Self-Care, the Vagus Nerve, and COVID-19

By Deepak Chopra, MD and Gustaf Kranck, M.Sc.

There is widespread awareness of the wellness movement in this country, and the term “self-care” is being more and more recognized. Since advice has existed for decades on proper diet, exercise, sleep, and the avoidance of alcohol and tobacco, in what way is self-care an advance? This seems like a critical question during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Self-care is an advance over the usual well-known preventive measures if it can do more, in other words, if there are choices that improve the whole mind-body system. Increasingly the key to self-care seems to be the vagus nerve. The general public awaits a silver-bullet treatment and a future vaccine, but the benefits associated with the vagus nerve are accessible by anyone right now.

A bit of anatomy first: twelve major nerves radiate out from the brain, and these so-called cranial nerves connect the brain to every area of the body. They function like information superhighways, constantly sending messages back and forth from brain to body. The most important cranial nerve is called the vagus nerve, named from the Latin word for wandering. The vast majority of sensory signals to and from the heart, lungs, stomach, and intestinal tract travel along the six miles of the vagus nerve.

In the past few years, a surprising discovery was made: deep, regular breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, sending a signal of relaxation that is very effective in settling down the stress response. News stories about vagal breathing, as it was named, drew widespread attention. But as research became more focused, it emerged that the vagus nerve might be something like a master key in the body. In its wanderings the vagus nerve affects the heart, lungs, digestive tract, and the immune system. These are the critical systems involved when someone becomes infected with the COVID-19.

The implication is that by stimulating the vagus nerve, a holistic benefit might come to these systems altogether. One of the co-authors of this article, Gustaf Kranck, has a personal story connected with vagal stimulation. Among the many ways that the vagus nerve can be stimulated are meditation and yoga. After getting burned-out by stress after the 2008 great recession, Gustaf began to practice meditation and felt that it “saved his brain.” Motivated to explore further, he hit upon the wealth of research that is being conducted on the vagus nerve. At present there are thousands of scientific papers on the subject and vagus stimulation devices are FDA approved for depression. In recent months there has been published more than 150 papers on vagus nerve and Coronavirus – most of them showing clear indications that the vagus nerve is central to the disease progress.

Here it is necessary to step cautiously. Recently an eminent French researcher, Dr. Jean-Pierre Changeux, published findings that indicated a kind of medical benefit from nicotine – which neurologically acts as a vagus stimulant. The findings from France were that those who were active smokers, even while contracting Coronavirus, seemed to have a more favourable disease progress than those who had recently stopped smoking. Needless to say –, a controversy erupted. Promptly after the publication of these studies in late April, the French government ordered limitations on the sale of nicotine patches from pharmacies in order to prevent hoarding.

Yet it is completely non-controversial to state that activating the vagus nerve with meditation and yoga, along with deep regular breathing and good sleep, are known conclusively to improve functioning in the systems most affected by the virus, particularly the respiratory system. Just as thoroughly documented is meditation’s benefit in reducing the stress response, with implications for reducing inflammation, one of the key dangers when the body’s immune system overreacts to the virus.

Gustaf made another striking observation. When meditating and doing controlled breathing practice, he could measure how this vagus nerve activation brings heartbeat and breathing rhythms to perfect sync – if he was in good health. His discovery was that with a hand-to-hand wearable electrocardiogram (EKG) he could simultaneously measure with high precision both the heart rate and breathing– and therefore instantly test how well they were synchronized.

This synchronization is very important. There is a sound physiological reason behind this. The vagus nerve regulates oxygen delivery in the body, so that it is used most efficiently and without waste. You need more oxygen to muscles during exercise and to the gut when relaxed. Vagal nerve stimulation seems to be crucial here, and a test of breathing and heartbeat rhythms, which is non-invasive and quite simple, may be useful in determining who is well and who is sick (we are not claiming, however, that the sickness would specifically be COVID-19). In healthy people the breath and heartbeat are in sync; in sick people the two functions go out of sync.

We hope this information is useful in promoting self-care through the methods for vagus nerve stimulation already mentioned. It costs nothing to do vagal breathing, get a good night’s sleep, meditate, and practice yoga. We feel this is the direction that self-care and the virus should take.

 

DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”
Gustaf Kranck, founder of Vagus.co – a Cambridge (UK) producer of health monitoring wearables and vagus stimulation devices. He has a M.Sc. from Aalto University in Finland and in 2019 authored the study ‘Vagal Tone Diagnostics with hand-to-hand ECG’.

