The Health Hunt: Real Healing Journeys, Everyday Wellness & Expert Tips

Ep 18 - Vagus Nerve & Anxiety: Why You Feel "Off" Even When Your Tests Are Normal

• Sandi Magder and Daniel Schuman • Episode 18

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If you’ve been feeling stressed, anxious, wired, or just not quite like yourself and you’re overwhelmed trying to figure out why this episode is for you. We’re talking about the vagus nerve, a key part of your nervous system that quietly influences how calm or reactive your body feels. It also plays a meaningful role in patterns tied to anxiety, chronic stress, and even the frustrating cycle of being exhausted but unable to fully relax or sleep. More importantly, we’ll explain what it actually does and why it may matter if your body feels stuck in fight-or-flight mode.

In this conversation, we explore one of the most overlooked players in nervous system health: the vagus nerve. Rather than a dense anatomy lesson, this is a practical, real-world discussion about how this nerve may show up in everyday symptoms many people quietly struggle with including reflux, nausea, fatigue, brain fog, and that hard-to-describe sense that something just doesn’t feel right.

We talk through:

• What the vagus nerve actually does (in plain English)
• How it connects your brain, gut, heart, and stress response
• Why “fight-or-flight mode” can persist even without obvious danger
• The difference between feeling sick vs. feeling “off”
• The surprising relationship between neck tension and nervous system signaling
• Why traditional medicine rarely frames symptoms through this lens

We also dig into realistic, low-drama ways people often try to support vagal tone, including breathing patterns, cold exposure, humming, walking after meals, sleep, and the growing world of vagus-nerve-focused devices with a grounded discussion about expectations vs. marketing.

If you’ve ever wondered why your body feels stuck in stress mode, why symptoms don’t always fit neatly into one category, or why you can feel unwell despite “normal” labs, this episode offers a helpful framework for thinking about the nervous system as a whole.

As always, this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered medical advice.

If the episode resonates, share it with someone who often says, “I don’t feel right, but I can’t explain it.” And if you enjoy the show, following, rating, and reviewing genuinely helps more people find The Health Hunt.

Text us your thoughts, questions, or takeaways. We read every message.

All views, opinions, and commentary expressed on The Health Hunt Podcast are solely those of the hosts. They are shared in a personal capacity and do not represent the views, policies, or positions of any current or former employer, including any organizations with which the hosts may be professionally affiliated.

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Dan Schuman

Welcome back to the Health Hunt, the podcast where we usually tackle the pillars of wellness, sleep, glucose, hormones, nutrition, all the fun stuff that reminds your body is basically a full-time job. But today, I'm taking a little detour. Because we need to talk about a nerve that quietly runs your entire life behind the scenes. I am talking about the vaguest nerve. And yes, I'll say it again. Vegas nerve. And trust me, if you've never heard of it, you are absolutely not alone. To be perfectly honest with you, up until maybe a year ago, I also want to be upfront about why we're doing this episode. This isn't just a random anatomy lesson. Over the past couple years, I've dealt with things that were hard to explain. I talk about this prior episode reflux that fully didn't respond to fixes, nausea, intermittently, without a clear trigger, fatigue that didn't match my sleep, rain fog, and also this strange sense of imbalance. Where I don't feel dizzy, I just feel off. And so the frustrating part is everything is kind of normal on paper. When I started learning more about the Vegas nerve, it was one of the first times where all those symptoms kind of lived under one roof in the mind-body super highway.

Sandi Magder

And if it's not working properly, you feel it in about 14 different weird ways.

Dan Schuman

Totally agree. So let's buckle off and get right to it. We may or may not observe the speed limits here.

Sandi Magder

Yeah, I have some funny stories about that. But first, the Health Hunt podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. We're not medical professionals, and nothing shared should be considered medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider before making changes with to your health. Let's go to Vegas.

Why We’re Talking About the Vagus Nerve

Dan Schuman

That was very micro machines. I like when you do the disclaimer. That was good. Big fan. So what is the Vegas dirf? Wow. This could be a t-shirt. Vegas dir will be said a lot during this, obviously. Let's keep this super simple because I never pretend to be a health practitioner, as you know.

