Episode 7: Vagus Nerve Healing for Nurses: Nervous System Regulation, Stress, and Metabolism

Nurses experience chronic stress in ways most professions never will.

Long shifts.
 Emotional trauma exposure.
 Sleep disruption.
 Skipped meals.
 Constant pressure to perform.

Over time, this level of stress can deeply impact the nervous system — and one of the most important regulators of that system is the vagus nerve.

In this episode of Proactive Wellness for Nurses, Jessica Veloza, APRN and functional medicine coach, explains how the vagus nerve acts as a communication highway between the brain and body and why it plays such an important role in stress recovery, digestion, metabolism, and emotional regulation.

When vagal tone is low, the body can become stuck in fight-or-flight mode, which may contribute to symptoms many nurses experience every day:

• feeling wired but exhausted
 • chronic fatigue
 • digestive issues
 • sugar cravings
 • anxiety and overwhelm
 • difficulty losing weight
 • sleep disruption

Jessica breaks down the science behind the vagus nerve in a way nurses can understand and shares simple, practical strategies that can help support nervous system healing.

In This Episode You'll Learn

• What the vagus nerve is and where it runs in the body
 • Why nurses are especially vulnerable to nervous system dysregulation
 • How chronic stress affects metabolism and weight regulation
 • The connection between vagal tone, digestion, and blood sugar
 • Signs your nervous system may be stuck in fight-or-flight mode
 • Simple vagus nerve exercises nurses can practice daily
 • Why nervous system healing is essential for burnout recovery

Simple Vagus Nerve Practices Mentioned

• slow breathing with extended exhales
 • humming
 • gargling
 • cold face exposure
 • safe social connection
 • brief nervous system reset moments during shifts

These small practices can help signal safety to the nervous system and gradually improve vagal tone.

A Message for Nurses

If you’re feeling burned out, overwhelmed, or frustrated with your health, you are not broken.

Your body has adapted to a very demanding environment.

When the nervous system begins to feel safe again, the body can start to recover.

Digestion improves.
 Energy stabilizes.
 Inflammation decreases.
 Metabolism often follows.

Listen & Connect

If this episode resonated with you, subscribe to the Proactive Wellness for Nurses Podcast and share it with another nurse who might need this conversation.

Because nurses deserve support too.

You can also explore additional resources and programs through Proactive Wellness for Nurses, where Jessica helps nurses restore metabolic health, regulate their nervous systems, and recover from burnout.

