The Vast Potential of the Vagus Nerve | Relieving Stress Anxiety Depression

Some say a cure for ailments like anxiety is flowing from the brain. But much is unknown.

By Christina Caron

In recent years, the vagus nerve has become an object of fascination, especially on social media. The vagal nerve fibers, which run from the brain to the abdomen, have been anointed by some influencers as the key to reducing anxiety, regulating the nervous system, and helping the body to relax.

TikTok videos with the hashtag “#vagusnerve” have been viewed more than 64 million times, and there are nearly 70,000 posts with the hashtag on Instagram. Some of the most popular ones feature simple hacks to “tone” or “reset” the vagus nerve, in which people plunge their faces into ice water or lie on their backs with ice packs on their chests.

Now, wellness companies have capitalized on the trend, offering products like vagus massage oil, pillow mists, and vibrating bracelets. These products claim to stimulate the nerve, but they have not been endorsed by the scientific community.

Researchers who study the vagus nerve say that stimulating it with electrodes can potentially help improve mood and alleviate symptoms in those who suffer from treatment-resistant depression, among other ailments. But are there other ways to activate the vagus nerve? Who would benefit most from doing so? And what exactly is the vagus nerve, anyway? Here’s a look at what we know so far.

What is the vagus nerve?

The term “vagus nerve” is actually shorthand for thousands of fibers. They are organized into two bundles that run from the brain stem down through each side of the next and into the torso, branching outward to touch our internal organs, said Dr. Kevin J. Tracey, a neurosurgeon and president of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health’s research center in New York.

Imagine something akin to a tree, whose limbs interact with nearly every organ system in the body. (The word “vagus” means “wandering” in Latin.)

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The Vast Potential of the Vagus Nerve | Relieving Stress Anxiety Depression

Some say a cure for ailments like anxiety is flowing from the brain. But much is unknown.

By Christina Caron

In recent years, the vagus nerve has become an object of fascination, especially on social media. The vagal nerve fibers, which run from the brain to the abdomen, have been anointed by some influencers as the key to reducing anxiety, regulating the nervous system, and helping the body to relax.

TikTok videos with the hashtag “#vagusnerve” have been viewed more than 64 million times, and there are nearly 70,000 posts with the hashtag on Instagram. Some of the most popular ones feature simple hacks to “tone” or “reset” the vagus nerve, in which people plunge their faces into ice water or lie on their backs with ice packs on their chests.

Now, wellness companies have capitalized on the trend, offering products like vagus massage oil, pillow mists, and vibrating bracelets. These products claim to stimulate the nerve, but they have not been endorsed by the scientific community.

Researchers who study the vagus nerve say that stimulating it with electrodes can potentially help improve mood and alleviate symptoms in those who suffer from treatment-resistant depression, among other ailments. But are there other ways to activate the vagus nerve? Who would benefit most from doing so? And what exactly is the vagus nerve, anyway? Here’s a look at what we know so far.

What is the vagus nerve?

The term “vagus nerve” is actually shorthand for thousands of fibers. They are organized into two bundles that run from the brain stem down through each side of the next and into the torso, branching outward to touch our internal organs, said Dr. Kevin J. Tracey, a neurosurgeon and president of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health’s research center in New York.

Imagine something akin to a tree, whose limbs interact with nearly every organ system in the body. (The word “vagus” means “wandering” in Latin.)

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Smoke gets on the brain | Lens Neurofeedback Near Me

Health impact studies of air pollution, including wildfire smoke, have mostly focused on the lungs. But toxicologist Matthew Campen of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque is looking at the brain.

In a study of the inflammatory effects of smoke PM2.5 on the brains of mice, Campen and colleagues found that inflammation in the lungs was modest compared with the “profound” inflammation in the brain, Campen says. Given what’s known about how damaging smoke can be in the lungs, to find even greater effects on the brain is troubling, he says.

The inflammatory effect on the mice’s brains was almost immediate, within 24 hours of exposure, the researchers reported in the March Toxicological Sciences. The particulates enter the body through the respiratory system, get in the blood, and are small enough to cross the blood-brain barrier and start affecting the brain. Inflammation has been linked with dementia in older people and neurodevelopmental issues in younger people, plus mood disorders like anxiety and depression, Campen says.

“I’m hoping that our study with mice spurs… epidemiologists to take a look,” he says. “The effects we see are much stronger and more worrisome than what we see in the lungs,” he says, but we don’t know yet at what PM2.5 levels the danger begins. “We need to explore this more rigorously.”

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Neuroscience | Lens Neurofeedback Certification

The LENS – Low Energy Neurofeedback System – is an advanced technique that uses a faint electromagnetic field, like those around digital watches, to carry a tiny feedback stimulus to the brain of its own brainwaves, enabling it to reset and restore optimal brain function. This feedback signal lasting less than a second – carried via extremely small radio frequencies – mirrors, but slightly differs from, the person’s own dominant frequency. This slight change, or offset from the EEG software, sets up a brief fluctuation in brainwave patterns, allowing dysfunctional ones to correct themselves.

