When I was researching VNS for my depression, I stumbled onto some research connecting the vagus nerve and the immune system. And, as the rest of my health problems revolve around my immune system, I jumped into deeper research. What I found cinched my decision to have the VNS surgery.

This is not to try to talk anyone into having this treatment, but simply to share some info that I found more than a little interesting in my particular situation. And please forgive me if this is old news to any of you. I didn't see any other posts related to this.

This research is a major focus of:

Kevin J. Tracey, MD, Director and Chief Executive Officer
The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
President, Graduate School of Molecular Medicine
Manhasset, NY 11030

North Shore-LIJ Scientist Gains Support for Theory on Mind-Body Connection to Controlling Immune System

"One of the immune system’s weapons is tumor necrosis factor, or TNF. A “big gun,” TNF can cause a local response to an injury or infection, such as pain and redness. This is good to a point, but in excessive amounts TNF affects the whole body and can cause shock and death.

Dr. Tracey and his team of researchers discovered that the vagus nerve, which wanders through the heart, liver, lungs, spleen and kidneys, inhibits TNF production. In particular, they identified the specific binding site on immune cells that receives specific chemical messages to inhibit TNF release sent by the brain via the vagus nerve. In other words, the vagus nerve is the conduit through which the brain directly controls the immune system - and prevents excessive TNF, shock and death. This is the inflammatory reflex."

http://www.northshorelij.com/body.cfm?id=2...=detail&ref=616

... continued ...

Vagus nerve and the immune system, Part 2

April 13, 2005, Academy Neuroimmunology Discussion Group

"Dubbed the inflammatory reflex, this aspect of inflammation appears to be mediated by the vagus nerve, which connects the CNS to several major organs. Tracey and his colleagues at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have found that when inflammation occurs in the periphery, the brain can sense it and suppress it by sending signals through the vagus nerve.

Having discovered this unusual reflex, the investigators tried to find the simplest way to stimulate it to suppress inflammation in an animal model of shock. They found that a short electrical jolt to the vagus nerve is potently anti-inflammatory, suggesting that an implanted device might do the job in patients."

http://www.nyas.org/ebriefreps/main.asp?intSectionID=1408

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The inflammatory reflex -

"The cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway is the efferent arm of the inflammatory reflex (7). IL-1, endotoxin, and other inflammatory products activate afferent signals in the vagus nerve, which serves as a sensor of inflammation or injury. This information is relayed to the central nervous system via the hypothalamic–pituitary axis and triggers the release of acetylcholine from efferent vagus nerve endings. The vagus nerve is anatomically positioned to inhibit cytokine production in the organs of the reticuloendothelial system. It may be possible to exploit the inflammatory reflex to therapeutic advantage. We and others have explored the effects of stimulating the vagus nerve using pace maker–like devices that have been safely implanted in thousands of patients with seizure disorders (10–14)."

A generally accepted method of measuring vagus nerve activity, or "tone," is to calculate the instantaneous heart rate variability using software that measures the variations in time between individual heart beats, as detected by electrocardiographic recording. Although it is not currently known whether vagus nerve activity in the heart correlates with the activation of the cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway in humans, there have been reports of decreased vagus nerve activity in diseases associated with exaggerated cytokine responses. Patients with severe sepsis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and inflammatory bowel disease have all been shown to have significant decreases in their instantaneous heart rate variability (21–24)."


http://www.jem.org/cgi/content/full/202/8/1017#FIG1