Intro

outro

Transcript

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Hello, my fellow nurses, and welcome back to Proactive Wellness for Nurses with Jess VNP. That's me, functional medicine practitioner and nurse coach, someone who has spent years trying to understand why so many nurses feel exhausted, inflamed, and stuck in bodies that they don't seem to respond to things that used to work for them. So we're going to talk about something that most nurses have never been taught in school, but may be one of the most important systems in the entire human body. Today we are talking about the Vegas nerf. Because if you are a nurse who feels like, you know, you're constantly stressed, you can't relax even on your days off, your digestion is off, your sleep is fragmented, your anxiety is higher than it used to be, and your weight just won't budge, then there's a very good chance that your vagus nerve is not functioning the way it's supposed to. And the reason this matters is because the vagus nerve is one of the primary regulators of the parasympathetic nervous system. You know the system that's responsible for recovery, digestion, hormone balance, metabolic repair, and emotional emotional. So if the vagus nerve isn't functioning properly, the body stays stuck in sympathetic dominance, which is that survival mode we keep talking about. And survival mode is not a state where the body releases weight. What the vagus nerve is actually doing and what it actually does for us, well, let's start with the anatomy. The vagus nerve is cranial nerve number 10. It originates in the brainstream, specifically the medulla oblongata, and it travels down through the neck into the chest and abdomen. The word vagus V A-G-U-S actually comes from the Latin word for wandering, and that name is incredibly accurate because this nerve wanders throughout the body, connecting the brain to multiple major organ systems, to include the heart, the lungs, the diaphragm, the stomach, liver, the pancreas, the small intestine, and even parts of the large intestine. So when we talk about the vagus nerve, we are not talking about a small isolated nerve. We are talking about a massive communication network between the brain and the body. And one of the most fascinating facts about the vagus nerve is this. About 80% of vagal nerve signals travel from the body back to the brain, not the other way around. So this means that your brain is constantly receiving real-time information from your organs about what is happening inside your body, your gut, your inflammation levels, your heart rate, your immune activity, your metabolic state. I mean, all of that information is being sent up the vagus nerve to the brain. So when the vagus nerve becomes dysregulated, the brain begins receiving distorted information about the internal environment of the body. And that can change everything. So let's talk more about the vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous system. The vagus nerve is the primary driver of the parasympic nervous system. You've probably heard this described as the rest and digest system. But honestly, that description barely scratches the surface. The parasympathetic nervous system controls important things like digestion, insulin signaling, hormone regulation, immune balance, inflammation control, heart rate variability, mood stability, sleep cycles, and metabolic recovery. It is the system responsible for repairing the body, okay? The vagus nerve is the main highway through which that system operates. And when vagal tone is healthy, the body can easily shift between stress states and recovery states. But when the vagal tone declines, the nervous system gets stuck. And this is actually what's happening to many nurses. I mean, why do you think that nurses are at high risk for vagal, vagal dysfunction? It's a little bit of a no-brainer, but this can be a new topic for people. So let's talk about the reality of nursing. Okay, let's talk about a typical shift. You're constantly moving, you're exposed to alarms, emergencies, trauma. I mean high cognitive demand. You are making rapid decisions that impact human lives. You're likely to skip meals. You may go hours without drinking water, you may suppress your own emotions while caring for someone else in crisis. Then add night shift to the equation. Good goodness. Circadian rhythm disruption alone has been shown to increase cortisol levels, impair glucose metabolism, and increase inflammatory markers. If you've been listening along, you've heard me say this probably in every episode, because it is the connection between the nervous system and the metabolic system. And it is my whole argument as to why nurses that are doing everything right have a difficult time losing weight. So when the nervous system experiences repeated high stress stimulation without adequate, what does it do? It adapts. So it begins to assume that the environment you are in is not safe enough to relax. And when that happens, vagal tone begins to decline. The parasympic nervous system just becomes weaker. And the sympathetic stress system becomes dominant. So the body becomes trapped in survival physiology. Let's talk about what low vagal tone actually does to the body. Low vagal tone has measurable effects on multiple systems. First, heart rate variability decreases. Heart rate variability, or HRV, is one of the most reliable markers of nervous system health. When HRV is higher, there is a higher amount of variability in your heart rate. It indicates that the body can easily shift between stress and recovery states. Whereas low heart rate variability indicates chronic stress physiology. So heart rate variability is a very important marker for longevity. It is a health marker, and you