I wanted to provide some more information on Vagus Nerve activation for treating Anxiety. This talk was given by Navaz Habib- (go to navazhabib,ca for more info). The vagus nerve exits the cranium at the base of the skull and innervates most organs(lung, heart, stomach, intestines for starters). The vagus nerve  establishes the gut to brain pathway. There is talk between the gut and brain and the vagus nerve is believed to be a major part of this connection.

To evaluate the vagus nerve in terms of motor nerve activity, evaluate your bowel transit time. You can pick up some white sesame seeds and add a tsp to a glass of water. Don’t chew them. Look to when you have a bowel movement after ingesting. Count the hours since you have swallowed the sesame seeds- optimal time is 12-20 hours. You have to look at your poop to do this test!

Stimulating the vagus nerve can help promote the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. This is also called the rest and digest part of the nervous system. When you are most relaxed, you can optimally digest and utilize the nutrients in your food. You feel calm about your life. This also reduces sympathetic nervous system activity which is the fight or flight aspect of health most associated with the stress response. Vagus nerve stimulation can help alleviate depression. Information flowing through the vagus nerve can promote GABA (the anti-anxiety neurotransmitter). The vagus nerve’s cholinergic aspect acetylcholine is the brakes for inflammation. So stimulation of the vagus nerve can help reduce inflammation.

In some cases, if you have a chronic cough, you are dealing with a vagus nerve issue. The vagus nerve feeds the larynx and throat. If you have a monotonous voice, you may be dealing with a vagus nerve dysfunction. Sunlight and sleep support optimal vagus nerve function. I would aim for 7-8 hours of sleep. Treating insulin resistance and supporting liver detoxification will support your vagus nerve. Come in to see me for a consult if you want to know how to do this.

There are ways in which you can start to stimulate your vagus nerve. End your shower with cold water for 30 seconds. Cold exposure has been shown to stimulate vagus nerve activity. It stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which has calming activity on your mind/body/soul.

Deep breathing is another way. Take 20 deep breaths twice daily where you have slow deep inhalations from your abdomen and a long slow exhalation through your nose. Counting out six long seconds for inhalation and six long seconds for exhalation can help. This triggers your parasympathetic nervous system which helps your whole system relax. Make time in your day and do breathing exercises twice daily. Your lungs and breathing in general is an overlooked aspect of detoxification. You are breathing out carbon dioxide which is a major waste product. 

Other ways to stimulate the vagus nerve include gargling with a little warm salt water (1/4 tsp salt plus 1/4 cup warm water which will also get rid of biofilms and mouth bacteria) for 3-5 minutes.

Singing and chanting are other wonderful ways to stimulate vagus nerve function.

Meditation helps activate the vagus nerve as well and promotes good feeling neurotransmitters. Meditation calms the brain down. It increases vagal nerve tone and helps with bi-directional communication between the gut and brain.  I recommend doing a 20 minute meditation twice daily to manage your stress levels.

Being social stimulates your vagus nerve. Get together with people that you love and hang out!

Do one positive action step I have blogged about; add it to your health care routine daily to help your overall health thrive. To book a consult, call Parallel Wellness at 4032321283. Be well! Dr. Robin Vinge, N.D.

After listening to most of the lectures from the anti-anxiety summit, I just wanted to add a few more pieces of information. I wanted to talk about spore producing bacteria as Microbiome Labs (Kiran Krishman) did a talk on these organisms. These are organisms that coat themselves with armor in the deeper intestines where they can function as a probiotic. They are able to make it through the digestive tract and colonize deep in the intestine. These are ubiquitous organisms in nature. These spore producing bacteria stimulate EC cells in the gut to produce serotonin. Bacillus coagulans spores produce serotonin which can be found in some strains which decreases depression and decreases IBS. Spore producing bacteria increase dopamine and decrease anxiety.

Foods that we bring into our body from the outside world can expose us to toxins. For instance, food that we eat can be contaminated by microbes such as campylobacter jejunum and this pathogen has been linked to anxiety and panic attacks. Medications that we take can harm our microbiome. For instance, common antibiotics (fluoroquinolones) have been linked with potentiation of side effects of benzodiazopenines. As, the gut produces 90% of your serotonin, it is important to understand that what you take in to your gut such as food or medication is influencing your state of brain health. Just having awareness of that and understanding that the state of your gut health has a major impact on brain health and neurotransmitters is key.  

