Breathing, the Vagus Nerve, and Your Nervous System: what's the connection?

Your autonomic nervous system (ANS) orchestrates crucial functions in your body without conscious thought - from heart rate and digestion to breathing and stress response. Think of it as your body's automatic pilot, continuously adjusting these systems to maintain balance, or homeostasis.

The Autonomic Balance: Your Nervous System's Seesaw.

The ANS operates through two primary branches that work in a complementary fashion, like a seesaw:

1. The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): Your 'fight or flight' response - Increases heart rate and blood pressure - Dilates pupils - Reduces digestion - Prepares you for action

2. The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS): Your 'rest and digest' mode - Slows heart rate - Promotes digestion - Supports immune function - Enables recovery and repair

While the activation of the PNS seems to be more beneficial, you need both and working interchangeably, in the complementary way. Too much of a PNS is as deleterious as too much of an SNS. We'll explore this topic in one of our next blogposts.

The Vagus Nerve: Your Body's Natural Balance Switch.

The vagus nerve is the primary component of your parasympathetic nervous system, acting as a natural 'brake' on your sympathetic response. This remarkable nerve monitors your breathing pattern and sends this information to your brain, creating a two-way communication highway between your brain and vital organs.

When you take slow, controlled breaths (particularly with longer exhales), you stimulate the vagus nerve, which strengthens your parasympathetic response. This explains why proper breathing can rapidly shift your body from a stressed to a relaxed state.

Certainly, the vagus nerve's influence extends far beyond breathing and heart rate - it plays a crucial role in inflammation, immune response, and various chronic conditions. Explore our blog for more information on the vagus nerve and its role in chronic health issues - coming soon).

Science-backed Breathing Methods.

Evidence-based breathing methods leverage this intricate connection through controlled breathing techniques, particularly through reduced breathing and breath holding.

These methods share a crucial insight: most people chronically over-breathe, which leads to expelling too much CO2. This disrupts the oxygen-haemoglobin binding curve (the Bohr Effect), making it harder for our cells to actually utilise the oxygen we breathe in.

Here's how it works with your nervous system:

1. Reduced breathing exercises calm the nervous system and activate the PNS by stimulating the vagus nerve

2. The slight air hunger created by these methods helps normalise CO2 levels (the O2/CO2 ratio)

3. Better CO2 levels improve oxygen delivery to tissues

4. The combination of vagal stimulation and improved breathing efficiency can reduce stress, inflammation, improve sleep, and enhance athletic performance.

It has a profound influence on many other processes in the body.

Practical Applications for Daily Life

Understanding this connection between breathing, the vagus nerve, and your autonomic nervous system offers powerful insights for managing stress and improving well-being.

When you feel overwhelmed, consciously slowing your breathing can activate your vagus nerve, shifting your nervous system towards a parasympathetic state. This is particularly relevant in our modern world, where many people spend excessive time in sympathetic dominance due to chronic stress. Regular practice of controlled breathing techniques can help restore balance to your autonomic nervous system, leading to improved health outcomes and better stress resilience.

If you want to discover how different breathing exercises might help you with acute and chronic health issues, get in touch!

References

• Mckeown, P. (2021). 'The Breathing Cure', OxyAt Books, Ireland

• Bonaz B, Sinniger V, Pellissier S. Anti-inflammatory properties of the vagus nerve: potential therapeutic implications of vagus nerve stimulation. J Physiol. 2016 Oct 15;594(20):5781-5790. doi: 10.1113/JP271539.

• Bonaz B, Sinniger V, Pellissier S. Vagus Nerve Stimulation at the Interface of Brain-Gut Interactions. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2019 Aug 1;9(8):a034199. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a034199.

• Gerritsen RJS, Band GPH. Breath of Life: The Respiratory Vagal Stimulation Model of Contemplative Activity. Front Hum Neurosci. 2018 Oct 9;12:397. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00397.