can measure it simply with a heart rate monitor. There are machines that interpret heart rate variability. However, it's how your heart rate changes to accommodate moving from sitting to standing to lying down and doing life tasks. So again, high heart rate variability means you're popping up from sitting down and your heart rate goes up because it's supposed to, but once you sit down, it goes back down. Low heart rate variability, it's like you get, you might already be anxious, so your heart rate is elevated at rest. And then when you get up, it remains up, but doesn't go very a lot. So the next thing that really truly the vagal nerve does to the body is it impacts digestion. When you have vagal tone dysfunction, vagal nerve dysfunction, digestion function declines. So, you know, think about your small your irritable bowel syndrome people. Think about people with chronic diarrhea or constipation that have never been able to get answers from anyone. And this is also how the irritable bowel syndrome is literally connected to your brain. So it's not fake. I am not saying it is made up in your head. I'm saying for a lot of people, it is vagal nerve dysfunction. So the vagus nerve, it's because it stimulates stomach acid production and it also stimulates pancreatic enzyme release and intestinal motility. So when vagal nerve signaling is impaired, digestion slows down. So again, this can lead to bloating, constipation, poor nutrient absorption. Definitely. And then the third way that vagal tone dysfunction impacts the body is by signaling, I mean, the insulin response gets all jacked up. So vagal nerve, if vagal nerve signaling is impaired, then insulin response becomes less coordinated. And this is because the vagus nerve communicates with the pancreas to regulate insulin secretion. So if it's not doing its job right, insulin's getting all messed up. And the result of this can be blood sugar spikes, energy crashes. I mean, definitely sugar cravings, increased fat storage, for sure. The insulin tells your body to not burn fat. And it also metabolic resistance, insulin resistance, and your body's flooded with glucose and insulin, and it makes you crave sugar and not burn fat. So the fourth way that poor vagal tone impacts the body is by satiety signaling. It becomes disrupted because the vagus nerve carries fullness signals from the gut to the brain. And if those signals are impaired, the brain may not properly recognize when enough food has been consumed. And finally, when you have poor vagal no vagal tone, inflammation increases. We all know that inflammation is the culprit of so many things. The vagus nerve actually regulates something called the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway. This pathway allows the nervous system to directly suppress excessive immune activity. And when vagal tone is low, inflammatory signaling decreases. And chronic inflammation is one of the biggest drivers of metabolic dysfunction. We already know this. So let's move on to talk about why. Why does vagal nerve dysfunction make weight loss so hard? Why? Because when the body is stuck in chronic sympathetic activation, several metabolic changes occur. I mean, cortisol remains elevated, insulin sensitivity decreases, fat storage increases, particularly around the abdomen. I can't tell you how many of my clients want to know why they're gaining weight around their abdomen, why can they lose weight in general, but not around their abdomen? It's a thing. Vagal tone dysfunction is something that is impactful on that majorly. So, furthermore, sleep quality declines and hunger hormones become dysregulated, like we just discussed. So, this is why all of these things are why many nurses feel like they are doing everything right, but still struggling with weight. Because the issue is not simply calories or exercise. The body is operating under the assumption that it is in a high threat environment. And from an evolutionary standpoint, a body in a high threat environment does not release stored energy easily. It's trying to be smart. It is trying to protect us, it conserves, it stores, and it is preparing for survival, which is why metabolic healing often begins with nervous system regulation. So now let's talk about some practical ways to make this better. I've told you about the problem. Let's talk about how to make it better. The good news is that vagal tone, it is not fixed, it is not set in stone. It can be retrained and healed. So just like muscles respond to exercise, the vagal nerve, the vagus nerve responds to repeated stimulation. Excuse me. So many many vagal stimulation techniques are very simple. This is the other part of the good news. One of the most powerful is just slow exhale breathing. The vagus nerve is particularly sensitive to prolonged exhalation. And a simple pattern that you can apply right now would be inhale for four seconds and then exhale for six to eight seconds. This simple activity that you can do in your car, you can do in the bathroom, you can do anywhere, is very, very, very powerful. It can increase parasympathetic activity within minutes. Another method is humming. Humming stimulates the muscles in the larynx and the pharynx that are innervated by vagal pathways. That vibration also increases nitric oxide production in the sinuses. So, I mean, there's a lot of science behind this. Humming, it sounds silly. It sounds very simple, but there is a lot of science behind this. So, again, it it increases nitric oxide production in the sinuses, and that's kind of exciting. And another surprising method that you can do that creates this vibration is gargling. So strong gargling activates the muscles at the back of the throat, and these are connected to vagal branches as