Category: Physio

The Special Nerve that Connects all of Your Vital Organs and Why It’s So Important

The vagus nerve starts in the brainstem, just behind the ears. It travels down each side of the neck, across the chest and down through the abdomen. “Vagus” is Latin for wandering, and indeed, this bundle of nerve fibers moves through the body, networking the brain with the stomach and digestive tract, lungs, heart, spleen, intestines, liver, and kidneys. This doesn’t include the connection to a range of other nerves that are involved in speech, eye contact, facial expressions and even our ability to tune into other people’s voices.

The vagus nerve is made of thousands of nerve fibers and 80 percent of them are sensory, meaning the nerve reports back to your brain what is happening in your organs. Operating below the level of our conscious minds, the vagus is vital for keeping our bodies healthy. It is essential to the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for calming organs after the stressed “fight or flight” response to danger. Not all vagus nerves are the same though. Some people have stronger vagus activity, and this means their bodies can relax faster after stress.

The strength of your vagus response is known as your vagal tone. Research shows that a higher vagal tone makes your body better at regulating blood glucose levels, reducing the likelihood of diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular disease. Low vagal tone has been associated with chronic inflammation.

As part of the immune system, inflammation has a useful role helping the body to heal after an injury; however, it can damage the body if it persists when it is no longer needed. One of the vagus nerve’s jobs is to reset the immune system and switch off production of molecules that stimulate inflammation. Low vagal tone means this regulation is less effective and inflammation can become excessive and chronic.

The vagus nerve acts as a two-way messenger between the brain and other organs. Because of the role of this nerve in a range of chronic inflammatory diseases, it has been studied as a possible treatment. The implications of being able to improve vagal tone are potentially enormous.

The interesting thing is that there are ways to improve the tone of the vagus nerve. One of the easiest and cheapest ways is to perform deep breathing so that you are activating the diaphragm. You can also take time to socialize and laugh with others. Meditation, singing, humming, chanting and gargling can stimulate the vagus nerve. Chiropractic care has also been shown to improve vagal tone.

If you or someone you love is chronically dealing with stress, it may be a good idea for them to get checked out by a chiropractor to make sure their nervous system is functioning well. It can improve their bodies response to stress and regulate inflammation. If located in Bucks County or Montgomery County, then Radiant Life Chiropractic of Hatboro would love to help!

How to be Happier

Who wouldn’t like to be happier? Besides the obvious, feeling better, being good company, and avoiding boredom, there are health benefits that happen automatically as we generate and express happiness.

Let’s look at the way you create happiness through four important chemicals, known as hormones, that you produce for yourself with your brain and body.

There are four important hormones that generate the shades of happiness in your mind and body. Don’t be intimidated by these scientific terms – they are easy to understand once you get comfortable with them.

The first type of hormone to look at is endorphins, substances that shut down pain, like for example when you exercise. They generate the rush you feel when you complete a vigorous workout. Endorphins are also produced when you experience something funny, like jokes or your favorite comedy show. So if you want more of this happiness hormone, exercise regularly and your body will get good at creating it. Also, read, listen to or watch something you find funny or entertaining, and that will bump up your endorphins.

The second happiness hormone is dopamine, which is turned on when you finish or complete something, leading to feelings of satisfaction. Dopamine spikes when you feel appreciated for something you did, making you feel successful due to your achievements. Any new experience where you accomplish something will turn on the dopamine, so you feel good about yourself.

The third happiness hormone is serotonin, which is produced when you do something nice for someone, or serve them well. Solving problems for others, offering information that helps someone, or inspiring other people to do good will generate serotonin.

The fourth happiness hormone is oxytocin, which is produced when you are close with or touching someone. When you shake hands, hang out with family or embrace someone you care about, your body spills oxytocin into your bloodstream, producing feelings of pleasure that lead to happiness.

When you are happy, the challenges of your life become more manageable, so you can handle the stresses you encounter without undue wear and tear on your mind and body. And there are many practices and actions you can use to get these happiness chemicals flooding your system with good feelings.

Of course, your definition of happy may be somewhat different from someone else’s but there are many ways you can personalize this happiness chemistry, and turn on the joy for yourself. Try some or all of these easy techniques for getting happier.

For example, if you want your kids to be happy, consider this – you can encourage them to engage in physical activity, which will fill their systems with endorphins. Get them to complete their school assignments and homework, and acknowledge them for it, and they’ll be rewarded with dopamine. Assist them in seeing the value in charitable pursuits or volunteer work, or get them to help out around the house, and their serotonin will flow. And of course, hug them if you want to boost their oxytocin.

As far as being happier yourself, there are so many options, you’ll surely be able to find a recipe that works for you. You could simply sleep more, or eat better, or exercise regularly. You could practice mindfulness, or conquer one anxiety, or lose one bad habit. You could learn to meditate, or do yoga, or study martial arts. You could spend ten minutes or more outdoors every day appreciating nature, or develop more supportive self-talk. There are also many wonderful books, recordings and videos that can entertain you, focus you on happy thoughts, and give you a sense of purpose to move forward with a pleasant outlook.

