Two New Skills That Helped Me Escape My Health Hole - Part 1
This week and next, I want to share the two tools that helped me dig my way out of a gnarly health hole when nothing else was working. These tools could be life-changing for many people in this community, including, hopefully, you!
A little back story for context
Despite being a doctor who specializes in unraveling chronic and complicated health issues, for the life of me, I could not get ahold of my current flare… for YEARS. I basically became one of my most complicated patients. Yay for learning opportunities??
I was diagnosed with my first autoimmune condition (thyroid) when I was 8 years old. My worst 3 health flares all came at the hand of mold. It’s basically my kryptonite. About 8 years ago, we unknowingly moved into an endlessly moldy house while, at the same time, I was going through my totally expected post-natal autoimmune flare after my third and final (God, please let it be final) child.
I don’t know who the frick broke the mirror, but in the last 8 years, I have taken quite a few blows. I lost my only sibling. There were multiple mental and physical health crises in my family of origin. I got long-covid in the form of POTS, where my heart rate would rise to 140 if I were in any vertical position. I had an incredibly stressful job because I felt like I was a last resort for suffering people. (That was my ego and a skewed view about my role in people’s healing processes, but I digress.) And I have teenagers. Great, great kids, but still… teenagers. IYKYK. 😉
Despite knowing and applying all the science, all the body hacks, all the therapeutic diets, all of the tools in the natural world, and even some in the pharmaceutical world, I was only getting deeper into my health hole until I found these two tools, one of which I will share with you now that you’re all caught up on my ridiculous health saga.
TOOL #1: THE VAGAL BRAKE
I do a lot of talking about getting stuck in “fight or flight” because that is a pattern I have seen over and over in my chronically ill patients. It creates a cascade of biochemical happenings in the body responsible for a wide array of seemingly unrelated symptoms. That’s a talk for another day. But, even as a functional neurologist, I was missing a critical nuance in the nervous system that allows you to regain control of the state of your autonomics (sympathetic “fight or flight” and parasympathetic “rest and digest” systems) in a profound way.
This is not only helping me shake the lingering long-covid POTS, which is ultimately an autonomic nervous system problem, but it’s also helping me find safety in my nervous system for the first time in my life. No exaggeration. Maybe someday I will even retire from my role as the source of family entertainment when startled. ✨ A girl can dream. ✨
So, here’s the deal:
We like to label things as good and bad. It’s part of the human condition. When you hear Sympathetic “Fight or Flight” mode and Parasympathetic “Rest and Digest” mode, one of them seems inherently bad, yes? And the other, inherently good? Well, life isn’t black and white, and neither is your Autonomic Nervous System. (Fun fact: Autonomic just means automatic. It happens behind the scenes without you thinking about it.)
Your Sympathetic Nervous System is in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn when you detect a threat or are in survival mode. It is also responsible for excitement, empowerment, play, and exercise- when your nervous system feels safe.
Your Parasympathetic Nervous System is known as your “rest and digest” nervous system, but you’re only going to get that deep rejuvenating rest and the kickass digestion of your dreams when your nervous system feels safe. If your nervous system detects a threat or is in survival mode, your Parasympathetic Nervous System presents with collapse, fatigue, and withdrawal.
Because we are having a human experience in a world with both kindness and cruelty, we have trauma. All trauma, but particularly childhood trauma, can cause us to get stuck in the threat/survival “uglier” versions, certainly the unhealthier versions, of BOTH the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems.
Good news! There’s a tool! (I know. I know. I am such a health tool hoarder. Guilty as charged.) But I gotta get a little sciencey again to get us there. You down?
Your Vagus Nerve. Your Vagus Nerve comes from your brainstem, where it is responsible for putting the brakes on the Sympathetic response, which allows the Parasympathetic response to have its moment in the spotlight. This is called the Vagal Brake. It is KEY to having a healthy nervous system response to the world around us.
God help me, I hate having to use a car analogy for the body, but I must.
Like in your car, you have 2 brakes- 2 branches of your Vagus Nerve. You have your Dorsal Vagal Branch, which acts as an emergency break. There’s nothing subtle about it. And, you have your Ventral Vagal Branch, where all the finesse lives. This is equivalent to your brake pedal, where you can make it a nice soft brake and not cause whiplash.
Your Dorsal Vagal Branch lives in your gut. Ever had a gut feeling stop you in your tracks? Hard brake. This branch of the Vagus nerve is responsible for your gut-brain connection. So important, obviously. We work on it around my neck of the woods, for sure!
But, to CONTROL and NORMALIZE your autonomic nervous system’s responses so your nervous system can find SAFETY, you have to build your Ventral Vagal Branch, which innervates your heart, throat, ears, and is functionally tied to the nerves that innervate your face and diaphragm. When you build the Ventral Vagal Branch connectivity, you gain the skill of the soft brake. You gain the tools you need to regulate your nervous system state. How frickin’ cool is that?!
Ventral Vagal work has been a game changer for me already, and I have… oh, I dunno… a lifetime of survival mode to soften up. It uses breath, touch, and body position to stimulate the areas the Ventral Vagal Branch innervates and, therefore, gets unstuck from the threat/survival response. I firmly believe this is a missing piece for a lot of people who are struggling with their health.
If this resonates with you and you think your brain could use this work, there are a few more hours left to join my Nurtured Rhythms Membership before it closes at 11:59pm PST tonight (1/31/25). I’d love to have you! We are focusing on assessing and optimizing the brain this Winter and having a nice soak in Ventral Vagal work. Come on in, friend. The water is warm, and the company is rich. You’ll fit right in!
