Kevin Tracey (Penguin on sale 13 May (US);
As a health reporter, I constantly come across promising new medical treatments. Many are exciting, but few have intrigued me as much as vagus nerve stimulation.
To understand why, you first have to grasp just how remarkable the vagus nerve is 鈥� and there is probably no one better to explain that than Kevin Tracey. A neurosurgeon at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in New York, he has been at the forefront of research into this key part of the body for decades. In his book, The Great Nerve: The new science of the vagus nerve and how to harness its healing reflexes, he deftly explains what the nerve is, how its stimulation works and how you can tap into the vagus to improve your own well-being.
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I have interviewed Tracey multiple times over the years, and his passion for the vagus nerve is infectious. It is easy to see why. This bundle of more than 200,000 nerve fibres connects the brain to nearly all of our internal organs, ferrying signals back and forth that regulate everything from heart rate and breathing to digestion and mood. It is so essential that it is the only nerve in our body that, if cut, we die.
Given this importance, Tracey believes it is the key to controlling our health. Electrical devices called vagus nerve stimulators are already treating epilepsy, depression, migraines, opioid withdrawal and the longer-term effects of strokes. Yet, as Tracey argues quite convincingly, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Some of the book鈥檚 most compelling moments are when he describes his team鈥檚 discoveries. A pivotal breakthrough came in the 1990s, when Tracey and his colleagues learned that the vagus nerve helps control inflammation. At the time, it was widely thought the brain and the immune system didn鈥檛 communicate. So when the researchers accidentally injected an inflammatory toxin into a rat鈥檚 abdomen, they didn鈥檛 expect an anti-inflammatory drug administered in its brain to have an effect. Because the drug didn鈥檛 enter the bloodstream, its effects should have been confined to the brain. But they weren鈥檛. The brain communicated with the immune system via the vagus nerve to control inflammation.
Electrical vagus nerve stimulators are already used to treat epilepsy, depression, migraines and other conditions
Modest bouts of inflammation help fight infections and heal injuries. But in excess, it can damage the body and contribute to chronic illness. Because the vagus nerve regulates this immune response, stimulating it could reduce harmful inflammation.
Much of the book explores this exciting possibility. Weaving together patient anecdotes with scientific studies, Tracey explains how this stimulation may alleviate symptoms of chronic inflammatory conditions, including multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease and Alzheimer鈥檚. Some of the results are astounding. Take Pero Dragoje, a father of two whose rheumatoid arthritis rendered his hands too stiff and swollen to pick things up. After several weeks of vagus nerve stimulation, he returned to work as a truck driver and began playing tennis. While this is enticing, Tracey points out the limitations of such research, namely that many studies are in animals or involve small samples of people.
Most readers will probably be drawn to the book鈥檚 final section, which explains how to stimulate your own vagus nerve. Social media is flooded with posts promoting ice baths, massages and other at-home interventions as ways to enhance vagal function.
Tracey unpacks these claims with appropriate scepticism, showing that the little evidence so far is mixed. 鈥淎 clinical trial of one or two subjects is more like a fairy tale with a happy ending than scientific proof that the cold makes you healthier and stronger,鈥� he writes. Still, he admits to adopting some of the methods himself. 鈥淪ince I don鈥檛 mind doing them most days, then I may be blessed with better health along the way,鈥� he explains.
The Great Nerve is a comprehensive guide for anyone curious about their vagus nerve. At times, the narrative felt as wandering as the nerve itself, bouncing between concepts, stories and time periods. But overall, it succeeds in cutting through the hype to reveal what is truly backed by evidence 鈥� and how the vagus nerve could revolutionise medicine.
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