Whatever you decide, you can be happier, in your family, your work and your life in general, based on your lifestyle decisions. It’s your choice – choose wisely, and you and those you care about will have a happier, longer, more productive life.

Understanding Your Body’s Heating and Cooling System

Your body is the most complex and astounding machine ever. While it is far more sophisticated than anything we can invent or manufacture, there are many aspects of your body that act like a machine would – we need fuel or a power source, we need to be cleaned and maintained, and we need to regulate our temperature, because being too hot or too cold will compromise normal function and prevent proper performance.

There are three main ways the body generates heat. First, every cell in your body has to breathe, and that respiration turns glucose into energy. More than half of that energy is released as heat.

Second, your muscles produce heat in two ways. When you exercise, your cells have to increase that respiration and churn out energy molecules called ATP. The muscles also create heat from the friction of the muscles moving against each other. Finally, digesting your food, absorbing the nutrients in that food, and processing those nutritional building blocks also generates heat. In fact, all metabolic activity makes at least some heat, highest after eating protein, and less after eating carbohydrates and fats.

There are four major ways you lose heat. The most obvious one is radiating heat out from your skin. Heat will move from warmer to cooler, so when the air around you is cooler than your body temperature, which it usually is except on the hottest days, you will tend to lose heat through your skin.

You also lose heat through your blood vessels. All of the tubes that carry blood from the heart are equipped to constrict or relax as needed. When the blood vessels under the skin relax, it’s called cutaneous vasodilation.

You have seen the effects of vasodilation many times – whenever you are overheated and your skin gets flushed or reddened, that’s your blood vessels near the skin dilating. They do so to bring warm blood nearer to the surface so it can cool off, since the air outside of you is generally cooler than your core temperature. If you were to dunk your hands in a bowl of hot water, they get red, because the vessels would relax to let the blood flow into your hands to dissipate the heat.

The opposite is also true – if you plunge your hands into cold water, the blood vessels will constrict to preserve heat, and your hand will look white as the blood vessels tighten to reduce blood flow and therefore heat loss.

The third way we vent heat is through the evaporation of perspiration off your skin. When you are overheated, your body pours sweat out through the skin, which then absorbs heat as it transforms from liquid to gas, from sweat to vapor. This eats heat, so you feel cooler after you perspire.

It should be noted that when the humidity is very high, meaning there is a lot of moisture in the air, this cooling mechanism is hampered. Sweating is designed to cool you down by using the body’s heat to evaporate the perspiration, so if it’s very hot and humid outside your body, the sweat doesn’t evaporate efficiently, and cooling is diminished.

The fourth way we dissipate heat is through breathing. When we exhale, we lose heat and water. Animals who don’t sweat like humans, like dogs for example, depend on panting to rid themselves of excess heat.

Your body naturally knows what its right temperature should be, and this is monitored and regulated by part of your brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is like a control center – if the body gets too warm, it turns on sweating or panting to cool it down, and if the body gets too cold, it triggers shivering and the production of hormones that increase metabolism to warm you up.

So, your brain is central to maintaining and resetting your body temperature, balancing heat and cold so your body works the best it can. Modern research shows that keeping your spine healthy is essential to keep your brain healthy. And the best way to keep your spine healthy is to visit your doctor of chiropractic.

At Radiant Life Chiropractic, your family chiropractor will advise you on brain and spine wellness, so make sure you and your family get periodic examinations. Better safe than sorry, especially in the hot summer months when you need your body to work the best it can.

Ask your chiropractor how chiropractic care helps your body to function better as well as feel better!

Managing Your Body Heat

Summer is often a time to play, to exercise, to get projects done, or just to relax and have fun with family and friends.

But in the hot weather, there are some precautions you can take to safeguard your brain and body, and avoid unnecessary risk.

Your body has to work harder when you are heating up – the part of your brain that balances temperature, the hypothalamus, works with the skin to heat and cool the body by using sweat glands and blood vessels to vent or conserve heat.

When you are too hot, your sweat glands release perspiration, which cools us down, but the water has dissolved minerals in it, which must then be replenished.

Some of these minerals are referred to as “electrolytes” because they help the body’s chemical reactions by carrying an electrical charge.

Magnesium and potassium are especially important – magnesium assists in hundreds of those chemical reactions, and specifically helps your body to regulate temperature. Potassium helps to balance fluids, and so is essential both to cardiovascular health and temperature regulation.

It’s important to note that soda pop and sugary drinks rob the body of vital potassium, so resist the urge to satisfy your thirst with such sweetened beverages – your body is asking for water, so hydrate it. If you need to, add a squeeze of lemon or lime, but to manage your body heat, hydrate! Drink water and replenish electrolytes with fresh fruits and vegetables, or even a mineral supplement if you need it.

Your brain needs water and these electrolytes to maintain good health and to cleanse itself while you sleep – so manage your body heat, and it will help you to stay healthy.