Key TakeawaysThe vagus nerve is important in managing heart rate, breathing, and digestion.Damage to the vagus nerve can lead to a wide range of health conditions, including fainting and digestive issues.Electrical impulses and other natural methods (like breathing and meditating) can help stimulate the vagus nerve.

Key Takeaways

The vagus nerve is important in managing heart rate, breathing, and digestion.Damage to the vagus nerve can lead to a wide range of health conditions, including fainting and digestive issues.Electrical impulses and other natural methods (like breathing and meditating) can help stimulate the vagus nerve.

Lately, thousands of people on social media have been claiming one nerve in your body, called the vagus nerve, is connected to a slew of health conditions like anxiety, depression, heart disease, and autoimmune disorders. The hashtag #vagusnerve has been viewed more than47 million timeson TikTok alone.

What Is the Vagus Nerve?The vagus nerve—also known as the “wandering nerve”—carries signals between your brain, heart, lungs, and digestive system.The nerve plays a role in several body functions that control heart rate, speech, sweating, digestion, and the gag reflex.

What Is the Vagus Nerve?

The vagus nerve—also known as the “wandering nerve”—carries signals between your brain, heart, lungs, and digestive system.The nerve plays a role in several body functions that control heart rate, speech, sweating, digestion, and the gag reflex.

New studiesalso suggest that some long COVID-19 symptoms, including persistent voice problems, difficulty swallowing, dizziness, low blood pressure, and high heart rates may be linked to the effect of the virus on the vagus nerve.

Anatomy of the Vagus Nerve

But how true are these social media claims? Is this one nerve truly linked to all these health conditions? Here’s what you need to know.

Why Is the Vagus Nerve Important?

The vagus nerveis the longest and most complex of the cranial nerves. It originates in the brain stem and runs down both sides of the neck into the chest and abdomen. The nerve carries both motor and sensory information and supplies reinforcement to the heart, major blood vessels, lungs, stomach, esophagus, and intestines.

The vagus nerve plays an important role in:

However, the greatest significance of the vagus nerve is that it is a key part of theparasympathetic nervous system, which controls the body’s rest and digestion functions.

“The vagus nerve is the biggest component of our parasympathetic nervous system, which balances our fright, flight, and fight responses,”Melanie Weller, MPT, a physical therapist, told Verywell in an email. “The 73% of people with a fear of public speaking are very familiar with what happens when their vagus nerve gets dialed down: The lump in the throat, sweaty palms, racing heart, shallow breathing, and churning stomach are all the result of reduced vagus nerve function.”

Conditions Associated With the Vagus Nerve

Since the vagus nerve is so long, any damage to it can affect many areas. Possible symptoms of damage to the nerve can include:

Weller says symptoms and specific conditions can depend on what part of the nerve is damaged; however, the vagus nerve is linked to a wide range of conditions.

“The vagus nerve is also linked to seizures, heart arrhythmias, vocal cord health, anxiety, depression and more,” Weller said. “Neurosurgeons will sometimes implant a vagus nerve stimulator for treating epileptic seizures. This is also done for some chronic pain conditions and depression.”

Gastroparesis

Vasovagal Syncope

The vagus nerve stimulates certain muscles in the heart to help slow heart rate, but when it overreacts, it can cause a drop in heart rate and blood pressure, leading to fainting or passing out.Vasovagal syncopeoccurs when a nerve to your heart overreacts to certain situations like anxiety, hunger, pain, stress, and extreme heat.

But Are the Social Media Claims True?

Charles Conway, MD, a psychiatrist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, told Verywell in an email what people are claiming online is in line with depression treatment. He said there are now five relatively large trials of vagus nerve stimulation that have all demonstrated a subset of patients with treatment-resistant depression respond to sustained vagus nerve stimulation.

“Some of the studies suggest that sustained vagus nerve stimulation also results in reductions in anxiety,” Conway said. “As it turns out, the afferent (toward the brain) projections of the vagus do synapse in multiple regions of the brain known to be critical in mood regulation.”

Connection to COVID-19

Recent researchshows that long COVID symptoms are reflective of poor vagus nerve function. Long COVID can affect up to 15% of those who survive their infections and some may experience fatigue, muscle pain, and cognitive problems months or even years later.

Researchers recently performed astudyto look at vagus nerve functioning in long COVID patients. They found most long COVID subjects with vagus nerve dysfunction symptoms had a range of significantly, clinically relevant, structural and/or functional alterations in their vagus nerve, including nerve thickening, trouble swallowing, and symptoms of impaired breathing.

What This Means For YouBeing physically active, eating a healthy diet, and managing conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure can help protect your vagus nerve. If you experience abdominal pain, acid reflux, fainting, and other symptoms, talk to your healthcare provider.

What This Means For You

Being physically active, eating a healthy diet, and managing conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure can help protect your vagus nerve. If you experience abdominal pain, acid reflux, fainting, and other symptoms, talk to your healthcare provider.

