One of the easiest ways to stimulate the vagus nerve is at the throat. Here are three actions we can take to wake up a sleepy vagus nerve and help heal leaky gut. 1. Oil pulling Like our first article posed, oil pulling using the musculature of the throat, we can help stimulate and wake up a sleepy vagus nerve. However, an important distinction needs to be made. If we’re lazy with our oil pulling and ‘just’ swish oil around our mouths, primarily through our front teeth, this action isn’t going to activate the vagus like we want. We have to swish the oil more vigorously and use the muscles of the throat to activate the vagus. Dr Datis Kharrazian states in his amazing book, Why isn’t my brain working?, that gargling until we shed tears is the level of activation necessary to effectively stimulate the vagus nerve. So, get your workout clothes on and supercharge your oil pulling to support a healthier gut. 2. Gagging You know when you are cleaning your tongue and you go ‘just’ too far and feel like you are going to provoke a vomit response dental implant machine? Well, there’s a silver lining for this feeling… It stimulates the vagus nerve! Yep, while vomiting regularly has its obvious very unhealthy results, researchers have found that just provoking the gag reflex stimulates and helps wake up a sleepy vagus nerve. Since we all clean our tongues 1-2 times each day, might as well ramp up your vagal connection and get the very back of your tongue clean too! (ps here’s the best strategy we have found to cure bad breath and clean the tongue) 3 water picker. Singing Ok, this one definitely is more fun than the gagging option! The game for singing to effectively stimulate the vagus nerve is you’ve got to sing LOUD! Belt it out and vibrate your vocal chords! While this may be painful for others in your life, just let them know that it’s helping you heal your leaky gut and maintain optimal digestive health. Better yet, make it a group activity and sing songs that feel good and have healthy/happy lyrics. To help keep this on the positive side, here are some of the favorites around our home we use to exercise our vagal connection dental equipment. Strength, Courage and Wisdom Beautiful Flower Ready for Love Nature There’s Hope (the unofficial OraWellness theme song!) (For that matter, anything from India Arie is beautiful and feels SO good to sing. Her lyrics bring joy and love into the world and we encourage you to check out her amazing work.) So there you go, 3 simple actions each of us can apply that help heal leaky gut. We hope these strategies not only help keep your belly healthy but also help bring more joy and love into your day.