Connecting the Dots Between Vagus Nerve & Cardiovascular Health
When it comes to optimizing your health, cardiovascular health is often a focus—and for good reason. Your heart is the engine that keeps your body running smoothly, and its health directly impacts your energy, longevity, and overall well-being. But did you know that the health of your heart is intricately tied to your nervous system? Specifically, to a fascinating part of your body called the vagus nerve, and thus the vagal tone.
But first….what is vagal tone?
It’s the activity of the vagus nerve, which is the main nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest) and counterbalances the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight).
You can think of it as the key to letting stress roll off your back.
The vagus nerve wanders from the brain to all the organs, branching off with thousands of nerve fibers. What’s really cool is the vagus nerve communicates in both directions—both to and from the brain!
Here are just 5 ways vagal tone affects health:
1️⃣ Heart Health
The vagus nerve directly innervates the heart, influencing heart rate and blood pressure. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a direct measurement of vagal tone, with a higher HRV indicating better vagal tone.
2️⃣ Metabolic Health
The vagus nerve communicates from the brain to the gut, liver, pancreas and then back again. It helps to regulate hunger, insulin, blood sugar, lipids, and inflammation. Studies have even linked vagal tone with diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and obesity.
3️⃣ Mood
The vagus nerve is thought to affect mental health through mechanisms related to stress, the gut-brain axis, and inflammation. Vagal nerve stimulation has been researched in people struggling with depression.
4️⃣ Digestion
Gut hormones and neurotransmitters trigger nerve endings in the vagus nerve to send signals back to the brain. In turn, the vagus nerve regulates gut motility, secretions, and more. This is what we call the gut-brain axis!
5️⃣ Healthy Aging
Vagal tone may decrease with age, affecting everything from the heart to the gut to inflammation. Vagal tone is not considered a “cause” of disease, but we are learning more and more about how it affects nearly every aspect of health.
The Vagus Nerve and Inflammation: The Missing Link
Inflammation is a silent contributor to many chronic diseases, including heart disease. Most people believe the nervous system and immune system function independently, but that is not true!
Actually, it was discovered 20 years ago that a reflex involving the vagus nerve helps to reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines and resolve inflammation.
Since then, clinical trials have successfully used vagal nerve stimulation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.
5 Ways to Boost Vagal Tone (and Protect Your Heart)
The great news is that improving vagal tone doesn’t require fancy equipment or invasive treatments. Here are five simple, natural ways to strengthen your vagus nerve and support your cardiovascular health:
Deep Breathing: Slow, intentional breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, helping to lower your heart rate and blood pressure.
Meditation and Mindfulness: These practices activate your parasympathetic nervous system and improve HRV over time.
Cold Exposure: Splashing cold water on your face or taking a cold shower can stimulate vagal activity.
Yoga and Gentle Movement: Physical activities that combine movement with breath, like yoga, are excellent for enhancing vagal tone.
Connection and Laughter: Social bonding and even a good laugh have been shown to activate the vagus nerve and promote heart health.
Food that Boosts Vagal Tone
Want another fun way to improve your vagal tone? Foods can increase vagal tone through the gut-brain axis, and is another fun way to adapt food as medicine. For example:
🥦 Fiber sends signals through the vagus nerve to the brain and back to slow gut movements and make us feel full.
🥗 The Mediterranean Diet is associated with higher heart rate variability, which is a measure of vagal tone.
🐟 Probiotics, omega-3 fatty acids, and B vitamins improve heart rate variability too.
The vagus nerve regulates everything from heart health to metabolic health to immune function, and it is strongly influenced by what is going on in the gut! That means that anything you do (or eat) to affect gut health will probably also affect vagal tone.
Cardiovascular health isn’t just about your heart; it’s about the interconnectedness of your entire body. By focusing on vagal tone, you’re not just protecting your heart—you’re supporting your mood, metabolism, digestion, and even healthy aging. That’s why a root-cause approach to health is so essential.
We love to nerd out on how everything in the body is connected. If you are trying to make sense of what is going on with your own health or how your symptoms relate, we can help.
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