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The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

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Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#21

Post by yunohn »

evrimoztamur wrote: post #8
loceng wrote: post #7

My vagus nerves were constantly being compressed until roughly 4 months ago, when I had bilateral Eagle's syndrome surgeries - Eagle's syndrome a hardening, calcification-ossification of ligaments that connect from the styloid process and wrap around the neck connecting to front of throat; I had played American football for all of high school and most likely the cause from reptitive injuries/trauma to the tissues. We…

I have a story about as long in text but not in duration. Nonetheless, I was unaware of a neck injury for about four years, then I got an MRI. Orthopedist suggested seeing a brain surgeon as soon as possible, and luckily the one I found suggested immediately that surgery for my young age was no option. I ended up getting corrective soles and a mouth guard, and with the mouth guard specifically, I immediately went fro…

This is very interesting, could you detail the connection between insoles and mouth guards to your neck/brain injury?

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#22

Post by chucksmash »

devin wrote: post #17
evrimoztamur wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a story about as long in text but not in duration. Nonetheless, I was unaware of a neck injury for about four years, then I got an MRI. Orthopedist suggested seeing a brain surgeon as soon as possible, and luckily the one I found suggested immediately that surgery for my young age was no option. I ended up getting corrective soles and a mouth guard, and with the mouth guard specifically, I immediately went fro…

Orthodontist or orthopedist?

It reads like a typo, but given their pain was ameliorated by using a mouth guard, they meant what they said: orthodontist.

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#23

Post by chucksmash »

conradev wrote: post #20
xyst wrote: post #9

Human body is very flawed. Damage to this nerve can result in systemic failure. When are we going to get an update? Evolution, pls fix!1

My favorite bugs are the ones that are too low priority to fix, like this one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_sneeze_reflex The exact pathophysiology is still unknown but it’s a variation on “the nose nerves and the optic nerve are too close together”

The joy of explaining your sneezes every time you see a bright light during cold/flu/pandemic season.

I'm surprised to see it affects 20+% of the population because I've never met anyone who knew what I was talking about when I said "sorry, light makes me sneeze"

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#24

Post by amelius »

nprateem wrote: post #11
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #10

Has anybody tried vagus nerve stimulation? I tried it but didn't get anywhere much.

Some kinds of meditation stimulate it. I've tried those. Where did you hope to get?

Not GP, but there is

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201...

Not sure if this is a good idea though.

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#25

Post by ionwake »

Story of a friend . Working 7 day weeks , big deadline. Poop. Faint. wtf? Job ends. Years later never happens again.

Working 7 days a week makes your vagus nerve sensitive and under stress can shut you down as a defence mechanism.

Never knew this, have always advised friends to be very careful when under stress for long periods of time.

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#26

Post by ProllyInfamous »

nojs wrote: post #4
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #3

I have extracted this (and other) nerves from cadavers, and this circuitous cranial nerve (XII?) is as beautiful and complex as the multibranch plexus -es (e.g. brachial ). So delicate. Human anatomy, at first glance, often seems wrongly-engineered. After you've worked inside dozens of people, you begin to realize that everybody is unique — and nobody is "textbook" anatomy. Who knows what all this goop even does?! If…

How does one get this chance?

Multiple options, including: attend medical school; become employed by an anatomy farm.

As for "chance of being hacked apart," anybody can donate their cadaver to science — most facilities require prior enrollment and will recover the corpse, nationwide.

You might end up sold into scientific experimentation... if you're morbidly obese (e.g.) you won't be used for student anatomy (if you care).

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#27

Post by computerdork »

loceng wrote: post #7

My vagus nerves were constantly being compressed until roughly 4 months ago, when I had bilateral Eagle's syndrome surgeries - Eagle's syndrome a hardening, calcification-ossification of ligaments that connect from the styloid process and wrap around the neck connecting to front of throat; I had played American football for all of high school and most likely the cause from reptitive injuries/trauma to the tissues. We…

My story is very similar. Have had tons of pain and muscle related problems for decades - played a ton of sports like you when i was a kid, and did a lot of physical risk-taking too (skateboarding, bmx-style biking taking them off jump-ramps...) and also had lots of injuries.

