Hitting a nerve

Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes - could aid physical and mental wellbeing.

- EVA-MARIA BOBBERT

Imagine you’re on your first roller-coaster ride at the tender age of 10: The anticipatory thrill. The whoosh of air that sends your hair skywards as you swing round that first loop. It’s a rush like no other. But then … slam! Your cart collides with one in front of you that has malfunctioned and stopped in its tracks, throwing your body forward with a dodgem-like bang that breaks bones and permanently damages your heart.

“Statistically, the chance of being injured in a roller-coaster accident is only one in 24 million, so it’s shocking that it happened to me,” notes counsellor Anna Ferguson, author of The Vagus Nerve Reset (Penguin Random House, RRP $35), who says the trauma of that accident not only caused physical injury but also affected her nervous system, leading to years of mental health struggle.

“Your past experiences are held within your body, physiology and nervous system,” Anna believes. “Anxiety, brain fog and imposter syndrome as well as physical issues such as inflammation ... can be signs of a nervous system out of balance.”

While Anna’s physical trauma mostly healed in time, that pivotal accident changed the course of her life in other ways – it led her to study psychology, embarking on a journey to becoming an expert on the vagus nerve, our inner “electric superhighway”. It’s actually a pair of nerves that regulate everything from your heart rate, lungs, digestion and insulin release to your voice box and the muscles that control facial expression – a whopping 80 per cent of its communications are messages carried from your body to your brain.

“Your vagus nerve is busy 24/7 sending messages to let the brain know what’s going on throughout the body and in your organs,” says Anna. “Think of the phone alert that goes off when you receive a text. If you could hear the number of messages that your vagus nerve is pinging through to your brain it would be like white noise – truly gobsmacking.”