Hitting the Jackpot
‘I’m working with your Vagus Nerve’, I said as I activated some very specific acupoints.
‘Vegas? I got married in Vegas’ came the response.
‘No, V, A, G, U, S.’ I spelt out. ‘It’s a nerve that starts up in your brain and wanders all over the body. But it does mean we've found the jackpot. This is a major key to unraveling a range of persistent and seemingly unrelated symptoms for many people, including you at the moment…...’
Beginning in the 1990’s, surgically implanted pacemakers delivering electrical stimulation to the Vagus Nerve have been used to help control epileptic seizures. Anecdotal reports that the treatment also helped with depression led to a clinical trial which confirmed the effects. But that’s not all. Other trials are investigating the role of the Vagus Nerve in cluster headaches, tinnitus, recovery from stroke, heart failure, obesity, the reduction of inflammation in Rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases and more.
It seems the more we learn about the Vagus Nerve, the more there is to learn. With an extensive feedback network taking reports and instructions to and from the brain and all our internal organs, it looks like the Vagus Nerve is our main mind-body connection. Some people are even saying that all health problems can be tracked back to a Vagal Nerve in distress.
The distress can start in such unexpected ways. Even a simple whiplash or concussion injury can stretch and damage the nerve fibres as they exit the skull and run through the upper neck area. Among other issues, ongoing muscle memory following the injury can hold chronic inflammation which will keep pressure on the nerve. Symptoms may start slowly but gradually increase – sinusitis, headaches, TMJ issues, irritable bowel, asthma, food intolerance, leaky gut, anxiety attacks, palpitations, dizziness and more. It's like the symptom switch has been turned on and nobody knows how to turn it off again.
The causes of Vagal distress are not only physical. Because the nerve is part of the Autonomic Nervous System which controls our responses to stress, all these symptoms can also be part of a chronic, unresolved Post Traumatic Stress Response. Steven Porges’ work on Poly vagal theory provides a very helpful framework to understand how this all works. It explains, among other things, why when experiencing stress, one person may need to be constantly busy, while another may need to eat constantly.
The broad role of the Vagus nerve in physical and emotional health also helps to explain why Kinesiology can be so helpful for such a wide range of issues, whether the original cause is physical injury or emotional distress. As kinesiologists we are accessing that mind-body connection. When asked, the mind-body informs us through the muscle response about the source of the issue and also the person's own particular preferred way to resolve stress and come back into balance.
Sometimes one session is all it takes to see significant change, but often a series of sessions will be needed to untangle the issues and responses as the protective defenses learn that it's safe to move out of survival and into a full and happy life.
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