Latest news with #KevinTracey
Fast Company
03-07-2025
- Health
- Fast Company
How to trick your nervous system into calming down when you're stressed at work
Understanding how your body works can be the key to reducing stress. For example, you're probably aware of your fight-or-flight response —the body's way of preparing itself when it believes it's being threatened. What happens is your sympathetic nervous system is activated, pumping adrenaline and glucocorticoid steroids into your system that give you hyper focus, energy and strength to handle the situation. Fight-or-flight was a survival mechanism during hunter-gatherer times, when the threat of wild animals was real. Today, however, it's often triggered by non-life-or-death events, such as the evening news, tight deadlines, or traffic. On the flipside of fight-or-flight is rest-and-digest. It's the body's way of rebalancing itself after the danger has passed. In this case, your parasympathetic nervous system is in charge, decreasing your heart rate and blood pressure and providing a sense of calm. Sometimes, though, the body has a hard time getting back into rest-and-digest. It stays in a state of stress and anxiety. When this happens, it's often due to your vagal tone, which is the activity in your vagus nerve, says Kevin Tracey, M.D., author of The Great Nerve: The New Science of the Vagus Nerve and How to Harness Its Healing..
Telegraph
15-06-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
This neuroscientist has the secret to tackling inflammation
Imagine a future where you no longer have to take a pill for your ill. No more monthly prescription charges or time-consuming trips to the doctor. No debilitating side-effects; all you'd need is an hour-long operation to insert a tiny electrical device in your chest and neck to calm the inflammation in your body. Inflammation is a natural process, and a certain amount is healthy and necessary. When a person becomes ill or injured, their immune system sends out its 'first responders' – inflammatory cells which start to heal the injured tissue. For example, a fever is evidence that your immune system is working properly. However, if this process continues for too long, inflammation can harm healthy tissues, and lead to chronic illness. Dr Kevin Tracey is a professor of neurosurgery at the Zucker School of Medicine in Long Island, New York, and the president and chief executive of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. 'Inflammation causes or contributes to the conditions that kill two thirds of people on the planet,' he says. 'Of the 60 million that die per year, 40 million die from inflammatory conditions such as heart disease, stroke, or cancer.' The key to fighting inflammation, according to Dr Tracey, is stimulation of the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve, which runs down your neck and into your chest and abdomen, is an anatomical 'superhighway' comprising a complex network of more than 200,000 fibres connecting the brain to vital organs. It is part of your parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for the body's 'rest and digest' functions. Dr Tracey is something of a pioneer in this area, which he investigates in his new book, The Great Nerve: The New Science of the Vagus Nerve and How To Harness Its Healing Reflexes, and he claims to be one of the most highly cited living scientists in the world. Scientists have known about the vagus nerve since the 16th century, but for Dr Tracey, a breakthrough came in 1998 when a laboratory experiment gone wrong led to an unexpected discovery. He and his colleagues accidentally injected a rat with an inflammatory toxin – and an anti-inflammatory drug simultaneously injected in its brain had a restorative effect. Until then, scientists thought that the brain and immune system did not communicate. The groundbreaking discovery on that that day gave way to to Dr Tracey and his colleagues realising that the vagus nerve wasn't just something that impacted the brain; it also controlled inflammation and, as a result, all areas of our health – from gut health to joints – and stimulating it could reduce harmful inflammation. 'It's obvious, at least to me, that this mode of treatment will soon be able to help millions who are suffering with inflammatory illnesses,' says Dr Tracey. A new era of medicine Thanks to ongoing research into the vagus nerve, the next decade could see vastly improved treatment of inflammatory illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. In fact, Dr Tracey's new bioelectronic treatment for rheumatoid arthritis – which like all vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) treatment works on the premise of 'turning off' an inflammatory molecule called TNF – is awaiting regulatory approval. Since Dr Tracey's initial breakthrough, research into the vagus nerve has accelerated, giving rise to a field known as 'bioelectronic medicine', where treatments use electrical signals rather than drugs. A pacemaker is an example of bioelectronic medicine, as is VNS, which some experts describe as 'a pacemaker for the brain'. VNS involves the implantation of a device that sends regular, mild pulses of electrical energy to your brain stem through your vagus nerve in your neck. After reaching your brainstem, the electrical charge is discharged to different areas of your brain to change the way brain cells work. 