Killing You
  • Jess Sherman – Raising Resilient Kids in a Complex World: Will we Rise to the Challenge
  • Terry Wahls – Creating an Epidemic of Health – My Radical Path
  • Susanne Bennett – The Kimchi Revolution: How an Ancient Food Can Transform the Future of Health
  • Razi Berry – Love is Medicine
  • Kaylea Boutwell – I’ve Got Your Back: Novel Pain Therapies Transforming Spinal Care Outcomes
  • Dana Cohen – Hydration: 8 Glasses a Day is not the Way!
  • Elisa Song – Breathing Life into Your Kids
  • Joel Sprechman – Creating 1M Super Poopers & Evolving Crohn’s Colitis
  • Katy Kimball – My Plan to Empty Your Waiting Rooms (the Real Root Cause of Poor Health)
  • Heather Paulson – Why Choose? Using the Best of Both Worlds to Experience Health with Cancer
  • James Maskell – Group Visits: How Functional Medicine Reaches the Vulnerable
  • Mehgan Walker – Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Chronic Disease: Why Chasing Happiness is Making us Sick

(do let me know if you’d like me to share any of these presentations in the follow-up blog)

mindshare speakers
Mindshare 2019 green room
Here are some of us in the backstage “green room” and getting ready to go on stage!

We each had a maximum of 5 minutes to present and were not allowed slides or notes. The last time I had memorized my talks and had them timed was 15 years ago when I was in Toastmasters. Before that it was when I was in school. I wasn’t even sure if I could do it when I entered my proposal to speak. When practicing the day before I was still unsure I could manage. Because of my Lyme disease, my memory and word recall isn’t as great as it used to be.

If you pay close attention and you’ll notice the spot where I almost freeze – everything just went out of my head! I simply breathed in calmly, made an attempt to look like I had paused and was fortunate that most of the ending came back to me! Whew!

trudy scott mindshare 2019

 

I’d love to hear what you think of my message and if it resonates with you or a loved one. Feel free to share your pyroluria score and how you score on the introvert questionnaire.

Please also share if you’ve seen the benefits of no social anxiety, introversion and/or loneliness (or much less) when on the pyroluria protocol.

Increased sociability improves vagus nerve function: the role of social anxiety, pyroluria and low zinc

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increased sociability and vagus nerve

With the objective of taking a deeper dive into some of the favorite topics of the recent Anxiety Summit: Gut-Brain Axis, today’s blog is about the vagus nerve since Dr. Navaz Habib’s interview, Vagus Nerve Activation to Reduce Anxiety, was voted one of the favorites. I’m focusing on one tool that improves vagus nerve function that we didn’t have time to get into in great detail – and that is how increased sociability helps.  It’s all good and well to recommend getting out and hanging out with more people but if you have the social anxiety condition called pyroluria it’s really challenging, hard work and very stressful. Added stress makes pyroluria worse so it becomes a vicious cycle.

Let’s start with the research that supports the connection between the vagus nerve and increased anxiety and mood problems.  In the interview with Dr Navaz, we discussed this paper: Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain–Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders which states that “vagus nerve stimulation is a promising add-on treatment for treatment-refractory depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and inflammatory bowel disease” and how stimulation of vagal fibers that go from the gut to the brain (afferent fibers) influences neurotransmitter production and “play crucial roles in major psychiatric conditions, such as mood and anxiety disorders.”  The gut bacteria play a major role too, “partly by affecting the activity of the vagus nerve.”

In our interview we end with very practical ways to activate your vagus nerve

  • Deep breathing exercises (mentioned in the above paper, together with yoga and meditation) and cold showers (which makes you breathe harder)
  • Gargling and using the gag reflex
  • Humming, chanting and singing (I used these approaches for my vagus nerve issue – more here on that)
  • Auricular acupuncture (which is also very effective for addictions)
  • And finally, social interaction or increased sociability, which I want to cover today

The research on the vagus nerve and being more social

Let’s look at the research on the vagus nerve or vagal tone and being more social.  This paper, Upward spirals of the heart: autonomic flexibility, as indexed by vagal tone, reciprocally and prospectively predicts positive emotions and social connectedness, reports that that vagal tone and connectedness or being more social is a two-way street i.e. it’s reciprocal

  • “…increases in connectedness and positive emotions predicted increases in vagal tone” and
  • “Adults who possessed higher initial levels of vagal tone increased in connectedness and positive emotions more rapidly than others”

In summary, the more social and happy you are, the healthier your vagus nerve is and a healthier vagus nerve leads to feeling more connected and happy.

This study was done with adults in a community-dwelling setting over 9 weeks: “adults were asked to monitor and report their positive emotions and the degree to which they felt socially connected each day.”

Address pyroluria in those who have social anxiety

Pyroluria, the social anxiety condition, was not part of the study because it’s under-recognized as a factor in anxiety.  I’d like to propose that we address pyroluria in those who have social anxiety in order to further improve social connectedness and their vagus nerve function.

