Welcome back to the inspired
living with autoimmunity podcast.
I'm your host, Julie Michelson.
And today we are joined by Dr.
Navaz Habib author of activate
your vagus nerve and the host
of the health upgrade podcast.
In this episode, we are talking about
you guessed it, the important role of the
vagus nerve and controlling inflammation
and how exercising it can improve your.
Dr.
Habib con connects the dots for us
between autoimmunity and the vagus nerve.
And he gives us amazing
tips and exercises.
We can start implementing today
to improve our vagal tone.
Dr Habib, welcome to the podcast.
It's an honor to be here.
Thanks for having me.
I am super excited to
start this conversation.
I, it's gonna be such a
value for listeners but I
love to find out how it is.
You came to be specializing
in what you're doing.
Because I know most.
That's not what we dreamt
of when we were kids.
So would you be willing to
share some of your story with.
Yeah, absolutely.
So my story just like so many other
kind of functional and wellness
based practitioners starts with
my own health issue actually.
So I was in chiropractic college.
I'm a chiropractor by profession now, but.
When I was in chiropractic
college, I weighed 250 pounds.
I had high blood pressure.
I was borderline diabetic in my twentie.
And it was really, it
was a bit of an oxymoron.
I was in a health based school, learning
how to teach my patients how to be
healthy and live healthier lives.
And yet I wasn't kinda living it myself.
And I was honored to be
selected as valedictorian of
my class, which was wonderful.
I still remember being
on stage and just having.
Overcome feeling of imposter syndrome
that I'm, I'm speaking to 1500 people
including classmates and family
members from this stage about our
journey through our health college.
And yet I'm the one who probably
needs that support the most.
And wasn't able to implement
a lot of that myself.
And I think what happened over the
next little bit was I started to
get into this mindset of how do I.
Use this for myself, how do I
shift it so that my health journey
can actually become a positive?
Because at the time I had just met my
wife we were talking about future kids,
kind of all of those positive things.
And we didn't want to have our kids
deal with the same health challenges
that me and my wife were dealing with.
And so we started to
go on this journey of.
Figuring out how do I get
the weight under control?
How do I address the,
the blood sugar issues?
How do I address these challenges?
And it was a bit of a,
a discovery process.
It took a little time to go through
the calorie counting and the
changing my diet to this and that.
And then I realized that it just wasn't
working the way that I was hoping for.
And it was because the focus wasn't
on what I needed to be focusing.
fast forward a little bit.
And I was in a chiropractic
office working as an associate.
I was in a spot that I'm rarely in at
a time that I'm rarely at that clinic.
And a gentleman walks into the office
and says my, that his wife was in a car
accident that she needed chiropractic
care that he himself was a chiropractor,
but didn't practice chiropractic.
and I said, well, what else
does a chiropractor do?
I'm a chiropractor.
Like, what else could I possibly do?
And he said, I practice functional
medicine and my mind was.
What, what is this?
Tell me about this.
I started having a conversation with him.
I met this gentleman multiple
times in the morning.
He would meet me.
We would sit down at a coffee shop and
just chat for an hour, hour and a half.
He was very generous with his time
and he introduced me to this thought
process that rather than trying to
get away from the diagnosis and the
disease, I needed to start looking
at health in a holistic sense.
And.
Being healthy was different than not just
having those diagnoses and those diseases.
The gentleman's name is Dr.
Satin Patel
Ah
and it was just the, the most opportune
moment because he actually lived in
the building that I was working in.
And so it was one of
those amazing experiences.
I've goosebumps just telling the.
I, I have goosebumps just listening to it.
And satin was really the, the catalyst to
help me figure out what I needed to do.
And once that shift happened, I
ended up losing 75 pounds, got
rid of all of my health struggles.
I changed my diet, my lifestyle,
my health became my absolute focus.
And I haven't looked back since I knew
that there was a connecting point here
and that I needed to share this with
as many people as I possibly could.
And that's what led me into the realm
of functional medicine, because I
just needed to get more people to
understand what health truly is.
