Acupuncture’s relationship to the vagus nerve is an important consideration in understanding the physiological actions of this modality. The vagus nerve is an important part of any conversation that includes the regulation of the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) and Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), stress responses, and pain conditions.
The vagus nerve is the 10th cranial nerve and is the longest cranial nerve in the body with a piece of it ending in the concha of the ear, a location with many acupuncture points. It participates in the body’s stress responses and is also a major player in nervous system regulation, specifically with the parasympathetic regulation of the heart, lungs, and digestive tract.
The vagus nerve is involved in many functions throughout the body:
It helps to regulate internal organ functions such as heart rate, respiration, digestion, and PNS activity in general.
It controls reflex actions such gagging, vomiting, coughing, and swallowing.
It communicates between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract also known as the brain-gut axis.
It provides a balancing element to the sympathetic “fight or flight” within the nervous system.
It actively inhibits oxidative stress, inflammation, and sympathetic activity.
Acupuncture stimulates the vagus nerve producing anti-inflammatory effects on the body. It does this by mediating the anti-inflammatory responses in the spleen via signals transmitted through the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is acting as an anti-inflammatory modulator that can coordinate and interconnect the body's functions and autonomic activity.
There is a lot of research focused on the interaction of acupuncture on the vagus nerve so there’s still more to understand about how it works.
