Flux Health Forum

Vagus nerve also reaches outside skin of the ear?

General Health and Self-Hacking
#1

Saw this article today, and it made me wonder if you could use PEMF on your vagus nerve by putting it on your ear. I’ve never heard that the vagus nerve reaches that spot before.

“Conveniently, a tiny off-shoot of the vagus nerve can actually be found on the skin of the outer ear. This raises the prospect of spurring the nerve into action through a therapy known as transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS). To explore this idea with respect to aging, the research team enlisted 29 healthy volunteers aged 55 and over, and administered tVNS therapy over a period of two weeks, for 15 minutes every day.”

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#2

I saw this on the drudge report yesterday too and will probably try this myself eventually. Right now I am pulsing my left hand as I am on a mission to cover every square inch of my body with the pressure/pain/no pain technique until I regain a full range of motion/energy/rejuvenation. I bet this would work on the ear too as it’s easier to squeeze the lobe to direct the body’s healing processes.

#3

I’ve been experimenting with using a TENS device on the tragus of my left ear. You’ll need a TENS device and an earclip that you can modify. See instructions in this thread:

The TENS 7000 is generally what people buy. And an ear clip. Both together will run you less than $40. I bout a more expensive unit that also does microcurrent and EMS in case I want to experiment with those in the future.

Here is a common setting that i see in a lot of the studies:

pulse rate = 20Hz, pulse width = 100 microseconds, continuous mode

There are a lot of studies around this and similar frequencies for inflammation, depression, anxiety, etc. From what I gather it does take quite a while to “heal” your vagus nerve(think 1-2 hours of day of stimulation.) I think a lot of things can activate your vagus nerve(breathing exercises, cold, etc) but only stimulation can heal it long term. In addition to electricity(TENS), I know that their are ultrasound devices that can stimulate as well.

I’m also starting to apply my ICES to my left neck to see if i can get some vagus stimulation as well via that method. The tragus is probably too fine a point to stimulate via pemf.

Oh and if you do try this, only stimulate your left ear. The right ear has more control over the heart and people have had racing heart conditions from it.

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#4

Are you seeing any benefit from using the ICES on the left side of your neck for VN stim? I have been doing that too! Sometimes I put it on both sides of the neck but usually just the left- in case the R side also affects the heart via the neck.,(like the ear). What are you hoping to treat with the Vagus Nerve Stimulation?

Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Covid
Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Covid
#5

Chronic Fatigue? I know you posted this a long time ago, just curious if you have seen benefit!

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#6

This is like the Meg Patterson NET therapy or Bob Beck Brain Tuner/SOTA Bio Tuner:

"Inspired by the work of Ray Gilmer of Neuro Systems Inc. and Dr. Meg Patterson of Neuroelectric Therapy, Bob used his knowledge of brain and earth frequencies to design a simple-to-use, pocket-sized CES unit, the “Brain Tuner”.

Here are the ear clips one ebay builder uses:

Here is the base Beck style “Brain Tuner”

#7

Official site:
https://www.bobbeck.com/brain-tuner.html

I’m curious to hear if anyone has used the Beck style units.
He gave out all the schematics for free.

I just got a Beck “Blood Electrifier” from that ebay seller. Purchased it because it has capacitor power storage, no batteries to wear out. The interior electronic construction looks a bit sloppy, but the device works as advertised (output looks correct).

#8

I would highly suggest to get carbon based electrodes. My experience with metal electrode was pretty bad that resulted in minor burns on my ear lobe. The article up top looks like it shows it’s a carbon based earclip.

#9

What program is everyone using for VNS with ICES?

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