And this is why we're
doing the podcast right.
Is so that we can reach those people.
And I, I do think, you know, that's,
I, I love working with my one on one
clients and working at the clinic and but.
My biggest goal in life is for
nobody to be stuck at that place.
I was where you were
before we knew, right.
And everybody should
know what's available.
And, and I love this reinforcement
of, you know, there's health.
Isn't just the absence of disease.
And, and so many just don't know
what true wellness can feel like.
So I love, I love that.
What an amazing story.
I'm so glad I asked and, and
it's the pay it forward, right?
Like that's.
So we're gonna talk about
Vegas nerve today and how it
connects with auto immunity.
And like I said, when we jumped on
I'm, I'm so excited, it it's a topic
that's come up before on the podcast.
But I, I, a people can't hear about it
enough and B I am excited to, to deep.
And, and have you really
connect the dots for us on, you
know, we hear it's important.
Yes.
But then I have 20 questions of . Why,
how so let's just start at the, at
the beginning, you know, what, why
are we talking about Vegas nerve on
an auto immunity, wellness podcast?
Yeah, absolutely.
And, and the vagus nerve is
something that I think has come
up more recently in, in people's.
Radar.
and, and what they're looking at.
And it's exciting because I'm actually
able to help people understand
this is that connecting point.
This is how each one of these
different dots is connected.
So the vagus nerve is
our 10th cranial nerve.
We have 12 pairs of cranial nerves.
These are primarily the nerves that
actually support function of the head
and all of our senses in and around
our cranial cavity or head Cav.
The vagus nerve is the only
nerve out of these 12 pairs that
actually leaves the head cavity.
But what's crazy about it is it
doesn't just leave it then goes
and connects to essentially every
other organ within the entire body.
And it's crazy what,
what we can talk about.
And so that's literally why
it's called the vagus nerve.
It's root word is vague or wandering,
meaning it goes everywhere.
And so.
With this particular nerve,
it comes out of the brain stem
and goes down through the neck.
It sends a branch to the ear.
Something we can talk about
a little bit down the road.
It sends a couple of branches to the
muscles of the airways in the neck.
So the pharyngeal and laryngeal branches
of the vagus nerve go to the muscles of
the airways at the back of the throat.
And then it goes.
Alongside the carotid
artery and jugular vein.
So it's literally within the carotid
sheath and we have one on each side.
We have two vagus nerves, just a
fun little side note for everybody.
We don't have just one.
We have.
And these two connect together in the
thorax, they go down into the chest area
and then they kind of blend and mesh
together to work together and they connect
to the esophagus, the heart, the lungs
continue on down through the diaphragm.
They don't connect to the diaphragm,
but they go through it and that's
gonna be an important one as well.
And then almost every single
organ in the abdomen has a
connection to the vagus nerve.
It innovates directly to the stomach,
pancreas, liver, gallbladder,
small intestine, large intestine,
kidneys, spleen, you name it.
Every organ is somehow
connected to the vagus nerve.
And so it's really
important to understand.
A how important it is.
It's, it's, cosing alongside your
carotid artery and your jugular vein.
So it's probably an important structure,
cuz those are the two blood vessels
that take the blood to your brain.
And it's also then connected
to so many different things.
So is it controlling all of those
organs or is it sensing what's
going on and what's going on there?
And so we can dig a little bit deeper
into the function of the vagus nerve for.
Amazing.
And I, I love the, I always
love learning . This is why I
love having these conversations.
I love that.
Just the visual that you just gave
us of, you know, exactly where
it is going and, and we'll get
into more of what it is doing.
I had the aha moment.
I don't know if you saw me kind of giggle.
I'm like, oh, that's why all the,
you know, Garling humming singing,
you know, makes so much sense now
that I can visualize, even though
I knew it was right there, I just
so, and we'll get to some of that.
I'm sure later.
As well, so, okay.
It it's touches every organ.
Right.
And it, and let's let's how, how
does that control inflammation?