On top of chronic pain, I had (and still have but is greatly reduced) muscle clenching on the left side of my body - for some reason my body on the left side is clenching up, with this constant pulling on my head, pulling down and to the left. I also have severe TMJ, again on the left, and constant headache, light sensitivity, difficulty focusing and fatigue. It was truly horrible - imagine going through life with an extremely strong pull on your head and body. Your posture is messed up so physically, you look like a wreck, and sitting is painful as is standing. Also, you are just fighting this pull every second of the day. It never ends and you constantly have to think about it and ways to reduce the pull and the pain.

I worked with physical therapists and orthopedists for decades to try to figure out what was going on, but nothing worked. So about 8 years ago (I'm 50 now, so it was around my 42 birthday), I finally realized that I needed to look beyond the obvious causes of these types of problems, and explore almost everything, really ramping up the number and types of doctors I was seeing. Saw many types of docs: pain specialists, TMJ docs, gastroenterologists, ENT's (I have throat tightening and stomach issues too), neurologists...

Eventually, like you, found that many of my issues were from compressed nerves. And yeah, it's a struggle for you and the docs to find the right ones, but once you do, it makes a big difference. I'm not 100%, but I'd say I'm 60% there, and it's definitely changed my life, and is visible both physically and socially.

Of course, every person's body and causes of health-problems is different, so what helped for me may not help for you, but seems like you're on the right path. Keep searching, and would suggest being scientific about the process (this really helped me). I may write about my experience one day, so if you have any questions, let me know. And best of luck

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#28

Post by poszlem »

Just a random "vagus nerve story". A while back, I started having weird heart flutters that turned out to be extra heartbeats (doctors call them PVCs and PACs). Sometimes I'd be fine for days or even weeks, but then they'd come back pretty bad. After a bit, I noticed these flutters were linked to what I ate, which seemed really strange. I couldn't figure out how my food could make my heart skip beats. I saw a bunch of heart doctors for almost a year before I found one who knew what was up. He told me I had something called "gastrocardiac syndrome." Apparently, not many heart doctors know about it. It's basically when acid reflux in your stomach messes with the vagus nerve. The doctor gave me some medicine to stop the acid (PPIs), and just like that, my weird heartbeats went away completely.

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#29

Post by gojomo »

nojs wrote: post #4
ProllyInfamous wrote: post #3

I have extracted this (and other) nerves from cadavers, and this circuitous cranial nerve (XII?) is as beautiful and complex as the multibranch plexus -es (e.g. brachial ). So delicate. Human anatomy, at first glance, often seems wrongly-engineered. After you've worked inside dozens of people, you begin to realize that everybody is unique — and nobody is "textbook" anatomy. Who knows what all this goop even does?! If…

How does one get this chance?

You may be able to find a local community college course that offers free/cheap observation or participation in human cadaver dissection.

This 2022 LessWrong post mentions a $60 5-hour option at the Sf Bay Area's Merritt College (in Oakland):

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5PBWgHiCiiJHjPRSn/what-it-s-...

Re: The vagus nerve orchestrates the mind-body connection

#30

Post by BaculumMeumEst »

poszlem wrote: post #28

Just a random "vagus nerve story". A while back, I started having weird heart flutters that turned out to be extra heartbeats (doctors call them PVCs and PACs). Sometimes I'd be fine for days or even weeks, but then they'd come back pretty bad. After a bit, I noticed these flutters were linked to what I ate, which seemed really strange. I couldn't figure out how my food could make my heart skip beats. I saw a bunch o…

This has to be super common. My wife and I both are acutely aware of acid reflux causing flutters and other weirdness. During her pregnancy it got worse, and after a full cardiac workup her doctor's best guess was interaction w/ the vagus nerve.
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