"We should dedicate time every day to activate our vagus nerve"

After years of working as a researcher and seeing patients, the "inconsistency" of seeing a lot of research remain "within laboratories" led Andreu Prados to dedicate himself to "communicating" science, to "translate it" for both patients and students and health professionals. Few voices are more didactic than his to talk about one of the most forgotten parts of our body: the vagus nerve. For some time now, videos have been proliferating on social media explaining that it is altered and that there are tricks to retrain it. But what is true in all these publications? Does the vagus nerve really have such a direct impact on our well-being? Prados, who specializes in digestive disorders, explains that knowing it is key to understanding how one of the great ills of the 21st century works from within: stress.

The vagus nerve, Prados begins, is a "very long" nerve that connects the brain with almost all the organs in the body. "Its name comes from the Latin verb vagari, which means to wander or roam," he explains. In other words, it is not a "lazy" nerve – he clarifies with a smile – but a nerve that has an extensive route throughout our body.

Inside, if we observed it with a microscope, we would see that it is a huge network of more than one hundred thousand nerve fibers. 80% of these inform the brain about what is happening in the organs – in the stomach, intestines, heart, lungs. Others travel in the opposite direction: they leave the brain and send orders to the organs: thus we secrete bile, move our vocal cords or our intestines move so that we can go to the toilet. A last group of vagus nerve fibers is responsible for making the so-called parasympathetic nervous system work, which Prados defines as "the calm system, the one that allows us to lower our revolutions after stressful situations." "If we were a car, it would be the handbrake of our organism," exemplifies this resident of L'Ampolla, who is a pharmacist and dietitian-nutritionist by training. And here comes the problem.

Stress, Prados continues, is not bad. It helps us run to not miss the bus, to manage a “toxic boss at work” or to react to the unexpected. “In our ancestors, a long time ago, it helped them flee from a predator,” illustrates the Ebre communicator. Afterwards, if all goes well, the parasympathetic nervous system will activate and we will relax. The problem is that it has reached a point where many people are pressing the accelerator all day long, that is, functioning only with the sympathetic nervous system – not the parasympathetic. “We are not giving the vagus nerve space to have time to act and for our body to recover after a peak of stress; sustained stress is inhibiting this nerve which is so key to our well-being,” he warns.

"If I'm not explaining myself well, tell me and I'll explain it again in other words, okay?", Prados says on several occasions during the interview. But it's not necessary: listening to him is like suddenly being given that kind of useful science for everyday life that you missed so much in high school. He, in fact, is also a professor at Ramon Llull University.

Practical advice is not long in coming. To activate our vagus nerve – that is, to relearn how to regulate this “accelerator-brake game” that many of us have altered and to recover “the biochemical, physiological and emotional balance” that defines our well-being – Prados says we should dedicate time each day to doing certain actions "consciously".

There are studies that have shown that singing regularly – in a choir, for example – activates the vagus nerve. Even humming! Doing certain breathing routines also helps. Prados mentions two: taking a deep breath and moving it from the chest to the abdomen, and vice versa, several times; or taking long breaths only through the nose following patterns. Although it may be surprising, there is also scientific evidence that saunas activate it, as does contact with nature. Even dedicating a few minutes a day to stopping and being with oneself is also recommended: meditating, doing yoga or simply being “in conscious silence”. “It helps me to do it first thing in the morning,” says Prados, who asks to avoid the first gesture of the day, picking up the mobile phone, as much as possible. “It's totally anti-vagus nerve!”, he exclaims.

One last brief piece of advice? “Take care of your microbiota,” the communicator states emphatically, who is a big defender of fiber from vegetables, legumes, fruit, seeds... “What happens in the gut doesn't stay in the gut: the microorganisms we have in our gut communicate with the brain through the vagus nerve and this also modulates our mental health,” he concludes. The interview, which sought to understand the stress of our times, ends in the early 1900s. Even then, studies showed that a powerful gut-brain connection exists: patients who had part of their stomach (or all of it) removed to treat an ulcer developed more psychiatric disorders.