The Power of Breath and Qi Gong in Healing the Vagus Nerve
Hello, I am Julie Donaldson and I am a clinical nutritionist with functional health training. I specialize in restoring balance in complex, chronic and acute health conditions. I welcome you to peruse other articles that may be of interest to you in your health investigation!
“I had a very complex health picture with a lot of heart racing and over-stimulation of my nervous system. I had a hard time accepting that more than “medicines” were needed to fix the problems. I was resistant to quieting down and doing other practices, but when I surrendered to this, big shifts began to occur. Thank you, Julie, thank you.”
There is a profound connection between the regulation of the Vagus nerve and Contemplative Activities such as Qi gong and tai chi. That connection resides in the breath. We talk a lot about the critical nature of adequate Vagus nerve function in holistic health. Its interactions with immune stress, the brain, and emotional feedback are potent. For anyone dealing with chronic health issues, optimizing the function of the Vagus nerve is a must. Its communication from the brain to the organs and back through a feedback loop must be established in order to achieve healing. Also, for anyone dealing with chronic health issues, choosing the smartest and most effective support practices (such as Contemplative Activities) to accompany personalized nutrition and holistic health care is key to successful healing. The body needs input on multiple and powerful bases to overcome the illness programming it has established.
Qi gong
What are Contemplative Activities?
Contemplative Activites, also known as ContActs, are mind-body exercises that are “multi-modal”. This means that they involve a number of modalities and these include breathing, deliberate movement, meditation and muscle relaxation. Of all of these modalities, meditation is the most frequently studied for its health benefits, but newer studies show that ContActs have overlapping patterns of very specific phenomena seen in meditation studies. Key to this overlapping are certain types of breathing practices that are proven to induce helpful physiological changes including heart rate variability (HRV) and Vagus nerve toning. The latter is associated with benefits for the heart and lungs, lowering inflammation, bone density, balance, stress reduction/mental health, cognition, attention and creativity. Numerous studies have documented these benefits including Shapiro et al., 2003; Grossman et al., 2004; Ospina et al., 2007 Wahbeh et al., 2008; Büssing et al., 2012; Lee and Ernst, 2012; Forbes et al., 2013.
Many people struggle to sit in meditation. Movement can be the ticket to being able to utilize such profound practices with less agitation. Qi gong and tai chi provide the complex movement that helps many people to focus and enjoy the practice.
Qi gong practice involves moving meditation, coordinating slow-flowing movement, deep rhythmic breathing, and a calm meditative state of mind. People practice Qi gong worldwide for recreation, exercise, relaxation, preventive medicine, self-healing, alternative health care, meditation, self-cultivation, and training for martial arts.
Tai chi is a Chinese martial art practiced for self defense and health. Known for its slow, intentional movements, tai chi has practitioners worldwide and is particularly popular as a form of gentle exercise and moving meditation, with benefits to mental and physical health.
A discussion on breathing
I encourage all of my clients to utilize specific breathing practices on a daily basis. I have highlighted four specific techniques that have been researched by the Huberman Lab at UC Berkley to produce autonomic nervous system balancing for a full 24 hours. (You may find a video of these 4 specific techniques, along with other helpful information here.) Practiced daily for 5 minutes, these breaths are proven to create long-lasting positive changes in the autonomic nervous system. A healthy autonomic balance is “Vagally” dominated and occurs via stress relief produced by activation of the parasympathetic (relaxing) nervous system and the deactivation of the sympathetic (stress) nervous system. Chronic stress has a degenerative effect on the structure and plasticity of the parasympathetic nervous system.
Some of these same exact techniques are extensively researched in relationship to Vagus nerve toning and all of the associated positive health benefits. In particular, a “holding” breath (such as the Box breath in the video but with longer exhalation) is among the most researched. This breath is also utilized in many Contemplative Activities.
