Vagus Nerve Treatment with Craniosacral Therapy in New York City

The vagus nerve is one of the most complex nerves in the human body, regulating essential functions such as breathing, digestion, heart rate, and hormone control. Because the brain uses it to send information to the body's organs, the vagus nerve is the link between our mental and physical health — often called the "mind-body connection."

The vagus nerve also has a tremendous impact on the immune system, the gut, and mental health. In its role of seeking balance — anything from controlling the resting heart rate to swallowing and digesting food — it carries out several basic functions:

• Decreasing inflammation
• Producing anti-stress hormones
• Keeping the lungs breathing
• Supporting immune and stem cell function

When the vagus nerve is compressed or out of alignment, a range of unwelcome symptoms can arise that disturb daily life and overall health. As a Craniosacral Therapist, Dr. Kaminsky assesses the nervous system for anything interfering with the proper functioning of the vagus nerve, then works gently to support its return to healthy, balanced function.

The vagus nerve is classified as a parasympathetic nerve. One of its jobs is to relax or reduce the body's stress and activities — slowing the heart rate and other responses — and to support digestion, including increasing saliva release. Its most important function is bringing information from the liver, gut, heart, lungs, and other organs back to the brain.

By contrast, the sympathetic nervous system carries the "fight-or-flight" response, sending signals that put the body's systems on high alert. Internal stability and balance — hormone secretion, circulation, respiration, digestion, and more — depend on these two contrasting activities staying in balance to maintain the body's homeostasis, or equilibrium.

When the scales tip

It is a shared "balancing act." Interferences such as stress, spinal subluxation, a negative experience, trauma, or an accident can tip the scales and have a broad, far-reaching effect on both mental and physical health. When the sympathetic nervous system is activated by trauma or imminent danger, it acts defensively and elevates the body systems it governs — heart rate, blood flow, and others — to be on high alert and ready to respond.

As long as these high-alert moments are brief, the vagus nerve is healthy, and you are living a healthy lifestyle, the parasympathetic nervous system de-escalates things and signals the body to rest, digest, and repair, counterbalancing the fight-or-flight system and returning you to a healthy state of homeostasis. Because the two branches of the autonomic nervous system are like scales seeking balance, they cannot both be activated at the same time — the body triggers one at a time: alert or relax.

Getting stuck in "high alert"

Should this intricate, delicate balance be interrupted by physical trauma or emotional stress for an extended period, the nervous system can become chronically sympathetic-dominant and shift toward the most primitive form of defense — immobilization — and get stuck there, keeping you living around the clock in a state of high alert. This can be associated with high blood pressure, elevated stress hormones, anxiety, insomnia, and a host of physiological and psychological problems. Humans have not evolved to use this primitive defense on a regular, sustained basis, and we are not good at shifting from immobilization back to balanced homeostasis.

When these primitive vagus nerve pathways stay heavily tilted toward the sympathetic system for prolonged periods and become entrenched, it can be very hard for the nervous system to move back into a state of feeling safe — without professional, therapeutic support. Using what is known about the vagus nerve and the central nervous system, Dr. Kaminsky aims to help the body get unstuck from a stressful, sympathetic-dominant state and move back toward a healthy, balanced homeostasis.

Craniosacral Therapy aims to address vagus dysfunction symptoms through natural healing, with a focus on stimulating the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

Research has indicated that Craniosacral Therapy focusing on the vagus nerve at the level of the neck — directly adjacent to the atlas (C1) vertebra — can stimulate the vagus nerve enough to help quiet an over-stimulated sympathetic nervous system and restore under-stimulated parasympathetic, calming activity. This research concluded that the therapy essentially removed "pressure" from the vagus nerve, restoring proper function. It also documented an immediate reduction in inflammation, lowered blood pressure, and later signs of reduced anxiety, stress, and depression among participants in the study.

The healthier your vagus nerve response, the more likely and faster you are to recover after feeling stress. This is why the vagus nerve is sometimes referred to as the body's internal brake pedal, able to help subdue levels of anxiety, depression, and stress, among other things. Research published in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews determined that improved functioning of vagal tone can result in promoting emotional resilience. Other research has indicated that reinvigorating the health of the vagus nerve should be a first-line treatment for both cluster and migraine headaches.

Medical research has linked many chronic diseases to altered vagus nerve function, which can be assessed and detected through vagal tone or heart rate variability readings.