How to Calm Your Overanxious Mind
Fear and anxiety in the vagus nerve can be controlled — here’s how
You know when you’ve been triggered. Once you’ve had time to reflect, you also know that your anxiety or fear may have been an overreaction to a relatively trivial event. It’s easy enough to reason with yourself on a conscious level, but subconsciously it can be difficult to control your reactions.
That’s because you’ve been hijacked.
To be specific, a part of your brain called the amygdala has been hijacked. An “amygdala hijack” is a reflexive response to a stressor, like a knee-jerk reaction.
The amygdala is a cluster of almond-shaped structures that form part of the limbic system near the base of the brain. It is responsible for your emotional reactions, particularly those involving fear and anxiety. It is also responsible for “conditioned fear”, as seen in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The amygdala also activates the stress, “fight or flight” response.
Although the hijack process may be experienced in the brain, it often begins in the gut. That’s because you have a second brain in your digestive system, called the enteric nervous system (ENS).
The ENS consists of a nerve plexus embedded along the intestinal wall, from oesophagus to anus. It is estimated to contain 200–600 million neurons — more neurons than are found in the spine. The ENS produces hormones and more than thirty neurotransmitters.
The two brains are connected by the vagus nerve, which is the main component of the gut-brain axis. This is the longest nerve in the body and extends from the brainstem to the abdomen, where it connects to the ENS. It is a significant component of the parasympathetic nervous system, which oversees digestion, heart rate, respiration, and satiety. It also regulates the stress response.
How does the vagus nerve do this? By acting as an information highway along which messages are passed back and forth. These messages involve hormones, neurotransmitters and immune cells and can trigger the chemical reactions that lead to heightened anxiety.
These messages are sent by the masters of your universe, aka the gut microbiome.
Parallel universes
The gut microbiome is the collection of trillions of microscopic organisms that make your body their home: bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, protozoa…. all merrily coexisting within their dark kingdom.
Never underestimate the influence the microbiome has over your thoughts and reactions. It is able to control the messages passed to your brain and increase or decrease your anxiety-driven behaviour.
You are probably aware that you have friendly and not-so-friendly bacteria in your gut. The friendly sort maintain good gut health, reduce inflammation and strengthen immunity. The other sort — the pathogenic bacteria — are decidedly unfriendly. Some, such as Camplylobacter jejuni, relay messages along the vagus nerve to the brainstem that change the way you feel, and not in a good way.
These cunning little critters make as much trouble as they can, creating inflammation and disease, and ringing all the fear and anxiety bells in your amygdala. They do this this by producing neurotransmitters that communicate with the brain.
Neurotransmitters in the brain are largely responsible for your mood. Excitatory neurotransmitters stimulate; inhibitory neurotransmitters calm. You need balance: too much excitement and you can’t sleep and are overanxious. Too much calm and you are a bit dopey and inactive.
The main inhibitory neurotransmitters are serotonin and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). GABA is crucial for keeping the amygdala tamed and the stress response under control. Serotonin lowers the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate in various regions of the brain and enhances the action of GABA.
How to manage a hijack situation: Vagus nerve stimulation
The gut-brain axis is now the target for treatment of a range of gut and psychiatric disorders, including inflammatory bowel disorder, depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Part of this promising treatment is vagus nerve stimulation (VNS).
VNS was originally used to control epilepsy and is now an FDA-approved treatment for otherwise unmanageable depression.
“There is preliminary evidence that vagus nerve stimulation is a promising add-on treatment for treatment-refractory depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and inflammatory bowel disease.”
VNS is the application of electrical impulses to the vagus nerve. The delivery of these impulses can be invasive or non-invasive. The invasive method involves the implantation of a small pulse generator under the skin, delivering intermittent electrical impulses through the vagus nerve to the brain. This has antiepileptic, anti-depressive and anti-inflammatory effects. Non-invasive stimulation can be achieved via ear clips.
When stimulated, the vagus nerve is calmed, and it informs the brain that there is no need to launch a stress response.
VNS also inhibits cytokine release. Cytokines are chemicals that the body produces as part of the inflammatory response. They can induce depression by altering activity in the regions of the brain that control mood, resulting in feelings of negativity and fatigue. Scientists increasingly acknowledge that depression is an inflammatory disorder. According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an extraordinary 47% of people with clinical depression also have heightened inflammation.
DIY vagus nerve stimulation
There are two ways you can do your own vagus nerve stimulation. One is dietary and the other non-dietary. From a dietary perspective, your aim is to increase activity of the friendly bacteria (probiotics), quash any hostile activity, and raise serotonin and GABA levels.
Some bacterial strains produce the neurotransmitter serotonin, which can “act directly on vagus nerve endings.” The most researched of all the probiotics, in terms of showing beneficial effects on anxiety and depression, are the Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. Various strains of Lactobacillus have been shown to have a positive effect on stress-associated anxiety and depression. In particular, treatment with Lactobacillus rhamnosus increases GABA levels and changes activity in the amygdala.
“Based on recent discoveries, we suggest that gut microbiota are an important player in how the body influences the brain, contribute to normal healthy homeostasis, and influence risk of disease, including anxiety and mood disorders.”
Lactobacillus bacteria are present in foods such as live yogurt, kefir (fermented milk drink) and sauerkraut (fermented, shredded cabbage). The fermented tea drink kombucha also contains live bacteria.
When it comes to raising the neurotransmitter serotonin, and therefore GABA levels, protein is crucial. The indispensable amino acid tryptophan is a precursor of serotonin. The best sources of tryptophan are the complete, or quality proteins: meat (especially poultry) and fish, eggs, and milk. Tofu is a good source for non-meat eaters.
“…a lack of the amino acid tryptophan, which is a precursor to serotonin, can induce depressive symptoms, such as depressed mood, sadness, and hopelessness”
Non-dietary VNS
Methods that have been shown to stimulate the vagus nerve and improve depressive symptoms include slow breathing techniques and meditations that create positive emotions. Similarly, yoga-based practices, some of which can directly stimulate the vagus nerve, have been shown to improve mood and increase ability to cope with stress.
When it comes to an amygdala hijack, the first important step is to recognise it for what it is. When you call it out, you diminish its power. That’s half the battle won. The other half of the battle can be fought with the right diet and appropriate mindful techniques.
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Great info. Maria. So pleased all this important info. is more available to everyone.