Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Growing scientific interest in vagus nerve stimulation

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 159 posts

Re: Growing scientific interest in vagus nerve stimulation

#121

Post by h0l0cube »

digging wrote: post #104
adriand wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might go beyond how you feel and into direct biological impacts. I don’t listen to the Huberman Lab podcast much these days but I did listen to the episode with David Linden, which I found quite interesting. [1] At one point, they are discussing the mind/body axis and the latest scientific developments in exploring how mental states can affect the body. There is a fascinating although very untested - but, testab…

Haven't listened, but I think I understand where Linden was coming from, even if it's unnecessarily harsh. The idea that "you can breathe this way and get this effect" can be true and can come from folk wisdom, but they ascribe wrong reasoning to it which makes it mysticism. The reasoning is what's "bullshit". It's like saying "I tie my shoes tight every morning to honor the shoe gods or else they'll untie my laces."…

> The chakras thing, or any other mystical model, is only a low-resolution model.

More importantly, they served their purpose continuing knowledge as both a practice and oral tradition such that they have survived millennia. This in spite of libraries burning down and the limited access to/absence of text, etc. I think in this lens, it's not right to condescend, or be confounded or annoyed that the mechanism still works today. Further to that, I think in absence of this instinct in the scientific community to condescend, the valuable knowledge preserved in mystical practices could be understood sooner

Re: Growing scientific interest in vagus nerve stimulation

#123

Post by jkhn »

blue_dragon wrote: post #89
albntomat0 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in a very similar situation as you with EoE, acid reflux, and a confirmed mild hiatal hernia. The anxiety seems to line up as well. Have you found any additional solutions, past the standard PPI and diet for acid reflux? Thanks!

Hijacking your comment to share my story and ask for advice. I have diagnosed EoE, I've had it for my whole life. I'm currently on 80mg omeprazole daily and an elimination diet. This helps a lot but is not a cure. I've also experienced benign heart palpitations for my whole life (confirmed by a cardiologist). For a long time, I've had a hunch that the two were connected. On days when I have EoE flare-ups, I feel some…

You may want to look into dupixent or mometasone for elimination of your EoE symptoms.

My daughter was diagnosed around 2 years old and has been seeing a doctor at Boston Children’s hospital who is involved in EoE research. For a few years now she has been taking a compounded mometasone slurry daily which has kept all her symptoms at bay.

Now that she is 12 she is eligible for dupixent which the doctor has said she has hundreds of patients on who are in total remission.

Re: Growing scientific interest in vagus nerve stimulation

#124

Post by sixo »

digging wrote: post #104
adriand wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might go beyond how you feel and into direct biological impacts. I don’t listen to the Huberman Lab podcast much these days but I did listen to the episode with David Linden, which I found quite interesting. [1] At one point, they are discussing the mind/body axis and the latest scientific developments in exploring how mental states can affect the body. There is a fascinating although very untested - but, testab…

Haven't listened, but I think I understand where Linden was coming from, even if it's unnecessarily harsh. The idea that "you can breathe this way and get this effect" can be true and can come from folk wisdom, but they ascribe wrong reasoning to it which makes it mysticism. The reasoning is what's "bullshit". It's like saying "I tie my shoes tight every morning to honor the shoe gods or else they'll untie my laces."…

Well, it's a low-resolution model that ancient people converged on for a reason, which is that it is starts from a readily-attainable subjective experience, which is then used to explain things in ways that surely go too far.

It is relatively easy to feel some of your chakras, I've done it, it took about a week of effort via a hodgepodge of breathwork, stretching, yoga, and "somatic" meditation facilitated by THC. You try to awaken muscles all over the body, "unblocking" points of tension, and eventually you start to have this impression of "energy"/"heat" flowing in loops from points on the spine, out along muscles and back again; in my case "unblocking" some of these caused buried emotions to pour out, and temporarily gave me near-perfect posture. It's interesting: these are clearly a description of something real.

Re: Growing scientific interest in vagus nerve stimulation

#125

Post by c_o_n_v_e_x »

I was a diagnosed with gastritis earlier this year. In the days leading up to my endoscopy, I had horrific reflux which was triggering anxiety. Putting an icepack on my chest to cool down the vagus nerve really helped with the angst and heart palpitations.