How to Stimulate the Vagus Nerve

For VNS treatment, healthcare providers implant a small device in the chest, under the skin. The device can send mild, painless electrical signals through the left vagus nerve to the brain. These impulses can calm down irregular electrical activity in the brain.

Vagal Nerve Stimulator for Epilepsy Seizure Prevention

Conway said electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve has been effective in reducing seizures in refractory epilepsy, as well as reducing depressive symptoms in patients with refractory depressive disorders. He adds stimulation of the vagus nerve may be helpful in obesity and chronic inflammatory diseases, too.

Weller says other ways you can stimulate the vagus nerve include:

“Breathing exercises can help too if breathing is done correctly, and this is the big problem as many people do not have breathing mechanics that support healthy vagus nerve function,” Weller said. “More often, people are breathing in a way that supports a chronic state of fight and flight.”

Ongoing studies are examining the link between the vagus nerve and depression, metabolic disease, and heart disease.If proven with more evidence, experts say VNS can help treat and address a variety of health issues and conditions in the future.

“Clearly, the vagus plays a critical role in the mind-body connection and we likely are only scratching the surface of how critical this nerve is with regards to emotional well-being and other health conditions,” Conway said.

7 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Breit S, Kupferberg A, Rogler G, Hasler G.Vagus nerve as modulator of the brain–gut axis in psychiatric and inflammatory disorders.Front Psychiatry. 2018;9:44. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00044Encyclopedia Britannica.Vagus nerve.StatPearls.Neuroanatomy, cranial nerve 10 (vagus nerve).Krishnasamy S, Abell TL.Diabetic gastroparesis: principles and current trends in management.Diabetes Ther. 2018;9(S1):1-42. doi:10.1007/s13300-018-0454-9Heart Rhythm Society.Syncope (fainting).Johnson RL, Wilson CG.A review of vagus nerve stimulation as a therapeutic intervention.J Inflamm Res.2018;11:203-213. doi:10.2147/JIR.S163248Howland RH.Vagus nerve stimulation.Curr Behav Neurosci Rep. 2014;1(2):64-73. doi:10.1007/s40473-014-0010-5

7 Sources

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Breit S, Kupferberg A, Rogler G, Hasler G.Vagus nerve as modulator of the brain–gut axis in psychiatric and inflammatory disorders.Front Psychiatry. 2018;9:44. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00044Encyclopedia Britannica.Vagus nerve.StatPearls.Neuroanatomy, cranial nerve 10 (vagus nerve).Krishnasamy S, Abell TL.Diabetic gastroparesis: principles and current trends in management.Diabetes Ther. 2018;9(S1):1-42. doi:10.1007/s13300-018-0454-9Heart Rhythm Society.Syncope (fainting).Johnson RL, Wilson CG.A review of vagus nerve stimulation as a therapeutic intervention.J Inflamm Res.2018;11:203-213. doi:10.2147/JIR.S163248Howland RH.Vagus nerve stimulation.Curr Behav Neurosci Rep. 2014;1(2):64-73. doi:10.1007/s40473-014-0010-5

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Breit S, Kupferberg A, Rogler G, Hasler G.Vagus nerve as modulator of the brain–gut axis in psychiatric and inflammatory disorders.Front Psychiatry. 2018;9:44. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00044Encyclopedia Britannica.Vagus nerve.StatPearls.Neuroanatomy, cranial nerve 10 (vagus nerve).Krishnasamy S, Abell TL.Diabetic gastroparesis: principles and current trends in management.Diabetes Ther. 2018;9(S1):1-42. doi:10.1007/s13300-018-0454-9Heart Rhythm Society.Syncope (fainting).Johnson RL, Wilson CG.A review of vagus nerve stimulation as a therapeutic intervention.J Inflamm Res.2018;11:203-213. doi:10.2147/JIR.S163248Howland RH.Vagus nerve stimulation.Curr Behav Neurosci Rep. 2014;1(2):64-73. doi:10.1007/s40473-014-0010-5

Breit S, Kupferberg A, Rogler G, Hasler G.Vagus nerve as modulator of the brain–gut axis in psychiatric and inflammatory disorders.Front Psychiatry. 2018;9:44. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00044

Encyclopedia Britannica.Vagus nerve.

StatPearls.Neuroanatomy, cranial nerve 10 (vagus nerve).

Krishnasamy S, Abell TL.Diabetic gastroparesis: principles and current trends in management.Diabetes Ther. 2018;9(S1):1-42. doi:10.1007/s13300-018-0454-9

Heart Rhythm Society.Syncope (fainting).

Johnson RL, Wilson CG.A review of vagus nerve stimulation as a therapeutic intervention.J Inflamm Res.2018;11:203-213. doi:10.2147/JIR.S163248

Howland RH.Vagus nerve stimulation.Curr Behav Neurosci Rep. 2014;1(2):64-73. doi:10.1007/s40473-014-0010-5

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