well. Another very, very, very powerful activity that you can do is cold exposure. Cold exposure does not have to be as intense as getting in an ice bath, though I suggest it. I am not doing it right now. I suggest it if you have major problems that you can't figure out. And I do plan on, and I have integrated some cold showers, you know. So cold exposure, again, it can be as simple as splashing cold water on your face. You know, as a nurse, if people are in an SVT superventricular tachycardia, we try to do vagal nerve stimulation. You already know about this. Bearing down cold water, attempting to blow as hard as you can through a straw or other small thing. These that create a bearing down as well. But uh, but yeah, these things that we know stimulate vagal, vagal tone. So there's small tasks that you can do repeatedly that you can communicate to your vagal nerve that dog, it's fine. Shit is okay. Like I am not in distress. It just feels like that. So, you know, like I said, cold exposure, humming, singing, gargling, all of these things are things you can integrate for free easily today. So, you know, cold exposure literally activates the driving, the diving reflex, which slows the heart rate and stimulates vagal activity. So finally, a way that we can help begin to regulate our vagal tone. This is a not this one is a little less simple to integrate for some people, but it is safe social connection. So, you know, being around people that you trust that you can make eye contact with. Eye contact alone has been shown to connect to vagal tone improvement, laughter, an emotionally safe conversation. All of these things activate ventral vagal pathways involved in social regulation. This is one reason why isolation worsens nervous system dysregulation. And all of these things are small. So I want to talk about why small signals matter. Because one of the biggest misconceptions about the nervous system and healing the nervous system is that it requires long, overwhelming, difficult to fit in your life meditation sessions or complicated routines. No, in reality, healing often occurs through very small, repeated signals of safety, a deep breath between patience, a moment of stillness between eating, praying over your food, a laughing with a coworker, you know, a brief pause to relax your shoulders and jaw. Focus in on relaxing every single microscopic part of your shoulders and jaw. Give it five minutes, give it three minutes. Each of these movements sends a signal through the vagus nerve, okay? But those signals accumulate, and over time they begin retraining your nervous system. And when the nervous system begins to feel safe again, dude, the body begins to shift out of survival physiology. And what do you think that makes possible? Good golly, a lot of things. But why are we maybe here? Because we want to lose this stubborn fat. And this can help that. Digestion improves, inflammation decreases, blood sugar stabilizes, energy returns, and metabolic repair becomes possible. So all of these things directly relate to your ability to lose weight and keep it off. So my final message for you, my nurses, is if you are a nurse or anyone really who feels burned out, overwhelmed, and frustrated with your body, I want you to understand something. Your body is not broken. If you're listening along, don't get sick of me saying this. I feel like you might need to hear it 117,000 more times in order to believe me that nothing is wrong with you. You are not weak, you are not broken, you are not doomed because you're older and your metabolism is slowed down. Bullshit. No. No. If your nervous system is dysregulated, your metabolic system is dysregulated. And I know 60-year-olds that are in better, better metabolic health than 30 and 40-year-olds. Okay. You cannot continue to blame your dysfunction on your age. You can blame it on your job, but you cannot forever. Because if that's you're if you're feeling broken, you need to quit. You need to come off a night shift. You need to find a lower stress job, whatever that looks like for you. Because you cannot lean on these excuses any longer. Your body is not broken. You also can't beat yourself up any longer. A lot of us start over every Monday a million times, a million diets, and then we let ourselves down. That leads to us not trusting ourselves and we go into that guilt, shame, fear cycle we previously spoke about in another episode, right? So your body is not broken, your metabolism is not broken, your body has adapted to a high stress environment. And one of the key systems involved in that adaptation is the vagus nerve. So when we begin supporting vagal function, we begin supporting entire parasympathetic system function, okay? And that is where healing happens. Not with self-punishment, not with extreme dieting, but with restoring the biological signals that allow the body to move out of survival mode and back into recovery mode. Because when the nervous system heals, metabolism often follows. So if this episode resonated with you, share it with another nurse who might need to hear this. And if you're interested in learning more about metabolic healing for nurses, make sure you subscribe to the podcast and explore the resources linked in the show notes. You can always visit us at proactivewellness.net because guess what? Nurses deserve health too. You deserve to invest time, energy, money into you. You deserve to admit if you need help. You deserve to Admit if you need structure, guidance, accountability, this is what we do at Proactive Wellness. Because nurses deserve health too. Man, I can't say it enough. And that is exactly what the Proactive Wellness Inner Circle community is here to rebuild. I love you already, and I will see you at the next episode.