Welcome to healthy Ish.
Thank you for joining us. Listeners, you have tuned into the daily podcast from Body and Soul. I am Felicity Harley. If you're a regular listener, you know we've covered the vagus nerve recently a few weeks ago with physiotherapist Jessica Maguire. Well you love this ep, thanks for listening, So we're
going to do another. Our guest today is Jennifer Warder, Natchurepath with the Masters in Reproductive Medicine, and she's going to talk about the relationship between the vagus nerve and gut health and a simple trick to help you improve your digestion. If you want more from Jennifer, I highly recommend you listen to Extra Healthy Ish, where she talks about how to use cycle sinking to.
Be a better you. You can catch that wherever we get your podcasts. Jen Welcome to healthy Ish.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, ys for.
Joining us today. Now I'm excited about this topic. We did it recently and everyone loved the episode, so I thought it would be good to we'll get an understanding of the link between vegas nerve and gut health. But first for those or as a reminder, what is the vegas nerve exactly?
And what does it do? Good question?
So it's one of those things we hear a lot about, but we actually don't often know what it is. And it's a really long nerve that runs from the base of our brain all the way down to about where our reproductive organs and our stomach are. So quite long nerve running down the back spine.
What does it do? Why is it there?
I mean, it's actually also when you were describing, it's actually good to get a vision on it as well.
I did google it a little while ago, going what does it actually look like? What does it do?
The vegas nerve is what actually controls out involuntary activities, so we don't really think about breathing. The vegus nerve is connected to breathing. We don't really think about our heart rate too much and also digestion, so it is what is working behind the scenes on all of those activities. And it can also regulate our immune system and inflammation as well.
Why have we become obsessed with it right now?
I feel like, I mean, we're talking about it if yone's talking about it, Yes, I think that is just a representation of our society. We get really into certain areas, but this one rightfully so, because if we actually have a focus on the vegas nerve and ways to you know, what's known as tone the vegas nerve, we can actually get some really great benefits, particularly with our digestive system.
Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it. I love how we all just jump on health trends and I'm like, how come we didn't talk about this years ago? We should all know about this.
Yes, we're very informed now, We've got a lot of information in our hands, and I'm truly a fan of this one.
Talk to us a bit about what it does well, the role it plays in our in the health of our gut.
Yeah, and this is one where we often can get confused because we think, well, how can a nerve impact our digestive system? And it is that nerve that actually regulates all those enzymes and acids in our starting from mouth but through to our stomach. So when we start to salivate, we're getting hungry, maybe we're at a fine dining restaurant, and we can actually literally feel all those
enzymes starting in our mouth the saliva. That's great, that's the start of the digestive process, and that's the vagus nerve. It's telling the brain, Okay, we're about to eat. There's a stimuli there, maybe it's food, maybe we're starting to think about food, and so it releases those enzymes, and those enzymes and acids are actually really important for all the processes of digestion. So not only does it start to break down the food in the stomach, but it
signals the body to start the movement of peristalsis. And peristalsis is another one of those functions that the vagus nerve actually controls, And simply put, it's the movement of food through the intestine. So these are two very vital functions of our digestive system. Without it, we might get an overload of bacteria because the acid builds up the bacteria, or we might get really stagnant, fermented digestive trapped because
things aren't moving through it. So we need our vegus nerve to digest.
I've never even put these two together.
That is fascinating to know, just to just hear you explain how well it's so important when it comes to digestion. What are some of the conditions that can arise from poor vegus nerve function pretty much anything so because particularly the digestive enzymes and acids and also the peristaltic movement are two very foundational functions of our gut. If they're not working well, we can get bloating, we can get loose movements, constipation, we can even get more chronic conditions
or if we're susceptible to them, chrones. Even some of the newer terms.
You might have heard of c bow, so small intestine, bacterial overgrowth, it might be reflux. So it's a really important topic to address when you do have digestive issues and to understand, well, is there some involvement there for me?
How do we work that out?
Yes?
I mean that's the really other question, isn't it test?
You know, to start to work on the vegas nerve is pretty simple and it's pretty instant. The best thing about our digestive system is it renews really quickly and it responds really quickly. So it could be something people do at home, and it could be something people start, you know, as of today when they jump into their lunch or dinner or breakfast.
So if we if someone's listening and thinking, oh, I've got that symptom.
I feel like all of us have some sort of digest we do how and we.
Put the focus on the vagus nerve. Is there anything we can do to as you say, tone or resent? I mean, there's different terms to be used around this, the vagus nerve better digestion.
Absolutely yes, So really anything that will relax you will have a effect on the vegas nerve and therefore digestion. So we don't want to always have to think so specific. However, there are some certain ways that are known to specifically work on that nerve. So a lot to do with your throat, if you hum, seeing gargle, even it's all stimulating the vegas nerve. There are also some acupressure points,
massage points that can be triggered. If you perhaps have your own practitioner, can they can lend in on that. But also meditation and cold plunges which is so popular right now. They're all working so well because of their
effect on the vegas nerve. So you know, the simplest way you can start this now is you've got your meal in front of you, you put your tech away, and you take three deep breaths, look at your food and just wait for those signals to go to your mouth, so you might start salivating, you might start going, oh, I'm actually feeling really hungry all of a sudden, and it's that brain connecting with the gut and going right, guys,
we're ready, we're eating. Now, let's swap over to that digest phase and let's eat that food, do what we should be doing, digest it well, and then you'll be pretty much not symptom free, but you know, lower symptoms pretty significantly straight away.
There's tips I've heard in a long time. Literally just three like a couple of seconds. We don't we do that, do we?
We just sit there like I'm so hungry or I've got so much on I've just got to eat this, as I just did in front of you, eating like I'm guilty to see that I'm chopping on my sandwich.
Yes, I'm a natural bath and I'm guilty of it.
So okay, good.
Yeah. But you know, when we do it really well, when we go to find dining, because it's our whole experience. We sit there, we look at the menu, the waight it comes over and explains it. We've been looking forward to it all week the food gets presented to us, we're told what it is. We have every little bite with such you know, focus and intensity. That's you know, perhaps a step too far, but that's how we should be addressing food. Of Okay, I'm so excited by it.
What have I got here? You know? What colors have I got? And actually engaging with the food, and that can have profound effects on digestion.
Just quickly does the food? What about the food we eat? Does that affect the vegus neva? What sort of role does that play it? All?
These?
Yeah?
Yeah, so it doesn't necessarily affect the vegus nerve unless you go ten steps back and your thinking neurology and nervous system. But if your vegas nerve is struggling a little bit, and therefore you are digestion struggling, that's where you want to go to easier to digest meals because if it's not producing those enzymes and acids and perastalsis isn't working so well, then you want to load it
up with really easy to digest food. So slow cooked meals, maybe beautiful soups stew, particularly in winter time, but just be thinking, am I going to actually be able to digest that big meal if I'm stressed and if I'm not present to it, and maybe making some decisions.
Around that great advice. Jan, thank you for coming on healthy Ish.
Thanks so much for having me.
Three seconds.
Next time you sit there in front of a bowl of food, in front of a plate of food, whatever sort of food, just wait three seconds and your mouth start talking.
I hope you enjoyed this chat. I sure did. What a good one.
Anyway, if you do want to go back and listen to that last episode on the Vegas Nerve, I will leave a link to it in the show notes. Please rate and review this episode if you did enjoy it, or of course, subscribe to this podcast healthy Ish or a big sister one extra healthy Ish, follow us on socials, grab our print edition which is out in your local Sunday paper, and of course body andsoul dot com that are used a place to go for more info. Thanks again for listening, and stay healthy ish.