The vagus nerve is part of the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for the tasks our body performs unconsciously, like breathing, digestion, and sweating. (1) Getting more specific, the vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the fight or flight response. It’s role is to help calm you down after a stressful situation. It does this by the Vagal - adrenal axis, (also mentioned in this blog about weight loss and inflammation), carrying signals from your brain to other areas of your body. The vagus nerve starts in the brain and extends down your neck, through your chest, around your heart, around your lungs, and through your abdomen and intestines. It is because of this long outreach that the vagus nerve can provide signals from your brain to most of your body.

Acupuncture utilizes this pathway during treatments. Research at Harvard Medical School has concluded that receiving acupuncture will stimulate the neurons that trigger the vagal-adrenal axis to signal the brain to release neurotransmitters like dopamine. Dopamine is crucial to mood, inflammation, and controlling physical movement. (2)

The neurons that trigger the vagus nerve are found in the largest numbers on our legs. More specifically, the front of the legs. Patients of City Garden Community Acupuncture will not find this surprising at all. I use a system of acupuncture called “Meridian Balancing” that uses the points on the legs and arms, (as oppose to points on the back), during treatments. Anyone who has received acupuncture at City Garden will recall favorite points of mine to use are located on the front of the legs, just below the knee. While Chinese medicine discovered the efficacy of these points empirically, we can now thank Harvard for giving us the western medicine explanation.

(1) Segal, Dayva, Vagus Nerve: What to Know, webmd, October 6, 2022, www.webmd.com

(2) Caruso, Catherine “How Acupuncture Fights Inflammation” The Harvard Gazette, November 3, 2021, www.hms.harvard.edu