Vagus Nerve Activation with Dr. Navaz Habib

11/15/19 • 35 min

The Functional Medicine Radio Show With Dr. Carri

In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Dr. Navaz Habib explains the importance of the vagus nerve to our overall health.

Dr. Habib’s book “Activate Your Vagus Nerve” is a simple to follow guide to help you identify and address a major missing piece in patients dealing with chronic health concerns. By activating the Vagus nerve, we can optimize our productivity, focus and energy levels, allowing us to feel the positive effects of upgraded health.

Main Questions Asked about the Vagus Nerve:

What is the vagus nerve and why is it so important?
How do we know if our vagus nerve is working properly or not?
Are there specific signs to look for? Are there tests?
What about treatment? How do we fix this?
Are there exercises to help rehabilitate the vagus nerve?
What else do we need to know about the vagus nerve?

Key Points made by Dr. Habib about the Vagus Nerve:

The vagus nerve is one of the most important nerves in our body. This nerve is the only one that leaves from the cranium, which is where our brain is located, and goes to the other organs.
It goes to many different organs in our body; essentially, you name the organ and the vagus nerve goes to and innervates that organ.
The vagus nerve not only sends information to the organs from the brain, but also from the organs back to the brain.
Most of us have heard of the brain gut connection and the physical connection is the vagus nerve. It is the fastest and clearest direct path between the brain and the gut.
An easy way to check if the gut brain connection is working, and that the vagus nerve can transfer the information between the gut and the brain, is to see if our gut is working the way it should be.
Digestive dysfunction is one of the most important, most common signs of vagus nerve dysfunction that we see.
There is one test that I feel is a great way for anyone to just check to see how well their gut is functioning. It’s called the sesame seed bowel transit time test. Pick up a small bag of white sesame seeds, put a spoonful of these in a glass of water and drink it down, without chewing the seeds. Our body cannot digest the covering so they will show up in the stool. What we are looking for is the time it takes to see the first seeds in our stool and then when we see the last seeds to come out in our stool.
Anywhere between 12 and 24 hours is good. Anything more or less than that is a sign that our vagus nerve isn’t working properly.
There are other signs, as well. The vagus nerve has four different functions. One being a parasympathetic function, which is our rest and digest function – so one thing I look for is how well people handle stress. Inability to handle stress and/or recover from a stressful event means that their bodies are not very well adapted.
15% of the information passing through the autonomic nervous system (which is the system that controls all the things we don’t think about, g., digestion, heartbeat and breathing) is parasympathetic. If these things don’t function well and don’t allow for recovery, it means the vagus is not working well.
This is where a lot of issues with inflammation occur. If we’re not able to control our levels of inflammation, it’s because our vagus is not able to do its job.
We have a system called the blood brain barrier, which is supposed to keep inflammatory products, viruses, , out of the brain; but the vagus is a direct bypass.
If we start to have leakiness in the gut because our function is compromised, it’s easy for the inflammation to get through the gut blood barrier into the vagus nerve and bypass the blood brain barrier leading to the brain fogginess incidents where you are dealing with memory loss, walking into a room and forgetting why, and forgetting where you parked the car, for example.
This is a direct sign of inflammatory processes in the brain, especially when one had a good memory before.
Thus treating the gut issues are not always enough to resolve issues.
Travel is one of one of those things where our body is put under a lot of stress and that stress can be because we’re crossing time zones, for example, and our body is don’t know what time it is, and so we throw off our melatonin responses and our hormones get thrown off. And in doing so, when we change our schedules, our bodies don’t know whether they’re in a state of being awa...

In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Dr. Navaz Habib explains the importance of the vagus nerve to our overall health.

Main Questions Asked about the Vagus Nerve:

What is the vagus nerve and why is it so important?
How do we know if our vagus nerve is working properly or not?
Are there specific signs to look for? Are there tests?
What about treatment? How do we fix this?
Are there exercises to help rehabilitate the vagus nerve?
What else do we need to know about the vagus nerve?

Key Points made by Dr. Habib about the Vagus Nerve:

The vagus nerve is one of the most important nerves in our body. This nerve is the only one that leaves from the cranium, which is where our brain is located, and goes to the other organs.
It goes to many different organs in our body; essentially, you name the organ and the vagus nerve goes to and innervates that organ.
The vagus nerve not only sends information to the organs from the brain, but also from the organs back to the brain.
Most of us have heard of the brain gut connection and the physical connection is the vagus nerve. It is the fastest and clearest direct path between the brain and the gut.
An easy way to check if the gut brain connection is working, and that the vagus nerve can transfer the information between the gut and the brain, is to see if our gut is working the way it should be.
Digestive dysfunction is one of the most important, most common signs of vagus nerve dysfunction that we see.
There is one test that I feel is a great way for anyone to just check to see how well their gut is functioning. It’s called the sesame seed bowel transit time test. Pick up a small bag of white sesame seeds, put a spoonful of these in a glass of water and drink it down, without chewing the seeds. Our body cannot digest the covering so they will show up in the stool. What we are looking for is the time it takes to see the first seeds in our stool and then when we see the last seeds to come out in our stool.
Anywhere between 12 and 24 hours is good. Anything more or less than that is a sign that our vagus nerve isn’t working properly.
There are other signs, as well. The vagus nerve has four different functions. One being a parasympathetic function, which is our rest and digest function – so one thing I look for is how well people handle stress. Inability to handle stress and/or recover from a stressful event means that their bodies are not very well adapted.
15% of the information passing through the autonomic nervous system (which is the system that controls all the things we don’t think about, g., digestion, heartbeat and breathing) is parasympathetic. If these things don’t function well and don’t allow for recovery, it means the vagus is not working well.
This is where a lot of issues with inflammation occur. If we’re not able to control our levels of inflammation, it’s because our vagus is not able to do its job.
We have a system called the blood brain barrier, which is supposed to keep inflammatory products, viruses, , out of the brain; but the vagus is a direct bypass.
If we start to have leakiness in the gut because our function is compromised, it’s easy for the inflammation to get through the gut blood barrier into the vagus nerve and bypass the blood brain barrier leading to the brain fogginess incidents where you are dealing with memory loss, walking into a room and forgetting why, and forgetting where you parked the car, for example.
This is a direct sign of inflammatory processes in the brain, especially when one had a good memory before.
Thus treating the gut issues are not always enough to resolve issues.
Travel is one of one of those things where our body is put under a lot of stress and that stress can be because we’re crossing time zones, for example, and our body is don’t know what time it is, and so we throw off our melatonin responses and our hormones get thrown off. And in doing so, when we change our schedules, our bodies don’t know whether they’re in a state of being awa...

Previous Episode

Fermented Foods and Gut Health with Dr. Carolyn Griffin

In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Dr. Carolyn Griffin explains the link between fermented foods and gut health.

Dr. Carolyn Griffin is a chiropractor and Certified Fermentationist. She created My Cultured Life which is a learning source to teach people how to make fermented foods and beverages on their own. This is where she shares what’s brewing in her kitchen and easy ways for you to do the same. Fermented foods and beverages are the best way to get your daily dose of a variety of healthy probiotics.

Main Questions Asked about Fermented Foods:

What is fermentation?
Why is it making a comeback?
Why should we be eating fermented foods?
What’s the difference between probiotic supplements and fermented foods?
What are some examples of fermented food?
What’s the difference between making your own and buying it at the store?
How do you make your own kefir or kombucha?

Key Points made by Dr. Griffin about Fermented Foods:

Fermentation has been around for thousands of years and is only recently making a comeback. It’s a natural process of preserving food.
When food is exposed to bacteria and yeast, the microorganisms convert the sugars to lactic acid creating an acidic environment in which fools will not rot or spoil.
I think people are reaching for more information and realizing that they need to be their own health advocate. And, fermentation is a healthy way of getting probiotics into your system, which is going to help your gut heal.
We already know that 70% of your immune system is in your gut, so if you’re eating foods that are going to healthier for you, and you start to heal that, a lot of other conditions that people may be suffering with are going to resolve.
I’m not 100% against probiotic supplements. I just think there is a difference between them and fermented foods. Probiotics are live bacteria. A lot of time in the process of isolating the bacteria to put them in a capsule, a lot die.
Because they’re live organisms, the best source is going to be from fermented foods that you create.
Sauerkraut for example is loaded with probiotics, bacteria, enzymes, vitamins, all kinds of things.
When you’re talking about a supplement, a lot can go wrong. You really need to learn to read labels. So, there’s more of a question mark about a probiotic supplement versus a fermented food.
Research is now showing that the more diverse the bacteria that live in us, the better. We’re finding that people in third world countries don’t have the same health issues that we do; for example, there’s not a lot of auto-immune disease.
One of the reasons is the diversity. We, in Western civilization, tend to live in a very sterilized environment. Dirt, dust and dander are our friends, but we tend to eliminate all of this, and it’s causing a lot of issues for us.
We take 50% of the medications on the market, yet we’re the 37th healthiest country, at least in the U.S. so we’re not very healthy; a lot of it has to do with our lifestyle and what we’re doing to our gut.
Kefir is one example of a fermented food. It’s a fermented milk product that has the consistency of drinkable yogurt. It’s loaded with probiotics, 36-50 different strains compared to the 7-10 strains you might find in yogurt.
The main difference between yogurt and kefir, is where we know yogurt will feed the good bacteria that’s already in your gut, kefir will actually colonize the gut.
It’s 99% lactose-free, so people who are lactose intolerant can actually benefit from it.
Kombucha is another, it’s a fermented tea. What’s really cool about kombucha is that it contains a yeast that is antibiotic-resistant. If you were in the hospital and given antibiotics you would be given a probiotic that contains this yeast found in kombucha.
And, of course, fermented foods like sauerkraut and other cultured foods that you make by creating a brine and/or immersing it in water.
Buying fermented food versus making it at home has the same issues as store bought probiotics – it’s manufactured in a plant, it travels to the store, it sits on the shelf, who knows how long it will sit, it’s going to lose some of its effectiveness.
Also, a lot of time store-bought kefir is flavoured because the plain is quite tart but you’re not in control of the sugar content – you could be getting more than you bargained for.
Kefir is easy to make at home; it’s the best way to start. You need kefir grains and cow’s milk or sheep’s milk or goat milk – it must have lactose, so it has to come from an animal. You leave it on the countertop for 24 hours, and it will ferment; strain out the gra...