The Key to Handling Stress and COVID-19

By Deepak Chopra, MD, FACP, Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD, Michelle Williams, ScD, Ryan Castle, William C. Bushell, PhD, Kimberly Brouwer, PhD, and Paul J. Mills, PhD

Although COVID-19 is very easily transmitted from person to person, the risk of subsequent hospitalization and death primarily affects people who are already at risk because of old age, infirmity and/or chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, autoimmune illness, obesity, and heart disease. All of these chronic illnesses are associated with measurable low-grade inflammation in the body. The chronic low-grade inflammation that develops with advanced age has become known as “inflammaging”. Most people with chronic illness unknowingly have low-grade inflammation. Recent research points to a second finding: these same disorders are often accompanied by persistent low-grade anxiety and depression.

All of this as a background increases the danger for a person when acute illness strikes. In addition to the elderly and chronically ill, COVID-19 is causing acute respiratory illness and stroke sometimes leading to death in seemingly otherwise healthy younger individuals. The transition from SARS-CoV-2 infection to diagnosed COVID-19 is typically accompanied by a “cytokine storm.” Cytokines are proteins that are major drivers of inflammation, and their rapid increase, or “storm” is one of the body’s immune responses to acute threat.

In addition, studies have connected pro-inflammatory cytokines to the stress response; they regulate well-known stress hormones such as ACTH and cortisol. Three major systems are involved: the immune system, the central nervous system and the endocrine hormone system.

In the face of these connections, we are coming forward to suggest that complementary practices—deep breathing, yoga, and meditation—can play an important role during this pandemic. These practices have been confirmed by hundreds of scientific studies to bring down over-activity of the autonomic nervous system, calm the mind from anxiety, reduce the stress response, regularize heartbeat, and lower blood pressure. Together, all of these diverse benefits are associated with reducing the invisible presence of chronic low-grade inflammation, especially if added to good sleep, exercise, and proper diet.

We don’t fully understand how the immune response, linked to stress and inflammation, can turn lethal. As a response to cuts, wounds, invading pathogens, and other threats, prior to antibody formation, the body first responds with inflammation as a normal yet crucial healing function. But it has long been known that inflammation is paradoxical. Acute inflammation can over-react, harming or even killing the patient. (Instances of strokes and heart attacks among young COVID-19 patients might be linked to micro-cytokine storms in the brain and heart.)

The threat from low-grade chronic inflammation was not discovered until recently but seems to be widespread. It is unaccompanied by the swelling, burning, and redness of the skin that marks acute inflammation and therefore goes undetected by the patient or physician. Preventing and addressing chronic low-grade inflammation and its significant adverse consequences are urgent issues, even more urgent during a pandemic. There seems to be every reason to make the public aware how deep breathing, meditation, yoga, and other healthy lifestyle practices can help during this crisis and long afterwards.

 

Deepak Chopra™ MD, FACP, Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego
Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD, Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School/MGH
Michelle Williams, SM, ScD, Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Kimberly Brouwer, PhD, Professor and Chief, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, Division of Global Health, Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, at the University of California, San Diego
Ryan Castle, Executive Director of the Chopra Library
William C. Bushell, PhD, medical anthropologist and research director of the Chopra Library
Paul J. Mills, PhD, Professor and Chief, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, at the University of California, San Diego

How to Settle the Mind During a Crisis

By Deepak Chopra™, MD

At first only a few voices spoke of positive change after the COVID crisis ends, or at least becomes livable once again. Now one hears a chorus calling for change, much of it from younger people. The main message is about global cooperation and preparing better for the next pandemic. But I think people are pondering personal change, too. In the midst of widespread trepidation, what are the new goals that each of us might start pursuing right now?

The first goal should be a settled mind. Fear is persuasive and panic easily goes viral. At the best of times most people turn their backs on worrisome problems rather than dealing with them directly. But unless you have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, you can settle your mind and go beyond fear. The first steps to gaining mastery over fear are open to everyone, as follows.