'Vagus nerve stimulation has saved lives,' says Dr Tracey. 'Many patients who turn to VNS have tried everything – they have run out of options. 'The advantages over medication are that it's more targeted than a pill, it has a short half-life – you can turn the treatment on and off – and it has fewer side-effects than many drugs,' he adds. Where VNS does work, it works miraculously. Dr Tracey tells the story of a lorry driver in one of his trials whose hands and feet were so affected by rheumatoid arthritis, he was unable to work. A week after being implanted with a vagal nerve stimulator the size of a pain-killing tablet, the driver was back to his normal life, even playing tennis. 'Meeting him was one of the happiest days of my professional life,' says Dr Tracey. 'Few scientists have the privilege of inventing something and then shaking hands with a patient it has helped. We're now getting emails from patients who are desperate for help. In one rheumatoid arthritis trial, we had room for 242 participants, but 20,000 people applied.' Should this new treatment be patented by the FDA in the United States, the chances of it rolling out internationally are high. 'There will be a surge of patient demand,' says Dr Tracey, who believes it could help 1,500,000 to two million rheumatoid arthritis patients in the US, and 17 million worldwide. 'Just imagine: a one-hour surgery rather than a lifetime on toxic drugs.' Farther into the future, says Dr Tracey, there may even be a VNS treatment for dementia. 'The link between Alzheimer's and inflammation is often talked about, but not well understood,' he says. 'But there is some evidence that VNS can enhance learning or memory.' Will VNS become mainstream? Even Dr Tracey accepts that VNS is not a fail-safe treatment, and that it only benefits about two thirds of patients. He knows that many traditional doctors still raise their eyebrows. 'Early advocates of VNS may be criticised by those defending the status quo, and who will say the 'effect' size of VNS is too small,' he says. 'Other, less benign forces may also hinder the adoption of vagal nerve stimulation, because this idea has the potential to disrupt the pharmaceutical industry.' He is keenly aware that it's not in the interests of big pharma to invest in trials for a product that will make their products redundant – hence Dr Tracey's trials are funded by venture capital. 'I actually wrote my book for doctors to read, as well as for laypeople,' he says. 'My mission is to shorten the adoption curve of a new technology. I'm an introvert rather than an extrovert: I don't want the limelight personally. But I want the facts to be in the limelight.' In Dr Tracey's eyes, the facts are clear: it's a low-risk treatment, with a high reward for those who do respond. 'I expect that vagus nerve therapy, like every other therapy, will not work in 100 per cent of patients,' he says. 'VNS has three possible outcomes. Those who respond are in remission, and others are much better and need less medication.' On those who do not respond at all, he says: 'There is still more work to do. But I fully expect that millions of people with inflammatory conditions will soon be helped by this therapy.' He dreams that it will become a preventative treatment, for conditions such as atherosclerosis, diabetes or cancer. 'For those people who have exhausted the gamut of drug treatments, VNS represents hope – from the woman whose arthritic hands are so twisted she cannot do up her blouse, to the man unable to work or play with his small children because of the debilitating pain in his wrists and hands. 'VNS is not a cure-all, but for many patients, it's a possible. And as a neurosurgeon and scientist, I love to chase the possible.' DIY stimulation of the vagus nerve for stress and anxiety What about the miracle cures we see everywhere on the internet, from meditating to breathwork and plunging into ice-water? Dr Tracey has a healthy scepticism. 'A 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,' he says. 'In some cases, there is deep science, in others, not that much.' Regulated breathing seems to have more evidence than meditation or coldwater plunges. 'These things are important, but it's important not to overhype, or oversell them. It devalues the science that we do know. I don't want to dilute my vagus nerve work for over 30 years,' he says. On the other hand, says Dr Tracey, if these methods work for you, they work for you. He meditates, takes cold showers, and practices deep breathing every morning.
