July 22, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode, Matt Tack and Dr. Alfred Alessi delve into the importance of the vagus nerve and its role in nervous system regulation. They identify symptoms and signs of a dysregulated nervous system before presenting comprehensive solutions for enhancing vagal tone. The discussion covers the healing hierarchy and a three-pillar approach to nervous system healing, incorporating functional medicine strategies. Clinical evidence and regenerative tools for vagal nerve activation are explored, highlighting personalized plans available at Alessi Functional Health. The episode concludes with a call to action and closing remarks.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
You can't heal in a state of threat always.
(00:03):
It naturally creates inflammation.
If your nervous system is always bracing forthat impact, your body can't prioritize that
repair, digestion, or even balance.
Throws your thyroid, your hormones all out ofbalance.
So survival first, healing last.
Welcome to Health Decode, your number onesource for real health information with your
(00:26):
host, doctor Alessi and Matt Tack.
Welcome back to another episode of HealthDecoded.
I am your host, doctor Alessi.
And your cohost, Matt Tack.
Matt Tack.
Good to see you, my guy.
Good to see you, man.
How you doing?
Not that I don't see you every day, but just,you know, in a little different facet here.
(00:48):
Well, man, I'm excited for this one.
This is something that I know you're a very bigproponent of and something that you coach on a
lot.
So pumped about this this topic today and whatthat topic is, is the vagus nerve and why
really vagal tone is responsible formaintaining like a a level of like calm and
(01:09):
balance within the body and why resetting thatis also you know important for resetting our
nervous system immune system and all thesedifferent systems within the body.
You know, let's let's just get right into it.
I think we'll start for most patients is theremost people like talking about what is a vagus
nerve lot of people don't even know what it isso let's just start there.
(01:31):
So you know what is something a lot of peopledon't even learn but the vagus nerve is really
the most important nerve in your body.
And it's it's your cranial nerve 10.
So it starts basically at like at the base ofyour brainstem.
And so it's the longest cranial nerve in yourbody.
It originates at the medulla oblongata, whichis in your brainstem, and it travels downward
through the neck into the chest and abdomen,which then branches out to major organs,
(01:57):
including your heart, lungs, liver, spleen,kidneys, and your entire digestive tract.
And so, know, the word Vegas comes from theLatin word wandering because it literally
wanders throughout the body.
It's a kind of a cool statistic there.
But it's basically the powerhouse of yourparasympathetic nervous system.
(02:17):
And so your nervous system, your autonomicnervous system meaning the one that's just
always running, it's not something we cancontrol has two parts.
Your sympathetic which is what we know as likethe fight or flight and the parasympathetic
which is more of that rest, digest and repairsystem.
And so, you know, whereas the sympatheticnervous system is preparing our body for stress
(02:39):
or for you know, some type of emergency, theparasympathetic is doing the opposite and so
the vagus nerve is able to bring it back downto calm when times of healing and recovery.
And so if your vagus nerve isn't workingproperly, or if we're stuck in a sympathetic
state, which is like chronic stress mode, we'vetalked about this before.
(03:00):
This is where we see breakdown of systems, riseof inflammation and ultimately dysfunction and
disease.
And so, you know, the core functions of thevagus nerve, basically what it does is it's
multitasking, it's doing a lot of differentthings in regulation.
So it's gonna help regulate heart rate andblood pressure, it's going to regulate
(03:21):
digestive function because it actuallystimulates stomach acid production and enzyme
release.
So anytime we're working with patients whomaybe are having digestive issues and they've
been prescribed things like Nexiums and protonpump inhibitors, I'm also like hey, yeah, let's
focus on the digestive part but how do webalance that central nervous system as well
because it's very critical.
(03:43):
It's also important for immune regulation andinflammation control.
You know, basically like the cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway is stimulated by the vagal
nerve.
And so this helps to produce certain thingsthat are gonna fight against you know,
infections and invaders.
And then it's also important for mood focus andcognitive health as well.
(04:04):
It can help against things like anxiety anddepression if we can have you know, proper
vagal tone.
So then, you know, we always like to talk aboutlike what can you experience, right?
Like when vagal tone is low, basically meaningyour vagus nerve is not functioning well.
So, you could feel things like chronic fatigueor burnout, bloating, constipation, brain fog
(04:26):
or poor concentration, again anxiety,depression, poor sleep quality.
People often get like low HRV which is thatheart rate variability and then even like
autoimmune or inflammatory flare ups.
Now, everything on that list we've discussed indetail for specific things in the past.
So that's why addressing vagal tone isbasically incorporated into all of our
(04:51):
functional medicine and you know, total carekind of like programs where we're like, hey,
we're addressing an internal system, but weneed to focus on this as well because it's
gonna know, it's gonna make or break whether ornot this works.
And so when the vagus tone is low, the body isgonna be stuck in fight or flight and then
healing and recovery is is ultimately notpossible.
(05:13):
So things that are gonna disrupt the vagaltone, right, or vagus nerve is high stress,
trauma, whether that's physical or you know,psychological trauma, Poor gut health, so
things like leaky gut, which we deal with allthe time.
Pretty much everybody comes in with gut issues.
I'm testing leaky gut and more often than notwe're finding it.
(05:33):
Just the amount of like stress and toxins ourbodies go through.
Things like mouth breathing, This is a littlebit more kind of nuance but if we're breathing
through our mouth, we are not activating theparasympathetic nervous system.
So focusing on like breathing in through thenose and diaphragmatic, right?
Using our stomach, not our chest.
(05:54):
And then another one that we deal with a lot inthe clinic is cervical spine dysfunction or
even TMJ dysfunction.
And so when there's structural misalignments inthe cervical spine, that can put pressure on
the vagus nerve and obviously lower that vagaltone.
So there's actually a cool study 2018 infrontiers of neuroscience reviewed the effects
(06:15):
of vagus nerve stimulation and found that therewas some compelling evidence to improve vagal
tone.
It reduced inflammation, improved symptoms ofautoimmune disease, supported mood and then
enhanced digestive and metabolic health inpatients.
So that's pretty awesome.
You know, something as simple as you know,doing some what we're going to talk about like
(06:36):
breath work, cold exposure, all that tostimulate vagal tone had these profound
effects.
So kind of like, you know, in takeaway here,like what we always talk about is like things
don't work in isolation, right?
Thyroid doesn't work in isolation, gut doesn'twork in isolation.
The vagus nerve is often kind of that missinglink.
Remember, it's spread out so much and so itconnects the brain, body and immune system.
(06:58):
And so when we're talking about true healing,you know, this has to be a component or a piece
of what we're doing.
So now you know, why don't you Matt talk alittle bit about like kind of signs, right?
Like let's get a little bit more into it likethat.
Maybe someone's stuck in the fight or flightmode and what people can experience with that.
Yeah, let's break that down.
(07:19):
So the vagus nerve is why it's critical.
Let's, you know, shift gears here a little bitand talk about something that affects more
people than we actually realize.
So most people are living in survival mode anddon't even know it.
Right?
I think Doctor.
Lussie says this over and over again, there'snothing new underneath the sun.
