I used a Nurosym Vagus Nerve Stimulator for 4 months
I’ve used the Nurosym vagus nerve stimulation device for the last four months. Here is my experience, a deep dive into the data, and my recommendations and concerns with the device. Declaration: they sent me and Johnny one of these. Outside of that, we’re not being paid. We have an affiliate link in the description below. That said, affiliates are not our business model. As always, I’m going to be straight up with you about my experience and the data.
What is the vagus nerve?
It’s your personal source of peace. It’s the lever that you can pull for that. And yet, we don’t train it deliberately.
It’s basically the switch for your nervous system that branches from sympathetic fight-flight to parasympathetic rest-and-digest. Because it’s quite far upstream, it has a wide range of effects: heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, oxygen regulation, digestion, metabolism, immune response, mood, stress resilience, sleep quality.
If you’re stressed and dealing with downstream physical effects of stress, so IBS, autoimmune exacerbations, long COVID, chronic pain, depression, anxiety, vagal interventions are something for your toolbox. But this stuff is also worth exploring if you are fine, if you’re the picture of health, but you just want deeper levels of peace and performance.
Trait changes over state changes
If you were able to consciously control the lever of sympathetic/parasympathetic, unlike most of the western world which is just stuck jammed in sympathetic mode, that would improve your recovery, your stress, your sleep, and your cognition.
If you could permanently raise the baseline state of your consciousness rather than temporarily amping up your body from Wimhof or Tony Robbins-style breathing, but instead recondition your heart and your vagus nerve so that your body and mind are more tolerant to stress, you could think more clearly, connect better with people, perform better, and recover better. That’s what gets me excited.
I am firmly interested in trait changes over state changes. State changes are temporary. Trait changes change who you are as a person and how you respond to your environment.
Why I wanted to test this
Over the last few years, I’ve had a rocky ride transitioning from full-time hospital work into full-time Propane. Safe to say I’ve had a lot of demands placed on me. So, this is why I want to get conscious about this stuff and expand my capacity.
Vagus nerve practices are not new. Many ancient practices tune up the vagus nerve:
- Yoga
- Ujjayi breathing
- Chanting
- Inversion
- Goggling
- Yoga Nidra
- Exercise
- Cold therapy
- Meditation
It’s really cool to learn about vagus nerve physiology and then look back at the practices that have stood the test of time and start to see why.
Separating quackery from the real deal
There are a lot of things that claim to modulate the vagus nerve but don’t really do much. There are also medical interventions on the other end of the spectrum that are heavy duty and were previously only indicated for severe conditions. Nowadays retail devices are available, including this one and a whole bunch of others you might have seen on the market.
This is the only one available as a consumer that I personally trust. Others are either glorified vibrators or they can cause collateral stimulation and unintended consequences. I’m pretty confident that this is the best in class.
My two big questions going in
My main hesitation: does using it tune up the vagus nerve in healthy people, and what happens when you discontinue? You don’t want to do an intervention that makes things worse long-term or leaves you relying on clipping this thing to your ear every day for the rest of your life. Those were my two questions: does it work, and what’s the long-term effect?
What the data says
Nurosym, according to their documentation, delivers two to four times more parasympathetic activation than meditation. That’s not an unreasonable claim because you are directly stimulating the parasympathetic system. The difference with DIY methods is they require focus, effort, time, or training. With this, you clip it to your ear and go about your day.
One of the branches of the vagus nerve comes out at your ear, so you can stimulate it directly by clipping this on and turning on the device. You can set the time and voltage. I tend to need it around 30 when I start to feel the tingles. Too much above that is uncomfortable.
The data from Nurosym’s science collection shows improvements over a 10-day placebo-controlled period in:
- Heart rate variability
- Anxiety
- Energy and fatigue
- Sleep score
- Memory and brain fog
- ADHD symptoms
- Inflammation
Long-term effects and desensitization
I emailed one of Nurosym’s science team, and this was their response: “He raises a great point regarding long-term effects and potential desensitization. While desensitization is possible with pharmacological approaches that directly affect receptor functions, we have not seen any rebound effect after interrupting the stimulation.”
Most research on vagus nerve stimulation focuses on epilepsy and depression, so long-term data on healthy individuals is quite limited. The cumulative effect over time is usually seen at 12 months to 2 years. That’s probably because strengthening neural pathways can take some time, which I’m actually encouraged by: if you jimmy-rig something biologically, usually there’s a price to pay. The further upstream you go, normally it’s a little bit safer.
The key question is whether using the device and then stopping causes either a strengthened vagus nerve with a higher baseline, or a desensitized nerve that gets worse. From what I’ve seen, there is a fading of the effect when you stop, but I’ve not seen anything suggesting it’s been downregulated or desensitized. The trend with epilepsy patients is that their seizure frequency drops back to pre-treatment levels after stopping, but it doesn’t get worse than before they started.
I’m happy that although the effects of using this are not necessarily permanent, they might set you up to raise your own baseline state, particularly if you do it in conjunction with other stuff. And it at least doesn’t look like it makes things worse long-term.
My actual experience using it
I’ve been trying to do it for 30 minutes every day for the last few months. Honestly, I’ve struggled more than I thought I would with something so easy to do. It doesn’t feel good to use. There’s no inherent reward to it. So it is just a case of remembering. I’ve had it next to my bed, but days I forgot were either that it’s in the drawer or that I’m too tired to sit for 30 minutes with it on.
But I’ve given it a good go. One thing I can definitely say: in the last 4 months I have had more good days since starting than I remember. Just generally feeling better, clearer, better mood.
Funnily enough, my sleep and training haven’t been amazing. A lot of the time, unless something has a massive effect size where it’s undeniably doing something, there are just too many variables to know whether it’s having an effect.
What the numbers showed
The statistically significant results were an acute drop in stress from using the Nurosym over 30 minutes and a drop in energy during that window. I did feel those subjectively.
Sleep score did improve from pre to during use, with a significant p-value. During the window while I was using it:
- HRV went up
- Resting heart rate went down
- Sleep score went up
All three in the correct direction. After I stopped, HRV has started dropping and sleep score started dropping. So there was an effect during the window I was using it. After stopping, it looks like things went back to baseline before starting, with no sign of a negative rebound. That’s reassuring.
Final recommendation
Nothing surprised me particularly. I will continue vagus nerve practices, whether it’s Nurosym or something else. One thing I’d like to do is increase the dose to two 30-minute sessions per day. I think that’s more likely to move the needle.
Whether or not you use a vagus nerve stimulating device, do something to practice building and strengthening your vagus nerve. Think about having that lever, that switch where you can control sympathetic or parasympathetic, and ask yourself: who am I without my neurosis? Who am I with a lower heart rate? Who am I when I’m not overthinking?
All that stuff is a more functional, effective version of you. The biggest lever for that is bottom up: managing your nervous system. And there are some very easy wins and low-hanging fruit for that before you have to buy a device.
I have noticed a bigger shift in the last six months internally, mentally, and spiritually than I have in the rest of my life. The clarity and things slotting together. I don’t know if that’s a coincidence or not. If you’re curious, get one on a trial, hammer it for a month, and see if you get some effects yourself.