Next Episode

Mold Toxicity and Exposure with Dr. Ann Shippy

In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Dr Ann Shippy explains the symptoms of mold toxicity and mold exposure.

Dr. Ann Shippy, MD, is on a mission to help create extraordinary wellness by using cutting-edge science, testing, and the latest genetic research to find and treat root causes—and not just the symptoms—of illness. As a former IBM engineer, Dr. Shippy became frustrated that traditional medicine couldn’t find answers to her own health ailments, so she left a decade in engineering to adapt her skill set to the world of medicine.

She is board certified in internal medicine and certified in functional medicine. She is on a tireless mission to help create a world of wellness ... “because every life matters”. She is the author of two books, Shippy Paleo Essentials and Mold Toxicity Workbook: Assess Your Environment & Create a Recovery Plan.

Main Questions Asked about Mold Toxicity:

Why is mold exposure dangerous?
What are the symptoms of mold exposure and mold toxicity?
How fast do these symptoms occur? What about susceptibility?
What is the difference between a mold allergy and mold toxicity?
Where are some of the common places you might find mold?
If somebody thinks they might have mold, what’s the best way to remediate that?
What about at-home testing?

Key Points made by about Mold Toxicity by Ann Shippy:

Mold, in its growth process, makes chemicals called mycotoxins or mVOCs (microbial Volatile Organic Compounds). There are hundreds of types of mold and thousands of chemicals being made.
The mycotoxins, when we study them, can cause cancer, can suppress the immune system, can flare up autoimmunity, can directly damage genes; because there are so many chemicals, they have a lot of different effects on the body.
You need to remember, when you’re handling the sandbags or pulling up old moldy carpet, is that some of these chemicals are the types of things binge used for biological warfare. Some are really significant carcinogens. We need to be handling these with caution – a Hazmat suit is not going too far.
Just like any other environmental toxin, you won’t really have symptoms until your barrel fills up. Our bodies are constantly exposed to environmental toxins, but until you get to the point where the toxins are building up and interfering with the biochemistry and physiology, you’ll usually feel fine.
What I see a lot with families is that each person has their own weak link where the toxicity has the biggest impact. Furthermore, this can occur in different timeframes, where one member of the household is suffering while the rest of the household feels “normal”. It’s hard for them to understand.
When I hear symptoms that are really suspicious for mold toxicity – e.g., brain fog, OCD, anxiety, insomnia, hair loss, skin rashes, new onset asthma or worsening allergies – I ask myself “do I try these other things, that are less upsetting to their lifestyle, to get them better, or do I go straight to the issue of an environmental toxin like mold”?
I think it’s really important to be proactive – if you had a water leak in your house and it wasn’t dried up within 24-48 hours, it makes sense to get an expert to come in and see if there is hidden mold, or to do your own testing.
It’s necessary to be clear on the difference between a mold allergy and mold toxicity. The former is an allergy to the spore, the organism itself which unless you have severe asthma is not life threatening. The actual toxins themselves, however, is like getting poisoned, even a very small amount can make people very sick.
Also note, that lack of an odour is not an indication that you don’t have mold.
Mold toxicity is a big factor for cognitive decline, many patients with cognitive decline have some mold exposure in their history.
Mold can result from, be hidden in simple things – the carpet you shampooed that didn’t dry properly, plumbing leaks (even pinhole leaks in dishwashers and ice makers), improperly sealed showers, flashing around chimneys and windows, air conditioning systems – there may not be enough water to be visible but there’s enough water to feed a mold colony.
That 24-48 hours to clean up and dry up water is key.
One of the clues for mold toxicity is when patients tell you they feel better at home than at the office; or feel better on vacation and worse wh...