  • Sit down and candidly talk about your level of anxiety. Assemble the adults in your family, and perhaps older teenagers.
  • Discuss your feelings in the context of getting past them.
  • Don’t dwell on anxious thoughts. When one arises, say to yourself, “This isn’t helping. Go away, I don’t need you.” Talking back to the voice in your head is actually effective.
  • Plan rationally for the situation you find yourself in. Problems can be divided into three categories: things you can fix, things you have to put up with, and things you should walk away from. Take each individual issue that faces you, and write down which category it falls into. Most people aggravate their worries through indecision. They vacillate between trying to fix something, putting up with it, and fantasizing about running away from it. Be clear in your reasoning, pick one strategy from the three, then stick to it.
  • Empathize with other people’s anxiety, but don’t make it a daily habit. Be helpful and reassuring. If this doesn’t work, you should tune out the most anxious complaints and focus on anything positive that emerges.
  • Be creative with your free time. Idle minds are fear’s playground.
  • Don’t obsess over the news. Limit your viewing time to short periods two or three times a day. This is a crisis unfolding in slow motion. You don’t have to keep up with it minute by minute.
  • Seek consoling and uplifting things to read and listen to.
  • Devote some time several times a day to sit quietly, close your eyes, and use deep, regular breathing to reach a settled state inside. If you are patient enough to practice regular meditation, do that.
  • Write down a vision of your future as you would like to live it after the crisis passes. Detail all the things you want to achieve and experience.
  • Foster hope in your immediate circle, but don’t make it up if you don’t actually feel hopeful.
  • Take time every day to do something that makes you smile and laugh.

As you can see, none of these things are mysterious. They are available to everyone, and if you seriously undertake it, the project of defeating fear is more than doable.

At a more inward level, you can also confront the misleading ideas that anxiety fosters, replacing them with positive ideas any time they recur. First, the false ideas that are typically born of fear:

  • If I worry, it shows I care.I have to worry because others around me don’t seem to.
  • By worrying I am fending off the worst things that might happen.
  • Sometimes the things I worry about come true, which justifies all the times they do not come true.
  • Worrying doesn’t hurt anybody, so why not worry?
  • The world is hard and life is difficult. It is only healthy to worry.
  • I know my worries make me feel bad, but that’s the price I am willing to pay.
  • A lot of people worry, so I am not alone. At the very least I get a lot of reinforcement on the news and in social media.
  • If I worry now, it’s a kind of insurance that will help me not be hurt in the future when bad stuff happens.
  • Worry shows my family that I love them.
  • If my anxiety touches others, they will want to help and take care of me without me having to ask.

Habitual worriers will recognize these familiar thoughts, and all of us entertain some of them in anxious times. But each thought is the product of fear. Clear, positive thoughts should be put in place of them, as follows:

  • Despite my worries, I am safe and cared for.
  • Any problem is best dealt with when it actually occurs.
  • Planning for a bad eventuality should be done once, take very little time, and then left alone.
  • If you have coped in the past, you can trust yourself to cope now and tomorrow.
  • Worrying is pointless as a way to solve anything. It blocks the part of the mind that actually solves problems.
  • If you feel bad from anxiety, your hurt is self-inflicted, and getting out of the hurt involves taking responsibility for your own reactions.
  • The people around you do not like you better because you worry about them. They find it a nuisance but do not want to oppose you, so they adapt and put up with it.
  • Worrying drives others away.
  • Worrying blocks a healthy sense of self because it is basically an expression of insecurity.
  • Anxiety doesn’t protect you from future hurt. It actually brings hurt into the here and now.
  • You are not your fears, but if you accept that you are, personal growth is blocked.

You might even find it helpful to take these two lists and discuss each item with people close to you. The project of overcoming fear knows no specific time and place. In normal times we should be gaining control over fear to the extent we can. Now, however, the need to settle the mind is more urgent than ever.

 

 

 

DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”

Shakespeare, COVID, and the Plague

By Deepak Chopra, MD
Social isolation gives us time to examine our lives in a new light, suddenly faced with economic collapse, empty streets, current panic and future uncertainty, and death appearing out of nowhere—in other words, the conditions that confronted every person on a daily basis during the lifetime of Shakespeare. What feels horribly abnormal to us was routinely normal for him and every member of the human race in the 16th century.

In statistical terms, Shakespeare is just another survivor. Unlike his son, Hamnet, who died at 11, Shakespeare didn’t die as a child, nor did his mother die giving birth to him. He also escaped the plague. Ever since the Black Death swept across the globe in the 14th century, bubonic plague remained a threat, killing on average one to three people in every house where it struck. In Shakespeare’s lifetime, there were four plague years, 1582, 1592, 1603, and 1607, when London, including its theaters, shut down because of the disease.

