https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/learn daily 0.75 2026-07-07 https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/learn/the-gut-brain-connection monthly 0.5 2026-07-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/f4ac5496-e96f-4160-9998-d501c87aa7f1/dr-lienna-wilson-gut-brain-connection.jpg Learn - The Gut-Brain Connection: How the Vagus Nerve Connects Digestion, Mood, and Health - Think about the last time you were nervous before something important. Maybe a presentation, a difficult conversation, a medical appointment. You probably felt it in your stomach first: that hollow, fluttery sensation that arrives before your conscious mind has fully registered the threat. Or think about grief, how it can take away your appetite entirely, or anxiety that makes you feel genuinely sick to your stomach. We call these things "gut feelings" as though they're metaphors. They're not. There is a literal, physical communication system running between your gut and your brain, and the main cable carrying those signals is the vagus nerve. Understanding how this system works doesn't just satisfy curiosity. It changes how you interpret your own body, and it opens up real, evidence-based ways to support both your mental and digestive health at the same time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/6f2973c9-8e07-4fa2-a2c6-4635240ada2a/gut-brain-communication-vagus-nerve-diagram.png Learn - The Gut-Brain Connection: How the Vagus Nerve Connects Digestion, Mood, and Health - The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in the body. It originates in the brainstem and travels downward through the neck, chest, and abdomen, branching extensively to reach the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, and the entire gastrointestinal tract. Its name comes from the Latin word for "wandering," which is apt. No other nerve in the body covers this much territory. What most people don't realize is the direction of traffic on this highway. It is commonly assumed that the vagus nerve is primarily a top-down system: the brain sends signals to the organs and they respond accordingly. In reality, the research suggests the opposite is more accurate. Approximately 80 to 90 percent of the nerve fibers in the vagus nerve are afferent, meaning they carry signals upward, from the gut and other organs to the brain, not the other way around (Bonaz et al., 2018). The gut is not passively receiving instructions. It is actively reporting to the brain, continuously, with information about the internal environment of the body. This has profound implications for how we think about mood, anxiety, and mental health. The brain's perception of how we feel, whether safe or threatened, calm or anxious, well or unwell, is shaped in large part by what the gut is telling it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/40dc381f-b204-461a-b024-57a88448cdc6/fermented-foods-fiber-gut-microbiome-diversity.png Learn - The Gut-Brain Connection: How the Vagus Nerve Connects Digestion, Mood, and Health - Because the vagus nerve is the primary communication line between gut and brain, practices that strengthen vagal tone improve the entire system. Vagal tone responds to consistent, lifestyle-level inputs. The most well-researched include slow diaphragmatic breathing, cold water exposure, humming or chanting, regular meditation, time in natural environments, and targeted devices that deliver vibration to accessible branches of the vagus nerve. The gut side of the equation matters too. A diverse microbiome, one with a wide variety of bacterial species, generates a richer stream of the signaling compounds described above. The research consistently points to a few inputs that support microbial diversity: a diet high in varied plant foods and fiber, fermented foods such as yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut when well-tolerated, and limiting antibiotic use to situations where it is genuinely necessary (Cryan et al., 2019). Stress management belongs on this list as well. Chronic psychological stress measurably alters the composition of the gut microbiome, which is one more reason the feedback loop between the brain and the gut runs in both directions (Cryan et al., 2019). For a detailed breakdown of each method, including practical protocols and what the research actually shows, see How to Activate Your Vagus Nerve: A Science-Backed Guide to Every Method. https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/learn/how-to-activate-your-vagus-nerve monthly 0.5 2026-07-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/dc55379b-21dc-4c08-8d95-46604b6c6b40/standing-yoga-balance-pose-outdoors.jpg Learn - How to Activate Your Vagus Nerve: A Science-Backed Guide to Every Method - If you have read about the vagus nerve for more than five minutes, you have probably come across a list of things that activate it: breathwork, cold plunges, humming, meditation, forest bathing. The list sounds plausible, maybe even appealing. But it can also feel a little scattered, a collection of wellness recommendations without much explanation of what ties them together or how to actually