And so when we come back to it, we're talkingabout sympathetic dominance and where body is
(07:45):
stuck in fight or flight long after the dangeris gone.
And that's when the body tenses up.
Right?
The central nervous system is tense, and youjust feel rigid.
Right?
This isn't just a feeling.
It's a psychological state that directlyimpacts your brain hormones, your digestion,
inflammation, and let's be real, your overallquality of life.
So, as we go into the fight or flight, thesympathetic nervous system is designed to
(08:10):
respond to acute threats.
Right?
So like running from a predator or swervingaround to avoid a crash, it increases your
heart rate, pumps your blood to your muscles,and releases adrenaline and cortisol to help
you survive.
We do this intentionally a lot as an example ofhopping into a cold plunge.
Right?
That's your sympathetic nervous system arising.
(08:32):
So but here's the problem when it'sunintentional.
Right?
When you're constantly going through thesestates of chronic stress, means that the
response never shuts off.
So you're constantly in that state.
So most of us are being hit with these microthreats all day long.
Right?
Deadlines, traffic, phone, notifications, bloodsugar levels, emotional pressure, past trauma,
(08:58):
poor sleep, toxins, all of which your brain isstaying on this high, high alert.
So when is it an overdrive?
Right?
These are the symptoms of dysregulated nervoussystems that we see all the time in our
practice at Alessi Functional Health, and we'regonna get later into, alright, what do we need
to do to bring in the parasympathetic?
(09:21):
Right?
So sleep issues.
Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, majorconcern.
Right?
Anxiety or irritability throughout the day.
That happens.
Right?
A lot of us a book that I'm currently readingand I forget the name of the author, but it's
the anxious society that we live in.
Right?
So it's more so adolescence, but right.
(09:44):
The anxious society that like the socialspheres and past trauma automatically give us.
Right?
Digestive problem, cold hands and feet, thatneuropathy, brain fog or memory lapses.
Now we're not talking about, Hey, I lost mykeys or, Hey, I just forgot what I was doing
ten minutes ago.
(10:04):
It's one of those things where it's theconsistent nature of can you recall things,
right?
Can you recall what you did this past weekendor what you did previous weekends?
Those are some of the things that you youreally wanna make sure, like, hey.
Is this just a common occurrence, or is thishappening consistently?
Right?
Muscle tension, racing hearts, raise yourracing heartbeat or have palpitations, fatigue
(10:27):
that just doesn't go away.
Right?
So you're wired but tired at the same time.
Your nervous system can't just shift into adownshift.
And then you just have a low stress tolerance.
Even small issues seem just super overwhelmingto you.
And if you feel like you're always bracing forimpact, you're always stepping on the brakes,
(10:50):
your nervous system probably thinks that dangeris real even when it's not.
So how do we create something that we can, youknow, step off the gas?
Right?
And maybe even sometimes put on a little bitgas where we know when to shift from that
breaking mechanism to put on the gas.
So you can have the perfect supplement stack.
(11:14):
You can eat organic.
You can even meditate once a week.
But if your nervous system is dysregulated,none of it works the way it should.
Right?
You want it all in sequence.
This is why the silent bottleneck this is thesilent bottleneck healing to healing.
You can't out supplement a nervous system thatthinks it's in danger zone twenty four seven.
(11:38):
So here's what science says.
A landmark 2020 review in theneuroendocrinology analyzed how vagal
suppression get that?
Vagal suppression.
Right?
So your poor vagus nerve tone has effects onlong term health.
So they found that chronic low vagal tone,meaning a suppressed or, overstressed vagal
(12:05):
nerve, increased cortisol levels.
So you constantly have quiet cortisol levels.
You wanna have and so diving into that whatcortisol is actually leveled, there's a cadence
to which your cortisol levels ebbs and flow.
Right?
It should peak right after that morning wakeup.
It's slowly rising.
Right?
It should peak midmorning to afternoon andslowly make its way down where you're catering
(12:29):
it towards bedtime.
Right?
That's the way things that's what we look atwhen we take your blood work.
Right?
Is, hey.
Do you have proper cortisol cadence?
Leads to insulin resistance, which is thatblood sugar instability.
Right?
That usually comes out of poor sleep and highcortisol levels and promotes immune
dysregulation, meaning maybe you get a lot ofcolds throughout the year.
(12:53):
You have you get sick more often than not.
Right?
Every time the weather changes or somethinglike that.
Right?
Making inflammation harder to control.
So this creates a perfect storm effect forchronic disease, especially autoimmune issues,
cardiovascular problems, and neurodegenerativedecline.
So if you're wondering why your fatigue won'tlift, your gut won't heal.
(13:19):
Your anxiety won't ease up, and you have tolook upstream.
You gotta look at your nervous system.
So here's what I want you what I'll leave youwith.
Right?
You can't heal in a state of threat always.
It naturally creates inflammation.
If your nervous system is always bracing forthat impact, your body can't prioritize that
(13:41):
repair, digestion, or even balance.
Right?
Throws your thyroid, your hormones all out ofbalance.
So survival first, healing last.
That's why we always say nervous system first.
Affixate your nervous system, whether throughbreathing mechanisms or other focused efforts.
(14:01):
I personally choose a cold plunge therapy withAsana.
I love the contrast therapy.
Fix that, but those are intentional ways to doit.
So fix that foundation and everything else thenbecomes possible.
Right?
We had a group outing, last week, and that'sone of the things we talked about was how we're
(14:23):
intentional about how we operate within ournervous system.
So those are some of the things that you justwanna be cognizant of and even speaking to
yourself.
Right?
Speaking in ways that are positive, elevate anddeescalate scenarios, where you can where you
can have that vagal toning, that proper vagaltoning.
(14:43):
So, now in our next segment, so let's get intohow we can improve that vagal vagus tone with
practice over time.
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Now back to the episode.
Awesome.
Welcome back.
Man.
That was really good stuff.
You know things that people deal with all thetime and like most people are like brushing
off.
They're like, I just feel tired like I'mstressed all the time.
It's like that is going to eventually lead toissues and we see it all the time.
(16:33):
People brush things off.
Then they end up in the clinic and they'relike, Okay, now we're now we're repairing it.
So, you know, by improving your vagal tone andresetting the nervous system, you get ahead of
a lot of these issues before they becomeissues.
So, you know, say we're in a state of chronicstress and fight or flight and we want to reset
the vagal tone.
(16:54):
This is how we do it.
Let's talk about some of these solutions.
And obviously, you just explained kind of whatit feels like to be stuck in that sympathetic
overdrive.
And so, know, if somebody listening right nowis is experiencing that or has experienced that
or know somebody, then you know, pay attentionbecause these are some things you can do, some
action items to to be able to kind of reversethat.
(17:14):
So basically, your nervous system is plastic.
The term we use plastic meaning it can rewire,it can rebalance, it can heal.
You just have to give it the right input.
So again, vagal tone, we kept saying that it'sbasically a measure of how well your vagus
nerve is functioning.
The ability for your body to switch fromsympathetic into parasympathetic.
(17:35):
That is essentially the tone, right?