Sandi Magder

That's great because our lawyers are constantly reminding us that we can't pretend to be medical professionals. Although I think secretly I want to be.

Dan Schuman

You do. No doubt. Uh I it just freaks me out. So I just I can't say I'm not a health practitioner enough. So the vagus nerve is the body's

What the Vagus Nerve Actually Does

Dan Schuman

main communication cable between your brain and your major organs. If you don't believe me, go Google this and get some visuals and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. It runs from the brain stem down to your throat, lungs, heart, stomach, and gut.

Sandi Magder

Okay, and for anyone Googling this very important nerve or trying to have a deep conversation with Chat GPT, please note the spelling. This is not Vegas, as in Las Vegas, which is also my least favorite place in the world. This is Vegas, V-A-G-U-S.

Dan Schuman

I feel like uh Vegas is a hit or miss with people. Like they either love it or hate it.

Sandi Magder

Yeah, I mean, I've been there way too many times, including a marriage. So it's just, I don't know. I have no need to go back there. But anyway, I digress.

Dan Schuman

Okay. Um well said. So think of your uh internal Wi-Fi network as your vagus nerve. It's it coordinates with digestion, uh, breathing rhythm, heart rate variability, which is a um very interesting topic, stomach emptying, inflammation control, mood, immune response, cognition.

Sandi Magder

So basically all the things.

Dan Schuman

Exactly. All the things. The vagus nerve is the overworked, underpaid, and the unsung hero of your health. And when it's dysregulated, things don't fall apart dramatically. They just get kind of weird.

Sandi Magder

I think I'm a little weird. Shout out to all the weirdos, but I get why we want to limit weirdness in the body.

Feeling “Off” vs Feeling Sick

Dan Schuman

So, like with the vagus nerve, you don't feel sick, you feel off. You don't feel anxious, you feel wired, but tired. And you don't feel dizzy, you feel unstable, but not like the room is spinning. This nerve controls a lot more than people think. And I suspect this is contributing to my symptoms as well. Which is fascinating. No, just a guess. I mean, obviously, when you have all these symptoms, any number of things can be the culprit, but the vagus nerve

Vagus Nerve, Digestion & Weird Symptoms

Dan Schuman

seems to be eerily similar to what I'm seeing with my symptoms. So, how does the vagus nerve affect different systems? So, again, I'll do some analogy. The vagus nerve is like the customer service hotline of the body. If it's functioning well, you feel grounded. If it's irritated or underperforming, you feel symptoms everywhere, but have no idea why, which is basically where I'm at. So let's break it down. So digestion and gur, I mentioned the vagus nerve coordinates stomach emptying. So when it's sluggish, you can get reflux, bloating, nausea, burping, and slow digestion. You know, I have all this. When the vagal nerve signaling is weak, the stomach doesn't empty efficiently. That reframed my GERD completely. It wasn't just about stomach acid, it was about nervous system signaling. So maybe this is the culprit. I'm not sure, but maybe it is.

Sandi Magder

Yeah, and I'm a hard no and a big no thank you to all of those things. So if the vagus nerve can fix that, yay.

Dan Schuman

With gut-brain connection, about 80% of vagus nerve signals go from the gut to the brain. So if the gut is inflamed or stressed, your brain fogs over. Makes sense. Well, how that works doesn't make sense to me, but the end result makes sense to me and that um you get brain fog. So this could explain why my brain fog felt different than just being tired. It wasn't I needed more coffee. It was my thoughts feel delayed. When your gut is inflamed and your vagus nerve is dysregulated, your brain pays the price, uh, even if the labs look fine, which is my case. My biomarkers look good, but I just don't feel right.

Sandi Magder

And we all want to feel better. It's frustrating. I think this is one of the reasons that we have this podcast. There's been so many times where we just don't feel well. We're not dying. I do have my acute um chronic pain issues, but there's times where I just I feel off and it's frustrating. You can't really operate optimally when you just don't feel good.

