Healthy aging is more than the absence of disease. It’s all about your ability to maintain vibrancy, cognitive clarity, energy, and resilience throughout life. The nervous system, particularly the vagus nerve, plays a central role in this process. As the bridge between body and brain, it plays a crucial role in regulating inflammation, digestion, heart rate, emotional balance, and sleep. In short, supporting nervous system health is essential for increasing your healthspan: the number of years you live well.
The Vagus Nerve: The Command Center of Calm
The vagus nerve, the longest cranial nerve, serves as a key regulatory superhighway, connecting the brainstem to virtually every visceral organ, most notably the heart, lungs, and digestive tract. As the primary branch of the parasympathetic nervous system, it counterbalances the sympathetic “fight or flight” response and allows the body to shift into “rest-digest-recover” mode. This shift is not just about relaxation; it’s central to reducing inflammation, supporting neuroplasticity, optimizing immune function, and slowing the aging process.
When vagus nerve signaling is strong, your nervous system works efficiently to keep your body in balance. Over time, however, chronic stress, from emotional trauma to poor sleep or environmental toxins, can weaken vagal tone (the vagus nerve’s ability to send signals and bounce back from stress). Weakened vagal tone reduces the nervous system’s control over inflammation, allowing it to become chronic. This, in turn, lowers your stress tolerance and can even speed up cognitive decline, hallmark signs of unhealthy aging.
The Stress→ Inflammation→ Cognition Cycle
One of the most harmful effects of a dysregulated nervous system is the vicious cycle between stress, inflammation, and cognitive decline. Chronic stress traps the body in a constant “fight-or-flight” state, suppressing restorative processes and priming the immune system to trigger inflammation throughout the body.
Over time, this inflammation can spread to the brain, where it contributes to brain fog, memory problems, and even increases the risk of neurodegenerative diseases. This neuroinflammation disrupts the brain’s primary immune cells, known as microglia, thereby reducing their ability to protect and repair neurons and their connections.
When microglia can’t do their job, the brain’s neuroplasticity, its ability to learn, form new connections, and adapt, becomes limited, even in response to minor injuries or everyday stress.
Cognitive resilience depends heavily on a well-regulated nervous system. Without that foundation, even the most advanced diets or supplements may only have a limited impact, making nervous system health a key pillar of healthy aging.
Building Resilience from the Inside Out
True healthy aging starts from the inside out. The foundation is daily nervous system regulation, the same system that influences stress levels, inflammation, and brain health.
In my books and in my work with clients at Health Upgraded, I focus on strengthening vagal tone (the signaling strength of the vagus nerve) by addressing four key stress domains:
- Daily Stress (Habits) – Automatic everyday behaviors that either nurture or deplete your nervous system.
- Psychological Stress (Emotions) – Your brain’s subconscious scans for safety, asking “Am I safe right now?” and triggering autonomic responses.
- Physical Stress (Movement) – Varied, healthy movement to keep your body responsive, recover tissues, and feed the brain proprioceptive input.
- Biochemical Stress (Environment) –Obvious or hidden toxins, poor air quality, or inflammatory foods that burden your system.
When you support these four areas, you create a strong foundation for resilience, sharper cognition, and healthier aging.
Supporting the Vagus Nerve for Healthy Aging
Optimizing vagus nerve function is one of the most effective ways to promote longevity and enhance quality of life. You can support it through:
- Mindful breathwork and meditation – Which stimulate the vagal pathways and reduce sympathetic arousal.
- Consistent movement – Gentle activities like yoga, walking, or stretching throughout the day to help activate the body’s restorative systems.
- Prioritizing high-quality sleep – To support nervous system detoxification, repair, and neuroplasticity (your brain’s ability to adapt and grow).
- Eating nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory foods – Whole food choices that support the gut-brain axis, which plays a vital role in vagus nerve health.
- Staying socially connected – Maintain positive relationships and community to naturally boost parasympathetic tone, shifting the body into a more relaxed, healing state.
These daily habits help strengthen neuroception, the nervous system’s ability to assess cues of safety, and shift the body into a healing, anti-inflammatory state.
Augmenting Resilience Through Vagus Nerve Stimulation
For some people, chronic inflammation, emotional stress, or cognitive challenges make it difficult to keep the nervous system in balance, no matter how many healthy habits they practice. In these cases, non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) can be a valuable additional tool.
Devices like Truvaga deliver gentle, non-invasive electrical pulses to the vagus nerve at the side of the neck, encouraging activation of key brainstem areas involved in autonomic control. Research suggests nVNS can shift microglia, the brain’s immune cells, from a pro-inflammatory state to an anti-inflammatory one, reduce harmful inflammatory molecules (cytokines), and improve both sleep quality and cognitive function in healthy individuals as well as those with chronic conditions.¹
Because Truvaga is simple to use, it can fit seamlessly into a daily routine, whether to improve stress issues, clear mid-day brain fog, or support digestion. In my client care protocols, short 2‑minute sessions at strategic times (such as in the morning, before meals, and before bed) help improve vagal tone and promote a more adaptable, resilient nervous system.
Healthy Aging Is a State, Not Just a Number
Longevity isn’t just about genes or lifespan; it’s about how well we live as we age. Nervous system health, primarily through vagus nerve optimization, is the cornerstone of that vision. By focusing on habit changes, eliminating inflammatory triggers, and leveraging cutting-edge tools like Truvaga for VNS, we empower the body to heal, adapt, and thrive.
A well-regulated nervous system is the gateway to aging well. It shapes how well we digest, sleep, think, and connect. It allows us to weather life’s storms with grace, flexibility, and strength.
Start by listening to your body. Support your vagus nerve. Build your capacity for calm to build out a life that gets better with each passing year.
Author bio:
Dr. Navaz Habib, is the bestselling author of “Activate Your Vagus Nerve,” and the newly released “Upgrade Your Vagus Nerve.” He is also the host of “The Health Upgrade Podcast.”
After graduating as class valedictorian from Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in 2010 and went on to practice traditional chiropractic for years, until he utilized the power of functional medicine to transform his own health. Dr. Habib is the founder of “Health Upgraded” an online functional health consulting clinic, supporting optimal health by elevating the awareness and function of the vagus nerve.
References
Zhang, et al., Vagus nerve stimulation promotes the M1-to-M2 transition via inhibition of TLR4/NF-𝜅B in microglia to rescue the reperfusion injury, Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, Vol. 31, Iss. 9, (2022)
Chen, et al., Vagus Nerve Stimulation Reduces Neuroinflammation Through Microglia Polarization Regulation to Improve Functional Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury, Frontiers in Neuroscience, Vol. 16, 813472 (2022)