use them. This article is the answer to that. It covers every major method that has genuine research behind it, explains the mechanism for each one (why it works, not just that it works), and gives you enough practical detail to start using it. It pulls from the science introduced in both What Is the Vagus Nerve? A Plain-Language Introduction and The Gut-Brain Connection: How the Vagus Nerve Connects Digestion, Mood, and Health, where each of these methods is introduced briefly. Consider this the full deep dive. One thing worth saying at the outset: these are not separate tools for separate problems. They are all inputs into the same system. The vagus nerve responds to consistent, repeated signals. The more often you give it the right kind of input, the better your baseline vagal tone becomes, and the more resilient your nervous system grows over time. https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/learn/what-is-the-vagus-nerve-introduction monthly 0.5 2026-07-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/cf1ed76f-2e1b-4638-a0fd-213dfc159842/vagus-nerve-illustration-woman-seated.jpg Learn - What Is the Vagus Nerve? A Plain-Language Introduction - You have probably heard the phrase “listen to your gut.” It turns out that is not just a metaphor. Your gut and brain are in constant two-way conversation, and the primary cable running between them is a single nerve called the vagus nerve. It also connects to your heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and immune system. When this system is working well, you tend to feel calmer, more resilient, and better able to recover from life's challenges. When it is not functioning optimally, the effects can show up in many different ways, including digestive issues, sleep problems, chronic stress, anxiety, and difficulty bouncing back from illness. As a psychologist, I became interested in the vagus nerve because it sits at the intersection of physical and mental health. Many symptoms that appear psychological also have a physiological component. Anxiety affects digestion. Chronic stress affects sleep. Inflammation can influence mood. The vagus nerve helps connect these systems. Understanding how this nerve works gives you a practical framework for understanding your health and a clearer picture of why practices such as breathwork, meditation, exercise, and certain medical devices can have meaningful effects on wellbeing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/8a117695-723a-4d9f-804e-d4bbe021fd09/vagus-nerve-anatomy-body-diagram.png Learn - What Is the Vagus Nerve? A Plain-Language Introduction - Here are the major systems that the vagus nerve influences: Heart: The vagus nerve slows the heart rate and helps regulate blood pressure. Its influence on heart rate variability (HRV) is one of the clearest windows into vagal health (Kok et al., 2013; Lehrer & Gevirtz, 2014). Lungs: Slow, diaphragmatic breathing activates the vagus nerve, which is why deliberate breathwork is one of the most effective tools for shifting into a calmer state (Lehrer & Gevirtz, 2014). Gut: The vagus nerve is the primary channel through which the gut and brain communicate. It governs the muscle contractions that move food through your stomach, digestive enzyme secretion, and gut lining health. This connection is explored in depth in The Gut-Brain Connection: How the Vagus Nerve Connects Digestion, Mood, and Health. Immune system: The vagus nerve plays a direct role in regulating inflammation through a circuit sometimes called the inflammatory reflex (Tracey, 2002). Mood and memory: The vagus nerve is used clinically as a treatment for treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. It also appears to play a role in memory consolidation (Tracey, 2002; Cryan et al., 2019). https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/reviews daily 0.75 2026-07-05 https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/reviews/a-psychologist-reviews-the-apollo-neuro monthly 0.5 2026-07-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/1782515780837-SKLZYKJYLQOCP76LE4N5/dr-lienna-wilson-apollo-neuro-wrist.jpg Product Reviews - A Psychologist Specializing in Anxiety Reviews the Apollo Neuro - The Apollo Neuro is a small wearable device that delivers gentle vibration patterns to the skin. It looks like a fitness tracker and can be worn on the wrist or ankle, or clipped to your clothing near your chest, collar, spine, or hip. I find the ankle the most comfortable option for extended wear, though I have not tried the clip. The mechanism behind it is called vibroacoustic stimulation. Low-frequency vibration is delivered through the skin to nerve receptors, which carry the signal toward the brain along pathways that connect to the vagus nerve's network. This is thought to produce a measurable shift in the nervous system's overall activity level, similar in principle to how slow breathing or cold water exposure influences the nervous system, but delivered passively through the skin rather than requiring any active practice. What makes the Apollo Neuro unusual among consumer devices is that this mechanism has been studied in multiple peer-reviewed clinical trials. See The Science: What the Research Actually Shows below for a full review of the evidence. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/eb6031ff-f7e1-4f44-8898-e769bd973be4/apollo-neuro-recover-sleep-energy-chill.jpg Product Reviews - A Psychologist Specializing in Anxiety Reviews the Apollo Neuro - Based on my experience and the research, I think the Apollo Neuro is a particularly good fit for a few types of people. It is well-suited for people who struggle to maintain active relaxation practices consistently. Breathwork and meditation are more effective than any wearable device, but they require motivation and practice. The Apollo Neuro requires neither. It is a strong option for people dealing with sleep difficulties. The Sleep vibe, used as part of a consistent evening routine, is where the device performs best in both research and personal experience. It may be less useful for people looking for an energy boost or cognitive performance enhancement. My personal experience with the Energy vibe was underwhelming, though the published research does show some cognitive benefits under stress. It is also not a substitute for working with a mental health professional if you are dealing with significant anxiety, trauma, or mood difficulties. It is a wellness tool, not a clinical intervention. If you are looking for a device designed specifically for acute anxiety or panic rather than background nervous system support, the CalmiGo may be a better fit, which works through a different mechanism and is designed for active use during anxiety or panic attacks. https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/reviews/calmigo-review monthly 0.5 2026-07-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/27cc5b45-9fb6-4e2d-8933-b22b3bf78440/dr-lienna-wilson-using-calmigo-device.png Product Reviews - CalmiGo Review: A Psychologist Specializing in Anxiety Reviews a Breathing Device for Panic Attacks - I want to be straightforward about the limits of my personal experience with this device: I do not suffer from panic attacks. My relationship with anxiety is more diffuse, the kind of low-grade overactivation that comes with a demanding professional life and a nervous system that tends to run a little fast. I cannot tell you from personal experience how CalmiGo performs in the acute, high-intensity scenario it was primarily designed for. What I can tell you is how it performed as a general breathing support tool. In those contexts, having an external guide, something that paces the exhale for me without requiring me to count or focus, was useful. Three minutes is a short enough commitment that I actually did it. The scent was effective. I used lavender, and found the scent grounding in an uncomplicated way. It is hard to attribute precisely how much the scent contributed versus the breathing versus simply pausing for three minutes, but the multi-sensory package felt coherent. What I cannot personally evaluate is whether it would hold up in a high-intensity panic state, where the cognitive and physiological demands are much greater. Based on how panic attacks work, I believe the device’s design is well-suited for that scenario: the external pacing removes the cognitive load of self-directing the breath, the grounding elements give the body something physical to anchor to, and three minutes is short enough to sustain even when distressed. But that is clinical reasoning, not first-hand experience, and I want to be clear about the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/88bc514e-e231-4627-8cce-7d2f3e8687d8/calmigo-app-and-device-anxiety-chart.jpg Product Reviews - CalmiGo Review: A Psychologist Specializing in Anxiety Reviews a Breathing Device for Panic Attacks - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/reviews/hoolest-verelief-prime-review monthly 0.5 2026-07-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/1782439334577-1L3UU7LTFSQXICQ5JPLA/hoolest-verelief-prime-neck-placement.png Product Reviews - Hoolest VeRelief Prime Review: An Assessment From a Psychologist Who Returned It - The VeRelief Prime is a handheld electrical vagus nerve stimulator. It is a small device that you hold against the side of your neck during each session. Unlike the Apollo Neuro, which delivers gentle vibration passively through a wearable band, the VeRelief Prime uses mild electrical current through gel-tipped electrodes that press directly against the skin over the vagus nerve. The core idea is straightforward: the vagus nerve runs along the side of your neck, and placing a mild electrical current near it sends a signal up to the brain that nudges the nervous system toward a calmer state. This is a more direct approach than vibration-based devices, which work through a chain of sensory signals. Because the electrical signal reaches the nerve more immediately, the device's published research shows effects within ten minutes. The device offers five modes: Worry, Sleep, Stress, Focus, and Panic. Each uses a different stimulation frequency. Worry uses 8Hz for calming racing thoughts; Sleep uses 25Hz; Stress, Focus, and Panic use 100Hz for more immediate