Re: Growing scientific interest in vagus nerve stimulation

#127

Post by darkclouds »

digging wrote: post #104
adriand wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might go beyond how you feel and into direct biological impacts. I don’t listen to the Huberman Lab podcast much these days but I did listen to the episode with David Linden, which I found quite interesting. [1] At one point, they are discussing the mind/body axis and the latest scientific developments in exploring how mental states can affect the body. There is a fascinating although very untested - but, testab…

Haven't listened, but I think I understand where Linden was coming from, even if it's unnecessarily harsh. The idea that "you can breathe this way and get this effect" can be true and can come from folk wisdom, but they ascribe wrong reasoning to it which makes it mysticism. The reasoning is what's "bullshit". It's like saying "I tie my shoes tight every morning to honor the shoe gods or else they'll untie my laces."…

> The idea that "you can breathe this way and get this effect"

You are not exercising when meditating, ergo your CO2 levels will drop.

I'd love to put a top meditator in a hyperbaric chamber and change the gas levels to something like CO2 @ 600ppm and then see how relaxed they are, unless they have high levels of myoglobin.

The higher the CO2 levels the more stimulated the body becomes. Its why some athlete's take a heaped teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate for asoda boost that has a stimulating effect on the body. Sodium causes the release of calcium from the bones which is stimulating, alters the metal profile in the blood, and the bicarbonate is double the CO2 which also stimulates the body and immune system. People who have trouble breathing used to be told to breath into a paper bag, as this increased the CO2 they rebreathed, which was useful when coal use was high.

So yes meditating can be relaxing, mainly because they are increasing oxygen levels in the body which is less stimulating than CO2 levels from running around.

The vagus nerve runs all the way down to the rectum in many animals, so be careful about stimulating it. One might have to suddenly evacuate in more ways than one, and this article seems like someone's idea of a joke, on the unprepared.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2952396/ Effects of autonomic nerve stimulation on colorectal motility in rats

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15074355/ The role of the rectal branches of pelvic plexus in defecation and colonic motility in a canine model

Re: Growing scientific interest in vagus nerve stimulation

#128

Post by Balgair »

lr4444lr wrote: post #88
Balgair wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did some work on DBS devices. Yeah, that's an intense surgery. The MD doing the implantation was a rockin' bitch-ass motherfucking stone cold killer. Sorry for all the curse words, but that's the best way to describe her. I've never been near someone so dead calm no matter what. Just ice in the veins. She was ~6'5" and wore 6" stilettos all the time. That surgeon had presence . I'd never want to meet her in a back…

ML for how to direct implantation, or the signals it produced?

I was working on a guiding fiber optic cable, so the signals were live during implantation. The fiber is then pulled out once the electrodes are in the correct position.

We used ML to help determine where the tip of the electrodes were in the brain. The received images needed a lot of processing (Fourier domain mostly), then ML against cadaver brains and other surgeries to help determine the position. Final say included a lot of test shocks to the patient and the surgeon's call.

Re: Growing scientific interest in vagus nerve stimulation

#129

Post by Solitude042 »

darkclouds wrote: post #127
digging wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't listened, but I think I understand where Linden was coming from, even if it's unnecessarily harsh. The idea that "you can breathe this way and get this effect" can be true and can come from folk wisdom, but they ascribe wrong reasoning to it which makes it mysticism. The reasoning is what's "bullshit". It's like saying "I tie my shoes tight every morning to honor the shoe gods or else they'll untie my laces."…

> The idea that "you can breathe this way and get this effect" You are not exercising when meditating, ergo your CO2 levels will drop. I'd love to put a top meditator in a hyperbaric chamber and change the gas levels to something like CO2 @ 600ppm and then see how relaxed they are, unless they have high levels of myoglobin. The higher the CO2 levels the more stimulated the body becomes. Its why some athlete's take a…

I thought athletes used sodium bicarbonate to buffer the production of lactic acid during anaerobic activity. I've never heard of it as a stimulant. Can you provide a source for that mechanism?

Re: Growing scientific interest in vagus nerve stimulation

#130

Post by darkclouds »

Solitude042 wrote: post #129
darkclouds wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The idea that "you can breathe this way and get this effect" You are not exercising when meditating, ergo your CO2 levels will drop. I'd love to put a top meditator in a hyperbaric chamber and change the gas levels to something like CO2 @ 600ppm and then see how relaxed they are, unless they have high levels of myoglobin. The higher the CO2 levels the more stimulated the body becomes. Its why some athlete's take a…

I thought athletes used sodium bicarbonate to buffer the production of lactic acid during anaerobic activity. I've never heard of it as a stimulant. Can you provide a source for that mechanism?

Try it. Heaped teaspoon in a glass of water, give it 30mins. You'll notice the difference if you are walking around or doing more vigorous exercise like jogging or running.

Sodium/potassium kinase pump. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537088/

Sodium - releases calcium, increases a chance of a heart attack. FYI! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2158146/#:~:text=In%20respon....

CO2 levels. https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-06/documents/co...

This is what you are referring to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6544001/

There are other mechanisms, like the effect sodium has on adrenal gland.

Post reply on HN