New Statesman
22-05-2025
- Health
- New Statesman
The vagus nerve industry
Photo by Getty Images I often saw the vagus nerve when operating, at the base of the brain or in the neck – a small, insignificant thing, the width of a thin matchstick. I knew it to be an important but rather boring nerve that had something to do with digestion and how fast the heart beat. I had no idea that in recent years it would become the centre of a major industry, claiming that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) will increase our 'vagal tone', leading to a longer, happier and healthier life. In The Great Nerve, Dr Kevin Tracey, a leading researcher into the vagus nerve and its electrical stimulation, tells us the treatment is'poised to revolutionise the way many millions… of people, are cared for… treating the inflammatory threats looming over humanity'. He looks forward to a 'new age of bio-electronic medicine'. Many diseases might benefit from this, he tells us, and he provides a long list of such diseases, ranging from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and stroke to MS, heart and intestinal disease, depression and headaches. What all these diseases have in common is that they involve, to some extent, inflammation – the activity of the immune system. Stimulating the vagus nerve reduces the activity of the immune system – at least, certain parts of it – and so, the argument goes, VNS will be beneficial. Death might even lose its sting, according to some of its more enthusiastic advocates. You learn at medical school that the body consists of systems, such as the circulatory, pulmonary and renal systems. The nervous system – not just in humans but in most living creatures, including insects – is neatly classified into a hierarchy of central, peripheral and autonomic systems. The central system at the top of the hierarchy consists of the brain and spinal cord, and the peripheral system of the nerves that control movement and relay sensation. The autonomic system is involved in the regulation of the body's health – such as blood pressure, heart rate, the function of the gut. It is in turn subdivided into the sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic systems (PSNS), traditionally seen as being in opposition to each other. The former is involved in preparing the body for 'fight or flight' and the latter for relaxation and digestion. Seventy-five per cent of the PSNS is contained in the vagus nerve – in reality a pair of nerves comprised of perhaps 200,000 fibres. It is connected to almost all of the body's major organs (and a few other structures); 80 per cent of the fibres take information about the organs' states to the brain, and 20 per cent relay messages from the brain to the organs. Bodies and brains are complex and the more that we study them the more we discover that everything is interconnected. We may feel that our brains' conscious selves are at the centre of everything, but in reality they are better understood as nodes in a complex network. Our conscious selves have a role – some would say a minor role – to play in our brains' function, which is to keep us alive and well, but most of our brains' vital activities are entirely unconscious. When I was a medical student, it was thought that the nervous system was separate from the immune system – the complex system of white blood cells, genes and proteins that fights infection. The idea that states of mind could influence physical illness was considered to have no scientific basis, even though doctors would sometimes see patient cases that suggested the opposite. Immunology, once seen as little different from quackery, has now moved to the forefront of medical research. Immunotherapy for cancer, for instance, has become immensely important. The immune system is also responsible for a wide range of 'auto-immune' diseases, such as Crohn's and rheumatoid arthritis, when its regulation malfunctions and it starts to attack the body instead of defending it from outside invasion. Thanks to Tracey and other researchers, we now understand that the immune and nervous systems are closely connected in a very complicated relationship. Tracey's lab at the Feinstein Institutes in New York published a paper in Nature in 2002 that was the first to show a direct functional connection between the brain and immune system mediated by the PSNS via the vagus nerve. (It had been known since the 1980s that the SNS was anatomically connected to the immune system, but its functional significance was obscure). The paper showed that stimulating the vagus nerve reduced the release of the cytokine Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF), cytokines being proteins produced by the immune system to combat infection. TNF is overactive in auto-immune diseases. The 'biologic' drugs that have greatly improved the outlook for many of