Novel Ways To Engage The Parasympathetic Nervous System
*This article is not medical advice. Before starting on any health related regimen, seek the advice of your Primary Care Physician or an M.D.
Tired of Fight or Flight ?
The ecosystem of alternative health is chock full of devices and gadgets that claim to stimulate the vagus nerve - so no need for me to add more fuel to that fire. I wanted to share 3 more novel ways to help regulate your nervous system - something that is a common problem in chronic illness or when mast cell / immune system reactions are present. And no, i dont have my own person version of Annie Hopper’s program or the Gupta Program. This isn’t about singing or gargling, or Wim Hof, or cold plunges either.
It is also true that cortisol is the body’s primary way to inhibit mast cell degradation - what you say ? So yes, high cortisol (and sympathetic over drive) can be a natural response to mast cell issues. hmmm. There are a variety of reasons the body can be in sympathetic overdrive, from low blood oxygen (Generalized Anxiety Disorder is directly connected to this - via excess high beta brain wave activity), to high estrogen, to high oxidative stress, to excess glutamate driving NMDA receptor over activation and excess calcium influx. For those with excess glutamate, a block converting Glutamate to Gaba could be in play (requiring B6 and Magnesium). Excess aldehydes (produced from histamine, candida, certani gut bacteria, and carbohydrate metabolism) can inhibit the metabolism of B6, what you say? When you have excess glutamate, often there is a deficiency in oxaloacetate as well - what you say - the famous ME CFS supplement Oxaloacetate ?. Yep - its a cofactor needed to convert glutamate into AKG and Aspartate (yes, the aspartate needed as cofactor to metabolise urea/ammonia). Wait say that again, low oxaloacetate can mean high glutamate that can drive low aspartate that can drive high ammonia. And yes high ammonia creats neuro issues and brain fog. Oh my. Yes, lots of potential reasons. Here in this blog article, I will focus on just a fewer novel interventions to help while you explore the root causes.
Back to vagus nerve activation for a second - B1, Zinc, and choline signalling are needed, and why some benefit from Phosphatdyl Choline, CDP Choline (Citi Choline), or Alpha GPC (yes this is the mechanism via relaxing Alpha Brain Waves). Guess what can stimulate choline signalling - Nicotine (Nicotine patches anyone ?) , for a while, before it over does it:). B1 has a long history from Lonsdale’s work, and zinc transporters are inherently sensitivite to oxidative stress. Only one form of zinc does not need a transporter - boy thats curious:).
Novel Ways To Engage Your Parasympathetic Nervous System
Syntonic Vision Therapy - Passive Way to Regulate The Nervous System in 10-12 mins a day
HydroTherapy / Colonics - yes, as uncomfortable as it is to say this, nothing really engages the vagus nerve than triggering your gall bladder and liver quite like a colonic does.
ETAS-50 - A Patented extract of asparagus extract, that was patented for research on Alzheimer’s, but that didnt pan out. However, its unique properties can help dramatically improve HRV.
Red light therapy on the top and back of the head and neck - inhibits high beta brain wave activity {to be covered in a separate red light therapy blog article}.
Engaging The Para Sympathetic Nervous System - Using The Autonomic Nervous System Through The Eyes
I have found one of the most important things in moving people forward in their healing journey from traumatic brain injury is to ensuring enough sustained oxygen in the brain. There are several ways to look at this, one is in terms of simple blood oxygen, and yes, this is not necessarily representative of the oxygen that gets to all the parts of the brain using an injured and inflamed vascular structure. Another way of looking at this would be through the lens of situations that result in hypoxia, such as excess hydrogen sulfide in the blood that makes its way to the brain. A third lens, would be determining if the brain is consuming excess oxygen because it is caught in a 'fight or flight' response, that keeps brain waves elevated in the high-beta frequency range which consume massive amounts of both oxygen and glucose.