Contemplative Activities have the following “effective factors”:
Attention training - by giving specific foci in movement and breath, attention deficit or mental wandering becomes attentional control
Affect training - by practicing presence and non-judgment of feelings/experiences, personal affect is improved
Metacognitive adjustment - by deconstructing negative, fixed thoughts and feelings, flexibility in cognitive function is improved
Body awareness - by tuning into the physical steps of the practice, filtering of “irrelevant somatosensory information” is achieved
Breathing - the slow pace of limited inhale with holding and extended exhalation tonify the autonomic nervous responses
In their review of mechanisms in ContActs, authors Gerritsen & Band, state something rather profound: “Stress levels could be downregulated by ‘lower level state feedback’ that is associated with unthreatening situations…In our account these are the pulmonary parameters: low respiratory rate and long exhalation.” What does this mean? It means that complex stress patterns can be affected by the use of effective, simple feedback to the whole system. It means that dedicated, attentive, regular practices can help restore order from chaos.
“When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order.”
Some specifics on the Vagus nerve
The Vagus nerve is the largest nerve in the body. It is responsible for major communication feedback loops between the brain, the body’s organs, glands and the emotions. It also works to balance the 2 branches of the central nervous system (CNS). In states of chronic illness and stress, the nerve is often negatively impacted, becoming less responsive and less capable of carrying communications.
Improvement of Vagus nerve tone is documented in all forms of Contemplative Activities. Vagus nerve activity is modulated by respiration. It is suppressed during inhalation and facilitated during exhalation. Both efferent (outward/away from CNS) and afferent (inward/towards CNS) Vagus nerve functions overlap with the effective factors associated with ContAct practices.
To date, the research data on the respiratory Vagal stimulation model shows more effectiveness than external stimulation. However, the study authors we’ve referred to here on ContActs and breathing state the following from their research: “…the pattern of results observed following VNS mirror those obtained by ContAct”.
For those with breathing restrictions/compromise, electrical Vagus stimulation (tVNS) may be appropriate. Always evaluate cardiac and sleep apnea risks before utilizing this therapy.
More about Qi gong
I have had the pleasure of learning and practicing Qi gong. I have found it to be one of the best enhancers of mindfulness and body awareness. I love these words from Jacob Chinn, a colleague with deep experience in Qi gong and medical Qi gong:
“Qi gong gives traction to mindfulness and actually supports our ability to manifest the reality we truly desire. It reminds us that the How is really quite simple, returning to the awareness of where gravity has a hold of us, or even better, where we recognize gravity as not only our friend but the actual Love from the Earth for us made manifest. ”
For those who are facing chronic and/or acute health challenges, I highly recommend the addition of medical Qi gong to your external support therapies.
Medical Qi Gong therapy is the cultivation of Qi within the body through movement exercises and passive energy work.
One of the four main branches of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and used successfully in hospitals throughout China for hundreds of years, this modality is the energetic foundation upon which the other branches of Traditional Chinese Medicine are based. It is the practice of gathering, circulating, and applying life-force energy in order to promote healing and wellness.
Medical Qi Gong therapy facilitates the release of suppressed energy and emotions that have become toxic to the body's tissues, leading to imbalance, pain, and disease. It is commonly used to promote general wellness, as well as to treat a host of imbalances including (but certainly not limited to) chronic pain, physical injury, gynecological conditions, neurological disorders, depression, skin disorders, respiratory conditions, chronic fatigue, and much more.
A personalized Qi gong strategy is informed and intuited by Jacob’s assessments. For more information on this service, please contact Jacob Chinn at Jacob@chinnchinesemedicine.com, or visit him at www.chinnchinesemedicine.com.
Summations and solutions
Achieving holistic health requires the dedication to mind, body and spirit in individual ways. Contemplative Activities with intentional breathing can be a wonderful addition to these other healing practices:
Personalized nutrition
Targeted health investigation and testing
Targeted therapeutic protocols
Core belief work
Exercise and relaxation techniques
Please contact me at Julie@truenaturehealthconsulting.com for a comprehensive, personalized plan for your healing. We provide holistic telehealth services.