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clear search termsThe Parasympathetic Nervous System and the Vagus Nerve: For Practitioners
Hi!
Although you may already be a savvy practitioner, I am certain you will learn something new in this video about The Parasympathetic Nervous System and the Vagus Nerve: For Practitioners. You’ll walk away with pages of notes and practical pearls you can use in your practice right away.
Here are some of the things we’ll be discussing:
- The X-factor for sympathetic/parasympathetic balance – and why it’s unfortunately almost always overlooked!
- Why the PNS and Vagus are even More important for practitioners embrace during the pandemic (and its aftermath). This one is key.
- The What and Why of Vagal Tone. Any why you Really need to Know! Plus the fun, simple hacks anyone can do to improve it.
- Parasympathetic good; Sympathetic bad. Right? Not really. You need to remember this important devil-in-the-detail.
- Surprising measures that can shed light on autonomic nervous system health.
- Easy but oh-so effective hacks for improving autonomic balance.
- How and why this area of physiology is intimately tied to digestion, detoxification, and immunity. Do You know the mechanisms?
- The Biggest practitioner mistakes when talking to patients about stress.
Done-for-you patient handouts that can be helpful in encouraging your patients to explore the effects of stress and making tangible steps in reducing its impact can be found here and here.
Thank you very much for joining in the fun and learning! Please share your thoughts (please be thorough) in the “Ask a Question” area below about what inspired you in this presentation! Include what type of practitioner you are, so that we can all see your unique perspective.
P.S. If you are passionate about transforming healthcare through the power of functional medicine, we encourage you to learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training programs. Enrollment for our next cohort is now open!
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196 Questions for “The Parasympathetic Nervous System and the Vagus Nerve: For Practitioners”
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Therese Caraway says:
Thank you so much, Tracy ?
What a helpful topic that ties together and explains the relationship between the gut and brain. My takeaways this time were enjoying (and planning to use) were all the descriptive ways you explain things. For example…describing how the body “shows up on the battlefield ” and the one that made me laugh…”the sock-puppet in your head that wont shut up”. LOL ? Plus an interesting takeaway-during a stress mediated dynamic osteoclast actuvity increases. -
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P. Collins says:
Excellent content throughout; thank you!
It’s always so startling to hear said what we already know intrinsically:
“People fall prey every day to the unhealthy default realities of our cultures…and they are by-and-large disease-promoting.” And that it takes guts to be a “healthy deviant.”
Heartfelt pearls of truth. -
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This was such a fantastic FB live! After spending 20+ years in conventional medicine, I live for this type of foundational knowledge. One of my biggest takeaways was how one of the biggest sources of stress is toxic thoughts. Helping our clients rewrite their story. Stop the reel going on in their head. Our NS doesn’t care if the stress is real or perceived; it reacts the same way. Might as well use that to our advantage and write the story we want to live. Looking forward to the breath work info! Thank you!
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Neeta Jhaveri says:
I am so proud to be a part of the SAFM family and I just love Tracy! Everytime I hear Tracy speak even if its a repeat of my lectures for my course, I learn so much more. In spite of knowing the extreme importance of the parasympathetic nervous system mode which I learnt throughout my study of Level 1 and Level 2 at SAFM, I feel blessed to instill so much today in my mind through this Live. I love the importance given to the thoughts we get and how it affects us more than anything else. I will definitely include this in my coaching with a lot of importance going forward. Tracy makes it all sound so simple so easy to apply by suggesting to put an alarm if we have to to include 5 minutes of mindful breathing. Thank you SAFM Thank you Tracy !!
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Noor Mohammed says:
It is always very inspiring to watch your videos. Trying very hard to get into any of your online courses, which I will do one day for sure. What I liked the most, the one that I felt can help is the Vagus nerve activation part which can be activated by simple breathing techniques.
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Being a RTT student and learning prior over the years how much connection between mind and body linkage is extraordinary and I’m so glad you spoke of it. Not only in my own health concerns but with my patients I have made the emotional connection to their illness or symptoms. Learning hypnotherapy has been a wonderful tool to add to the healing as sometimes people heal just by that alone. Thank you so much for sharing that connection as well especially in this so called Pandemic time when everyone’s emotions have been heightened impairing focus from healing!!
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Shyla says:
I am a physical therapist and focus on movement heals, exercise strength and mobility. So I Love Love Love the idea the we can “exercise” the vagus nerve to increase its tone and help it function better and give us a better connection. Understanding we can hum, gargle, sing as an active step to really get this going! Thank you Tracy! Such great info!
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Susan Green says:
Thank you for this wonderful and so timely webinar full of pearls. The biggest pearl for me was the full circle reminder of how important the parasympathetic nervous system and vagus nerve are for immune regulating (applying the break) the immune system. Provides so much motivation to be attentive to the parasympathetic immune system. A little pearl that I enjoyed was the bit about how animals literally “shake off” stress after a fight/flight situation. It brought to mind, and gave a new special meaning to, Qigong Shaking. Very inspirational talk!
