Dr Kevin J. Tracey reveals the extraordinary impact the vagus nerve, which connects every organ in the body to the brain, has on our health. Kevin has been a pioneer in the use of bioelectronic devices to stimulate this nerve  to treat a range of auto-immune illnesses and he is the author of a new book The Great Nerve, The New Science of the Vagus Nerve and How to Harness its healing reflexes, published by Penguin Life.

Patient trials have shown that remarkably, we can electrically stimulate the vagus nerve to ameliorate the symptoms of conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. While Kevin is clear the treatment won’t work for everyone, for some patients the results have been truly remarkable enabling them to  walk unaided again for first time in decades and get back a quality of life they thought was gone for ever.

And for all of us, it now appears that lifestyle interventions such as cold showers, meditation and how we breathe, may offer critically important strategies to effectively regulating our vagus nerve and so maximises its  impact on our health.

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The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on X and read further information about the podcast on her Substack newsletter.

Medical Evidence Matters with Liz Tucker has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 15 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/