You know, when, when I talk to people
about auto immunity or I'll have
people come and say, you know, well,
I don't have autoimmunity, but I have
X, Y, or Z, you know, can you help me?
I'm like, well, yeah, cuz
it's all inflammation.
It's all EV there is
not a chronic illness.
You can name, that's not
driven by inflammation.
And so connect, connect those dots for
us, if you will, between the Vegas nerve
and or nerves and, and inflammation.
How, how does it.
Perfect.
Yeah.
The, so a couple important things
as we lead into that area, about
80% of the information that is on
the vagus nerve is coming from the
organs up to the brain, brain stem.
That means that 80% of
the information is ENT.
It is sensing what's happening
internally within the body.
It is sensing stretch within the
stomach, the small intestine, the
large intestine, and allowing for
our migrating motor complex and
peristalsis to occur in those organs.
In the digestive tract.
It is sensing inflammation
in all of those areas.
It is it the inflammatory cytokine.
That are that become present in
every single one of these organs when
inflammation is present are sending
signals to the endings of the vagus nerve.
And that information is being
relayed up to the brain stating,
Hey, we have inflammation here.
We have something going on here.
We need to look into this a little bit.
So all of these inflammatory kind of
triggers that are occurring within
every organ, primarily within the
gut, this is an important one are
transferred up through the vagus nerve.
The vagus nerve is the gut brain
access, the physical connection
of the gut brain access.
This is how information gets
relayed from what's happening
internally up to the brain.
There are some other roots, but the vagus
nerve kind of that primary physical route
by which in information is passed up.
When it gets up there, we process, we say,
okay, we've got some inflammation here.
We've got nothing going on there.
So let's spend a bit of time
and effort trying to shut down
inflammation in X particular organ.
And that inflammation is again, relayed
through the vagus nerve on the efferent
pathways, meaning from the brain down to
the organs and those efferent pathways
send out something called acetylcholine.
Acetylcholine is the
primary neurotransmitter.
And in fact, the only neurotransmitter
used by the vagus nerve and acetylcholine
sends out the signal to the inflammatory
cells, the immune system cells
within all of these organs, including
macrophages within the the gut, the cup
for cells and the liver to Particular
macrophages within the pancreas, the
microglial cells within the brain.
So it also connects upwards
into the central nervous system
to osteoclast in the bone.
And it sends a signal saying we
don't need you to be so inflammatory.
We need you to shut it down.
Essentially it tells it
to put the brakes on.
If we think of it in a very simple way,
inflammation is like an accelerator.
We need it.
At certain times, you push
the accelerator and we need to
go in those acute scenarios.
Wonderful.
Let's go for it.
But what happens if you're pushing the
accelerator and your brakes are not
working, can the accelerator and the
movement of the car become dangerous?
To those around you.
If you can't slow it down, that's
what happens when inflammation
becomes chronic and uncontrolled.
And so the job of the vagus
nerve is to control and slow.
The inflammation, the vagus nerve is
the breaks to the inflammatory pathway.
That happens in every single organ.
And so it sends out this signal physically
through the vagus nerve to all of
these organs, but also through the the
splenic nerve, it connects through a
different branch to the spleen where that
signal is then amplified throughout the
entire body through spleen, essentially
creating the signal, saying we.
Acetylcholine to go to all of
these different organs and to shut
down inflammation, we don't need
the inflammation to be so high.
So you can imagine when the vagus
nerve is not working well, it's almost
like that brake line is cut or your
brake pads or break wearing down.
You're not able to
control the inflammation.
And so the inflammation level goes up.
This is common in rheumatoid
arthritis or Crohn's or colitis.
This is common in psoriasis
and eczema as well.
We see that uncontrolled inflammation
then leads to these autoimmunity
based issues Hashimotos and whatnot.
And what we need to do is to lower
that inflammatory threshold to lower
the inflammation overall, and to allow
for our inflammation levels to become
controlled and put on the brakes, to allow
us to function at a really high level.
So.
