Most Women Never Make This Connection with Cynthia Thurlow

There's a very important nerve called the vagus nerve, and it's the longest nerve in the body. It innervates from the brainstem all the way through the digestive system, and actually the bulk of information from the vagus nerve goes from the gut to the brain. So when you talk about neurologic symptoms that people are experiencing, more often than not, it is inflammation that is derived from the gut through the afferent receptors are going up to the brain. And so I think a lot of patients are surprised to know that, you know, those gut feelings, you know, people will actually say, I feel like my gut is telling me something. That's a powerful connection to make. But the vagus nerve is very important for a number of reasons. It's a relay communication system between the gut and the brain, gut-brain axis, but also one of the key regulators of putting us into the parasympathetic, the rest and repose side of our bodies. In our modern-day lifestyles that are incredibly busy and harried, our body can't differentiate being chased by a rabid animal from the traffic that we're dealing with, the stress of, you know, getting from home to try to meet our children on the bus, to getting food on the table, to getting kids to activities, just the demands of day-to-day life. The vagus nerve is a really important potent way of reminding us that we need to slow down. So things like gargling, humming, singing can be very, very potent for stimulating that nerve and slowing things down. Breathwork, meditation. I think for a lot of people, they never make that connection.