The Tiny Implant Replacing Life-Changing Drugs | Biohacking Tools : 1365

When we look at the vagus nerve, there are 100,000 fibers on each side

When we look at the vagus nerve, there are 100,000 fibers on each side. Each of them was honed by millions, hundreds of millions probably years of evolutionary pressure to have a specific origin, a...

"You can walk and chew gum at the same time because individual nerve fibers do individual tasks. We have looked at the fibers that function like the brakes on your car and the immune system. We've looked in mice because you can't really do this in people yet. We don't have the technology. But in mice, we estimate it's a teeny percentage of the fibers in the mouse, in the vagus nerve, that control that are sufficient to stop inflammation. If it were a simple So when someone says vagus nerve dysfunction, we have to break it down which fibers are dysfunctional and which ones are functional. We saw in careful physiology studies done actually in New Zealand a couple years back by a group that studied the vagus nerve functioning."

Why do you need to implant something instead of just doing it externally

The vagus nerve is something that's been really fascinating for me because I had chronic fatigue syndrome and all kinds of weird hypothalamus, pater adrenal axis, sympathetic weirdness throughout my...

"We know that you can safely implant a vagus nerve stimulator in the neck of humans because it's been done since the late 1980s to treat epilepsy and depression. And I estimate more than a million people have had successful vagus nerve surgery without immunosuppression, without suffocating side effects. We can do it safely, you can do it systematically. That's one way to do it is with surgery. We also know now with the new The patient puts a collar on once a week. So that technology is there, and it's specific. And we know the amount of current to be applied to the nerve. We know that 400 microamps is sufficient to stimulate the anti-inflammatory."

So, of course, he laughs his little five-year-old butt off and runs out, Mommy, Mommy, look at my scrotum

So, of course, he laughs his little five-year-old butt off and runs out, Mommy, Mommy, look at my scrotum. So, now I know where the platysma is. It's on your neck. And so, guys, there you go.

"And at the same time, if 25 years ago I could have bought something that would have had a 10% chance of working, I'd have bought it. And if it worked, I'd have been really thankful and it would have saved me a million dollars. And if it didn't work, I'd have given it to someone else who needed it or sent it back. So the right to experiment as we figure out the science seems like the FDA hates that right. And that I think it's a fundamental human right. And all the risks you just said are real. Right. Right. Well, it's interesting. Now, full disclaimer, and it's in my book, The Great Nerve, I p put a TENS unit in my ear twice a day, every morning for five minutes and every night for five minutes. And why do I do that? Well, because we've done enough clinical projects, clinical research projects here. My colleague Sangeeta Shivan and I, my colleague Ben Son, a pediatric gastroenurologist, my colleague Christina Sefna, a pediatric nephrologist. We've published these studies in peer-reviewed journals. They tend to be between 15 and And we got very interesting results with these TENS units placed in the Simbaconcha. We saw decreased inflammatory markers in our own my blood and my colleagues. So you're saying that may not be vagus nerve, but at least the Simbaconcha stimulation is good enough to drop inflammation, so you're down."

I think it's fundamentally interesting

I think it's fundamentally interesting. But you're the rare hardcore scientist who's willing to go that way. Like I interviewed Dr. Nicotine from Vanderbilt University, Dr.

"I think it's fundamentally interesting. But you're the rare hardcore scientist who's willing to go that way. Like I interviewed Dr. Nicotine from Vanderbilt University, Dr. Newhall, who published the first study in 1986 showing that pharmaceutical nicotine can actually treat Alzheimer's. And, you know, that's a long time ago."

Well, skip forward 40 years to the 1980s, and they implanted vagus nerve stimulators to treat epilepsy patients

Well, skip forward 40 years to the 1980s, and they implanted vagus nerve stimulators to treat epilepsy patients. And as I said, about half of them got significantly better.

"We don't have the technology. So it's possible that the vagus nerve is being stimulated with the sympathetic nervous system, which goes along with the sheep. That's exactly what happens in the exercising sheep in New Zealand. However, let's say you stay in the cold for a while and you feel your heart rate slow down. You can check your pulse or you can just become aware of it. And when you, and it takes a few minutes. And when your heart rate slows, you often will experience almost an emotional detachment or a feeling of calm or even enjoyability, or even enjoyability. It's like peace. That is associated with slowing heart rate, and that would be evidence of definite evidence of increasing vagus nerve activity of the fibers that go to your heart. Now, why do I take, you know, cold showers?"

So, let's do the simple one first, which is cold immersion

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: I was going to ask you about some of the standard biohacking tools I've been teaching for a long time, like stimulating the mammalian dive reflex by sticking your face in ice...

"We don't have the technology. So it's possible that the vagus nerve is being stimulated with the sympathetic nervous system, which goes along with the sheep. That's exactly what happens in the exercising sheep in New Zealand. However, let's say you stay in the cold for a while and you feel your heart rate slow down. You can check your pulse or you can just become aware of it. And when you, and it takes a few minutes. And when your heart rate slows, you often will experience almost an emotional detachment or a feeling of calm or even enjoyability, or even enjoyability. It's like peace. That is associated with slowing heart rate, and that would be evidence of definite evidence of increasing vagus nerve activity of the fibers that go to your heart. Now, why do I take, you know, cold showers?"