So important as you're saying
all of this, I'm thinking.
Okay.
So in theory, would it make sense then
to say once somebody experiences chronic
inflammation, to the point that they've
received an autoimmune diagnosis,
you can just assume I hate that word.
That the vagus nerve isn't working
top the, you know, top of its.
Yeah, I just like every other functional
practitioner, the word assume is terrible
I know it's horrible.
Pre we'll say, pre can you pre
we can presume that there is something
that is not working in that control
section that the vagus nerve is just not
able to send out the signaling that it
needs to, that vagal tone may be reduced
that the nerve is just not working
as well as we want it to be working.
Ah, and you just planted such a seed
for us, cuz I have a feeling we're
gonna talk at some point about Vaal
tone and how to improve Vaal tone.
So other than.
If somebody's experiencing, you know,
symptoms that they know are, are related
to chronic inflammation, is there
a way to tell, you know, somebody's
listening and they're maybe they're
listening cuz they have a loved one
with auto immunity and they're like,
well ha I wonder how I get nervous.
And Lily wants to make her,
her voice heard as well.
So the best way to really kind of
dig into this, to understand vagal
tone and vagus nerve function.
Lucky enough, we're in a position now
where our technology has kind of caught
up and it's able to help us see things
that we weren't able to see before.
So the very basic, very easiest way
to see if there might be something
wrong with the vagus nerve, not
necessarily directly is your heart rate.
Okay.
So your heart rate is actually
lowered by vagus nerve innovation.
The vagus nerve helps to lower your
heart rate into a proper resting zone.
If we see a heart rate resting heart rate
in particular over 70 beats per minute.
It's a pretty clear sign that your
body's working really hard and
you're in a sympathetic state.
Okay.
We haven't talked a lot about this,
but the autonomic nervous system,
essentially the control of the natural
automatic processes within our body.
Is done by two systems, one or
the autonomic nervous system
is the overarching control.
And this system has two sides.
It has the sympathetic fight or
flight side and the parasympathetic
rest digest recover side.
Yes.
I've added the word recover because.
The parasympathetic nervous
system is innovated or it's
controlled through the vagus nerve.
So that inflammatory control is
a part of that parasympathetic
nervous system where sympathetic
nervous system is that accelerator.
It's that go, go, go.
Something is happening.
There's stress we're in this fight or
flight state, and we need to be going hard
and the accelerator needs to be pushed and
in an acute circumstance, that's great.
You're exercising, you're
biking, you're lifting weights.
You're.
Handling some sort of
stressor at work phenomenal.
But if that stress is constant, it's
gonna slowly wear down the brakes.
It's like pushing the accelerator
and the brakes at the same time,
the brakes are gonna wear away
before the accelerator shuts off.
And so we don't want that to happen.
We want there to be balanced
between these two systems.
And so this is an important distinction.
So now if we get into this parasympathetic
state where we're able to lower the
heart rate, Where we're able to bring
it down into that zone of 50 to 70
kind of being a good, basic heart rate.
That's what we wanna look for as kind
of a basic overarching, not directly
located within the vagus nerve vagal tone
zone, but it does give us an indication
of maybe something not being right.
Okay.
The next step to that to look
into actual vagus nerve function
is heart rate variability.
Ah,
R V.
All right.
So this is exciting.
This is where we get to understand is
the vagus nerve working well or not?
HR V is not a measure of your heart
rate or heart beats per minute.
It's a measure of the number of
milliseconds between beats of the
heart averaged over a period of time.
Okay.
So a, we need time to be able.
Experience what your HR V really is.
The measurement is not in beats per
minute, but rather in milliseconds,
what this is essentially measuring in
the most basic sense is it's measuring.
Is your heart more of a meno or
is it able to be resilient and
handle changes that are occurring?
The key is we don't want the Metron.
We want to have resilience.
We want to have movement the
higher your heart rate variability.
The more healthy your vagus nerve is the
more Metro known your heart is the slower.
The lower your heart rate
variability is the more
sympathetic activation is going on.