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Diana Hardy says:
Hi Everyone, I am a physician assistant in SAFMs incubator program. I’ve been doing and studying functional medicine on the side for many years. I am currently transitioning to more of a health coaching role. My main interest is in mind-body medicine so this topic resonates. This highlights the fact that we are definitely an adrenaline addicted society. I currently live in Colorado where a lot of mid-age professionals whom have very stressful jobs and then continue to do high impact extreme sports as that is very trendy. It takes quite a bit of education to help them understand the rest and digest cycle and counter balancing they’re already stressful life with ways to Support their parasympathetic system. Great topics Tracy and reminders of the fact some stress creates a healthy response to stimulate our pathways, but there has to be that elusive balance the body requires to function optimally!
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Beth Halberstam says:
I want to add that I also appreciate you bringing out the good side of stress and expanding on that. It was very insightful and I appreciate the balanced and positive approach.
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Thank you so much Tracy for another information packed and enjoyable lesson. I have heard a lot about and am well informed on the mind body connection. Yet, the way you presented it here made me appreciate it even more. The root cause of all diseases can be boiled down to crap food, stress, and toxins. I’ve heard you say this a lot yet, I did not have the deep appreciation for its depth as now. Thank you so much for detailing the cascade so well. I will now put a stronger emphasis on intentional movement and a regular release practice. I greatly appreciate this rich insight.
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Sue says:
Now I know why I have so many pets! Lol. I was/am that person trying to get out of that sympathetic dominant mode. I liked the suggestion of singing or gargling or just going out in the fresh air. I was so stressed that I couldn’t even do the breathing exercises. Ultimately it came down to getting a different job which has helped a lot. It’s not perfect but certainly better. Just like Tracy says you have to be willing to change your circumstances. I believe getting/giving the encouragement one needs to make a huge change would be quite inspiring to a client.
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Thank you for all your great and helpful insight. I’m a pharmacist who has shifted my focus to the functional medicine space, and my particular area of interest involves the impacts of stress on physical health. So of course, this FB Live was particularly interesting for me! I was grateful that Tracy reinforced the point that we must guide and support our patients to take action in finding relief from stress, including exercises for vagus nerve activation. It goes against the cultural norm, and it is difficult! However, what was fascinating to me was the review of how, specifically, chronic stress affects the immune system response to an infection (such as COVID). The immune system is extremely effective in mounting an aggressive response, but at the same time, the vagus nerve helps to pump the brakes a bit with anti-inflammatory factors to keep the system in check. We lose this regulation when we experience chronic stress and decreased vagal tone, which causes inflammation to be rampant with debilitating effects. Thank you for this simple but eye-opening explanation!
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So many of my clients with a thyroid condition (both hypo- and hyper-thyroidism) also present with chronic high stress levels – which can be a root cause or a consequence of trying to function with a number of other troubling symptoms. Thank you for providing such good detail on this topic.
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Melaina Marion says:
I am so grateful for today’s topic. I’ve really struggled with explaining how much (long-term) stress negatively impacts our health. My ah-ha moment was when I realized that chronic stress means the body is not prioritizing healing, digestion, etc., and how living in a constant state of sympathetic dominant nervous system mode promotes things like high blood sugar and high blood pressure. Honestly, it seems so clear now! When the body is in survival mode, it’s wreaking havoc on the body and promoting massive oxidative stress.
I am excited to share this revelation with my clients AND to share more than “stress is bad, you need to lower your stress”. I’ve always felt stress management wasn’t a modality that I would teach but now I realize it must be a priority. I really understand the value of finding ways to help people with this (journaling, yoga, meditation, breathing, gratitude, a walk in nature, a dance party, singing, gargling 🙂 etc.).. I love that there are simple, free, and highly-impactful ways to address stress that EVERYONE can do! I learned so much today. Thank you, Tracy! -
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Lucy Bhalla says:
Thanks for another great informative and educational FB Live! The biggest takeaway pearls I learnt is the various ways to stimulate the Vagus Nerve such as singing, gargling and deep diaphragmatic breathing. Secondly, how our own thoughts and mindset affect our stress levels. I practice yoga for years but reluctant to practice meditation or breathing, will try to incorporate into my practice. Thanks for continuing to inspire and empower us!
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Maureen O'Hare says:
Hello – Health coach in NYC. At times I find It difficult when working with men on learning how to shift into the parasympathetic system. Breathing seems to be the easiest technique for them to embrace. I do love sharing about the vagus nerve and today was a great reminder of the other things to do like singing. Who doesn’t love to sing!
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Rena says:
I am a health coach based in Tokyo. Thank you so much for sharing this valuable session. I am at a difficult time in my life, where multiple family members are struggling with terminal or chronic illnesses. I see how the way my family members have been conditioned to live clearly impacting their physical wellness daily. Through learning about the importance of breathing and calming down, I’ve been able to help myself distance myself a little from the toxic mindset that is so prevalent in my family. And notice the consequences of it on my health also. Thank you!
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Shawna Peters says:
Thanks, Tracy! Great live as always. Sometimes it’s the most obvious things we struggle the most with, and we can’t be reminded enough or talk about it enough, that our thoughts are the greatest contributor to our stress. Even those of us who teach this regularly can find ourselves in those situations, as we make a constant conscious effort to shift our thoughts and mindset.
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Thank you so much for yet another pearl-packed FB live, Tracy! It’s humbling to know that the simple act of breathing correctly can do so much for our parasympathetic nervous system. Love the quote “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react.” – so true! Take care, Lisa xxx