Running along either side of your neck is a pair of marvelous fibers that scientists call the vagus nerve. Sometimes called a “pacemaker for the brain,” this nerve connects the brain to most major organ systems in your body.
For centuries, the vagus nerve has chugged along in relative obscurity, but recently it has reached an almost mythical status among podcast hosts, social media influencers and others in the wellness ecosystem. Can’t sleep? Hit it with electricity. Stressed out? Keep zapping. Brain fog, inflammation, digestive issues? You guessed it.
“There are billions of web impressions and social media posts on the vagus nerve,” said Dr. Kevin Tracey, a neurosurgeon and president of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health. “A lot of it is being driven by influencers who are saying, ‘Just do this to simulate your vagus nerve, and all the problems in your life will be solved.’”
Celebrities such as Kelly Ripa and health influencers including Andrew Huberman have extolled the benefits of vagal stimulation. Some of the advice is innocuous enough, such as humming or deep breathing techniques. But many influencers have gone further, endorsing devices worn around the neck or ears that transmit electrical pulses. Some forecasters say vagal stimulation will be a billion-dollar industry by 2030.
Some vagus nerve stimulators are real medical devices that have been approved by the federal government for a handful of conditions. But many of the gadgets that you might see online don’t actually work, Tracey said, and simply trade on the credibility of medical grade stimulators only available through surgery or by prescription.
In other words, vagus nerve stimulation is grounded by enough science to sound serious and surrounded by enough mystery to sound limitless, Tracey said.
The vagus nerve is one of the body’s major information highways, with 200,000 fibers running from the brain to the heart, lungs, stomach and more, before ending at the colon.
About 80% of these fibers carry moment-by-moment updates from your body to the brain, while the rest carry commands from the brain outward, Tracey said. This dual function allows your brain to monitor and regulate many functions you rarely think about, like heart rate, breathing and digestion. It’s also the main conduit of the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps you digest food, regulate inflammation and calm yourself down.
Nerves use electrical impulses to communicate, so by delivering jolts to them, scientists can influence the signals they send. Because the vagus nerve touches so many organs, researchers are hopeful that this approach could let them develop therapies for a range of medical problems, said Tracy Centanni, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved vagus nerve stimulation devices for certain types of epilepsy, treatment-resistant depression, stroke recovery and, most recently, rheumatoid arthritis. These devices are all surgically implanted in the neck or under the skin of the chest, directly stimulating the nerve.
The FDA has also allowed a few noninvasive prescription devices, although they are held to a lower safety and efficacy standard. One device, called gammaCore, is for cluster headaches and migraines. And there are several NSS-2 Bridge, Drug Relief, Sparrow and NET that may help reduce symptoms of opioid withdrawal.
Some preliminary studies suggest that these kinds of devices may help with anxiety, insomnia and inflammation, Centanni said. Although more evidence is needed, that hasn’t stopped companies from making outsized claims online.
You should be skeptical if you’re getting a vagal stimulator without surgery or a prescription. These consumer devices are lightly regulated and do not have to prove to the FDA that they actually work, said Dr. Kristl Vonck, a neurologist at Ghent University in Belgium.
They often look like their prescription counterparts, similarly worn in the ear or around the neck. While using them you may feel some tingling, a mild shock and maybe even a change in your heart rate, said Michael Kilgard, director of the Texas Biomedical Device Center at the University of Texas at Dallas. But that’s just what happens when you run electricity through skin, and it doesn’t indicate it’s meaningfully affecting the vagus nerve itself.
“The strangeness of the sensations are just bothersome enough,” Kilgard said, that people feel the devices are doing something, but not so much to hurt.
In fact, there is little or no data showing that these gadgets are effective. The companies selling them make vague claims that they can boost energy, promote sleep, support the brain-gut connection, enhance memory, boost learning and restore balance, among other things. In most cases, the devices are probably little more than a placebo dressed up as neuroscience, Kilgard said.
Many such “low-risk” devices can bypass FDA review by making vague wellness claims instead of being accountable for specific, verifiable health benefits, Vonck said. Some companies have small, low-quality studies to support their devices, she added, and many simply borrow the language of legitimate research as a marketing tactic.
The stimulators that you can buy online may cause some redness or tingling, Vonck said, but are unlikely to cause any damage. In general, their batteries are too small to burn the skin, Kilgard said.
The larger concern is false hope, he added. He has seen many patients buy a gadget that does nothing but delays treatments that actually work.
“They feel something immediate,” Kilgard said. “They feel something better. They feel something they never felt before. And I think a lot of people have fooled themselves.”