vagus nerve for better weight control
 

Interestingly, in my travels I stumbled on some studies talking about how stimulation of the vagus nerve leads to weight loss. Stimulating the nerve has been done for epileptics and they found many of them lost weight.


I have long suspected something like this. I believe your body has no "accurate" way to measure calories per se like we do. But it does have a way to measure "volume" and nutrients - via the vagus nerve - which extends down to your stomach and intestines.


When you eat a large meal and become satiated (which they say is the vagus nerve being stimulated) the nerve shuts off your desire to eat. I do believe it is not just about large volume but you also have to be satisifed.


In fact they do believe certain obesity based diets cause the vagus nerve to become less sensitive. Now, why would that be? Well high calorie - low volume foods -- such as candy or cake do not stimulate the vagus nerve as well as more high volume foods. I have definitely found this... being able to consume an entire bag of candy. There I am satisfied without volume.


You can also stimulate your vagus nerve manually by - slow breathing, singing, humming or -- get this just being social. Almost anything you do that expends air out of you stimulates the nerve. Which runs on the back your throat. Such as talking, laughing, chewing gum. Ironically dieting always makes me less social as being social typically means food.


It has also been shown to be stimulated by intermittent fasting. But again, I think this is due to "breaking the fast". When you break the fast you eat a lot in a smaller period and are full and satiated probably 1x per day.


If you have basically been dieting your entire life I think it is very possible that your vagus nerve is less sensitive. By eating less food for long swaths you most likely have not been stimulating the nerve frequently. Thus it will not shut off and make you full as soon as other people with a more sensitive nerve.

Interesting. I remember once an elderly woman told me that during surgery her vagus nerve was damaged and as a result she never felt hunger. Her son's had to bring her food and make sure she ate it because she was losing too much weight. What do you think of that in connection to what you posted?

Originally Posted by Wannabehealthy:
Interesting. I remember once an elderly woman told me that during surgery her vagus nerve was damaged and as a result she never felt hunger. Her son's had to bring her food and make sure she ate it because she was losing too much weight. What do you think of that in connection to what you posted?

Depending on what was damaged yes I could see it. I suspect that is how your stomach and intestines communicates with your mind.

It is funny Geer Childers used to have this Body Flex program which I thought was silly -- where she said if you took deep breaths for 15 minutes a day you would lose weight. Well, if deep breathing does stimulate your vagus nerve it likely is assisting.