Advances in neuroscience show that the brain’s ability to change, structurally and functionally – called neuroplasticity – allows brainwaves, ‘stuck’ in defensive modes against prolonged trauma or prolonged stress, to release and self-adjust. This feedback process can facilitate the brain’s ability to rebalance, self-regulate, become less reactive to stressors.

As such, it is not a medical device, but an educational tool for somatic re-education and relaxation.

The LENS uses disentrainment to help the brain to re-organize, and reconnect with itself, rather than treat specific neurological conditions, though in the process, conditions may improve.

This unique system was developed in the early 1990s by Dr Len Ochs, a pioneer in the field of neurofeedback. Unlike traditional neurofeedback methods, the LENS Neurofeedback approach produces measurable changes in the brainwaves without requiring conscious effort from the patient. The feedback to the patient travels down the same wires carrying the brainwaves to the amplifier and the computer. The LENS software allows the signals recorded at the scalp to control the feedback.

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Personalized Programs | Biofeedback Treatments Sleepy Hollow, Ny

Do you lack direction? Are you looking for change, but unclear on how?

Is there a desire for something new, but you’re feeling stuck, in limbo, just getting by, without a clear aim or purpose?

We can wish for change, but real and qualitative change is more likely to happen through participating in a personalized program, a supportive process – one that addresses each individual’s issues and concerns. Such a program would offer counseling, treatment and training, education on wellness and healthy lifestyle choices strategies and resources for acquiring clear intention, skill-sets, and a plan of action.

A Personalized Program can include:

– Supportive counseling and guidance for life’s issues and challenges, learning coping and cognitive strategies, help with self-esteem or social performance issues and letting go of self-limiting beliefs.

– Clarifying one’s unique values and purpose, goal-setting, developing resources for personal growth, resilience and more effective ways of operating.

– LENS Neurofeedback for alleviation of a range of neurological symptoms and conditions through brainwave regulation.

– The LENS, part of a customized treatment and training program, can help you move beyond relief of symptoms, to becoming integrated and aligned with a more authentic, optimal way of living.

– LENS alone, or combined with other healing techniques for stress relief, stress-management and relaxation.

– Energy therapies: EFT – tapping on energy points for clearing emotional and energetic blocks, setting intentions, balancing meridians and energy pathways. Reconnective Healing, a way of healing on all levels – physical, mental, emotional and subtle – accessing and aligning with the larger vibratory Field.

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The Gut-Brain Axis | Neurofeedback Counselor Sleepy Hollow

Cynthia Thurlow likes to remind her patients that digestion begins in the brain, in the way people think about their food before they have even taken a bite. Conversely, 95 percent of the mood-regulating neurotransmitter serotonin, which is targeted by conventional anti-depressant drugs, is produced in the gut.

It is a reversal in the way we have been taught to think about food and mood.

The gut microbiome—the range of microoganisms in the gut, including bacteria, fungi and viruses-play a major role in the bidirectional communication between the gut and the brain.

Researchers in Finland recently found a link between a specific gut microbe, Morgariella, and depression. This is further evidence that people with mental health conditions often have very different microbes in their gut.

Alterations in the composition of gut microbiota are implicated in causing leaky gut(an increased permeability of the gut barrier), activating systemic inflammation, affecting the efficacy of serotonin and changing levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

However, a Chinese study last year found that intermittent fasting enriched the gut composition of diabetic mice and pointed to several other potential benefits, including increased microbial diversity, reduced inflammation and increased production of short-chain fatty acids, which inhibit the growth of bad bacteria.

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From Timid to Warrior: Boosting Self-Esteem

Low self-esteem can be described as lacking self-confidence, and self-worth, in one’s abilities. So, how to transcend it, not let it hold us back?

My definition of a warrior is someone who acts in spite of fear. Fear is normal – even healthy when an action for survival is required. Too often, though, we live our lives in self-limiting ways, our potential undermined by various factors, causing us to see situations through the half-empty, rather than the half-full glass – dwelling on the negative, disregarding our achievements; thinking others are better than us; poor self-image; that we don’t deserve to enjoy; self-criticism; fear of making mistakes, avoid taking risks, fear of failure, or success, feelings of incompetence.

Many factors can cause or lead to low self-esteem: parental abuse, that is emotional, sexual, physical, neglect, parental or authority figure disapproval, (‘you’ll never amount to anything!’); bullying’ academic difficulties; social shaming, poor performance, poor body self-image; perception of not belonging; war; chronic stress.

To boost self-esteem, we can find support by joining groups; celebrating achievements, especially under adversity; being around those who make us feel good, versus those who don’t treat us well; good health practices; doing things we enjoy, start something new; treatment alternatives, including LENS neurofeedback, which, by helping to balance and regulate the nervous system, together with supportive counseling, goal-setting, healing techniques, can get us in touch with buried, suppressed aspirations, foster self-growth, self-assurance, energy and impetus for new life directions.

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