intervention. Hoolest recommends five minutes on each side of the neck per session, for ten minutes total. https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/expert-interviews daily 0.75 2026-09-13 https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/expert-interviews/tom-ingegno-acupuncture-vagus-nerve monthly 0.5 2026-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/c582dcc4-4b53-4235-83f7-8e0db22449e1/Tom_Ingegno.jpeg Expert Interviews - A Doctor of Chinese Medicine on Acupuncture, Qi, and the Vagus Nerve - Acupuncture has been treating the nervous system for thousands of years, long before anyone knew what the vagus nerve was. I asked Dr. Tom Ingegno, DACM, MSOM, LAc, founder of Charm City Integrative Health in Baltimore, to help translate between two very different maps of the body: the channel and Qi theory that acupuncturists have relied on for millennia, and the modern physiology that is starting to explain some of what that theory was describing all along. He makes a case against reducing acupuncture, or nervous system regulation in general, to a single mechanism, a single point, or a single hack. Dr. Tom has more than 25 years of clinical experience in East Asian Medicine and has practiced Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and meditation for over 30 years. He is the author of The Cupping Book and You Got Sick, Now What?, has been featured as an expert in outlets including WebMD, Forbes, USA Today, and The Daily Beast, and regularly lectures on East Asian Medicine and integrative health, including presentations for military healthcare professionals through Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. You can learn more about his practice at www.charmcityintegrative.com. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/218d56e7-9767-4c1a-804a-624d91537791/dr-lienna-wilson-tai-chi-practice.jpg Expert Interviews - A Doctor of Chinese Medicine on Acupuncture, Qi, and the Vagus Nerve - When it comes to practices people can try on their own, Dr. Tom reaches for a concept called Yang Sheng, usually translated as “nourishing life.” “The basic idea is incredibly simple: what you do every day matters. How you sleep, eat, move, breathe, work, rest, and interact with the world around you all have an effect on your health.” He is wary, though, of how self-care has been marketed. “At some point, we have to acknowledge that you can’t self-care your way out of burnout,” he says. Piling a “5 a.m. meditation, cold plunge, elaborate supplement routine, and three more things you’re supposed to accomplish before breakfast” onto an already overworked, underslept, overstimulated life “may actually be missing the point.” He is similarly skeptical of what he calls “Chinamaxxing,” a trend he sees online that reduces Chinese medicine and culture to a checklist of wellness hacks. “Drink this tea. Scrape your tongue. Do Qi Gong. Eat congee. Use a gua sha tool. Go to acupuncture. Any of those things might be perfectly healthy, but checking enough Chinese wellness practices off a list isn’t how we maintain balance.” Yang Sheng, as Dr. Tom describes it, is closer to the opposite instinct: “paying attention to what your body and your life actually need and trying not to live continually at either extreme.” His suggestions for getting started are deliberately small. “Take a few slow breaths before you get out of your car. Go outside and walk for ten minutes. Put your phone down while you eat. Stretch when you’ve been sitting too long. Spend a few minutes doing something you actually enjoy without trying to make it productive.” Even his own practices, he says, don’t need to become another obligation: “A few minutes of slow, intentional movement or quiet breathing that you actually do every day is more useful than an elaborate practice you do twice and abandon.” https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/expert-interviews/dr-rita-gupta-neuroplastic-pain-vagus-nerve monthly 0.5 2026-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/65b3b3a2-66ab-4a46-8599-8f0511adb13d/dr-rita-gupta-family-medicine-neuroplastic-pain.jpg Expert Interviews - What a Family Medicine Physician Wants You to Know About Neuroplastic Pain and the Vagus Nerve - Chronic pain, fatigue, and digestive symptoms are often assumed to mean something is structurally wrong. But a growing body of clinical work shows that the nervous system itself can learn to produce and sustain real physical symptoms, even after tests come back clear. Understanding that process, and the vagus nerve's role in helping the body come out of it, can open up a path forward when a standard workup reaches a dead end. To learn more about this topic, I reached out to Dr. Rita Gupta, a family medicine physician board-certified in both Family Medicine and Integrative Medicine. She completed her residency at Mayo Clinic and a fellowship through the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, and she now has advanced-level training in Pain Reprocessing Therapy and Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy. Her own history with persistent pain shaped much of how she now helps patients understand the relationship between the nervous system and their symptoms, so I asked her to walk through how she explains that connection, what treatment actually looks like, and where the vagus nerve fits in. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/4bdfcff6-bb0d-4c04-ac45-3268615df599/dr-lienna-wilson-nervous-system-grounding-nature.jpg Expert Interviews - What a Family Medicine Physician Wants You to Know About Neuroplastic Pain and the Vagus Nerve - Dr. Gupta starts by reframing the goal itself. "I am less interested in teaching people the perfect tools to regulate their nervous system, and more interested in helping them build the capacity to notice what is happening and respond with greater flexibility." Timing and individual fit matter as much as the technique itself. "We don't want to use the tools with urgency or pressure. Otherwise, nervous system regulation can become another source of pressure. Did I breathe enough? Did I meditate correctly? Why am I still activated? Why am I still symptomatic? Sometimes healing becomes another place where we feel like we have to get an A." Her favorite starting point is what she calls micropractices, small enough to fit into an ordinary moment. "One is simply pausing and noticing what is happening right now. Am I rushing? Am I bracing? Are my hands clenched? Am I monitoring my body? Am I putting pressure on myself?" She points to the STOP practice used in mindful compassion training as one simple version of this. Breath and grounding are next, but only when they feel natural rather than forced. "I might invite someone to notice their breath, or let the exhale soften slightly." For people who find it hard to turn attention inward right away, she often suggests starting outside the body instead. https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/expert-interviews/dr-hopen-nervous-system-regulation monthly 0.5 2026-09-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/1feda0dc-4bee-4cd2-be11-caafc4203da5/carina-hopen-md-headshot.jpg Expert Interviews - What a Lifestyle Medicine Physician Wants You to Know About Nervous System Regulation - Carina Hopen, MD, MS, has spent her career looking past isolated symptoms and toward the daily patterns that shape how a person's nervous system actually functions. A functional and lifestyle medicine physician and former Naval flight surgeon with additional training in medical acupuncture, she founded Inspired Wellness, PLLC and the North Whidbey Center for Wellbeing on Whidbey Island, Washington. Her perspective is a useful corrective for anyone who has come to think of the vagus nerve as a switch to flip. For Dr. Hopen, regulation is not a technique. It is the accumulated result of how someone sleeps, eats, moves, connects, and rests, day after day. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/db95d5ed-2de7-4851-bedd-84d2c440b499/mindfulness-in-nature-streambed-pose.jpg Expert Interviews - What a Lifestyle Medicine Physician Wants You to Know About Nervous System Regulation - For patients who bristle at the idea of meditation, Dr. Hopen's answer is direct. "I tell them they do not have to sit still. Meditation is one form of mindfulness, but it is not the only one," she says. "Walking can be a mindfulness practice. So can gardening, stretching, painting, knitting, cooking, drinking tea, singing, humming, or simply noticing the feeling of your feet against the ground." Sometimes, she notes, "movement needs to happen before stillness. They may need to walk, shake out their arms, stretch, or push against a wall before their body is ready for a quieter practice." She also relies on simple sensory anchors. "Look around and notice what you see. Listen for the farthest sound you can hear. Feel the chair or ground supporting you," she says. "These practices help bring attention back into the present without requiring someone to sit silently with their eyes closed." For a patient who becomes more frustrated when asked to meditate, she sometimes turns again to Alpha-Stim in the clinic. "It allows the person to receive a calming input without needing to concentrate, control their thoughts, or feel as though they have to 'do meditation correctly,'" she says. "They can simply sit comfortably, listen to music, or rest during the session. Sometimes a person needs to experience what 'settled' feels like before they can learn how to find their way back there." Her guiding principle: "The best practice is the one someone will actually do and does not dread." https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/expert-interviews/benson-lewis-hormones-nervous-system monthly 0.5 2026-09-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/a8b05346-9048-468e-b706-82857c4d85d0/dr-jessica-benson-dr-morgan-lewis-sunstone-psychiatry.png Expert Interviews - Two Reproductive Psychiatrists on Hormones and Your Nervous System - If you have ever been told that your anxiety, sadness, or mood swings during a hormonal transition are “just hormones,” this interview is for you. I asked Jessica Benson, MD, and Morgan Lewis, DO, the reproductive psychiatrists behind Sunstone Psychiatry for Women, to explain what is actually happening in the brain during the hormonal shifts, such as the postpartum period and perimenopause, and why the real story has less to do with how much hormone is in your blood than with how sensitive your particular nervous system is to hormones changing. Drs. Benson and Lewis met while working together at Main Line Health’s Women’s Emotional Wellness Center in Pennsylvania and went on to establish Sunstone Psychiatry for Women, a virtual practice supporting women through pregnancy, postpartum recovery, perimenopause, and other life transitions. You can learn more about their practice at sunstonepsychiatryforwomen.com. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/db95d5ed-2de7-4851-bedd-84d2c440b499/lienna-wilson-psyd-meditation-creek.jpg Expert Interviews - Two Reproductive Psychiatrists on Hormones and Your Nervous System - For day-to-day regulation, Drs. Benson and Lewis recommend a short list of practices with solid research behind them. Slow, paced breathing with a longer exhale than inhale, for example, in for four counts and out for six, “activates the body’s calming system and can ease anxiety” (Bae et al., 2021). Mindfulness-based stress reduction, combining meditation and gentle yoga over several weeks, “can help prevent low mood and build resilience during the menopause transition,” especially for those at higher risk (Gordon et al., 2021). And cognitive behavioral therapy is, in their words, “a recommended treatment for PMDD and for mood and sleep problems in menopause,” teaching practical skills for managing stress, worry, and negative thought patterns (Hunter, 2021; Weise et al., 2019). Across pregnancy, the postpartum period, and perimenopause, Drs. Benson and Lewis return again and again to the same reassurance: what you are feeling is real, it has a biological basis, and it is not a character flaw. “Feeling different during the postpartum period or perimenopause is not ‘all in your head,’” they say, “it reflects a real interaction between shifting hormones and a brain that is sensitive to those shifts.” The path forward is not to wait it out, but to notice the pattern, name it, and get support, whether that is a lifestyle adjustment, therapy, medication, or, most often, some combination of all three. https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/expert-interviews/dr-selhub-nervous-system-regulation monthly 0.5 2026-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/aad3c195-d339-4d1a-bf07-dc9e8063040d/eva-selhub-md-stress-resilience-researcher.png Expert Interviews - What a Physician and Resilience and Healthcare Innovator Shares About Nervous System Regulation - Eva Selhub, MD, has spent nearly three decades studying how stress physiology, neuroscience, and relationships shape human health and performance. As a physician, an executive advisor, and a resilience expert, her perspective is a useful counterweight to some of the more reductive claims circulating about the vagus nerve. For Dr. Selhub, regulation is never about one nerve or one hack, but about the flexibility of an entire interconnected system. “To me, nervous-system regulation is the capacity to move flexibly among different physiological states in response to what life requires, and then recover when the challenge has passed,” Dr. Selhub says. “It does not mean remaining calm all the time. We need activation to focus, perform, protect ourselves, and take action. Regulation allows us to mobilize without becoming stuck in overdrive, and to rest without collapsing or shutting down.” She also describes the nervous system as fundamentally trainable. “The nervous system is adaptive and trainable,” she explains. “Through repeated practices and experiences, we can expand our capacity to tolerate stress, recover more efficiently, and regain access to clear thinking, connection, and choice. The vagus nerve is an important part of that process, but regulation reflects the coordination of the entire system, not one nerve or pathway.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/b7668b1f-99bd-4677-b44e-1d047c4451f7/dr-lienna-wilson-psyd-seated-outdoor-breathing-practice.png Expert Interviews - What a Physician and Resilience and Healthcare Innovator Shares About Nervous System Regulation - “I would not begin by telling them to slow down,” Dr. Selhub says of people who feel they cannot ease up. “I would ask them to build brief moments of regulation into the life they already have.” Her go-to version is simple enough to fit between tasks. “One accessible practice is to pause between activities and take several slow breaths, allowing the exhalation to be slightly longer than the inhalation without straining. At the same time, notice the support of the chair or floor, soften unnecessary muscular tension, and orient to something in the environment that feels pleasant or steady.” Slow-paced breathing is central to heart-rate-variability biofeedback and can influence vagally mediated cardiovascular regulation, although its effects depend on breathing rate and individual physiology—not simply on making the exhalation longer (Lehrer & Gevirtz, 2014). She is careful not to oversell it. “The point