So that's a direct sign of vagus
nerve function by a long shot.
There's no question.
HRV is the best measure of Vaal.
I love that.
And do you have favorite devices
that you recommend people use
many favorite devices.
yeah, me too.
I'm wearing one right now.
I've got
me too.
I love it.
Ordering is my absolute go-to favorite.
No question.
If you don't love rings and there's other
options, whoop bend is quite good as
Yep.
I have one of
Measures on the wrist.
I find finger measurements to
be a little bit more accurate.
Any kind of sense of HR V is
pretty good for the most part.
And there's good research studies
showing that these wearable devices,
whether it's a the apple watch, whoop
bend, there's a finger sensor called
the elite HR V, which is a great tool.
And, or a ring they're all quite good.
In the 90% accuracy rate for
any, any one of these devices or
a ring is my personal favorite.
Mine as well.
I, this is I've had all three generations,
so I'm a, I'm an early adopter.
A and I always say to people, so
I'm curious how, how you, and,
and that's the thing, right?
I, I totally agree.
The first two outta my mouth
would be aura and whoop.
E especially if we're
talking about HR V but.
I love that you brought in,
you know, you could use your
apple watch, you can use it.
Doesn't have to be perfect.
You're looking at trends,
you're looking at averages.
And then in the work I'm doing,
we're looking at changes, right?
We're looking at, did
you reintroduce a food?
And all of a sudden your HRV tanked
and your heart rate is higher, you
know, than we know you may not feel
inflamed, but something's going on.
And, and so these tools are, are amazing.
Yeah.
If for nothing else, I, I love these
tools just simply for their like
feedback mechanism, just for giving
you information as to what's happening,
trend wise, you said that right word.
And it's about the trend.
It's not about the number.
It's not saying, Hey, my HIV is 84.
Yesterday was 82.
I'm I'm doing much better.
That's not exactly what we're looking for.
We're looking for, if you were in
either one of those numbers I would take
That's the other thing, you know, people
say when they, when they first gain out,
well, well, you know, what do I want?
What's my target.
I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Let's just see where you are.
And then we just, we wanna
be, you know, increasing.
So.
absolutely correct.
And you'll, you'll notice and,
and you've got years of data just
like I do on my ordering app.
I know I, I can tell you within a few
points now, when I wake up within a
couple of points, what my HR V what my
readiness score, what my sleep score are.
I can tell you.
Pretty accurately.
I'm I'm about 80%, 85% accuracy in
terms of being within a few numbers.
And what's really cool is when, when you
get sick, obviously you never want to,
but what's really cool is your ring will
tell you really quickly and say, Hey,
your readiness is at like, 47 right now.
It's cuz your HIV is at 16.
You want to do something about this?
You're on a trend downwards,
get sleep, get rest.
Don't push yourself.
You need to put, try to put yourself
into that Paris empathetic state so
you can fight whatever is going on.
Yeah.
And, and, you know, we're talking
about this for overall wellness
and, and related to inflammation and
improving health, elite athletes are
using it to know, you know, today's
the day to really hit my workout.
And today, even though it's
on the calendar, today's
the day not to out so hard.
So really, really useful tools.
So, okay.
We're educated.
We understand the importance
of the vagus nerve.
You mentioned vagal tone and, and, and
so now we're tracking and we, you know,
we get our aura and we're like, Ooh.
Instead of 82, my HRV is, you know, six.
Although I hope no one's is ever that low.
What do we do?
How can we, and, and I actually
think everybody everywhere
Even if you have a great HRV like
it, that, you know, there's no
downside to improving D Vaal tone.
Right.
And, and given some love to,
to the vagus nerve, what are
some things that we can do?
Yeah.
This is a great question.
And this is really where
we can take action.
The best news here is about 99% of
what you can do is entirely free.
Yes.
It's this is like one of the
only areas of wellness too.
That's true.
That is actually true.
Yeah, and I love it because once
you realize why you're doing it
and what the kind of intent behind
these exercises and these tools are.