In the gut microbiome, diversity is paramount to health. Spores increase the diversity of the microbiome. In 3 weeks you can start to change the diversity taking spore based probiotics. I am doing an experiment by taking Megaspore Microbiome labs probiotic which I ordered from Florida. It has the strains Bacillus indicus, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus licheniformins, and Bacillus clausii which are strains I have not taken before. It is only 4 billion C.F.U. but that is all that is needed to go in and change the diversity because spores are so strong in their action. It is recommended to start at even 1/2 capsule a day because there can be a die off reaction as these spores kill other pathogens in the gut. Die off reactions may include cramping, bloating and a rash. I have not add any side effects so I have started taking one capsule every other day with food for the first week. Spore based organisms are universal colonizers. If I have positive results after the next month of taking these spore based organisms, I may start stocking some at Parallel Wellness. They are expensive but they have extensive research backing their use. For more information on spore based probiotics and how they can influence serotonin and GABA as well as produce anti-oxidants,  go to www.microbiomelabs.com

 

I wanted to comment on my short interview done on Mind/body/radio.com on November 5, 2019. I was super happy to be a guest on their program. This opportunity came to me out of the blue so I am grateful for the exposure. I will say they sent me some preparatory questions in advance and I sent in three pages of answers. The interview did not touch on any of these questions that I had prepared for so I wanted to make some comments about the questions I was asked. I was asked the difference between seeing a naturopathic doctor vs a conventional doctor and I said that we have a more holistic approach and look at the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical cause of illness. I wanted to add more thoughts.

We can order blood work much like conventional doctors but unfortunately you will have to pay out of pocket for these tests. If I want you to have a test that you could get from your doctor, free of charge, I may send you back there to get that test. We look for root cause and can order functional medicine testing if needed for our patient; these tests look at how the body is functioning and give more clues about the body’s organs and systems. There are medical doctors that are able to order these tests too but they are functional medicine doctors and should have that in their title or on their website. We pride ourselves in educating our patients and empowering them to take care of their health. We ask a lot of questions so we understand our patients and can best choose the appropriate medicine or treatment for them, whether it be an allergy elimination diet or a particular diet that we have chosen for them based on their history, botanical medicine and the form (capsule, tea, or tincture), homeopathy (single remedy or combination remedy (Unda)) and recommendation of exercise, meditation, breathing exercise, or guided imagery depending on the particular problem. The  more I know my patient, the more I am guided to select an appropriate medicine or treatment for them. 

Other principles of naturopathic medicine, which help you understand how I work are Identify and treat the root cause which I spoke on a little on. We look at all the factors that can affect health and spend a much longer time to understand what is going on. We ask a lot of questions of our patients. I spend 90 minutes in a first visit asking these questions.

Another principle of naturopathic medicine is Do no harm. We choose therapies that are natural and noninvasive so our patients are safe. We recommend surgery as a last resort for a health problem typically and don’t want to resort to treating a particular problem with pharmaceutical drugs if it can be helped.

We believe in the healing power of nature. We believe the body has an inherent ability to heal itself given the right environment. We remove the obstacles to cure whether it be too much stress or toxins in the environment, emotional stress coming from relationship difficulties, or any other source of ill health that we can identify. The body is striving to maintain a state of homeostasis. We support that homeostasis so the body can heal itself. We don’t just treat symptoms. We treat the cause.

We look to the healing power of nature in the food that we ingest, the healing plants that grow on the planet that have medicine for our bodies, we utilize sunlight and Vitamin D to support our health. We use medicines derived from plants, animals, and minerals (homeopathy) to treat disease. All of these medicines are gentle and non-invasive. If we choose organic medicine, these inherently work better and support our physiology more appropriately with fewer side effects. 

Naturopathic doctors  believe in preventing disease and we educate our patients in essential foundations of health whether it be right diet, exercise, stress management and lifestyle practices that support optimal health. Prevention is much easier than treating a well rooted disease that is already established in the body.  

Make sure if you are going to see a naturopathic doctor, that they are registered. If they are registered, then they graduated from an accredited school for naturopathic medicine (at least four years of schooling after completing a Bachelor of Science degree first). That means the particular Doctor has passed board examinations (after our schooling finished), in order to prove we are competent to practice. Then, every year, we have to go through a renewal process for our association. This means we have to list all the courses that we took for continuing education credits during that year. we also have to assess ourselves in many different areas to maintain competency and have a learning plan for each year in place to be documented and completed during the year. I have been selected twice for an evaluation by our regulatory college to ensure I am practicing up to standard (and I have passed twice!). Our regulatory body in Alberta is the College of Naturopathic Doctors of Alberta. Our national body is the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors.  I wanted to make that clear to anybody that is looking for a registered naturopathic doctor that this is the college that regulates us.

You can go to my website www.robinvinge.com to read about how I practice to understand how my practice might be different from another naturopathic doctor that is more “test heavy” in their approach. I have a more counseling based practice. I do offer testing though and have the Dutch Hormone test in stock which is a great way to measure hormones and their metabolites especially estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, adrenal hormones such as cortisol and DHEA, melatonin and can evaluate indirectly neurotransmitters and B vitamin levels from four simple urine strips. If you have any more questions about how I practice, please email me at health@parallelwellness.com attention: Robin in the meantime!