What do those health concerns have in common? Vagal tone.

The vagus nerve or Tenth Cranial Nerve, known as the Wanderer because it starts at the medulla in the brain stem and ends at the abdomen where it branches to supply the esophagus, stomach, and the small and large intestine. From all the territory it covers, it is easy to imagine this nerve is the king of the parasympathetic nervous system; the body systems that continue to function whether you think about them or not.

Why do you want a good vagal tone?

For one, you can “go back to normal” faster after stress. It also improves many bodily functions, such as better blood sugar regulation, reduced risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease, lower blood pressure, and improved digestion because you have a better production of stomach enzymes, both basic and digestive. If you suffer from migraines, improved vagal tone helps. Added benefits are better mood, less anxiety, and more stress resilience. That is, you can bounce back better after a stressful situation. Along with mood stabilization, blood pressure is improved, and your body can better regulate blood sugar.

Another interesting job of the vagus nerve is its ability to read the gut microbiome and initiate a response to balance inflammation based on whether or not it detects pathogenic or non-pathogenic organisms.

Now you know the benefits of a good vagal tone. What do you look for as symptoms of a low vagal tone? Cardiovascular conditions such as unusual heart rate and/or fluctuating blood pressure, abdominal pain, ear pain, loss of voice, indigestion from lowered stomach acid, to name a few.

To test your vagal tone, you will need a way to keep time and your finger on your wrist pulse. Your heart rate speeds up a little as you inhale and slows on exhale. The bigger the difference between inhale and exhale pulse, the higher your vagal tone.

A study was conducted by Venugopal R. Damerla, MD, ABoIM; Babette Goldstein, MEd; David Wolf, MSW, Ph.D.; Krishna Madhavan, Ph.D.; Nancy Patterson, BA and published in October 2018 edition of Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal.

The study, Novice Meditators of an Easily Learnable Audible Mantram Sound Self-Induce an Increase in Vagal Tone During Short-term Practice: A Preliminary Study, noted changes in vagal tone when participants were exposed to a mantra/chant or a placebo chant (made up sounds). Responses were measured concerning both lengths of exposure and frequency of exposure. Five-min baseline and post-meditation measurements were obtained on different days over the 6-week experiment.

Here are the participant responses to questions asked 4 weeks after their study. The participants of the mantra group responded they still experience an 83% to 100% increase in love, deep inner peace, and connection toward a “higher power.” While only a 20% to 80% increase was reported by the control group.

How would your life change if felt an increase in connection, love, and peace?

Here’s my favorite rendition of the mantra used in the experiment