And specifically which branches of
the nerve you're then affecting,
then you know, that you're
creating change within there.
And you can actually semi measure
this out and see how quickly
you can get into these states.
And so let's talk about particular
branches that we can address.
And you, you mentioned a couple already
which are the, Garling the gag re.
The humming, the singing activating
the laryngeal and pharyngeal
branches of the vagus nerves.
So these are motor nerves, essentially.
These are the motor branches
of the vagus nerve that go to
muscles to actually control what's
going on within those muscles.
Now.
The pharyngeal branch goes to ensure
that our airway at the back of our throat
remains open and strong and patent.
That's what we really need to do.
A lot of people suffer from things like
sleep apnea or some sort of loss of
pharyngeal muscle tension during the
night more often than the night, but
it can happen during the day as well.
And so that compression or that
weakness in that vagus nerve branch
can lead to the collapse of the
airway leading to sleep apnea.
Okay.
So this is an important factor.
If somebody is diagnosed with sleep
apnea or something along along
those lines, even if it's like.
So with regards to that fair and gel
branch, what we want to do to stimulate
to get that airway patent and open
is we want to start humming chanting
Garling, which is really awesome.
Especially if you have digestive
issues, Garling is kind of one
of those better options as well.
Especially if you do it aggressively.
So let's, let's go with With regards
to the pharyngeal and larygeal
branches a top three exercises.
Garling humming chant.
Okay.
With regards to Garling.
What you want to do is I, I have my
patients keep a, a glass by their sink.
I have them put a little water in
when they're brushing their teeth
in the morning in the evening,
make this a, a simple habit.
That's tied to brushing your teeth.
Ideally, you're doing that a
couple times a day already.
So now we can just add a
couple minutes on top of that.
What you want to do is
just take some water in.
You can, if you would like add a
little bit of salt to that, it does
help to break up some of the mucus
at the back of your throat, help to
release some of the tension back there.
And what you do is you take a sip
and you hold that sip in the back
of your throat and you Goggle as
hard as you physically possibly can.
So essentially what's happening is you're
activating your pharyngeal branches
to ensure that the water stays there.
You're activating your laryngeal
branches, cuz you're making sounds.
Through the laryngeal branch,
then you're hoping not to aspirate
that water into your lungs
Yes you are.
So essentially you're using a bunch
of different nerves to help activate
that particular or those particular
branches of the vagus nerve.
If you do this continuously over time
you should see some pretty positive
changes, both in your inflammatory
challenges and in your breathing.
And we'll talk a little bit
about breath in a second.
But those pharyngeal branches and larygeal
branches are one of those best ways
to hack this nerve and ensure that it
is functioning at a really high level.
OK.
if you can hold that.
It's quick.
It's easy.
And it's free, right?
I mean, I know.
Exactly.
And to know that it's working well.
What you're looking for is to see
if you're tearing from your eyes.
So if you're, Garling hard enough
that you're starting to tear from
your eyes, that means that you've
got enough stimulation in the brain
stem that all of the nuclei of the
vagus nerve are being turned on
and that there's actual electrical
activity happening within those areas.
So, you know, that you've turned on
enough of the brain stem to get you
really able to, to increase your Vaal.
I nobody's ever told me that before.
So I so excited.
So we're done.
I I'm like I'm good.
No, I'm kidding.
I, I love that.
Because we need the feedback.
Right?
How do we know if we're doing it right?
How do we know?
You know, like you said, don't
aspirate the water, we, we
all, and don't overthink it.
Either.
People like don't go in, we all can.
Garal like, it's not.
So I, I wouldn't be particularly
concerned, but I have never heard
that, that amazing tip of you wanna,
you wanna make sure you're tearing.
So, and I like a target, right?
Who doesn't, who doesn't
want the target love
and I've, I've heard people, it, it, I've
heard for some people, it takes weeks to
months to really get that, to that point
where the tiering occurs and that's a
sign that it wasn't working really well,
that your brain stem didn't have that
electrical activity and the tone was down.
