Author: Melanie Wingate

The Vagus nerve is the tenth cranial nerve and is also known as the wondering nerve as it wonders through so many of your internal organs.

These neural fibres stem from your brain through your lungs and heart, your liver, stomach, spleen, kidney’s and both the large and small intestines. So as you can see it is a vitally important part of your communication system in your body.

This important structure is responsible for a number of biological processes in your body, some of which include regulating your breathing and heart rate, altering blood vessel diameter, certain reflex actions such as coughing, sneezing, swallowing and vomiting, and of course regulating digestion and your parasympathetic nervous system, also known as your rest and digest rate.

The Vagus Nerve is a major part of the gut-brain connection. It is a bi-directional current of vital communication between your gut and your brain which stems from not only the enteric nervous system, but the microbiota as well.

Through the Vagus Nerve, sensory information is sent up to the nuclei (clusters of neurons) in the amygdala oblongata (the emotion centre of the brain), and from here motor impulses are sent down to the digestive system.

It is no wonder that there is a link between the gut and the brain influencing our moods, with a direct highway of nerve fibres sending messages influenced by the microbiota in your gut to the emotion centre of the brain.

Vagal Tone

The tone of your vagus nerve, or the strength of this nerve, has a direct link with it’s ability to regulate stress and emotions, as well as it’s ability to regulate metabolism, and immune responses (including inflammation). When there is a lack of tone in the vagus nerve, we see an increase in anxiety, depression, stress, difficulty concentrating, and inflammation.

Some ways in which the tone of your vagus nerve can be compromised includes chronic stress, gut dysbiosis (an imbalance in your microbiota), viral infections, inflammation, obesity, or abdominal surgery.

Increasing vagal tone is associated with an ability to better cope with stress and other mood disorders, as well as a reduction in inflammation and symptomatic relief from many digestive issues.

Having a daily routine which incorporates self-care practices, meditation, stretching, gentle exercise and a balanced diet is a great place to start. By giving yourself just one hour a day, you can increase the tone and strengthen your vagus nerve and restoring balance to your digestion and emotional well-being.

There are also numerous herbs, supplements and specific probiotic strains that have been shown to assist with strengthening vagal tone.

However, these recommendations can vary from person to person as the make up of our individual gut microbiota can be quite vast and unique.

For this reason, I provided online consultations to assess your individual needs and give you the best treatment protocol suited to you.

Book your consultation here.

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Stress is a part of everyday life, it is necessary to give us the drive we need to get things done.

However, when it comes to chronic stress, this is something that we have come all to familiar with as a part of a normal way of being.

Stress is defined as a strain or overexertion on our bodies, and our minds.

It is associated with feelings and actions we all know too well, the overwhelm, sleepless nights, excessive thinking, emotional releasing, outbursts, anger, frustration, helplessness, constant worry, nausea, panic and uncontrollable crying.

While these are all outward expressions of stress, it is also relevant to address the internalisations of it as well, for those whom tend to keep the feelings bottled up inside and perhaps not to show a physical exertion, and yet are just as effected by the underlying health issues this can have on the mind and body.

Stress has a huge impact on our physical and emotional body. It effects our gut flora and in turn therefore effects our mental well-being.

The microbiota in our guts are directly linked to our mental and emotional health. As our body breaks down the gut microbiome, it releases by products called metabolites. These metabolites, along with the microbiota, communicate with the brain via the vagus nerve.

When we have a healthy selection of microbiota in our guts then we can send healthy and harmonious messages to our brain.

However, if our gut flora has more of imbalance and therefore is dominated by a higher selection of dysbiotic flora, it can send stress signals to the brain and lead to emotional and mood disorders such as anxiety, stress and depression.

Which in turn leads to more dysbiotic gut flora, and the cycle continues.

Long term stress and the HPA axis

The HPA axis involves the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland in the brain, as well as the adrenal glands. It is responsible for many processes in the body including digestion, sexuality, immune response and how you handle stress. It is also crucial for the coordination of your endocrine system with your nervous system, specifically your fight or flight response.

In short summary, when you perceive something to be a danger or a threat, action potentials in the brain trigger neuron’s in your hypothalamus to release a peptide hormone CRH. This hormone takes a short trip through the blood stream to the anterior pituitary gland and binds to a receptor on the target cell. This triggers the release of a hormone called ACTH which travels through the blood to your adrenal glands. This then triggers the release of a frenzy of different ‘freak-out’ compounds known as glucocorticoid and mineral corticoid hormones, simplified as cortisol. This activates the sympathetic nervous system which drives the body into what is known as the fight or flight response.

When your body is in the fight or flight response, a negative feedback loop is triggered in the hypothalamus to switch off the release of stress hormones and begins the slow process of down regulating the nervous system back into a calm parasympathetic state of rest and digest.