is not that one breathing exercise will undo chronic stress,” she says. “It is that repeated moments of recovery teach the system that it does not have to carry the activation from one experience directly into the next. Over time, those small transitions can increase awareness, interrupt accumulated tension, and strengthen the capacity to shift states.” https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/expert-interviews/katie-davis-gut-brain-vagus-nerve monthly 0.5 2026-08-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/28ff952c-fed5-4019-b815-c2ed4af5e23d/katie-davis-lcsw-gut-brain-therapist.jpg Expert Interviews - What a Gut Disorders Therapist Wants You to Know About the Vagus Nerve - Most people don't connect a stomachache to their nervous system. Unfortunately, people with gut disorders, like irritable bowel syndrome or functional dyspepsia, experience that connection every day. That is because the gut and the brain are in constant communication through the vagus nerve, which carries signals in both directions. To learn more about this topic, I had the pleasure of interviewing Katie Davis, LCSW, a therapist at GI Psychology, who is trained in evidence-based gut-brain therapies. She works with adults and adolescents living with gut disorders (also called disorders of gut-brain interaction or DGBI), structural GI disorders, such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), and chronic pain. Katie's clinical work sits at the intersection of the gut and the nervous system, so I asked her to walk through how she explains this connection to clients, where the vagus nerve fits in, and what she recommends people try first. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/f4ac5496-e96f-4160-9998-d501c87aa7f1/dr-lienna-wilson-diaphragmatic-breathing-demonstration.jpg Expert Interviews - What a Gut Disorders Therapist Wants You to Know About the Vagus Nerve - If you want to start supporting your own gut-brain connection today, Katie recommends diaphragmatic breathing as a simple, evidence-informed place to begin: Put one hand on your chest and one on your abdomen. As you breathe, the abdomen should move, expanding on the inhale and contracting on the exhale, while the chest stays relatively still. Inhale into your abdomen for a count of 4. Hold for 4 counts if that feels comfortable (this part is optional). Exhale for a count of 6. “It's important that the exhale is longer than the inhale,” Katie says, “as the body relaxes even more deeply on the exhale.” Repeat for 5 to 15 minutes. If you've been struggling with a gut disorder, there is hope. Treatment doesn't have to come from a medical perspective alone. As Katie's work shows, psychological tools, including gut-directed hypnotherapy, CBT for GI, and diaphragmatic breathing, can also meaningfully support the gut-brain connection. https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/expert-interviews/dr-odonnell-vagus-nerve-mental-health monthly 0.5 2026-08-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/88f8f717-c466-442a-82c9-a2047d9ba59c/dr-amy-odonnell-md-integrative-psychiatrist.jpg Expert Interviews - An Integrative Psychiatrist on the Connection Between the Vagus Nerve and Mental Health - Many people think of psychiatry as the modality that just prescribes medication. But integrative psychiatry takes a more holistic view, looking closely at the mind-body connection and the ways the nervous system can be supported naturally, alongside medication when it is needed. Nervous system regulation, in this framing, is something closer to a foundation than a single calming technique. To learn more about how that foundation is used in daily clinical work, I reached out to Dr. Amy O'Donnell, an integrative psychiatrist whose practice focuses on anxiety, depression, burnout, and trauma, women's mental health, and the often overlooked work of helping patients safely come off psychiatric medication. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/6cb01a0b-ba48-41b2-af6d-e4e97116f0e5/woman-splashing-cold-water-face-dive-reflex.png Expert Interviews - An Integrative Psychiatrist on the Connection Between the Vagus Nerve and Mental Health - The mammalian dive reflex is a built-in survival response that humans share with other mammals. When cold water touches the face, particularly around the eyes, cheeks, and forehead, the vagus nerve slows the heart rate in response. “This can be a helpful tool in the middle of a panic or anxiety attack,” Dr. O'Donnell says, “where you feel your heart racing, and it's hard to ground yourself and find calm in the moment.” Research on the diving response backs up its usefulness here: it has been shown to help reduce panic symptoms specifically (Kyriakoulis et al., 2021). Diaphragmatic breathing, sometimes called belly breathing, is the other technique she frequently suggests. When anxiety sets in, breathing tends to become quick and shallow from the chest, which itself signals danger to the brain. Slowing the breath and breathing deeply into the diaphragm, felt as the belly expanding on the inhale, is thought to send the opposite message through the vagus nerve: that the body is