Vagus Nerve for Inflammation

Hope for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Good day yogis!  This week, we are taking a look at inflammation.  I find it very irritating when a physician diagnoses a patient with arthritis or simply inflammation. We need more information and we need hope. Research is showing promise using a Vagus Nerve Stimulator to significantly reduce severe pain associated with Rheumatoid Arthritis. The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve, actually 2 nerves, which run from the brain stem down through the neck on both sides of the body.  The vagus nerve relays information between vital organs, including the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, spleen, stomach, small intestines and colon, and the brain. 

What can the Vagus Nerve do?

Although the vagus nerve cannot undo previous damage, it can reduce inflammation so significantly that pain and future damage can be prevented. Inside each side of the Vagus Nerve is 100,000 fibers, and each and every fiber has been programmed over millions of years to do a specific job.

Help for Rheumatoid Arthritis

I first learned of the Vagus Nerve at my first International Conference for Yoga Therapists.  The concept seemed way out there at the time, but these Yoga Therapist Researchers were already helping pain patients regulate vagal tone at the Cleveland Clinic and other hospitals.  

This week, AARP Magazine highlights how Vagus Nerve Stimulators are helping people with serious disorders like Rheumatoid Arthritis, Stroke (with hand movements), Epilepsy, and Depression.  The stimulator is about the size of a jelly bean and is implanted under the skin on one side of the neck. 

Improving Vagal Tone with Yoga

We now know that Vagus Nerve Stimulation improves vagal tone.  The greater your vagal tone, the more active the vagal nerve.  A high functioning vagus nerve regulates heart rate and blood pressure, controls the release of digestive enzymes and gastric acid, and helps move food through the digestive track.  These signals turn on and off the body’s production of inflammation.  

In yoga, we practice the ability to sense the vagus nerve.  We start with a focus on the space between your two brows.  Imagining this long and wandering nerve wrap around, affecting every organ, all the way to the digestive system.  But it's a two way communication.  Visualizing the nerve returning to the brain with an “All clear!” message to the brain is key.

At the beginning of every yoga practice, we ground the body by turning to the breath.  Slow, deep belly breathing stimulates the vagus nerve as the diaphragm moves.  This activates the body’s relation response.  Breath through your nose, following the breath in.  Exhale slowly, imagining the belly completely emptying the air. 

One of my favorite phone apps is CALM.  My husband and I often listen to Tamara’s 10 minute meditation just before going to sleep. 

Reset Your Brain

Calming the vagus nerve through meditation resets the brain. Other ways to stimulate the Vagus Nerve include aerobic exercise, brief exposure to very cold temperatures, gentle massage, and humming.  No wonder I feel happy when I sing!   

Would you like to learn more?  Check out this week’s edition of AARP, written by Jeanne Dorin McDowell, March/April 2026

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This Week's Schedule

Monday, March 23

9:15 Judy & Andy (V)

10:30 Open through June 30

11:45 am Delicious Deep Stretch

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Tuesday, March 24

9 Christina (S)

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 11:30 Michael (V) 

2:00 Susan J (S)

Wednesday, March 25

9 Carol & Chris (D) delivered

10:30 Jenny (D)

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Thursday, March 26

9 Christina (S)

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12 pm Ines (S)

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Friday, March, March 27

9 am Training with Amara