And so that's where those things like coldplunge that you talk about is because yeah,
you're spiking your sympathetic real quick withthat Oh my gosh!
Kind of things are freezing, right?
But then when you get out, how quickly can youreset that with some breath work?
So, it's a very strong practice.
It's almost like resilience practice, if youwill.
(17:56):
So, you know, vagal tone, you're going to havefaster recovery, better digestion, stronger
immune balance, and you'll be more resilient,better energy.
If you have lower vagal tone, you know, you'regoing to be honestly chronically stressing your
physiology, poor recovery, inflamed, probablymood swings and then digestive dysfunction,
obviously.
(18:17):
So, let's talk about some things and I've got alist here and you know, I'll go through them
and if you want to add anything man, obviouslyjump in.
But number one, the best thing you can do andit's again, this is free is breath work.
So what we call diaphragmatic breathing.
So basically like slow deep belly breathing,you know, drawing in through the nose,
(18:38):
expanding like your stomach versus like yourrib cage or your chest.
Want to breathe with your diaphragm.
And so this is one of the fastest ways toactivate the vagus nerve.
A couple of methods.
One is called a four seven eight.
So basically it's a four second inhale, a sevensecond hold and then an eight second exhale.
And so when you have a longer exhale, you'reactually like saturating your blood with carbon
(19:01):
dioxide, it's gonna build up and that can kindof put you into that parasympathetic.
And then box breathing is a great one too.
Basically, inhale four seconds, hold fourseconds, exhale four seconds, hold four
seconds.
People are always like, but does it have to befour seconds?
If it's five seconds, it's not the end of theworld, right?
Like I say, the concept is to have a cadenceand control.
(19:22):
You're controlling your breathing.
So how often are we going through our daythinking about our breathing?
We're not.
We're kind of just like automatically doingstuff and you know, we're going to breathe in
kind of like a dysregulated way.
And so, there's a study in frontiers inpsychology found that slow paced breathing
actually significantly increased the vagalactivity and heart rate variability, which HRV
(19:46):
is a key measure for recovery and how ournervous system is functioning.
The next one, and this is something I mean,this is your thing man, cold exposure.
You're the cold guy.
So like cold showers, cold plunges, or evenlike you see a lot of people nowadays just
doing like that stimulating that diving reflexby putting their face in cold water.
(20:07):
Right?
It's the same concept.
It's it's stimulating a bit of sympathetic tothen get you back into the parasympathetic.
And so there was a 2020 study that showed coldexposure directly increases parasympathetic
activity, improves mood by triggering thesevagal pathways.
And we all know you get out of cold and it'slike, okay, in the moment it sucked, but you
(20:28):
get out of there and you've got like thisheightened energy.
You feel like you're on caffeine or something.
And that's directly kind of that response thatwe're talking about.
Another one, gargling or singing or humming,right?
These things can stimulate the vagus tonebecause again, the vagus nerve runs down the
back of the throat.
And so when we're doing these things, we arestimulating that nerve in a way.
(20:53):
Jake, who is our, you know, massage therapistworks at our clinic does the electrons plus,
and he'll get his fingers right on the vagusnerve.
And he'll put it on there and it feels funkybecause he's you know, directly stimulating it,
but you definitely feel afterwards like thiscalming effect.
So that's a pretty cool one as well.
And then something we do in our clinic,obviously chiropractic spinal alignment.
(21:15):
So especially like the upper cervical C1 C2because your brainstem, the lower part, the
medulla lives in there.
It's right inside that C1 which is your Atlas.
Basically, the Atlas like a little ring aroundthat that brainstem and when there's even I
mean a millimeter to two millimeters ofmisalignment, it will cause pressure which will
then down regulate that vagus nerve.
(21:38):
Focusing on like gut repair, right?
So fixing the gut because the gut and the brainare connected.
We say all the time that the gut is a secondbrain.
Honestly, probably the first brain.
It has more nervous activity than really, know,going on.
And so, know, about 80 to 90% of the vagusnerve fibers go from the gut to the brain.
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And so, you know, gut inflammation, leaky gut,dysbiosis, these are going to directly
influence vagal tone.
So, know, we we recommend things likeprobiotics, collagen, glutamine, anti
inflammatory diet, but you can't just starttaking a bunch of stuff.
You obviously have to have a plan, right?
If you have some type of dysfunction, you don'tjust start throwing things onto it, you could
(22:19):
make the problem worse.
So obviously getting some testing done isimportant.
Other things are like movement and lymphaticflow.
So you know, bouncing on like a mini trampolineor rebounder, dry brushing or the like the
vibration power plates we have in the office,stimulate that autonomic nervous system.
HRV training and biofeedback.
(22:40):
So, you know, using using these tools or likethese feedback mechanisms, the whoop band or
the Oura Ring telling you or like even like myGarmin watch gives me like an HRV score, right?
So I can kind of tell when I'm like pushing itbecause it'll be lower.
And I'm like, okay, I need to maybe dial backor like focus a little bit more on some of
these things we're talking about.
(23:02):
And so, you know, we definitely focus in ourclinic when have a patient going through a
protocol is like again, the whole pictureapproach and so the nervous system reset is
really important.
We're often going to integrate like acombination of things, the chiropractic
biophysics, breath work training, usingadaptogenic herbs and nutraceuticals, and then
(23:25):
even like cool like peptides and stuff likeCelinek and Cemax.
These are ones that they're intranasal spraysthat help to kind of stimulate the vagal tone
or down regulate it.
And then obviously, we already know likefunctional lab testing to identify, know, is
the stress coming from infections, blood sugarimbalances, toxins, right?
(23:47):
Or is it more emotional like daily stress?
Because if we understand, I always say this topatients, I'm like, if we understand why, like
then we know what we can do to fix it, right?
And so, again, you're not gonna out meditateyour way out of a toxic like thing, like if you
have overload of toxins and you're not gonnadetox your way out of like chronic stress from
(24:10):
work, right?
So it's like there needs to be a multi prongedapproach.
So, you know, I think in overall, right?
The vagus nerve we talked about is basicallylike it's pivotal for so many different things
and that's why we incorporate it into prettymuch everything we do.
(24:31):
Yeah.
The nervous system is the at the end of the dayis like the foundation for healing.
So as everything you aforementioned, let's goahead and land the land the plane here.
We talked about the vagus nerve and how thedysfunction shows up and how to improve tone
and reset the system.
But it's time to zoom out a little bit becausethis isn't just about, like, relaxation and
(24:55):
meditation.
It's about why the nervous system regulation isthe foundation for all of healing, throughout
the entire body.
So here we break down the healing hierarchy.
And here's the truth.
Right?
You can't heal your you out heal your hormonesif your body thinks it's being chased by a
freaking tiger every day.
(25:16):
Right?
Yeah.
You can't digest food if you're in fight orflight constantly, and you definitely can't
recover from chronic illness if your nervoussystem is locked in survival mode.
So get that.
Why do why are why is everyone pre diabetic?
Why is everyone potentially getting cancer?
Right?
