Stress, Your Immune System & the Vagus Nerve

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This episode highlights the intricate relationship between stress, immunity, and the vagus nerve, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a healthy vagal tone for overall well-being. Practical techniques including deep breathing, singing, and improving gut health are shared to help listeners cultivate resilience and reduce chronic stress effects. 

• Understanding the vagus nerve's role in stress and immune function 
• Acute vs. chronic stress impacts on health 
• Importance of maintaining high vagal tone for resilience 
• Techniques for strengthening vagal tone, including breathing exercises 
• Role of humming and singing as natural remedies 
• Gut health's contribution to immune function 
• Accessible strategies to combat chronic stress 
• Encouragement to integrate practices into daily routines

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Episode Transcript

Emily (00:01):
Welcome to It Starts at Vagus, the podcast where
holistic health meets modernliving.
I'm Emily, your guide tounlocking the power of the vagus
nerve, which is your body'sultimate key to calm, connection
and overall well-being.
Together, we'll explore simpleways to nourish your mind and
body with natural remedies,actionable tips and empowering

(00:24):
stories.
Whether you're here to reducestress, restore balance or take
charge of your health, you're inthe right place, because
wellness doesn't just happen.
It starts at Vagus.
Let's dive in the relationshipbetween stress, our immunity and
the vagus nerve is deeplyintertwined with the autonomic

(00:46):
nervous system that's just afancy way of saying our nervous
system.
That works automatically.
We don't have to worry about it, think about it, it just does
it.
And the vagus nerve plays acentral role in regulating both
the stress response and theimmune function in our body, so
it makes it a key player in ouroverall health.

(01:06):
When the body perceives stress,whether it's psychological so
work is, we're under a lot ofpressure at work or if it's
physical, like an illness, we'refeeling sick when that happens,
our body releases cortisol fromour adrenal glands, which is

(01:26):
great.
That's what it should be doing.
And when working properly,cortisol is a great team player,
but too much of it or too often, is where the problem starts
arising.
Short-term stress, which iscalled acute stress, can help.

(01:47):
It can boost our immunefunction by mobilizing immune
cells and saying hey, let's getto work.
A great example for that foracute stress would be fasting.
Fasting can be great for thebody.
It can tell your cells okay,let's get rid of these cells

(02:07):
that are kind of acting weird orthey're sickly and they're just
not functioning the way that weneed to for optimal health, and
fasting can really help that.
But when we're not intakingnutrients with food, it does
give our body a short-term formof stress.

(02:30):
Now chronic stress, however.
It suppresses our immune systemand our defense goes down and
at the same time inflammationincreases.
So it's that chronic, long-termwhich creates a bigger problem.
And the chronic stress actuallylowers our lymphocyte levels,

(02:54):
and lymphocytes are just whiteblood cells that help fight
infections.
They destroy harmful cells andregulate our immune system and
our response to that at the sametime.
So when we have lower levels oflymphocytes, we are more prone
to infections and illnesses aretwice as likely to develop colds

(03:29):
when exposed to bacteria orviruses, because their immune
system is already pooping out.
It's already been doing a jobfor so long and when it comes
around someone who is sick,they're just already so pooped
out that they're like I can'ttake anymore.
Pooped out that they're like Ican't take anymore.
And then they get sick and thenthey're down longer and it

(03:50):
takes them a longer time to feelbetter.
And that's why we're trying tocalm down our stress and how we
respond to stress and makingthat chronic stress level less
intense and making it go down towhere it's no longer chronic,
it's manageable.
And so when that stress goesdown lower, cortisol goes down

(04:17):
lower.
So now you're probably thinking, okay, great, let's just lower
cortisol levels and we'll justmake cortisol back to a team
player.
And that's where that nervoussystem, the vagus nerve, comes
in.
The vagus nerve is the main keyto our parasympathetic part of

(04:39):
our nervous system.
It's responsible for activatingthe rest and digest state and
how it responds to stressors.
So it can say, okay, this is astress, but it's not that big of
a deal, we can deal with it,cope like, address it and then
come back to that rest anddigest state.

(05:00):
So the vagus nerve directlycommunicates with our immune
system, the cells in our spleen,the cells in our spleen, our
liver, our gut, and so when thatvagal tone is low in our body,

(05:26):
that's where it's associatedwith higher stress, anxiety,
inflammation.
But when we use that vagusnerve in a positive way and have
high vagal tone, that enhancesour resilience and truly creates
that natural immune function inour body to where we don't need
to always supplement as much,we can bounce back faster so

(05:47):
that if we come across someonewho is sick, it's okay.
Our body's like okay, we're not.
We don't have high chronicstress, so we can address
dealing with this bacteria orvirus or whatnot because we're
getting enough sleep, we're calmand we can attack it
straightforward.
It can be our main focus versusif we're working on all these

(06:08):
other things at the same time.
Our main focus versus if we'reworking on all these other
things at the same time andwe're saying, oh, we're tired
because we've been working solong on this other stress and
we're not sure we're safe.
And now we're getting lesssleep, now we're really pooped
out.
It's just a lot on our body.
So learning how to activate andsupport our vagus nerve really

(06:30):
will help reduce that stress andboost immunity at the same time
, because it does play a keyrole in calming the nervous
system and regulating everythingour immune system, how our body
digests food.
So it's an active key to stressreduction and that balance in
our body.