Dan Schuman

I totally agree. And I think that everyone or a lot of people listening or otherwise, all the symptoms I mentioned, they have some of them or all of them. And they're just kind of accepting them or not solving for them. And so looking at this and understanding vegas nerve could possibly be an avenue that they could look down and and learn more about and self-educate about. So hopefully that that's what they do here. So mood and stress, the vagus nerve tells your body

Stress, Anxiety & Fight-or-Flight

Dan Schuman

you're safe. Calm down. Low vagal tone means you're stuck in fight or flight, even when nothing is wrong. I gotta believe that has something to do with my fight or flight for sure. This could this could account for my wired but tired phase. My body acted like it there was a bear in the room when there wasn't.

Sandi Magder

So, what you're just describing is a very hot topic. It's probably how I found Vegas nerve in the context of what I was searching and why the algorithms were showing it to me. This is like classic nervous system dysregulation. Whenever you talk about the fight or flight, your body feeling safe versus not safe, that's what we're talking about. And, you know, in a lot of the mind-body work that I'm doing, and I think sort of across a lot of spectrums of medicine these days, nervous system is a very hot topic because of the importance of sort of how it all ties together.

Dan Schuman

Makes a ton of sense and it's becoming very much real for me. And so uh we will definitely have to be keep talking about this, pushing this to people. So balance and that in quotes off feeling. The vagus nerve works closely with the brain stem, as I mentioned. If a signaling is disrupted, you may feel slightly unsteady, even though your inner ear is perfectly fine. This matters for anyone who says, I'm not dizzy, I just don't feel steady. And this is totally me. I could exercise, walk, function, but something feels misaligned during my day. Uh learning the vagus nerves roll in balance finally made that sensation make sense. And I will be looking into this further as to whether this could be the agitator of all this.

Sandi Magder

I think I need to look into this more deeply as well, because I've talked about this before, but I've suffered from nausea and this sort of feeling of dizziness, but like exactly what you described. I'm not actually dizzy. The room is not spinning. You don't think I'm gonna fall over, but something is just off in terms of not even my balance, but I again I like you said, something feels off. So it's something I need to look into.

Dan Schuman

I think for me at its worst, it's uh the appearance or the feeling that I'm off balance. Even though I'm walking straight, I don't think I am. And so it's kind of like it's a weird sensation that I'm looking into, but certainly like, God, if I woke up and the room was spinning, wow. I mean, for people who have that issue, I I feel for you, I would be oh, that would be horrible.

Sandi Magder

Yeah, that's only happened on some really bad drinking nights, ideally, but there you go.

Dan Schuman

I think we've talked Sandy before about your favorite drink. Did we talk about that?

Sandi Magder

Tequila, I'm sure we have.

Dan Schuman

We're both tequilas. I had um on Friday, I had Lalo tequila. Have you had that?

Sandi Magder

No, but I'm always looking for new tequilas to try.

Dan Schuman

Supposedly it's organic. I mean, I don't even know what that means. Like you're drinking alcohol to- I know.

Sandi Magder

I just it's the better version of something terrible. I don't know.

Dan Schuman

Here's alcohol, it has organic and it has two ingredients. It's like, well, it's still you know, freaking alcohol.

Sandi Magder

I keep seeing ads for I mean, so I understand non-alcoholic. I mean, we're diverting here, but I just want to say that I understand non-alcoholic beer because I think people drink beer almost like a soft drink or something like that. But now I'm seeing ads for non-alcoholic hard liquor, which just doesn't make sense. Because I do like the taste of tequila, but I don't think that I want it in a vacuum without the alcohol.

Dan Schuman

That is interesting. Coming from a guy who is so if I I don't drink very much, but when I do, I'm usually like a pineapple high noon, if the place has it. Um, and maybe a tequila there. But non-alcoholic alcohol, I mean, I don't drink alcohol for taste. So I just don't understand how that works.

Sandi Magder

Yeah, it was like non-alcoholic vodka and bourbon, I think, is what I saw, which I well. I'm curious to see anyone's thoughts on this. I just is a full digression, but it's been something on my mind recently. So I thought I'd throw that out there.

Dan Schuman

That was not an overshare. That was a good share. Thank you for that.

