Introduction to the vagus nerve chapter 1

Vagus Nerve – Vagal Tone – Stress
The vagus nerve is key to the parasympathetic nervous system, this system influences breathing, heart rate, gastrointestinal function, and even mental health and stress management. It has connections from the brain to different internal organs of the body (intestines, stomach, heart, lungs, etc.),
It is responsible for informing central nuclei (brain) of the state of our internal environment.
80% of the fibres of the vagus nerve (X cranial nerve) are afferent, and 20% are efferent.
This means that in order to take advantage of the action potential, the afferents must be stimulated, above all.
Imagine the electric current. It arrives from the street, to the electrical panel (brain) of your house, and from there, it is distributed through different thermal switches (different brain areas) that let the current pass to different areas of the house (periphery). The switches are the afferents (send the electrical information) to the bulbs, and the bulbs (receive the electrical information). We know that in order for the bulb to light up, we must flip the switch, the afferent. When it is off, we cannot turn it on just by touching the bulb, but we have to activate the switch, the one that sends the electrical signal, and to activate it, we have to activate/stimulate it.
So… a spinal manipulation, which mainly influences the efference, can it be enough to stimulate the vagus? -I don’t think so. and you?

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