(06:51):
Let's talk about applying it toa life because, again, knowledge
is great, but we need to applythat knowledge.
So how can we strengthen thatvagal tone?
Well, deep breathing.
Deep breathing is going to begreat for this, because it helps
lower heart rate down,activates that vagus nerve.
You can do it a variety ofdifferent ways.

(07:14):
There's not a right or wrongway of breathing.
Let me correct this Forshort-term breathing there's not
a right or wrong.
It's where we, if we were tochronically breathe with our
shoulders and where we lift ourshoulders up and down, that's
going to tire out your uppertraps in your body and that's
where, like the shoulder painand neck pain, headaches start

(07:36):
coming from.
So we always want to get intohabitual breathing with our
diaphragm.
But as for practice breathing,focus breathing, it's really
just about slowing things down.
Breathing, it's really justabout slowing things down,
whether you're doing two quickinhales and one long exhale, or

(07:56):
if you're doing the boxbreathing, where you breathe in
for four seconds, hold for fourseconds, breathe out for four
seconds and then hold again forfour seconds.
That's a great one too.
You just need to figure outwhat is your favorite style of
slowing down your breathing,focusing on it, and that is
what's going to be effective.
So, again, just kind of playaround with it, see how you like

(08:18):
to do focus breathing.
And a double perk to thebreathing is what I'm talking
about breathing for thisexercise.
It's because with thatbreathing, obviously it's going
to bring oxygen all over yourbody and you can even visualize
it.
You can visualize, so, closingyour eyes, you visualize in your

(08:41):
mind where, when you breathe inthat oxygen, you can visualize
where that oxygen is going.
Is it going to your brain?
Is it going to your lungs?
Are you bringing it all the waydown to your fingertips,
because oxygen needs to getthere too?
Are you going to visualizebringing oxygen to an area of

(09:03):
your body that hurts?
So if you have neck pain, areyou visualizing it there?
Because with that the oxygenwill help everything feel better
.
Your body needs oxygen.
It's when you have oxygen inone place that is where an area
of sickness is going to decrease.

(09:23):
So, again, then we bring in.
When we breathe in deeply, webring in more circulation.
Circulation brings morenutrients to those body parts
All around.
It's a win-win.
So we can just breathe in, getoxygen everywhere in our body
and that oxygen will help againfight off sickness.

(09:47):
Second one humming or singing.
That vibration when we hum orsing that can actually break up
any sinus congestion.
So we're going to break up thatsinus congestion, bring oxygen
to that area and then thatvibration will strengthen your

(10:09):
vagal tone.
So again, wins all around.
And last one we're going to talkabout is just your gut health
in general.
80% of your immune systemresides in the gut, is kind of
what.
The base that I see atdifferent studies.
I kind of say about 80%.
And the vagus nerve is directlyconnected to the gut, connects

(10:34):
the gut and the brain and it'sthe go to the messenger.
So it says, hey, brain, this iswhat the gut's doing and the
gut's going.
Hey, the gut goes.
Hey, vagus nerve, tell thebrain what I'm doing down here.
So it's kind of that constantcommunication.
So if you keep your gut flora,healthy, variety of fruits and

(10:57):
vegetables, knowing your body,if you're intolerant, then don't
eat as much of that certainfood.
I personally really like todecrease sugar, I like to
increase my herbs.
All those things help the gutand having a variety of food so

(11:18):
helpful Because all thedifferent let's just say,
vegetables.
A carrot is going to havedifferent nutrients than, let's
say, an onion, and so they'regoing to complement vegetables.
A carrot is going to havedifferent nutrients than, let's
say, an onion, and so they'regoing to complement together.
There's going to have somesimilarities but they're going
to fill in holes in nutrientsthat the one will be missing.

(11:41):
So you're going to get a clearpicture and you're going to have
complementary nutrients andthat will help again the gut
flora.
So, all in all, I just wanted tomake a point on how that
chronic stress really doesweaken our immune system and

(12:01):
that the vagus nerve is justthat natural bridge between the
nervous system, the immunesystem.
Reducing that inflammation,enhancing our resilience, that's
what we really really want.
We really want to be resilientto anything that comes our way,
because we don't know what lifeis bringing at us.
But we can be prepared, and aprepared part is being able to

(12:30):
be resilient to that stress soit doesn't become chronic.
Because, again, chronic iswhere all of our body systems
get tired and it's usually notone.
It usually, you know, picks onone area more than another, but
it does affect the whole bodyand so strengthening that vagal

(12:58):
tone significantly can improveyour stress tolerance, your
immune function, and it's, in myopinion, a crucial strategy in
today's high stress environmentour whole world.
And my favorite part is thatthese practices are so
accessible to everyone who wantsto implement into their
wellness routine.
It's not just a certain groupcan have it, or if you can buy

(13:22):
this new high tech functionfunction, it is literally for
everyone, and that is why I lovesharing it with people.
It's a passion of mine to helppeople feel better using their
nervous system, so that we canbe resilient in life, so we can

(13:43):
have a happier life, an easierlife and just enjoy it all all
around, not get sick.
That's a good plan.
So remember to breathe and dosomething happy that will make
you smile today.
Thanks for listening to.
It Starts at Vagus.
If you enjoyed this episode,subscribe so you don't miss

(14:04):
what's coming next.
And if you're ready to take thenext step toward calm, grab my
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It's quick and easy way tostart feeling better today and
until next time, rememberwellness starts at Vagus.