Many folks with pyroluria put on a brave face in social settings and even “extrovert” which is extremely stressful. The added stress makes pyroluria worse (zinc and vitamin B6 are dumped in much higher amounts) so it becomes a vicious cycle.

Others, who are not willing to even show up because of their severe social anxiety, are not getting that social interaction and connectedness that is so crucial for improved vagus nerve function and better overall health.

Here is the pyroluria questionnaire and the pyroluria/introvert connection.

Connecting the dots further we have

By addressing the social anxiety called pyroluria with a foundation of zinc and vitamin B6, we can increase sociability and thereby improve vagus nerve function.

UPDATE 5/7/2020:

Social isolation during the coronavirus pandemic – other vagus nerve exercises

This blog is very applicable now during the coronavirus pandemic. I’ve made an update because I feel we need to start thinking about the longer-term adverse impacts of social isolation and work on other ways to improve vagus nerve function during isolation or quarantine.

This can include any or all of the ways mentioned above: deep breathing exercises, yoga, meditation, cold showers, gargling/gag reflex, humming/chanting/singing and/or auricular acupuncture.

Do you find you have better vagus nerve function when you are more sociable? What of these vagus nerve exercises have you been doing and found helpful during isolation? Do you have any other favorite approaches like using essential oils or anything else? You’ll find some great resources on improving vagus nerve function in the upcoming Mind, Body & The Vagus Nerve Connection Summit, airing online June 15 – 21, 2020.

Vagus nerve stimulation to treat respiratory symptoms associated with COVID-19

This paper reports benefits in 2 patients with coronavirus – Use of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation to treat respiratory symptoms associated with COVID-19: A theoretical hypothesis and early clinical experience

  • Both patients reported clinically meaningful benefits from nVNS therapy [non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation].
  • In Case 1, the patient used nVNS to expedite symptomatic recovery at home after hospital discharge and was able to discontinue use of opioid and cough suppressant medications.
  • In Case 2, the patient experienced immediate and consistent relief from symptoms of chest tightness and shortness of breath, as well as an improved ability to clear his lungs.

The authors also share that “vagus nerve stimulation has been demonstrated to block production of cytokines in sepsis and other medical conditions.”

With this virus being novel and with everyone learning we are still appreciative of small case reports like this and hope to see bigger studies done. Until then there is other evidence of the overall importance of the vagus nerve in helping to regulate lung infection and immunity.

The nVNS therapy mentioned in the COVID-19 paper is an external device that delivers “a proprietary signal through the skin to either the right or the left branches of the vagus nerve in the neck.” It’s not something I’ve used personally or had clients use so please share if you’ve had success with this device or a similar device.

Loving social isolation and thriving during coronavirus

On the flip side we also need to consider that there are some individuals who are loving social isolation and thriving emotionally. I share some feedback from folks in my community:

  • Elissa: “As an introvert, my mental health has never been better ☺️. Loving isolation life.”
  • Drew: “Loving it in many ways. Dreading the hedonism starting up again…”
  • Tiffany: “My anxiety levels have decreased and I have decreased my anxiety meds! I think it’s because the demand to produce has decreased. I can actually move at my own speed in this world. I’m fortunate, though. My heart goes out to those people in medical fields. I really miss some things, like time with my dad, but we have made some adjustments, like driveway picnics.”
  • Katie: “I was praying for relief from the busyness. Definitely didn’t have this in mind and my heart hurts for those who are impacted. It has been a beautiful time of rest and restoration for my body and soul.”
  • Wendy: “My life is usually slow paced and introverted. Now it’s more so and I’m finding the less I do in a day, the better I sleep. I’m actually dreading getting back to “normal” with all the pressures put on us by extroverts. Yes I have sympathy for people suffering mentally by isolation, but for the first time I feel like my type of lifestyle is socially acceptable. I’m tired of life expectations being dictated by the extrovert half of the population.”

I appreciate these folks for sharing their valuable perspectives about thriving in these times. It reinforces how unique we all are.

If you’re struggling with social isolation…

  • How are you feeling and what are you most looking forward to doing once social isolation recommendations are relaxed?
  • I’m guessing you don’t have pyroluria but please share if you do?

If you are thriving in social isolation…

  • Would you consider yourself an introvert /a contented introvert?
  • Have you got pyroluria and has addressing it nutritionally in the past allowed you to be more sociable or at least less anxious when you are in crowds?
  • How are you feeling during social isolation and what do you love the most right now?
  • What are you not looking forward to once social isolation recommendations are relaxed?
  • And how do you plan to go back to the old “normal” or don’t you?

Please comment below and let us know where you are with social isolation during this pandemic – struggling or thriving? And what vagus nerve exercises are you using right now? Have you used an external device with success?