And, you know, we do blame it on food a lot oftimes of what we put in and food has to do a
(25:40):
lot with it, but it's also the chronic stressthat is impacting our central nervous system,
where we are constantly in fight or flight.
So our body is naturally going to inflamedregardless of the food that we put in,
regardless of the supplementation, right?
You have to get to the point where your body iswilling to accept it, right?
The healthy food that you're putting into yourbody, the healthy supplementation.
(26:05):
And you're not going to do that unless you'reeducated and trained, which is why we do this,
right?
So that's why at LSE functional health, thenervous system regulation isn't a bonus.
It's built in every part of our care model,right?
So physical medicine, functional medicine, andregenerative medicine all fall in line with how
(26:25):
we're operating within the family of ourcentral nervous system.
So let's be honest, our culture glorifiesstress, work constantly, get up, keep working,
Don't go to sleep until freaking three in themorning and keep working.
Right?
Hustle without recovery breaks the body down,period.
(26:45):
So your body needs breaks and recovery.
So that's why people who feel the most stuckare often the ones who do everything right,
clean eating, working out, taking supplements,but missing the one foundational piece.
Right.
And I was one of those people just work it out,outwork it.
(27:06):
Right.
You can't out supplement a nervous system thatnever feels safe.
And that's why your body is one of the mostprotective things that you need to have.
And so here's our three pillar approach to ournervous system healing.
And it's something that's so pivotal andparamount to a lessee functional health, and
how we support the nervous system healing fromevery single angle.
(27:29):
So number one, physical medicine.
So the chiropractic biophysics for spinalalignment and brainstem decompression, right?
That vagal toning is a big part of that, asDoctor.
Alessi forementioned, right?
Softwave therapy for pain relief and vagalactivation.
You can do this in a number of ways, but whatwe do with spinal injuries or where people have
(27:52):
spinal compressions is we try to eliminate thatso we can bring stem cells to activate to
reduce the amount of inflammation, the stressyou have specifically on your spinal column,
right?
So that's a big thing.
And then structural mobility exercises to freelocked patterns.
Core exercises are a big component of that.
(28:14):
And so we do that.
We have that built within our protocol, right?
It's part of our pain free future protocolwhere you need to be working on structural
mobility exercises.
It's pivotal in getting everything involved,everything activated, and just, you know,
taking your body from parasympathetic to thesympathetic and and back and forth.
(28:36):
Right?
Because that is part of the process.
You don't want your body always to be aparasympathetic mode.
You do to want sometimes it to be insympathetic too as well.
So they go hand in hand.
Right?
Functional medicine piece number two.
So we remove the hidden stressors like the gutpathogens, mold toxins, and blood sugar
(28:57):
crashes.
So this is part of getting, like, proper bloodwork done.
And then going through our detox protocol.
I was actually talking with a guy last night,and I recommended, hey, You probably should get
that liver activated again.
Right?
Because there's times where I do it on aquarterly basis.
I think that you need to build that into yourprotocol, whether it's not a maybe a monthly
(29:22):
thing, but maybe a quarterly thing for you, ormaybe it is a monthly thing for you.
You need to really understand the cadence ofyour body and where you're at.
Right?
Support deficiencies with adaptogens, mineralsand mitochondrial nutrients, whether it be
through micronutrients where you're getting itthrough supplementation or whole food sources.
Right.
And then, as I said, use a lab data to drivethat precise interventions.
(29:47):
This was me two years ago where I was takenthrough the functional med process of really
understanding my blood work and really wantingto dive in what the micronutrients were.
How do I vagal tone, properly so my body isn'tconstantly in distress mode?
And then number three is the regenerativetools.
Right?
(30:08):
Some people are what we call too far along.
Right?
And they need aided assistance or they neededaided help.
And, you know, I'll be honest.
I don't think anyone's not too far along.
There always can be some level of help.
And so the regenerative tools allow that, andspecifically peptide therapy.
(30:30):
Doctor.
Alessi, aforementioned the Celinek and theCmax, which those are some good tools, to
retain, to restraint retrain, the stressresponse to the body.
But then there's also the regenerative toolslike BBC 157, SSF 31.
There's other ipamorelin.
(30:50):
There's there's other peptide therapies that wehave within our repertoire of protocols that
we've built out, that are extremely helpful inthe regenerative response.
So another one is HRV monitoring to guide theprogress along.
So we all love those biofeedback tools tocreate that daily awareness.
I think data is a big key.
(31:12):
And then the stem cells, stem cell replacement.
So if you're doing it regionally orintravenous, those are those are some main
tools that you can utilize from a regenerativestandpoint that we offer at our clinic.
If you need that, again, that aided recovery.
So we cover the full blanket in our threemeasures.
(31:34):
But I don't don't take my word for it.
I'm not expecting you to.
I want, we always have like other publishedsources in here, right?
So a 2121 journal in the clinical of Journal ofClinical Medicine concluded that vagal nerve
activation improves clinical outcomes in a widerange of chronic disorders, including
(31:58):
depression, IBS, hypertension, and PTSD bymodulating inflammatory pathways,
neuroplasticity, and stress response.
So basically what that's saying is likeanything you do to aid the vagal nerve
activation or that vagal toning is going toimprove your body's overall response for an
(32:19):
anti inflammatory response.
Right?
So that is basically what it does.
But I wanna leave you with this thought.
Right?
Whether you're dealing with brain fog,autoimmunity disease, anxiety, or chronic just
natural fatigue that you might have, it startswith the nervous system.
It starts with the nervous system.
And when you learn to shift your body intohealing mode, everything else starts to follow.
(32:45):
So I definitely want you to just to retain thatbecause that's the work and that's why we do
what we do.
Man, that was so good.
I love the way you broke all that down with thethree pillars as well.
And, you know, the three pillars really is,again, man, it's all about systems.
And when you have systems dialed in, we getfantastic results because there's no stone
(33:06):
unturned.
We are hitting everything that that someonemight need to heal their body, fix their pain,
dysfunction, disease, whatever it might be.
So, you know, if you want to learn more abouthow we help diagnose, reverse and heal chronic
disease within our functional medicineprograms, go to alessifunctionalhealth.com,
schedule a consultation with either me or oneof our other providers and let's create a
(33:30):
personalized plan for that lifelong health.
If you're a listener of this podcast, you'realways gonna get exclusive discounts and price
reductions on all of our protocols, lab tests.
So just be sure to mention where you heardabout us.
And as always, if you found found value intoday's show, please like, subscribe, and share
(33:50):
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That's how we grow this message and change morelives.
And then wanna get in touch with us or befeatured on an episode?
Email us at ask@AlessiFXHealth.com.
And you can visit our website at AlessiFXHealth dot com.
Sign up for our newsletter, and check out ourresources page to learn more about our approach
(34:14):
to nutrition and cutting edge therapies.
And thank you again for tuning in to HealthDecoded, where we break down the science, bust
the myths, and help you take control of yourhealth naturally.
Until next time, stay curious, stay empowered,and remember that your health is in your hands.
(34:35):
Thank you for tuning in to Health Decoded,where we break down the truth about all things
health and empower you to take charge of yourwell-being.
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(34:56):
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Until next time.
