Matured Hop Extract Activates the Vagus Nerve
Vagus nerve and MHE3
Matured Hop Extract Activates the Vagus Nerve.
The vagus nerve, also known as the vagal nerves, are the main nerves of your parasympathetic nervous system. The vagus nerve controls specific body functions such as digestion, heart rate and immune system. These functions are involuntary, meaning you can't consciously control them.
The Vagus Nerve - Cranial Nerve X - is the longest cranial nerve, connecting the brain to vital organs such as the heart, lungs, and digestive system.
It plays a crucial role in stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system into action, which leads away from the sympathetic default mode of flight, fight and freeze into "rest and digest" functions, helping the body relax, lower stress, repair and maintain homeostasis.
Here's how matured hop extract contributes to its activation:
1. Rich in Bioactive Compounds: Matured hop extract contains polyphenols, flavonoids, and bitter acids such as humulones and lupulones. These compounds have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that improve gut health, a key player in the gut-brain axis regulated by the vagus nerve. Bitter taste receptors in the gut are activated which activates the vagal nerve endings.
2. Enhancing the Gut-Brain Connection (Brain-Gut Connection): The vagus nerve serves as a communication bridge between the gut and the brain. By promoting a healthy gut microbiome, matured hop extract helps enhance this communication, improving vagal tone and overall well-being. The Gut is your second Brain and hidden in the walls of the digestive system, this “brain in your gut” is revolutionising our understanding of the links between digestion, mood, health and even the way you think.
3. Reducing Stress and Inflammation: Chronic stress and inflammation negatively affects vagal function. The calming and anti-inflammatory effects of the compounds in matured hop extract can mitigate these issues, supporting healthy vagus nerve activity.
4. Supporting Parasympathetic Functions: The vagus nerve helps slow (regulate) the heart rate, improve digestion, and regulate emotional well-being. Matured Hop Extract promotes relaxation and reduces cortisol levels, indirectly strengthening the parasympathetic response. The parasympathetic nervous system decreases respiration and heart rate and increases digestion.
5. Impact on Fat Metabolism: Visceral fat contributes to systemic inflammation, which impairs vagus nerve function. Stimulation of the vagal nerve in the gut activates the brain to send a message to increase thermogenesis in the brown adipose tissue via increasing UCP-1 (uncoupling protein 1) and the number of mitochondria in which this chemical is used.
UCP-1 helps the mitochondria turn fuel, in the form of fat, into heat rather than ATP. Fat for this process is obtained from white adipose tissue elsewhere in the body which includes visceral fat and deep subcutaneous fat. By helping to reduce visceral fat, matured hop extract supports a healthier inflammatory environment, further aiding vagus nerve performance.
Mobilising fat stores also increases the amount of raw materials we have access to for hormone synthesis and brain function and repair as well as to be built into cell membranes and organelle structures. Releasing visceral fat also allows the NKT cells (natural killer T cells) we make as part of our own immune system into the rest of the body to do the job they are created to do which is to destroy any new cancer prone cells whenever they emerge. We don’t want our NKT cells held hostage and firefighting in the toxic fatty environment - they have more important work to do.
By supporting the vagus nerve, matured hop extract contributes to improved digestion, stress management, heart health, and overall systemic balance, making it a powerful natural tool for enhancing wellness. It is the ultimate in restoring much needed balance and homeostasis.