Syphilis had arrived in Europe from the New World in 1495, first appearing in a French garrison outside Naples, and it quickly infected every level of society. But Shakespeare didn’t die of it, either, or of smallpox. He wasn’t murdered in the street even though there was no London police force. He couldn’t have been executed as a witch, not being a woman, although the practice was not only current but growing. Finally, unlike his father, John Shakespeare, Will’s life and reputation weren’t ruined overnight due to charges brought against him by Queen Elizabeth’s huge network of internal spies.

As a survivor, Shakespeare stands out because of his genius, but the horrible conditions surrounding him persisted more or less unchanged until the middle of the 19th century. The causes of plague syphilis, and deaths in childbirth started to emerge, and more mundane but equally life-saving advances occurred in public health, like the first sewer system in America, which was built in Chicago in the late 1850s.

If humans were simply higher primates with very big brains, survival would be the beginning and end of our story. The Darwinian model for survival requires only getting enough food and finding a willing mate so that you didn’t starve before you were able to pass on your genes to the next generation. Nothing much mattered after that momentous event.

Evolutionists persist in seeing Homo sapiens through the lens of basic survival, but we do all kinds of things to deliberately imperil our survival, from taking care of our weak and sick instead of abandoning them, to stockpiling nuclear warheads, just to make sure that total war can erupt if we feel like it. War, crime, and violence do nothing to improve human genes and in fact work against simple survival.

But if you put Shakespeare and the plague together, something mysterious emerges. Despite every threat of disease and death, crime, poverty, political oppression, and religious fanaticism (the Puritans in Shakespeare’s day railed against the London theaters as ungodly, but luckily they didn’t shut them down until 1642, 26 years after his death), not to mention widespread illiteracy, no public sanitation, and no police force, these horrendous circumstances didn’t wipe out creativity, discovery, love, compassion, and a vision of a higher ideals.

Homo sapiens is the only species that liberated itself from natural evolution, and this unprecedented achievement involved one thing only: going beyond. Not our higher brain but human nature envisioned life independent of physical circumstances. Miraculously, if you peer at the oldest cave paintings in Europe, such as those in Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, France, you don’t see primitive scratching from 30,000 years ago.

You see art. The animals depicted are done with confident, artistic lines that are also scientifically accurate, depicting a wide range of Paleolithic creatures precisely enough that they can be identified by species. No one knows why sophisticated cave paintings suddenly appeared. The Chauvet depictions lie deep in the darkest heart of the caves. No sunlight penetrated, so the painters worked by the quavering light of torches. In addition, since the animals were not right before them, they worked from memory of how each one looked.

This act of going beyond exemplifies a trait that belongs to the human condition, the trait of creativity for its own sake. In fact, even though the modern world owes everything to discoveries that improved life, the rise of technology and all the practical benefits it has brought, going beyond has always happened “in here” before anything could happen “out there.” Before the first primitive flint blades could be hacked out, the concept of “tool” and “weapon” had to come first. And before a concept can be born, there has to be a mind capable of concepts.

My point is that you and I, like our ancestors, are the product not of genetic evolution but the evolution of consciousness. We were liberated from the Darwinian scheme by self-awareness. In other words, we said to ourselves, “I just thought of what I’d like to do,” and with the combination of awareness, vision, and desire, we evolved into the human condition. The Greek word for beyond is meta, and we should apply it to ourselves more often. To be human is an expression of the metahuman. Shakespeare was a meta-genius, but everyday people are just as meta in their own way. Parents sacrifice for their children, even die for them, because they go beyond their own selfish needs. Any creative hobby is meta, because it has nothing to do with surviving.
The higher your vision, the more meta you are. Buddha was extraordinarily meta, but his followers, seeing the worth of his vision, had to be meta or Buddha would have preached in the wilderness. Likewise, without metahumans among Jesus’s disciples, Christianity would have perished on the cross.

The COVID virus has put everyday life in peril for countless people, but it has actually risen the level of self-sacrifice, service, sharing, cooperating for the common good, laying down political antagonisms, seeking a global solution, and reflecting upon what really matters. Those are all meta qualities; they are perfect examples of going beyond. The fact that we can see a future past the devastation of the pandemic is a meta trait of huge importance. We aren’t human without being metahuman. For me, this is the lasting lesson and the deeper meaning to be taken away form a terrible time.