Stay curious, stay empowered, and remember,your health is in your hands.
You can't heal in a state of threat always.
(00:03):
It naturally creates inflammation.
If your nervous system is always bracing forthat impact, your body can't prioritize that
repair, digestion, or even balance.
Throws your thyroid, your hormones all out ofbalance.
So survival first, healing last.
Welcome to Health Decode, your number onesource for real health information with your
(00:26):
host, doctor Alessi and Matt Tack.
Welcome back to another episode of HealthDecoded.
I am your host, doctor Alessi.
And your cohost, Matt Tack.
Matt Tack.
Good to see you, my guy.
Good to see you, man.
How you doing?
Not that I don't see you every day, but just,you know, in a little different facet here.
(00:48):
Well, man, I'm excited for this one.
This is something that I know you're a very bigproponent of and something that you coach on a
lot.
So pumped about this this topic today and whatthat topic is, is the vagus nerve and why
really vagal tone is responsible formaintaining like a a level of like calm and
(01:09):
balance within the body and why resetting thatis also you know important for resetting our
nervous system immune system and all thesedifferent systems within the body.
You know, let's let's just get right into it.
I think we'll start for most patients is theremost people like talking about what is a vagus
nerve lot of people don't even know what it isso let's just start there.
(01:31):
So you know what is something a lot of peopledon't even learn but the vagus nerve is really
the most important nerve in your body.
And it's it's your cranial nerve 10.
So it starts basically at like at the base ofyour brainstem.
And so it's the longest cranial nerve in yourbody.
It originates at the medulla oblongata, whichis in your brainstem, and it travels downward
through the neck into the chest and abdomen,which then branches out to major organs,
(01:57):
including your heart, lungs, liver, spleen,kidneys, and your entire digestive tract.
And so, know, the word Vegas comes from theLatin word wandering because it literally
wanders throughout the body.
It's a kind of a cool statistic there.
But it's basically the powerhouse of yourparasympathetic nervous system.
(02:17):
And so your nervous system, your autonomicnervous system meaning the one that's just
always running, it's not something we cancontrol has two parts.
Your sympathetic which is what we know as likethe fight or flight and the parasympathetic
which is more of that rest, digest and repairsystem.
And so, you know, whereas the sympatheticnervous system is preparing our body for stress
(02:39):
or for you know, some type of emergency, theparasympathetic is doing the opposite and so
the vagus nerve is able to bring it back downto calm when times of healing and recovery.
And so if your vagus nerve isn't workingproperly, or if we're stuck in a sympathetic
state, which is like chronic stress mode, we'vetalked about this before.
(03:00):
This is where we see breakdown of systems, riseof inflammation and ultimately dysfunction and
disease.
And so, you know, the core functions of thevagus nerve, basically what it does is it's
multitasking, it's doing a lot of differentthings in regulation.
So it's gonna help regulate heart rate andblood pressure, it's going to regulate
(03:21):
digestive function because it actuallystimulates stomach acid production and enzyme
release.
So anytime we're working with patients whomaybe are having digestive issues and they've
been prescribed things like Nexiums and protonpump inhibitors, I'm also like hey, yeah, let's
focus on the digestive part but how do webalance that central nervous system as well
because it's very critical.
(03:43):
It's also important for immune regulation andinflammation control.
You know, basically like the cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway is stimulated by the vagal
nerve.
And so this helps to produce certain thingsthat are gonna fight against you know,
infections and invaders.
And then it's also important for mood focus andcognitive health as well.
(04:04):
It can help against things like anxiety anddepression if we can have you know, proper
vagal tone.
So then, you know, we always like to talk aboutlike what can you experience, right?
Like when vagal tone is low, basically meaningyour vagus nerve is not functioning well.
So, you could feel things like chronic fatigueor burnout, bloating, constipation, brain fog
(04:26):
or poor concentration, again anxiety,depression, poor sleep quality.
People often get like low HRV which is thatheart rate variability and then even like
autoimmune or inflammatory flare ups.
Now, everything on that list we've discussed indetail for specific things in the past.
So that's why addressing vagal tone isbasically incorporated into all of our
(04:51):
functional medicine and you know, total carekind of like programs where we're like, hey,
we're addressing an internal system, but weneed to focus on this as well because it's
gonna know, it's gonna make or break whether ornot this works.
And so when the vagus tone is low, the body isgonna be stuck in fight or flight and then
healing and recovery is is ultimately notpossible.
(05:13):
So things that are gonna disrupt the vagaltone, right, or vagus nerve is high stress,
trauma, whether that's physical or you know,psychological trauma, Poor gut health, so
things like leaky gut, which we deal with allthe time.
Pretty much everybody comes in with gut issues.
I'm testing leaky gut and more often than notwe're finding it.
(05:33):
Just the amount of like stress and toxins ourbodies go through.
Things like mouth breathing, This is a littlebit more kind of nuance but if we're breathing
through our mouth, we are not activating theparasympathetic nervous system.
So focusing on like breathing in through thenose and diaphragmatic, right?
Using our stomach, not our chest.
(05:54):
And then another one that we deal with a lot inthe clinic is cervical spine dysfunction or
even TMJ dysfunction.
And so when there's structural misalignments inthe cervical spine, that can put pressure on
the vagus nerve and obviously lower that vagaltone.
So there's actually a cool study 2018 infrontiers of neuroscience reviewed the effects
(06:15):
of vagus nerve stimulation and found that therewas some compelling evidence to improve vagal
tone.
It reduced inflammation, improved symptoms ofautoimmune disease, supported mood and then
enhanced digestive and metabolic health inpatients.
So that's pretty awesome.
You know, something as simple as you know,doing some what we're going to talk about like
(06:36):
breath work, cold exposure, all that tostimulate vagal tone had these profound
effects.
So kind of like, you know, in takeaway here,like what we always talk about is like things
don't work in isolation, right?
Thyroid doesn't work in isolation, gut doesn'twork in isolation.
The vagus nerve is often kind of that missinglink.
Remember, it's spread out so much and so itconnects the brain, body and immune system.
(06:58):
And so when we're talking about true healing,you know, this has to be a component or a piece
of what we're doing.
So now you know, why don't you Matt talk alittle bit about like kind of signs, right?
Like let's get a little bit more into it likethat.
Maybe someone's stuck in the fight or flightmode and what people can experience with that.
Yeah, let's break that down.
(07:19):
So the vagus nerve is why it's critical.
Let's, you know, shift gears here a little bitand talk about something that affects more
people than we actually realize.
So most people are living in survival mode anddon't even know it.
Right?
I think Doctor.
Lussie says this over and over again, there'snothing new underneath the sun.
And so when we come back to it, we're talkingabout sympathetic dominance and where body is
(07:45):
stuck in fight or flight long after the dangeris gone.
And that's when the body tenses up.
Right?
The central nervous system is tense, and youjust feel rigid.
Right?
This isn't just a feeling.
It's a psychological state that directlyimpacts your brain hormones, your digestion,
inflammation, and let's be real, your overallquality of life.
So, as we go into the fight or flight, thesympathetic nervous system is designed to
(08:10):
respond to acute threats.