So this is something that if you practice
regularly and you're able to work your way
up to, it's a really positive development
that you're in the right direction.
Amazing.
Amazing.
So you already mentioned you wanna
talk about breath so that let's,
let's dig into
keep moving.
Perfect.
So the vagus nerve, like I
said, sends branches to the.
And in particular, it's, it's
measuring stretch within the lungs.
Okay.
It's also supporting Al or
macrophages inflammation.
That's an important piece to the puzzle
here, but the stretch reflex within the
lungs tells us what state we're in the
breath is the best way to control whether
we're in sympathetic or parasympathetic.
So think of it this way.
If your boss comes by and taps you
on your shoulder and says, I need
to see you in my office, right.
What happens.
We go into a state of stress, a
fight or flight we're gonna shift.
Our pupils are gonna dilate.
We're gonna look for all of the threats.
We're gonna become aware what's going on.
It's the same reaction that our bodies had
to when a saber two tiger was chasing us.
Same idea.
Okay.
So now.
We've got this stress, the eyes
open up, our heart rate goes up.
That's sympathetic as well.
And what happens to our breath?
It becomes short and shallow.
I need oxygen as quickly
as I possibly can.
I need it now.
Let's get it going.
So you go into this chest breathing
short, shallow breaths using
accessory, breathing muscles.
These are the muscles in the
upper chest and the traps.
How many people have tight
traps and upper back muscles?
Because a, we have terrible
posture being on our laptops and
cell phones for 10 hours a day.
But in addition to that, we're then
breathing, using the wrong muscles.
So this is what the sympathetic
reaction is going to.
In order to control that, to shift that
to parasympathetic, what we want to do
is create more stretch within the lungs.
Best way to do that is to turn our breath
from chest breathing to diaphragmatic,
belly breathing, deep belly breathing is
the most effective tool that literally
within three breaths, you can shift
your situation from sympathetic to
parasympathetic, really, really effect.
So what I have my patients and my daughter
do as well, cuz she's already doing it
at age five, breathing through her chest.
I have them put one hand on their
chest, one hand on their belly
and take three deep breaths.
Ideally in through the
nose, out through the mouth.
This is your breathing tube.
This is your eating tube, different
tubes, different functions.
And so we breathe in through the nose
and we expand the balloon in our belly.
This is what I tell my five year old.
You wanna expand the balloon in your
belly, not the one in your chest.
So I'll put my hand on her belly
and I'll say, I need my, I need to
feel my hand moving up and down.
And so what you want to do
is not feel movement in the
hand, that's on your chest.
You wanna feel the movement
elevation and and reduction kind
of going up and down in the belly.
Do that for three breath.
That's all I ask and you'll, you'll all
of a sudden feel a very simple shift to
calm, to relaxed, to parasympathetic.
If you can do this regularly, it becomes
something that is almost second nature.
If you start to be able
to do this under stress.
Then you're able to control yourself
from going too far off the deep end on
the sympathetic side, and be able to
shift yourself back to parasympathetic.
This is where breathing calmly.
During exercise comes into play.
This is where Breathing calmly when
you get into an ice bath comes into
play, or when you turn your shower
to as cold as you possibly can.
So the same way that we would
exercise our muscles, let's say,
for example, we're doing squats.
We put a, a rack of weight on our back.
We're doing some air squats initially.
And then we move up to putting a
little bit of weight on our back.
And then we add more weight to that.
We want to build up.
We want to increase our ability to,
to be able to function under stress.
We want to allow for our muscles
to get stronger in the same way.
We want our diaphragm to get
stronger and our willpower to
allow us to get really strong.
So regular deep breathing exercises
in the morning and the evening in
the middle of the day, multiple
times when you're under stress or you
just need to calm down phenomenal.
Now, if you elevate the stress
level, like you get into a, a cold
plunger, an ice bath, or you turn
the shower to as cold as possible.
That's like putting weight on your back.