the patients with these diseases are designed to inhibit cytokines such as TNF. Tracey suggests that electrical stimulation can be a less toxic and more effective way of reducing TNF activity than the very expensive biologics marketed by pharmaceutical companies. He has patented VNS for inflammation and founded a company – SetPoint Medical – that sells vagus nerve stimulators for inflammation. He declares 'full disclosure' that he has stepped down as CEO, though does not tell us whether he still has a financial interest in the company. This is a book for the general reader and is divided into three parts. The first deals with the history of the vagus nerve, the second with the recent research into the relationship between the vagus nerve and inflammation and health (mainly in rodents), and the third is a discussion of the many methods that may, or may not, influence vagal parasympathetic activity and health in humans. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe He discusses the various methods of stimulating the vagus nerve. It can be done electrically by implanting a device in the neck, or superficially in the outer ear, which is the only place where the nerve innervates the skin. (Ear stimulation leads Dr Tracey into a rather unconvincing discussion about acupuncture.) It can also be stimulated by focused ultrasound, cold exposure, meditation, breathing routines and exercise. He concludes that there is, as yet, little solid scientific evidence, with the exceptions of epilepsy and possibly depression, that these methods have a major benefit on health, longevity or auto-immune diseases. Nevertheless, Tracey exercises, takes cold showers and meditates on the basis of Pascal's Wager – which admittedly I do as well (though I do not meditate), and for the same reason. Like him, I feel the better for it. In an appendix he lists trials – many of them with results pending – into vagus nerve stimulation. (A particular problem with designing VNS trials of health and wellness is that it is difficult to avoid placebo effects, as the subjects know when they are being stimulated). The book makes for fascinating reading, although at times its self-congratulatory and hyperbolic tone can irritate. It follows a precarious course between serious science in rodents and optimistic sales promotion in humans. Central to the book are three case histories of people whose lives are transformed by vagus nerve stimulation. There is a young woman whose Crohn's disease is cured by VNS and who, we learn at the end of the book, now works for SetPoint Medical promoting the practice. There is a Bosnian truck driver who is cured of arthritis. I was puzzled as to why this single case should be in Bosnia and wondered if there was a connection with Tracey's naïveté about the rebuilding of the bridge at Mostar, which he visits. Contrary to what he tells us, there has been no reconciliation since the war between the two mutually hostile communities divided by the bridge. And there is a retired paediatrician in Stockholm who after years of suffering cures himself with vagus nerve stimulation. Fascinating and moving stories but, as Tracey himself states, hoist with his own petard, 'a clinical trial of one or two subjects is more like a fairy tale with a happy ending than a scientific proof'. We may well be on the threshold of a revolution, as Tracey confidently predicts, but the history of medicine is full of promised panaceas that eventually were shown to have only modest benefits in selected cases, or none at all. Only time, and well-conducted clinical trials in humans, will tell, but it would be nice if he were right. Henry Marsh is a former neurosurgeon and author of 'Do No Harm' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) The Great Nerve: The New Science of the Vagus Nerve and How to Harness Its Healing Reflexes Kevin J Tracey Penguin Life, 320pp, £22 Purchasing a book may earn the NS a commission from who support independent bookshops [See also: The prophet of the new right] Related
Times
13-05-2025
- Health
- Times
Want better health, less anxiety, more sleep? You've got a nerve
Who's acquainted with their vagus nerve? If you're on Instagram or TikTok, you'll know that you need to 'reset' the thing to soothe your nervous system and reduce anxiety, and that investing in 'vagus massage oil' or a vibrating bracelet or pressing an ice pack to your chest will do it. All your ills will be cured. Allegedly. 'The vagus nerve [the longest cranial nerve in the body] is one of the most popular nerves in social media today,' the neurosurgeon Kevin Tracey declares. And it deserves to be celebrated. 'Resting and digesting and keeping calm all depend on your vagus nerve, which is the linchpin of the parasympathetic nervous system,' he says. Tracey is the professor and president of Northwell Health's Feinstein Institutes for