Right?
So like running from a predator or swervingaround to avoid a crash, it increases your
heart rate, pumps your blood to your muscles,and releases adrenaline and cortisol to help
you survive.
We do this intentionally a lot as an example ofhopping into a cold plunge.
Right?
That's your sympathetic nervous system arising.
(08:32):
So but here's the problem when it'sunintentional.
Right?
When you're constantly going through thesestates of chronic stress, means that the
response never shuts off.
So you're constantly in that state.
So most of us are being hit with these microthreats all day long.
Right?
Deadlines, traffic, phone, notifications, bloodsugar levels, emotional pressure, past trauma,
(08:58):
poor sleep, toxins, all of which your brain isstaying on this high, high alert.
So when is it an overdrive?
Right?
These are the symptoms of dysregulated nervoussystems that we see all the time in our
practice at Alessi Functional Health, and we'regonna get later into, alright, what do we need
to do to bring in the parasympathetic?
(09:21):
Right?
So sleep issues.
Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, majorconcern.
Right?
Anxiety or irritability throughout the day.
That happens.
Right?
A lot of us a book that I'm currently readingand I forget the name of the author, but it's
the anxious society that we live in.
Right?
So it's more so adolescence, but right.
(09:44):
The anxious society that like the socialspheres and past trauma automatically give us.
Right?
Digestive problem, cold hands and feet, thatneuropathy, brain fog or memory lapses.
Now we're not talking about, Hey, I lost mykeys or, Hey, I just forgot what I was doing
ten minutes ago.
(10:04):
It's one of those things where it's theconsistent nature of can you recall things,
right?
Can you recall what you did this past weekendor what you did previous weekends?
Those are some of the things that you youreally wanna make sure, like, hey.
Is this just a common occurrence, or is thishappening consistently?
Right?
Muscle tension, racing hearts, raise yourracing heartbeat or have palpitations, fatigue
(10:27):
that just doesn't go away.
Right?
So you're wired but tired at the same time.
Your nervous system can't just shift into adownshift.
And then you just have a low stress tolerance.
Even small issues seem just super overwhelmingto you.
And if you feel like you're always bracing forimpact, you're always stepping on the brakes,
(10:50):
your nervous system probably thinks that dangeris real even when it's not.
So how do we create something that we can, youknow, step off the gas?
Right?
And maybe even sometimes put on a little bitgas where we know when to shift from that
breaking mechanism to put on the gas.
So you can have the perfect supplement stack.
(11:14):
You can eat organic.
You can even meditate once a week.
But if your nervous system is dysregulated,none of it works the way it should.
Right?
You want it all in sequence.
This is why the silent bottleneck this is thesilent bottleneck healing to healing.
You can't out supplement a nervous system thatthinks it's in danger zone twenty four seven.
(11:38):
So here's what science says.
A landmark 2020 review in theneuroendocrinology analyzed how vagal
suppression get that?
Vagal suppression.
Right?
So your poor vagus nerve tone has effects onlong term health.
So they found that chronic low vagal tone,meaning a suppressed or, overstressed vagal
(12:05):
nerve, increased cortisol levels.
So you constantly have quiet cortisol levels.
You wanna have and so diving into that whatcortisol is actually leveled, there's a cadence
to which your cortisol levels ebbs and flow.
Right?
It should peak right after that morning wakeup.
It's slowly rising.
Right?
It should peak midmorning to afternoon andslowly make its way down where you're catering
(12:29):
it towards bedtime.
Right?
That's the way things that's what we look atwhen we take your blood work.
Right?
Is, hey.
Do you have proper cortisol cadence?
Leads to insulin resistance, which is thatblood sugar instability.
Right?
That usually comes out of poor sleep and highcortisol levels and promotes immune
dysregulation, meaning maybe you get a lot ofcolds throughout the year.
(12:53):
You have you get sick more often than not.
Right?
Every time the weather changes or somethinglike that.
Right?
Making inflammation harder to control.
So this creates a perfect storm effect forchronic disease, especially autoimmune issues,
cardiovascular problems, and neurodegenerativedecline.
So if you're wondering why your fatigue won'tlift, your gut won't heal.
(13:19):
Your anxiety won't ease up, and you have tolook upstream.
You gotta look at your nervous system.
So here's what I want you what I'll leave youwith.
Right?
You can't heal in a state of threat always.
It naturally creates inflammation.
If your nervous system is always bracing forthat impact, your body can't prioritize that
(13:41):
repair, digestion, or even balance.
Right?
Throws your thyroid, your hormones all out ofbalance.
So survival first, healing last.
That's why we always say nervous system first.
Affixate your nervous system, whether throughbreathing mechanisms or other focused efforts.
(14:01):
I personally choose a cold plunge therapy withAsana.
I love the contrast therapy.
Fix that, but those are intentional ways to doit.
So fix that foundation and everything else thenbecomes possible.
Right?
We had a group outing, last week, and that'sone of the things we talked about was how we're
(14:23):
intentional about how we operate within ournervous system.
So those are some of the things that you justwanna be cognizant of and even speaking to
yourself.
Right?
Speaking in ways that are positive, elevate anddeescalate scenarios, where you can where you
can have that vagal toning, that proper vagaltoning.
(14:43):
So, now in our next segment, so let's get intohow we can improve that vagal vagus tone with
practice over time.
But before we do that, here's a quick word fromour sponsors.
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Now back to the episode.
Awesome.
Welcome back.
Man.
That was really good stuff.
You know things that people deal with all thetime and like most people are like brushing
off.
They're like, I just feel tired like I'mstressed all the time.
It's like that is going to eventually lead toissues and we see it all the time.
(16:33):
People brush things off.
Then they end up in the clinic and they'relike, Okay, now we're now we're repairing it.
So, you know, by improving your vagal tone andresetting the nervous system, you get ahead of
a lot of these issues before they becomeissues.
So, you know, say we're in a state of chronicstress and fight or flight and we want to reset
the vagal tone.
(16:54):
This is how we do it.
Let's talk about some of these solutions.
And obviously, you just explained kind of whatit feels like to be stuck in that sympathetic
overdrive.
And so, know, if somebody listening right nowis is experiencing that or has experienced that
or know somebody, then you know, pay attentionbecause these are some things you can do, some
action items to to be able to kind of reversethat.
(17:14):
So basically, your nervous system is plastic.
The term we use plastic meaning it can rewire,it can rebalance, it can heal.
You just have to give it the right input.
So again, vagal tone, we kept saying that it'sbasically a measure of how well your vagus
nerve is functioning.
The ability for your body to switch fromsympathetic into parasympathetic.
(17:35):
That is essentially the tone, right?
And so that's where those things like coldplunge that you talk about is because yeah,
you're spiking your sympathetic real quick withthat Oh my gosh!
Kind of things are freezing, right?
But then when you get out, how quickly can youreset that with some breath work?
So, it's a very strong practice.
It's almost like resilience practice, if youwill.
(17:56):
So, you know, vagal tone, you're going to havefaster recovery, better digestion, stronger
immune balance, and you'll be more resilient,better energy.
