EP121: Activating Your Vagus Nerve with Dr. Navaz Habib

Released Friday, 9th December 2022

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EP121: Activating Your Vagus Nerve with Dr. Navaz Habib

Friday, 9th December 2022

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Today, Sachin discusses the vagus nerve with Dr. Navaz Habib. Dr. Habib has written the book, Activate Your Vagus Nerve. He continues to learn about the vagus nerve and its role in supporting the parasympathetic nervous system that leads to healing inflammation and associated ills. Sachin and Navaz cover the differences between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and how to optimize the parasympathetic nervous system by stimulating the vagus nerve. Listen in to learn of some great tools for activating the vagus nerve in your patients or yourself.

Key Takeaways:

[1:03] Sachin welcomes listeners to Perfect Practice. Today, Sachin is speaking with Dr. Navaz Habib. Sachin introduces Navaz and thanks him for joining the podcast.

[2:08] Navaz credits Sachin for bringing him into the realm of functional medicine.

[2:44] In 2019, Navas released his book, Activate Your Vagus Nerve. He received a lot of supportive feedback. Since that time, Navaz has learned that he knows very little about the vagus nerve. The more you think you know, the more you realize you don’t. Navaz has been learning more every day.

[3:33] Navaz has learned that the vagus nerve … controls things in the same way that other nerves do. But it is … bridging the gap … in … understanding how the body functions … and how the brain has a way to control and support how the immune system and inflammation function within the body.

[5:01] Our lifestyles have changed over the last 50 years. We’ve gone from being outdoors taking care of our land to sitting indoors, eating processed food. Our bodies haven’t had the ability to adapt to these changes of being indoors, less active, and constantly comfortable. That has created an opportunity for our bodies to be primed for an inflammatory response.

[6:45] The autonomic nervous system sends signals from the brain to the body and from the body to the brain. The brain sends signals to areas of the body that need attention and shifts our state in either a sympathetic or parasympathetic direction. The sympathetic side of the nervous system is “fight or flight.” The parasympathetic side is the “rest and digest (& recovery)” system.

[8:44] The parasympathetic nervous system, mediated by the vagus nerve, is in control when we are not under direct threat. The vagus nerve is the only nerve that goes to essentially every organ within the thorax and abdomen. It dictates where the blood will flow and what state our body is in. That drives inflammation.

[9:59] Eighty-one percent of the information on the vagus nerve is afferent (sensory) information from the body to the brain. The sensory information is not the same as the traditional five senses.

[11:01] Sachin compares stimulating the vagus nerve to pushing a button that heals every cell, organ, tissue, and system in your body simultaneously. It’s too good to believe because it’s simple.

[11:42] Navaz explains why we need to shift our state to parasympathetic. We are in a state of sympathetic overdrive all the time, stimulated by our screens for hours on end. We need our gaze to be wider, as it would be out in nature if we were farming or walking. One way to shift your state is to go outside and shift your gaze. Get off your computer.

[12:42] Your breath also influences your state. Are you breathing effectively or ineffectively? Put one hand on your belly and one on your chest. Take a deep breath. Which hand moves first? They should both move, but the hand on your belly should move first. That’s a sign that you’re breathing using your diaphragm and you are likely not in a state of stress.

[13:34] If you’re stressed out and you’re in an emotional situation, somebody will say, ‘Take a deep breath,’ and that will help you get into a calmer zone where you start to think a little bit more clearly and that’s shifting you to parasympathetic. Rest, digest, recover and think more clearly during that state. Breath is the key to all of this.

[15:45] Research shows that you shouldn’t be either sitting or standing too long. Postural dysfunction will occur whether you are sitting for six hours or standing for six hours. Postural dysfunction creates local inflammation. The vagus nerve alerts the brain of that inflammation. Navaz gives his hypothesis that it’s best to shift between sitting and standing.

[17:27] Navaz offers ideas for stimulating the vagus nerve. Make breathing a little more challenging and teach yourself to breathe through your diaphragm even when you’re under stress. Gargling, humming, deep breathing exercises, anything that helps activate the vocal cords.

[17:54] Nineteen percent of the information flowing through the vagus nerve consists of motor signals flowing from the brain stem to muscles, such as the pharyngeal and laryngeal muscles that maintain a patent open airway in the back of the throat and tensioning and lengthening the vocal cords to create pitch and tone.

[19:03] Navaz explains why you might shed tears when you gargle, and how that demonstrates a parasympathetic state! He tells of the benefits of gargling. It creates hormetic stress and resilience.

[21:03] Laughing helps the function of the vagus nerve like gargling and it has a social aspect, as well. Social connection supports health.

[22:13] Texting and email have interfered with meeting people. Being in the room with people builds connection.

[24:04] Some people with health challenges need an extra push to stimulate their vagus nerve. Navaz uses tools such as the gammaCore Sapphire from ElectroCore to stimulate the vagus nerve electrically and significantly improve the pain from migraine and cluster headaches. Vagus nerve stimulation is often the missing piece to get inflammation down and under control.

[29:57] Navaz says the vagus nerve stimulation via the gammaCore SapphireTM is entirely pain-free. It’s very high-frequency and very low-voltage. It doesn’t create muscle contraction. However, if you have an implanted metal device such as a pacemaker or cervical spine implant, above the shoulders, this device is not recommended.

[31:49] The gammaCore SapphireTM has not been studied on children in research. The inventor of the device used it on his eight-year-old daughter for eczema with good results but it has not been studied.

[33:12] Navaz had an elite skater patient. She had had many falls, some resulting in concussions. She had suffered from eating disorders when young and came to Dr. Navaz with digestive issues, mild depression, and Hashimoto’s. Dr. Navaz tried the functional medicine approach and there were some small changes. The patient suffered another concussion.

[34:11] Dr. Navaz had her use the gammaCore SapphireTM during recovery. She noticed that this was the quickest she had ever rebounded from a head injury. She started noticing improvements in her digestion. Her pain was better. Her mood and her sleep shifted. She also came out of her depression. She credits all these changes to the healing of her inflammation.

[37:54] Dr. Navaz shares links for more information.

[38:39] Sachin thanks his friend Dr. Navaz Habib for joining the podcast today. Sachin recommends the book Activate Your Vagus Nerve and Navaz shares the link for it.

Mentioned in this episode

Perfect Practice Live

gammaCore SapphireTM

VagusNerveBook.com

Activate Your Vagus Nerve: Unleash Your Body's Natural Ability to Heal, by Dr. Navaz Habib

Oura Ring

HRV

Dr. Navaz Habib

Dr. Navaz Habib is the founder of Health Upgraded, an online Functional Medicine and Health Optimization clinic, working with high-performing professionals, athletes, and entrepreneurs to dig deeper and find the answers to what is holding back their health. He works with those who want to upgrade their health, allowing them to have a greater impact and serve more people. To learn more about the device go to: Gammacore.com