Sandi Magder

Okay, you're welcome.

Dan Schuman

Um, getting back on track, inflammation and immunity. Vagus nerve literally turns inflammatory pathways up or down.

Sandi Magder

Yeah. And so as I kind of mentioned, I think this is where I got into the world of vagus nerve, because obviously, with chronic pain and the rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis, inflammation, and also immunity from a lot of the medications I'd ever been on is sort of a prevalent topic for me. So probably as I was getting into nervous system dysregulation and what might be causing it, that's where vagus nerve sort of popped up into my social media algorithms.

Dan Schuman

So for metabolic function, the vagus nerve influences blood sugar regulation. I mean, this is just a heavy hitting nerve with a lot of jobs.

Sandi Magder

Yeah, it's like it's all the things. It's working overtime.

Dan Schuman

So I went through the list of how the vagus nerve affects different systems. But let's talk about how these symptoms connect. And here's where this gets kind of personal. I've dealt with, again, I sound like a broken record, but I have to emphasize this. I've dealt with imbalance, GERD, nausea, fatigue, brain fog, and that vague, I don't feel right sensation. So when I started again learning about the vagus nerve, it aligned with all of these symptoms. And I can't say this enough.

Sandi Magder

Yeah, and for anyone who's been listening since the beginning, um, first of all, thank you. And secondly, you'll have heard Dan discuss these symptoms before. But for anyone new here, welcome. And then secondly, if you'd like to learn more about Dan and I and our personal story so you kind of have a better understanding of why we're so invested in the topics that we bring to you, check out episodes two and three of the podcast

The Neck Connection (Surprisingly Important)

Sandi Magder

where we really get into our why.

Dan Schuman

Okay, back to Vegas nerve. Yes, back to the vagus nerve and the neck, the connection no one talks about. Here's something traditional medicine rarely explains, but it absolutely matters. Your neck can influence your vagus nerve. If you have spinal stenosis, cervical degeneration, disc issues, bone spurs, or chronic posture-related tightness, vagal signaling can be affected. It is my understanding that the vagus nerve passes through the upper cervical region, the same area where many people develop age or posture-related changes. I've had neck tightness, posture strain, structural issues show up on my imaging, Sandy, I know you have as well. Nothing catastrophic. I mean, it's not good, but certainly enough to matter. And when you understand this nerve runs through all of those areas, it reframes how you think about treating it moving forward. So it's not something is wrong with me, but it's something maybe interfering with my communication.

Sandi Magder

Yeah, it's interesting that you bring up the neck because I talked about this in episode three about sort of my story, but I had two, when I was, I think, 12 or 13, I had two very bad horseback riding accidents where I was thrown off and once were resulted in a concussion. And I had a series of all kinds of weird ailments after that. And so at some point, my father had taken me to a chiropractor and I was getting regular adjustments and I was just having a lot of issues with all sorts of things, but the neck was one of them. I think then I started sleeping on a special neck pillow, and it was just a really prevalent thing. And obviously, back then I didn't know anything about the vagus nerve. As we're sort of talking about these topics, and as I had learned more, I act when I got into vagus nerve when I heard about it, it was so compelling that I listened to an entire audio book on the topic. And so reflecting back is again as you're stressing the importance of how it relates to the neck, it sort of makes a lot of sense in terms of the symptoms that I was having.

Dan Schuman

It makes a lot of sense, and uh, it's very interesting with the horseback. I don't think I knew that. Maybe I did. Go back and listen to the episode. I'm sure I talked about it. Fair enough. So why traditional medicine never talks about