If you have lower vagal tone, you know, you'regoing to be honestly chronically stressing your
physiology, poor recovery, inflamed, probablymood swings and then digestive dysfunction,
obviously.
(18:17):
So, let's talk about some things and I've got alist here and you know, I'll go through them
and if you want to add anything man, obviouslyjump in.
But number one, the best thing you can do andit's again, this is free is breath work.
So what we call diaphragmatic breathing.
So basically like slow deep belly breathing,you know, drawing in through the nose,
(18:38):
expanding like your stomach versus like yourrib cage or your chest.
Want to breathe with your diaphragm.
And so this is one of the fastest ways toactivate the vagus nerve.
A couple of methods.
One is called a four seven eight.
So basically it's a four second inhale, a sevensecond hold and then an eight second exhale.
And so when you have a longer exhale, you'reactually like saturating your blood with carbon
(19:01):
dioxide, it's gonna build up and that can kindof put you into that parasympathetic.
And then box breathing is a great one too.
Basically, inhale four seconds, hold fourseconds, exhale four seconds, hold four
seconds.
People are always like, but does it have to befour seconds?
If it's five seconds, it's not the end of theworld, right?
Like I say, the concept is to have a cadenceand control.
(19:22):
You're controlling your breathing.
So how often are we going through our daythinking about our breathing?
We're not.
We're kind of just like automatically doingstuff and you know, we're going to breathe in
kind of like a dysregulated way.
And so, there's a study in frontiers inpsychology found that slow paced breathing
actually significantly increased the vagalactivity and heart rate variability, which HRV
(19:46):
is a key measure for recovery and how ournervous system is functioning.
The next one, and this is something I mean,this is your thing man, cold exposure.
You're the cold guy.
So like cold showers, cold plunges, or evenlike you see a lot of people nowadays just
doing like that stimulating that diving reflexby putting their face in cold water.
(20:07):
Right?
It's the same concept.
It's it's stimulating a bit of sympathetic tothen get you back into the parasympathetic.
And so there was a 2020 study that showed coldexposure directly increases parasympathetic
activity, improves mood by triggering thesevagal pathways.
And we all know you get out of cold and it'slike, okay, in the moment it sucked, but you
(20:28):
get out of there and you've got like thisheightened energy.
You feel like you're on caffeine or something.
And that's directly kind of that response thatwe're talking about.
Another one, gargling or singing or humming,right?
These things can stimulate the vagus tonebecause again, the vagus nerve runs down the
back of the throat.
And so when we're doing these things, we arestimulating that nerve in a way.
(20:53):
Jake, who is our, you know, massage therapistworks at our clinic does the electrons plus,
and he'll get his fingers right on the vagusnerve.
And he'll put it on there and it feels funkybecause he's you know, directly stimulating it,
but you definitely feel afterwards like thiscalming effect.
So that's a pretty cool one as well.
And then something we do in our clinic,obviously chiropractic spinal alignment.
(21:15):
So especially like the upper cervical C1 C2because your brainstem, the lower part, the
medulla lives in there.
It's right inside that C1 which is your Atlas.
Basically, the Atlas like a little ring aroundthat that brainstem and when there's even I
mean a millimeter to two millimeters ofmisalignment, it will cause pressure which will
then down regulate that vagus nerve.
(21:38):
Focusing on like gut repair, right?
So fixing the gut because the gut and the brainare connected.
We say all the time that the gut is a secondbrain.
Honestly, probably the first brain.
It has more nervous activity than really, know,going on.
And so, know, about 80 to 90% of the vagusnerve fibers go from the gut to the brain.
(21:58):
And so, you know, gut inflammation, leaky gut,dysbiosis, these are going to directly
influence vagal tone.
So, know, we we recommend things likeprobiotics, collagen, glutamine, anti
inflammatory diet, but you can't just starttaking a bunch of stuff.
You obviously have to have a plan, right?
If you have some type of dysfunction, you don'tjust start throwing things onto it, you could
(22:19):
make the problem worse.
So obviously getting some testing done isimportant.
Other things are like movement and lymphaticflow.
So you know, bouncing on like a mini trampolineor rebounder, dry brushing or the like the
vibration power plates we have in the office,stimulate that autonomic nervous system.
HRV training and biofeedback.
(22:40):
So, you know, using using these tools or likethese feedback mechanisms, the whoop band or
the Oura Ring telling you or like even like myGarmin watch gives me like an HRV score, right?
So I can kind of tell when I'm like pushing itbecause it'll be lower.
And I'm like, okay, I need to maybe dial backor like focus a little bit more on some of
these things we're talking about.
(23:02):
And so, you know, we definitely focus in ourclinic when have a patient going through a
protocol is like again, the whole pictureapproach and so the nervous system reset is
really important.
We're often going to integrate like acombination of things, the chiropractic
biophysics, breath work training, usingadaptogenic herbs and nutraceuticals, and then
(23:25):
even like cool like peptides and stuff likeCelinek and Cemax.
These are ones that they're intranasal spraysthat help to kind of stimulate the vagal tone
or down regulate it.
And then obviously, we already know likefunctional lab testing to identify, know, is
the stress coming from infections, blood sugarimbalances, toxins, right?
(23:47):
Or is it more emotional like daily stress?
Because if we understand, I always say this topatients, I'm like, if we understand why, like
then we know what we can do to fix it, right?
And so, again, you're not gonna out meditateyour way out of a toxic like thing, like if you
have overload of toxins and you're not gonnadetox your way out of like chronic stress from
(24:10):
work, right?
So it's like there needs to be a multi prongedapproach.
So, you know, I think in overall, right?
The vagus nerve we talked about is basicallylike it's pivotal for so many different things
and that's why we incorporate it into prettymuch everything we do.
(24:31):
Yeah.
The nervous system is the at the end of the dayis like the foundation for healing.
So as everything you aforementioned, let's goahead and land the land the plane here.
We talked about the vagus nerve and how thedysfunction shows up and how to improve tone
and reset the system.
But it's time to zoom out a little bit becausethis isn't just about, like, relaxation and
(24:55):
meditation.
It's about why the nervous system regulation isthe foundation for all of healing, throughout
the entire body.
So here we break down the healing hierarchy.
And here's the truth.
Right?
You can't heal your you out heal your hormonesif your body thinks it's being chased by a
freaking tiger every day.
(25:16):
Right?
Yeah.
You can't digest food if you're in fight orflight constantly, and you definitely can't
recover from chronic illness if your nervoussystem is locked in survival mode.
So get that.
Why do why are why is everyone pre diabetic?
Why is everyone potentially getting cancer?
Right?
And, you know, we do blame it on food a lot oftimes of what we put in and food has to do a
(25:40):
lot with it, but it's also the chronic stressthat is impacting our central nervous system,
where we are constantly in fight or flight.
So our body is naturally going to inflamedregardless of the food that we put in,
regardless of the supplementation, right?
You have to get to the point where your body iswilling to accept it, right?
The healthy food that you're putting into yourbody, the healthy supplementation.
(26:05):
And you're not going to do that unless you'reeducated and trained, which is why we do this,
right?
