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Physical and emotional effects
Excessive activation of the vagal nerve during emotional stress, which is a parasympathetic overcompensation of a strong sympathetic nervous system response associated with stress, can also cause vasovagal syncope due to a sudden drop in cardiac output, causing cerebral hypoperfusion. Vasovagal syncope affects young children and women more than other groups. It can also lead to temporary loss of bladder control under moments of extreme fear.
Research has shown that women having had complete spinal cord injury can experience orgasms through the vagus nerve, which can go from the uterus, cervix, and, it is presumed, the vagina to the brain.[8][9]
Insulin signaling activates the adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels in the arcuate nucleus, decreases AgRP release, and through the vagus nerve, leads to decreased glucose production by the liver by decreasing gluconeogenic enzymes: Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, Glucose 6-phosphatase.[10][11]
Vagotomy
Vagotomy (cutting of the vagus nerve) is a now-obsolete therapy that was performed for peptic ulcer disease. Vagotomy is currently being researched as a less invasive alternative weight-loss procedure to gastric bypass surgery.[18] The procedure curbs the feeling of hunger and is sometimes performed in conjunction with putting bands on patients’ stomachs, resulting in average weight loss of 43% at six months with diet and exercise.[19]
One serious side effect of a vagotomy is a vitamin B12 deficiency later in life — perhaps after about 10 years — that is similar to pernicious anemia. The vagus normally stimulates the stomach’s parietal cells to secrete acid and intrinsic factor. Intrinsic factor is needed to absorb vitamin B12 from food. The vagotomy reduces this secretion and ultimately leads to the deficiency, which, if left untreated, causes nerve damage, tiredness, dementia, paranoia, and ultimately death.[20]
Researchers from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital have demonstrated that vagotomy prevents (halves the risk of) the development of Parkinson’s disease, suggesting that Parkinson’s disease begins in the gastrointestinal tract and spreads via the vagus nerve to the brain.[21]
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy using a neurostimulator implanted in the chest is a treatment used since 1997 to control seizures in epilepsy patients and has been approved for treating drug-resistant cases of clinical depression.[12] A non-invasive VNS device that stimulates an afferent branch of the vagus nerve is also being developed and will soon[when?]undergo trials.[13]
Clinical trials are underway in Antwerp, Belgium, using VNS for the treatment of tonal tinnitus[14] after a breakthrough study published in early 2011 by researchers at the University of Texas – Dallas showed successful tinnitus suppression in rats when tones were paired with brief pulses of stimulation of the vagus nerve.[15]
Vagotomy (cutting of the vagus nerve) is a now-obsolete therapy that was performed for peptic ulcer disease. Vagotomy is currently being researched as a less invasive alternative weight-loss procedure to gastric bypass surgery.[18] The procedure curbs the feeling of hunger and is sometimes performed in conjunction with putting bands on patients’ stomachs, resulting in average weight loss of 43% at six months with diet and exercise.[19]
One serious side effect of a vagotomy is a vitamin B12 deficiency later in life — perhaps after about 10 years — that is similar to pernicious anemia. The vagus normally stimulates the stomach’s parietal cells to secrete acid and intrinsic factor. Intrinsic factor is needed to absorb vitamin B12 from food. The vagotomy reduces this secretion and ultimately leads to the deficiency, which, if left untreated, causes nerve damage, tiredness, dementia, paranoia, and ultimately death.[20]
Researchers from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital have demonstrated that vagotomy prevents (halves the risk of) the development of Parkinson’s disease, suggesting that Parkinson’s disease begins in the gastrointestinal tract and spreads via the vagus nerve to the brain.[21]