The vagus nerve is an integral part of your autonomic nervous system which controls the things your body does without your conscious input, such as breathing, digesting, and sweating. Specifically, it is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms your body after you've been in a stressful situation. When we are stressed, our body goes into survival mode, increasing heart rate, blood pressure, cortisol, adrenalin to help us escape whatever danger we are facing. But for many of us, our stressful daily lives leave us trapped in this mode, wreaking havoc on digestion, sleep, hormones, mood and overall health – leading to chronic states of disease, anxiety and depression. Thus, stimulating the Vagus nerve has been shown to help improve these conditions as well as decreasing inflammation and lowering blood sugar.

Different techniques used include:

• diaphragmatic breathing techniques
• cold water immersion
• biofeedback
• Yoga and meditation
• The Vielight Vagus device enables non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) via photobiomodulation (PBM). This device was engineered to enhance brain-body connectivity via the vagus nerve.