For folks with brain injuries, one of the most recommended therapies, is hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy, with gets consistently strong results. In this therapy modality, 100% pure oxygen is delivered to the person while in a chamber that is pressurized. The saturation of oxygen in the blood reaches a level such that, oxygen is no longer needed to ride on red blood cells. Red blood cells are rather larger, and can have a hard time making their way through very small microscopic capillaries in the brain and eyes, especially if inflammation exists due to a physical injury. Hmmm. Now we can see why even in situations like biotoxin illness, excess endotoxin from the gut, can result in this therapy having effects in these situations.
Hypoxic conditions can result in the brain from several different situations, and several known supplements can protect the brain from damage during hypoxic conditions. More on this in another article, as well as micro clots, another very common feature in chronic illnesses like mold, ME CFS, and LH.
On to the meat of this article - how can we stop the brain burning through all this oxygen when it is caught in fight or flight ? We don't. We get the person out of a fight or flight response, and out of high beta, and into alpha brain wave states. This consumes far less oxygen. There has been wide acceptance that programs like Annie Hoppers Brain Rewiring, and the Gupta Protocol have decent effects for many who suffer from a variety of chronic illnesses (ME CFS, etc). The deep breathing alone can result in improved blood oxygen levels. However, it is really the slowing down of the brain that is most helpful - into alpha brain wave state - that consumes less oxygen. Deep breathing, nostril breathing all have well documented histories as healing modalities over many centuries and cultures. Another important aspect of these programs is re - establishing safety and new beliefs on a sub conscious (auto nomic nervous system) level - that you are safe, the threat is gone, the amygdala calms down. I have found this especially effective in the case of olfactory injuries (also injuries the amygdala) associated with severe chemical exposures (voc's like benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, styrene, xylene, etc). For some time, even mild exposures will set these folks back - not due to the toxicity, but the nervous system response to the exposure - we are not safe !!!
There are several pubmed studies on the association between blood oxygen levels and anxiety, this is not new stuff. Same with our good friend Wim Hof, who preaches oxygen saturation breathing - hyper ventilating, and then dealing with elevated CO2 by breath holding, which on an autonomic nervous system levels triggers anxiety unless you hack into the autonomic nervous system - this stuff has been around a long long time.
So, how do we break the cycle of a brain caught in over drive ? The programs cited above can be effective for some, but for the very seriously compromised traumatic brain injury folks, this is often too hard to do. Another technique using some special disposable eye lenses, can regulate the nervous system by controlling the types of light that make its way into the eye. The company is optomatters.com; located in Belgium and offers a variety of these disposable glasses (syntonics product line) that one wears for 10-12 minutes per day outside, or by a window (not tinted). Different lenses will work better for different people, but i have consistently found two lens sets that gently or more aggressively calm people down and get them into parasympathetic territory. Its a retraining of the nervous system - and its simple, 10 minutes a day of a rather effortless task. These have also proven beneficial for some folks with MCS , Mold, and ME CFS. Oxygen to the brain is fundamental. Be it inflammation, hypoxia from excess H2S, different metabolic states, low hemoglobin, low iron, low red cells, or burning through too much oxygen while caught in fight/flight high beta brain wave states - resolving this is fundamental. If you search on you tube you can find doctors like http://www.visionforlifeworks.com with Dr. Steinhauer, that do remote appointments and make assessments to prescribe appropriate Syntonic lenses for vision therapy - the lenses are pretty cheap ~$35.
HYDROTHERAPY / COLONICS
Nothing really can engage the vagus nerve quite like a colonic - but please see your Primary Care Physician before embarking on hydrotherapy - there are other considerations. Some people see dramatic improvements in vagal tone, sleep, and nervous system regulation when doing regular colonics (1 every 1-2 weeks).
ETAS-50 ASPARAGUS STALK EXTRACT
This is a special supplement with pretty limited market availability, but has dramatic effects in terms of improving HRV, and also quality of sleep. One client’s HRV doubled after the first dose. I can get this through a compounding pharmacy for clients, but doesn’t appear available on the open marker anymore in any commercially available supplements. I have had a number of clients try this, and had a success rate (improved HRV / Parasympathetic tone) approach 65%.
I hope you found this article helpful, and i will endeavor to add some references over time for those who like to dive deeper. If you would like to look into this more deeply, and explore if low brain oxygen may be a thing for you, feel free to book an appointment on line.