safe. “Slowing and deepening the diaphragmatic breathing is thought to send calming signals via your vagus nerve,” Dr. O'Donnell notes. This lines up with what a recent systematic review and meta-analysis found: slow, voluntary breathing has a measurable effect on heart rate and heart rate variability, both markers tied to vagal activity (Laborde et al., 2022). There is also a proposed mechanism for why: slow, deep breathing may influence the pattern of signals sent from the lungs to the brain in a way that helps induce physiological relaxation (Noble & Hochman, 2019). https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/expert-interviews/dr-fortino-glp-1-vagus-nerve monthly 0.5 2026-07-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/35df8e4e-7b93-45a3-b943-540883b2f21f/robert-fortino-do-metabolic-medicine-physician.png Expert Interviews - What a Metabolic Medicine Physician Recommends for Vagus Nerve Health - Most vagus nerve conversations center on breathing, cold exposure, or stress. But for a lot of people, the most direct daily experience of vagal signaling happens every time they eat. Appetite and fullness are read by the vagus nerve before they ever reach conscious awareness, and that mechanism is exactly what sits behind the Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications, which are reshaping weight loss care. To learn more about this topic, I had the pleasure of interviewing not only an expert in metabolic health but also a genuinely warm and caring person, Robert Fortino, DO. Dr. Fortino spends his days at the intersection of metabolic medicine and the gut-brain connection, so I sought his perspective on how gut health, appetite regulation, and the vagus nerve actually fit together. Dr. Fortino is a board-certified physician who runs medical weight loss and metabolic health clinics in Philadelphia and New Jersey, with a particular focus on GLP-1 based treatments. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/646a35a7-56e4-4640-be9d-1a9adb11712d/homemade-fermented-sauerkraut-preparation.png Expert Interviews - What a Metabolic Medicine Physician Recommends for Vagus Nerve Health - Although clinicians differ on the specifics of nutrition, Dr. Fortino's broader message is remarkably practical: build your diet around whole, minimally processed foods over anything designed to sit on a shelf indefinitely. Here is a check that I personally recommend: if your grandmother would recognize every ingredient in a dish, it's probably a good choice. If the label reads more like a chemistry set, full of preservatives and additives she wouldn't recognize, that's usually a sign to put it back. Dr. Fortino particularly emphasizes foods that nourish the gut microbiome, including insoluble fiber, fermented foods, and foods that support short-chain fatty acid production. Examples of those foods might include leafy greens, fruits with edible peels, nuts and seeds, sauerkraut, kimchi, tempeh, miso, and apple cider vinegar. Dr. Fortino is also particularly concerned about excess added sugar, which is easy to underestimate in a typical American diet. His concern reflects a much broader scientific consensus: consistently high intake of added sugar contributes to fatty liver disease, insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, and cardiovascular disease. It also raises blood pressure and drives chronic inflammation, both established pathways to heart disease. There's a gut-brain angle here too: sugary beverages in particular are easy to overconsume because liquid calories don't trigger the same fullness signals as solid food, quietly working against the same satiety pathways discussed earlier in this piece (Harvard Health Publishing, 2026). https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/home daily 1.0 2026-07-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/ad152101-892c-4470-a096-1d1b6aff046e/dr-lienna-wilson-meditating-forest.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/53f7d28b-9d34-420b-b078-719b4da36c53/logo+14.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/027293af-3e76-4447-b73c-73d027116b73/7-simple-ways-to-support-your-vagus-nerve-guide.gif https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/6cd44919-4732-420d-8420-a176b09c7d93/Dr-Lienna-Wilson-founder-vagus-vitality.JPG https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/cf1ed76f-2e1b-4638-a0fd-213dfc159842/vagus-nerve-illustration-woman-seated.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/8b674a08-3080-4296-8ba9-bff1d78f6d2a/standing-yoga-balance-pose-outdoors.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/adaf04b2-2594-4210-a369-081c1b23c4b5/dr-lienna-wilson-apollo-neuro-wrist.jpg https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/privacy-policy daily 0.75 2026-06-21 https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/terms-of-use daily 0.75 2026-06-21 https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/about daily 0.75 2026-07-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a00aa9b3919990a72d9cee8/db552909-f690-46e4-a166-c701b70afe87/IMG_5886.jpg https://www.vagusnervevitality.com/contact-1 daily 0.75 2026-07-03