Why traditional medicine never talks about the vagus nerve

Dan Schuman

the vagus nerve? If the vagus nerve is this important as we've talked about here, why does traditional medicine barely mention it? Because it doesn't belong to one specialty. GI doctors handle digestion, neurologists handle nerves, cardiologists handle heart rhythms, and psychiatrists handle mood. By the way, just as an aside, I just learned the other day that you know there's over a hundred sub-specialties of doctors within the specialist field. And so I didn't know that. Talk about fragmentation and siloed. These doctors only know like the lane that they know. And the vegus nerve happens to touch all of them. So not one of these doctors owns it. And I'm guessing, I don't know this, but I gotta believe in medical school they're really not learning about vegetables. You know, talk about that with their patients and diagnose it as to whether this is an issue. So I don't think the medical system failed. I think the system just isn't built to connect the dots across these specialties. And so now that I've accepted this, I stopped chasing single symptoms and started supporting the system underneath them, which is a core tenant of the health hunt. There's also no drug for fixing the vagus nerve. Meanwhile, in wellness, neuroscience, breath work, and functional medicine, the vagus nerve is basically what we call Taylor Swift. Everyone is talking about it. So functional medicine, go you.

Sandi Magder

I can't think of a time where any medical professional has ever asked me, hey Sandy, how are you feeling? How's that Vegas nerve doing? But if you've leaned anything from this conversation, you might agree it's a conversation worth having. So in fact, I might start texting Dan on a regular basis and just checking in on his vagus nerve. How do you feel about that, Dan?

Dan Schuman

I would like that. I think that would be very kind of you. Vegas nerve check-ins, another new thing we are starting here. Sounds good.

Sandi Magder

Text your friend. Ask about their vagus nerve.

Dan Schuman

So,

Practical Ways to Support Vagal Tone

Dan Schuman

how do we uh improve vagal tone? So let's get practical here. I think we are up to 10 to 20 listeners. How do we improve your vagal tone? So, t-shirt time, slow breathing. We're doing the 478. We've talked about this. We don't even need to explain it because if you listen to other episodes, you're fully aware of what the 478 is. Cold exposure. Um, cold on the face triggers the dive reflex, activating the vagus nerve and shifting your system into calm. This is really cool.

Sandi Magder

It is. And I have tried this, and the way that I did it was at the end of my shower, I would take a cold shot. So I would turn the water down to cold. And I was doing it fairly consistency, but I am a giant baby about anything. I hate being cold. I mean, we had a cold spell here in Florida, and my heat was on for a month, and I loved every minute of it. And, you know, uh, but I really hated it so much that I stopped doing it. I started to dread the shower because I would fast forward to the cold shot. And so I have taken a break on that. I maybe could try it again, but it should be clear to all of our listeners that I am not going to be jumping into a cold plunge pool anytime soon, even though I know it's got great health benefits, probably in part for the Vegas nerve, but no.

Dan Schuman

Sandy mentioned the weather in Florida, and I am from Wisconsin and she's from Toronto, Canada. So a cold area as well. My blood has totally thinned moving down here. And so there is a real thing called Florida Cold when it's like 60 or 65 degrees and windy. It honestly is chilly. I I can't explain why it's as cold as like 35 in Wisconsin where I grew up, but it's cold. And so I just wanted to point that out that if anyone does listen and live in Florida, come down here when it's 60 and windy and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Sandi Magder

I mean, I it's 72 is like my benchmark, but yeah. Oh okay. I know. I it's I always say that Canadian me is very embarrassed to Florida me. Um, but that's where we're at these days.

Dan Schuman

So if 72 is the benchmark, if it's like 90 in the summer, are you complaining or are you like jamming with that?

Sandi Magder

I don't mind it. People always complain about the wit the uh summer here. I it's it's not memorable to me. It doesn't bother me.

Dan Schuman

Okay. Good to know. That's actually a really good way of looking at it. Um let's go to humming or gargling. Sounds, looks, feels ridiculous, um, but I am told anecdotally that it works.

Sandi Magder

And I I've tried this because it's pretty low-hanging fruit. Uh no cold shot. It's pretty easy to hum for a couple minutes. And same thing, I've heard that it's uh a very useful technique.

Dan Schuman

Another is walking after meals. Uh, this is useful in so many different ways for your health. Uh simple, free, effective.

Sandi Magder

And if you've listened to our recent episodes on glucose, and most notably the episode, I think it's number 16, where we discussed our continuous glucose monitor CGM experiments, you'll know, or you'll learn that going for a walk after meals also gives you bonus points with your CGM because it helps stabilize your glucose. So you're getting those bonus points, regulated glucose, and maybe some vagus nerve stimulation.