And now in that stressful circumstance,
then you focus on controlling
your deep di pragmatic breath.
Exactly.
I love that.
And I love that you're reminding you're
reminding listeners, you know, you need
to be doing it multiple times a day.
I always say, because this is something
I do with all my clients as well.
And.
I once in a while, I'll get the occasional
client, that'll say, you know, oh,
well, I'll do it when I'm stressed.
And I'm like, well, it it's, but you
don't have the tool in your toolbox.
if you're not exercising the muscle.
And my favorite part is if it's, if
the stressor is a confrontational
interaction, nobody knows you're doing.
Yeah.
I mean, no one can see.
No one can tell.
And it really talk about life
changing aside from helping break
inflammation and, and, you know,
get you into a healing state.
It, that it gives you the pause, right?
So that you're, you're not reactive.
And, and so it, it's
such a, it's such a gift.
I love that your daughter.
Is is doing that.
I mean, you just think of, you mentioned
earlier, you know, you and your wife
wanted this next generation, right.
To have a different experience,
to have the tools to avoid ending
up in that place where you were.
And so how beautiful cuz your daughter's
not gonna end up in that place.
That's the goal.
Right?
And, and so being able to teach her those,
those tools early on in her life gives
her the ability to handle those stressors
when they come up, when she's a bit older.
And when she endures
the stressors of life,
amazing.
Amazing.
So you've given us so many
things already that we can do.
And so it's almost not fair and, and.
You are more than welcome
to just reiterate one of the
things you've already given.
But what is one thing, you know,
listeners can start today and, and
again, you've already given us a list
of them, but if you got to pick and
you're, you're asking listeners, just do
this, start this one thing right now to
improve your health, what would it be?
The biggest game changer is the breadth.
There's no question about it in my mind.
I could, I could name off.
80 other things that you could do that
would be beneficial, but nothing is as
strong as learning to manage and control
your breath, especially under stress.
And so that would be my absolute
go to if you can achieve that
just as, as a little fun.
Tidbit on top.
You mentioned that you give yourself
that pause when you get into that
deep diaphragmatic breathing.
In fact, what happens when we're in a
sympathetic state, our blood flow and
our brain shifts to the Hein brain and
actually goes to our survival areas.
And it actually shuts off
brain flow or blood flow to
the frontal areas of our brain.
The prefrontal cortex.
or thinking parts
are exactly our thinking parts.
Our, our intelligence, our
executive function actually
decreases when we're under stress.
So if we can shift it to parasympathetic,
we're actually able to turn on
blood flow to our thinking areas.
And that's why after a few deep
breaths, you can think much more
clearly because physically you have
created a shift of blood flow to the
right areas to be able to think more.
Thank you again for that visual.
And, and that may be the
motivator for people.
And this is why.
Again, we were talking HRV and
I mentioned the elite athletes.
This is why you and I both work with
groups of people who are high achievers,
whether it's in business in life, you
know, athletic, it doesn't matter.
These are the same up levels.
I always say, this is it's the spectrum.
Right.
You know what we're doing to heal on one
end, we're doing to just continue to up
level our performance on the other at
which just up levels life in general.
So amazing, amazing tips for people
that listen, you know, while they're
walking or driving or like, like I do
while they're, while they're busy where's
the best place for listeners to find.
Yeah, go onto I'm on social
media, primarily on Instagram.
Just look up Dr.
Navaz Habib.
And if you're interested in more tips,
cause I've done a ton of research on what
helps to increase the vagus nerve tone.
Check out the book it's called
activate your vagus nerve.
Been out for a few years, but
a lot of the research is very
accurate up to date and there's new
tidbits coming along all the time.
So you can follow on
Instagram to learn more.
Amazing.
Thank you so much for everything
you've shared with us today.
It's my absolute pleasure.
For everyone listening.
Remember you can get the
show notes and transcripts by
visiting inspired living.show.
You get all those links, links to the
books, links to Instagram websites.
I hope you had a great time and
enjoyed this episode as much as I did.
I will see you next week.