So that's why at LSE functional health, thenervous system regulation isn't a bonus.
It's built in every part of our care model,right?
So physical medicine, functional medicine, andregenerative medicine all fall in line with how
(26:25):
we're operating within the family of ourcentral nervous system.
So let's be honest, our culture glorifiesstress, work constantly, get up, keep working,
Don't go to sleep until freaking three in themorning and keep working.
Right?
Hustle without recovery breaks the body down,period.
(26:45):
So your body needs breaks and recovery.
So that's why people who feel the most stuckare often the ones who do everything right,
clean eating, working out, taking supplements,but missing the one foundational piece.
Right.
And I was one of those people just work it out,outwork it.
(27:06):
Right.
You can't out supplement a nervous system thatnever feels safe.
And that's why your body is one of the mostprotective things that you need to have.
And so here's our three pillar approach to ournervous system healing.
And it's something that's so pivotal andparamount to a lessee functional health, and
how we support the nervous system healing fromevery single angle.
(27:29):
So number one, physical medicine.
So the chiropractic biophysics for spinalalignment and brainstem decompression, right?
That vagal toning is a big part of that, asDoctor.
Alessi forementioned, right?
Softwave therapy for pain relief and vagalactivation.
You can do this in a number of ways, but whatwe do with spinal injuries or where people have
(27:52):
spinal compressions is we try to eliminate thatso we can bring stem cells to activate to
reduce the amount of inflammation, the stressyou have specifically on your spinal column,
right?
So that's a big thing.
And then structural mobility exercises to freelocked patterns.
Core exercises are a big component of that.
(28:14):
And so we do that.
We have that built within our protocol, right?
It's part of our pain free future protocolwhere you need to be working on structural
mobility exercises.
It's pivotal in getting everything involved,everything activated, and just, you know,
taking your body from parasympathetic to thesympathetic and and back and forth.
(28:36):
Right?
Because that is part of the process.
You don't want your body always to be aparasympathetic mode.
You do to want sometimes it to be insympathetic too as well.
So they go hand in hand.
Right?
Functional medicine piece number two.
So we remove the hidden stressors like the gutpathogens, mold toxins, and blood sugar
(28:57):
crashes.
So this is part of getting, like, proper bloodwork done.
And then going through our detox protocol.
I was actually talking with a guy last night,and I recommended, hey, You probably should get
that liver activated again.
Right?
Because there's times where I do it on aquarterly basis.
I think that you need to build that into yourprotocol, whether it's not a maybe a monthly
(29:22):
thing, but maybe a quarterly thing for you, ormaybe it is a monthly thing for you.
You need to really understand the cadence ofyour body and where you're at.
Right?
Support deficiencies with adaptogens, mineralsand mitochondrial nutrients, whether it be
through micronutrients where you're getting itthrough supplementation or whole food sources.
Right.
And then, as I said, use a lab data to drivethat precise interventions.
(29:47):
This was me two years ago where I was takenthrough the functional med process of really
understanding my blood work and really wantingto dive in what the micronutrients were.
How do I vagal tone, properly so my body isn'tconstantly in distress mode?
And then number three is the regenerativetools.
Right?
(30:08):
Some people are what we call too far along.
Right?
And they need aided assistance or they neededaided help.
And, you know, I'll be honest.
I don't think anyone's not too far along.
There always can be some level of help.
And so the regenerative tools allow that, andspecifically peptide therapy.
(30:30):
Doctor.
Alessi, aforementioned the Celinek and theCmax, which those are some good tools, to
retain, to restraint retrain, the stressresponse to the body.
But then there's also the regenerative toolslike BBC 157, SSF 31.
There's other ipamorelin.
(30:50):
There's there's other peptide therapies that wehave within our repertoire of protocols that
we've built out, that are extremely helpful inthe regenerative response.
So another one is HRV monitoring to guide theprogress along.
So we all love those biofeedback tools tocreate that daily awareness.
I think data is a big key.
(31:12):
And then the stem cells, stem cell replacement.
So if you're doing it regionally orintravenous, those are those are some main
tools that you can utilize from a regenerativestandpoint that we offer at our clinic.
If you need that, again, that aided recovery.
So we cover the full blanket in our threemeasures.
(31:34):
But I don't don't take my word for it.
I'm not expecting you to.
I want, we always have like other publishedsources in here, right?
So a 2121 journal in the clinical of Journal ofClinical Medicine concluded that vagal nerve
activation improves clinical outcomes in a widerange of chronic disorders, including
(31:58):
depression, IBS, hypertension, and PTSD bymodulating inflammatory pathways,
neuroplasticity, and stress response.
So basically what that's saying is likeanything you do to aid the vagal nerve
activation or that vagal toning is going toimprove your body's overall response for an
(32:19):
anti inflammatory response.
Right?
So that is basically what it does.
But I wanna leave you with this thought.
Right?
Whether you're dealing with brain fog,autoimmunity disease, anxiety, or chronic just
natural fatigue that you might have, it startswith the nervous system.
It starts with the nervous system.
And when you learn to shift your body intohealing mode, everything else starts to follow.
(32:45):
So I definitely want you to just to retain thatbecause that's the work and that's why we do
what we do.
Man, that was so good.
I love the way you broke all that down with thethree pillars as well.
And, you know, the three pillars really is,again, man, it's all about systems.
And when you have systems dialed in, we getfantastic results because there's no stone
(33:06):
unturned.
We are hitting everything that that someonemight need to heal their body, fix their pain,
dysfunction, disease, whatever it might be.
So, you know, if you want to learn more abouthow we help diagnose, reverse and heal chronic
disease within our functional medicineprograms, go to alessifunctionalhealth.com,
schedule a consultation with either me or oneof our other providers and let's create a
(33:30):
personalized plan for that lifelong health.
If you're a listener of this podcast, you'realways gonna get exclusive discounts and price
reductions on all of our protocols, lab tests.
So just be sure to mention where you heardabout us.
And as always, if you found found value intoday's show, please like, subscribe, and share
(33:50):
this episode with someone who needs to hear it.
That's how we grow this message and change morelives.
And then wanna get in touch with us or befeatured on an episode?
Email us at ask@AlessiFXHealth.com.
And you can visit our website at AlessiFXHealth dot com.
Sign up for our newsletter, and check out ourresources page to learn more about our approach
(34:14):
to nutrition and cutting edge therapies.
And thank you again for tuning in to HealthDecoded, where we break down the science, bust
the myths, and help you take control of yourhealth naturally.
Until next time, stay curious, stay empowered,and remember that your health is in your hands.
(34:35):
Thank you for tuning in to Health Decoded,where we break down the truth about all things
health and empower you to take charge of yourwell-being.
If you found value in today's episode, pleasesubscribe, leave a review, and share it with
someone who needs to hear this.
For more resources and personalized support,visit us at alessifunctionalhealth.com and sign
(34:56):
up for our newsletter.
To hear your questions answered live on theshow, send them to askalessifxhealth dot com
That's ask@alessifxhealth.com.
Until next time.
Stay curious, stay empowered, and remember,your health is in your hands.
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