Dan Schuman

Bonus points, bonus stickers. Love it. So light cardio, eating slower, and then uh anecdotally, maybe there's something to laughter and social connection.

Sandi Magder

I like that. I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I do sort of have a general goal of knowing that I want to have more fun this year and like always going into the future. So, again, more bonus points that not only will it cause greater joy in my life, ideally, but my vegas nerve will be happier. I think those are things we want. We think we're pretty hilarious over here at the health hunt. Ideally, some of you also think the same thing. So keep listening and let us stimulate your vagus nerve. We're practically medicine.

Dan Schuman

So a couple more here. We have good sleep.

Sandi Magder

That is a hot topic. Again, if you're a regular listener, as you know, we talk a lot about sleep on this podcast. So if that's you and you're having a sleeping issue, we recommend you going back and checking out some of these episodes because your vagus nerve will thank you.

Dan Schuman

Finally, and this is super interesting to me. I'm I'm I'm very curious about this, but not experienced, is devices that simulate the vagus nerve.

Sandi Magder

My social media has been throwing these in my face probably for a couple of years now, probably since the first time I even had a thought or looked up Vegas Nerve. So because I think I need all of the things immediately, and because Amazon delivers things the same day, I purchased a device that attaches to the wires of my TENS machine. And slightly off topic, but just you know, a TENS machine is a small battery-operated portable device that's used to relieve pain. It sends like a low voltage electrical current through these pads that attaches to the skin. And a lot of people, like myself, use them for typically lower back pain, but you could sort of use it really on any part of your body. But I bought a device that connects to the wires that you would normally collect these little pads to. You strategically place them to stimulate the vagus nerve. Full disclosure, again, I bought this in a moment of thinking I desperately needed it or life would end. And then I never used it. I don't know if I was scared of it or if I didn't know what to do with it, but it's in a drawer. And so now I'm kind of motivated to dig it out. But again, this is maybe a little bit of insight into me. Get excited about things, don't always follow through.

Dan Schuman

If you've ever, or if you're going to uh search for Vegas Nerve on X or Instagram, or I just want to give you a disclaimer or a warning that you're probably gonna get ads from Pulsetto and Travago. These are also devices that simulate the Vegas Nerve. Again, I haven't used these. I would love for people to reach out to us if they have. I I want to learn more, but they're they have a very robust marketing platform, and it is all over my socials.

Sandi Magder

And I think this topic is interesting because when you think about those devices or sort of any of the things that we're talking about, this is another one of those things that you know we talked about with supplements. It's probably difficult to know if it's working. If you hum once a day or five times a day, are you gonna immediately feel better and go, oh yeah, my vagus nerve needed to be strengthened? So it's it's an interesting topic because it's so prevalent and it affects so many parts of the body. But I think, you know, again, and that's why I'm kind of mentioning this in terms of like cautioning you with devices. I I'm curious about do people immediately feel better? I'm sure the ads will tell you they do. I'm obviously a little bit skeptical about that, but I think it's interesting to see really how doing any of these things would actually affect how you're feeling.

The Big Takeaway: What Happens in Vagus Should Not Stay in Vagus

Dan Schuman

So here's the big takeaway: when your vagus nerve isn't supported, your body whispers for its cream. I don't think I am broken. Uh I certainly know I'm not imagining these symptoms, but I'm dealing with a system that needs regulation, not force. And so uh this is a work in progress for me. I'm excited to see. Well, actually, to dive more into this. Um, and I do have to say I thought of this as we were on the podcast. Uh it's a cheesy line. I don't know if it makes sense, but it sounds really good. So I'm gonna say it anyways. What happens in Vegas should not stay in Vegas. V-A-G-U-S.

Sandi Magder

Yeah, again, I had to get divorced in Florida, but anyway. Okay. If this resonated, share this with someone who often says, I don't feel right, but I can't explain it. The Vegas nerve might be the missing piece. And don't forget to follow, rate, and review. It's truly what helps others find us. We're here to make health simple, relatable, and even a little bit more fun. See you next week on the Health Hunt.