Long-term stress however, blocks this negative feedback loop reaction and switches off the HPA axis which in turn making it near impossible to self-regulate back to a calm state with an elevation of stress hormones circulating through your system.

This results in a reduction of brain derived neurotropic factor and serotonin and an increase in glutamtergic action in the amygdala which is associated with increased symptoms of anxiety and depression.

What this means for your gut microbiome

The impact of the excess stress hormones in your body dysregulates motility in your gut lining which in turn alters the gut microbiota composition.

This then decreases your gut barrier integrity, a protective epithelial lining, which leave the gut susceptible to invasive pathogenic bacteria and parasites.

Visceral hypersensitivity will also increase under this pressure thus resulting in higher levels of pain in your internal organs such as cramping, stomach aches and other internal sensitivities.

Under these conditions, your gut will continue to multiply the wrong kind of gut microbiota that are thriving in an unhealthy environment, as your gut continues to cater the perfect conditions for them to thrive.

Overall, this will all lead to a case of gut dysbiosis that will in turn increases the pro inflammatory cytokins which further releases more stress hormones, and again, the cycle continues.

Understanding the composition of your gut flora is essential for beginning your healing journey. Different microbiota will thrive in a variety of different environmental and dietary conditions, and sometimes its not just as easy as taking a dose of antibiotics and/or probiotics to restore your GIT back to health long term.

You can learn more about your gut microbiome by ordering a microbiome mapping test. Book an online Naturopathic consultation to start your healing process today.

Disbiosis is an overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut, which can lead to disease and or mental and emotional imbalances.

The human body contains more than 10 times more bacteria cells than human cells, and over 100 times more bacterial genes than human genes.

The total weight of the microorganisms that make up the gut microbiota of a modern Western person contains around 2kg, so much so that this is now considered by some experts as seperate human tissue.

Your gut’s microbiota has a huge impact on physical, mental and emotional health.

Abnormalities in microbiome have been recognised in conditions such as IBS, chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and obesity.

Since discovering that some of the microbes in our body can modify the production of neurotransmitters found in the brain, it is becoming more common knowledge that the gut has a direct impact on sleep, moods, depression, anxiety and other neurochemical imbalances.

Disbiotic bacteria are non-health promoting bacteria that do not benefit the health of the host in any way at all.

Encouraging Dysbiosis

As with all living things, the bacteria in your gut rely on food to survive, and each different species of bacteria are accustomed to eating specific types of food.

Because the bacteria in your gut are going to feed off the foods you put in your body, what you feed your body is essentially linked to the health of your gut and therefore your entire body.

The real issue we face in modern times is that the Western diet is mostly focussed on foods that will encourage the growth of bad bacteria to flourish, and discourage the growth of the good probiotic bacteria that we need to thrive.

A diet that is high in refined sugars, overcooked saturated fats, carbohydrates from white flour and processed seed oils only feeds the bad bacteria, creating an overgrowth of disbiosis in the body.

In order to feed the good guys, we need to see a diet that is high in fresh leafy greens and vegetables, lean protein, omega 3 fats, probiotic containing foods, complex carbohydrates and lots of fibre.

The lack of dietary fibre in our Western diet actively discourages the growth of health-promoting probiotic bacteria.

In addition to all of this, these diets also contain the probiotic-killing use of pesticides, disinfectants, and antibiotic residue that is constantly being ingested with these foods which result in the perfect recipe for a weak microbiome. Specifically lacking in lots of different types of microbes (biodiversity).

The diseases that we see today such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, strokes, autoimmune disease and cancers, were virtually unknown in hunter-gatherer societies, and the gut microbiome of those living in developing countries are far more diverse (2-3 times the mass) than those of a Western society.

The Three-fold Effects of Dysbiosis

Firstly, you miss out on the anti-inflammatory effects that a probiotic gut will give you.

Secondly, You are exposed to a multitude of toxic bacterial bi-products and inflammatory effects of a dysbiotic bacteria.

Thirdly, the product of fatty acids, which are fuel for the gut wall cells, is reduced and the function of the gut barrier becomes impaired. The transfer of toxic byproducts of bacterial sugar fermentation across the gut wall occurs and these chemicals end up in our bloodstream. This will not only make you feel unwell but it is also the underlying theory to the development of autoimmune disease. Which is also known as increased gut permeability or leaky gut.

Correcting the Effects of Dysbiosis

The good new is that it can be repaired and reversed.

Studying your gut diversity through a microbiome mapping test will give you an idea of the imbalance that might be present.

Knowing these imbalances is the first step to correcting them and encouraging the growth of a healthy bacterial colony.

My gut protocols will assist you to step through each stage of the gut healing process and guide you back to a healthy state of probiosis and overall physical and mental health.

You can book a consultation with me here.

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