 

DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”

Emotional Intelligence: Escaping the Matrix of Fear

By Deepak Chopra™, MD

For many young people, the COVID virus outbreak will bring their first experience of fear and anxiety as a pervasive mood. As a society we are afraid of fear, and most of the time we can turn our backs on it. But this kind of denial is unworkable in a crisis. As bad news mounts daily and society becomes ever more anxious, countless people become enmeshed in the matrix of fear without knowing how to escape.

Social forces can drive you to participate in the matrix of fear, but society cannot get you out of it. Escape is something each person must confront on their own. I believe that freeing yourself from fear and anxiety is possible. More than that, you can learn how to be free of fear long after the COVID crisis has passed.

The key is to cultivate emotional intelligence. The term had a burst of attention some years ago, but the value of emotional intelligence never changes, and when you focus on it, you will achieve something worthwhile for life. Here are six principles to guide you through the process.

  • Commit to never complaining, criticizing, or playing the victim.
  • Imagine a creative, positive future for yourself.
  • Don’t regret the past. It no longer exists.
  • Be present in every situation as it occurs.
  • Be independent of other people’s criticism or approval.
  • Be responsive to feedback.

It is fair to say that hardly anyone hits upon these principles by trial and error or through experience of life. A person can live a long time without paying attention to emotional intelligence, and among men, the word “emotion” too often connotes something undesirable, as if showing emotional sensitivity is a sign of weakness.

But emotional intelligence is gender neutral. The fact that humans can observe their emotions is a remarkable trait, and once you begin to observe your own emotions, you can counter the power of an unwanted emotion like fear and anxiety. Whether we admit it or not, emotions fascinate us, as Hollywood well knows. Empathizing with emotions onscreen is easy and pleasurable, but we are too attached to our own emotions, and it takes very little experience of anxiety, humiliation, rejection, and failure to train us to avoid the mine field of emotions in general.

So it’s worth saying that developing emotional intelligence isn’t scary or difficult. All you need to do is notice and pay attention. By pausing and standing back a little, you can observe how you are reacting at any given moment. You can even turn the six principles into questions posed to yourself.

Am I complaining, criticizing, or playing the victim?
Do I see my future in a creative, positive way?
Am I pointlessly reliving the past?
Do I see what’s going on right now?
Am I afraid of someone else’s criticism or craving their approval?
Am I listening to what other people are trying to tell me?

These are not mysterious or metaphysical questions. We can pause to ask them any time we want, and we should. But we are blocked by old conditioning and the habit of feeling uneasy about our emotions. There is a great deal of social pressure to behave with very low emotional intelligence, a kind of dumbing down on the feeling level. As a result we act in self-defeating ways. To give a few examples,

  • We repeat the same reactions in most situations.
  • We imitate how others behave, starting with our family.
  • We act on impulse without a second thought.
  • We don’t really see how others are reacting to us.
  • We let negative emotions like fear, anger, envy, and resentment have their way.
  • We easily go into denial and seek outside distractions.

A whole way of life is implied in these examples, and when collective fear mounts, as it is right now, people often have little or no idea how to escape. Denial and distraction simply become more intensified, and playing the victim is more tempting than usual. Alternatively, we tell ourselves that we need to stay in control more than ever. But what is needed isn’t emotional self-control but emotional resilience.

Resilience is the most important single aspect of emotional intelligence. You allow your emotions to rise and fall naturally, without trying to stop or control them. Once an emotion has passed, you feel better, and you are able to return to a state of peace and calm. The opposite of emotional resilience is seen when people are stiff, reserved, bottled up inside, censorious, aloof, proud, or remote. In all of these cases past experience has made certain emotions unacceptable. The only way to deal with them is through avoidance. One is reminded of the adage that trees can be blown over by a storm while grasses bend without breaking.
Because the mind by nature is restful, alert, quiet, and at peace, that state of balance is the basis for developing emotional intelligence. You need the experience of balance in order to return to it at will. The experience comes naturally to everyone unless it is thrown off by stress and crisis. Then it takes a bit of intervention on our part, through meditation preferably. Meditation no only returns the mind to its balanced state, but it also allows you to observe what is happening, to experience it directly, and to identify with the quiet state of mind.

Ultimately, this is how fear can be escaped permanently. Meanwhile, everyone can benefit from lessening the anxiety being experienced all around us. Emotional intelligence goes a very long way to expanding your awareness and making you free of stress and anxiety right now.

 

DEEPAK CHOPRA™ MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”