Did you know that there’s a nerve in your body that could be the key to reducing hot flashes, better sleep, and balancing your hormones? God designed your body with this incredible built-in-healing system.
What is this nerve? It’s your Vagus Nerve.
The Vagus nerve can naturally help you feel better. If you’re in perimenopause and menopause and feeling overwhelmed by stress, fatigue, mood swings, or even weight issues, stay with me! This could be a game-changer for you!
We’ve been talking about hormones during perimenopause and menopause the past few weeks and what things can adversely affect your symptoms making them worse and what are some things that will help so today we will continue but with something you may not have heard about the Vagus Nerve previously.
What is the Vagus Nerve?
- The Vagus Nerve is the main pathway between the brain and gut. It controls relaxation, digestion, and hormone balance. There actually are two branches: one on right and one on left side of your body. Vagus is Latin for “wanderer.” And this is appropriate for this long tenth cranial nerve which travels a long and winding path from your brain (medulla oblongata in the lower brainstem) through the neck, larynx, esophagus, chest, heart, lungs, and abdomen into your stomach and intestines.
- When the Vagus Nerve is weak or dysregulated, it can worsen hot flashes, anxiety, sleep issues, and digestive problems.
- Cortisol, estrogen, and progesterone are all influenced by Vagus Nerve activity.
- The Vagus Nerve carries signals between your brain, heart, and digestive system and are a key part of your parasympathetic nervous system. – we’ve talked about this before.
- The parasympathetic nervous system and sympathetic nervous system are part of your autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic helps with fight or when a bear or burglar is attacking you, it helps your body functions speed up – heart rate, breathing, and turns off digestion so you can run from the emergency. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for calmness, peace, slowing down your heart rate and breathing, and making it possible for good digestion to occur in a relaxed manner.
- The Vagus nerve actually contains 75% of your parasympathetic nervous system nerve fibers so you can see how important they are for you to remain calm and peaceful – not overwhelmed or stressed.
What are Signs of Problems with Your Vagus Nerve?
Chronic stress, increased stress, and difficulty calming down after stressful event can lead to lower vagal tone. How? It keeps your body in fight or flight mode by weakening the vagus nerve function and reducing its ability to activate your PNS – the system responsible for rest, digestion, and hormonal balance. So over time leads to higher cortisol levels, increased inflammation, and poor digestion – all this disrupts estrogen, progesterone, and thyroid function, making your perimenopause and menopause symptoms worse.
And also increases susceptibility to infections and diseases and problems like:
*Abdominal pain and bloating
Acid reflux – GERD
*Heart rate, blood pressure, or blood sugar issues
*Problems swallowing
*Dizziness
*Hoarseness
*Nausea and vomiting
*Loss of appetite
So the good news is there are some things you can do including Vagal Nerve training.
How Does Vagal Nerve Training Support Hormones
- Helps lower stress and balance cortisol → reduces hot flashes, mood swings, and weight gain. Remember we’ve talked about the hormone cortisol a couple of weeks ago and how during perimenopause and menopause it can be out of balance where your cortisol is high most of the time which causes issues.
- Supports better digestion → crucial for processing hormones like estrogen. We talked about it last week – if you have slow motility already, then you have a slower digestion which means excess estrogen has a hard time being eliminated and can recirculate causing estrogen dominance.
- Improves sleep and relaxation → key for progesterone and melatonin production.
- Helps regulate inflammation → reducing aches, pains, and brain fog.
What are some things you can do to help? Here are…
Six Simple Techniques to Strengthen Your Vagus Nerve
✅ Deep Belly Breathing – Inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 8 to activate relaxation. Or easiest to remember is 5,5,5 technique
✅ Humming or Singing – Stimulates the Vagus nerve directly. Hum or sing in the shower or when cooking or driving.
✅ Cold Exposure – Splashing cold water on your face or ending showers with cold water.
✅ Gargling – Works the muscles connected to the Vagus nerve. I recommend warm salt water as well.
✅ Meditation – calms mind and focuses on important things; I recommend meditating on scripture, positive affirmations, playing calm or happy music, watching calm or peaceful movies or reading happy books if going through a really stressful time
✅ Gentle Neck Massage – Helps improve vagal tone and blood flow.
So try one of these easy techniques daily. I can do a free consultation for deeper support. This is something I work on with clients in my health coaching program as well. So reach out to me if you’d like to talk.
Remember: Your body was designed to heal—you do have control over small shifts so you can create powerful changes!
Do you need extra support and guidance to help decrease your hormonal symptoms? If so, reach out to me. I’m a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach and have experienced fatigue, brain fog, weight issues, night sweats, hot flashes, and poor sleep. But I’ve been able to help myself and clients as well using nutrition and lifestyle modifications to increase energy, think clearer, decrease bloating, and fit into my favorite jeans again. I’d love to help you, too. Click here to schedule a free 20-minute consult.
*Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes and is not intended to be used as medical advice. Check with your own medical practitioner before implementing any nutritional or lifestyle modifications.
