The Experience Miracles Podcast

What Happens in ‘VAGUS’: Why the Vagus Nerve is Key to Unlocking your Child’s Healing Potential

Feb 20, 2024

Vagus Nerve Dysfunction in Children

Episode 8, Experience Miracles Podcast | Host: Dr. Tony Ebel, DC, CACCP, Pediatric Chiropractor & Founder of PX Docs | Published: February 20, 2024 | Duration: ~50 min

Key Takeaways

  • The Vagus Nerve is the 10th cranial nerve and the body’s primary parasympathetic nerve, it is 80–90% sensory and directly controls cardiac function, respiratory function, gut motility, immune regulation, endocrine balance, and social-emotional-behavioral regulation, making it the single most important nerve for children’s health.
  • Birth trauma, including forceps, vacuum extraction, emergency C-sections, and induced labor, physically injures the vagus nerve at its origin in the brainstem and upper cervical spine, triggering a cascade of dysfunction across every system the nerve controls.
  • Research now shows that high-stress pregnancies delay vagus nerve development in utero, meaning some children are born already in a Sympathetic Dominant state before birth trauma is even factored in.
  • Lifestyle-based vagus nerve support (deep breathing, humming, grounding, anti-inflammatory diet) moves in the right direction but is often not potent enough to restore a deeply dysfunctional vagus nerve, Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care targets the brainstem and upper cervical spine directly, where the vagus nerve originates.
  • HRV (heart rate variability) technology is the clinical tool Dr. Tony Ebel uses to measure vagus nerve function, track nervous system improvement, and confirm that adjustments are restoring parasympathetic tone in children.

What Is the Vagus Nerve and Why Does It Matter for Your Child?

Vagus Nerve Dysfunction is the hidden root cause behind a wide range of childhood chronic conditions, from autism and ADHD to colic, constipation, anxiety, sensory processing disorder, chronic ear infections, and developmental delays. The Vagus Nerve, cranial nerve number 10, is the body’s longest and most important cranial nerve. Nicknamed the “wandering protector,” it originates in the Brainstem, exits through the base of the skull, and branches down through the neck, chest, and abdomen, regulating every major organ system along the way.

Unlike most nerves, the vagus nerve is 80–90% sensory. It acts as the body’s internal reporting system: its nerve endings reach into the heart, lungs, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, liver, pancreas, and adrenal glands, constantly relaying information back to the brain. It controls gut motility, immune inflammation, endocrine hormones like serotonin, dopamine, and cortisol, cardiac and respiratory rhythm, and social-emotional-behavioral regulation. When vagus nerve function is intact, children are adaptable, resilient, and able to heal. When it is damaged or suppressed, the nervous system shifts into Sympathetic Dominance, a chronic fight-or-flight state that underlies virtually every chronic childhood condition.

For parents who have tried conventional medicine and come up empty, or who have pursued nutrition, supplements, and functional medicine but still haven’t seen complete healing, the vagus nerve is often the missing piece. This is not a nerve that can be fully addressed from the outside in, it requires accessing the nervous system at its source.

Why the Vagus Nerve Is the Most Important Nerve in the Body [00:00 – 07:12]

Dr. Tony Ebel, DC, CACCP: The vagus nerve is nicknamed the wandering protector because it has more jobs than any other nerve in the body. It is literally the middleman between the brain and every major organ and gland system. When I ask myself what is the single most important thing to understand about children’s health, my answer isn’t even the brain, it’s the vagus nerve.

The brain runs 99.9% on autopilot. The vagus nerve is out there controlling, coordinating, and organizing everything in real time. It sends sensory nerve endings into all the tissues and organs, asks “how are things going?”, and reports that information back to the central and autonomic nervous system.

Most of our kids, in today’s high-stress, high-inflammation world, are living in what you might call the Las Vegas version of nervous system function, always wound up, never resting, always reactive. Their vagus nerve, which is supposed to run rest, relaxation, sleep, digestion, immune modulation, and social-emotional regulation, is offline. It’s injured. It’s dysfunctional. And that is exactly why so many children today are the sickest generation we’ve ever seen.

Medicine’s response is to medicate down stress-based conditions like anxiety and ADHD, or to suppress inflammation with antibiotics. Natural health rightly points to the gut and microbiome. Both are part of the conversation. But neither addresses the root: the nervous system, and specifically, the vagus nerve.

“The vagus nerve is literally the missing link that will solve not just one or two of your kids’ challenges, when we get done with this conversation, you’re going to see it’s going to solve literally a multitude of challenges, if not all of the things your family is going through.”

Vagus Nerve Anatomy: Why Location Is Everything [07:12 – 17:58]

The anatomy of the vagus nerve tells the whole story. As cranial nerve number 10, it is the longest and largest of the 12 cranial nerves. It is one of only two cranial nerves that leaves the cranial vault, meaning it exits the skull through the foramen magnum, the opening at the base of the skull where the brainstem connects to the spinal cord.

This location is critical. The vagus nerve doesn’t stay tucked safely inside the skull. It travels down through the neck, through the thorax, and into the abdomen, branching out to two-thirds of the digestive system along the way. Every inch of that journey is a place where trauma, tension, or misalignment can interfere with its function.

The nervous system is not segmented. The brain, brainstem, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves are one interconnected entity. When we access any component of the nervous system, including the upper cervical spine where the vagus nerve originates, we access all of it. This is why Dr. Tony Ebel does not describe his work as “brain-based chiropractic.” That framing is too narrow. Neurologically-focused chiropractic care works on the entire system.

The vagus nerve controls:

  • Cardiac and respiratory function, heart rate, breathing rhythm
  • Gastrointestinal function, motility, absorption, elimination, microbiome regulation
  • Immune system and inflammation, cytokine regulation, inflammatory response
  • Endocrine system, serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, cortisol, adrenal function
  • Social, emotional, speech, communication, and behavioral regulation
  • Gross motor and fine motor development, through connections to the cerebellum

The vagus nerve is 80–90% sensory. It is an afferent nerve, meaning information flows from the body up to the brain, not just down from the brain to the body. When that sensory reporting loop is disrupted by injury or subluxation, the entire system loses its ability to self-regulate.

“Health is built from the inside out. Health is built by restoring and rebuilding function within your child’s body. The very first thing you must do on this restoration, rebuild, and repair process is tap into the vagus nerve, the parasympathetic system, and the nervous system as a whole.”

How Birth Trauma Injures the Vagus Nerve [17:58 – 24:55]

This is the piece that conventional medicine and even most of natural health is missing. Birth trauma, forceps, vacuum extraction, emergency C-sections, induced labor, cord wrapped around the neck, or breech presentation, physically injures the vagus nerve at its most vulnerable location: the brainstem and upper cervical spine.

The vagus nerve originates in the brainstem and immediately begins its journey down through the neck. A traumatic birth that puts force on that area doesn’t just affect the bones and muscles, it injures vagus nerve function at its very origin point. The damage happens where the nerve is beginning its job of reporting to the brain and regulating every system in the body.

Keep it simple: when we mess with the neck, we mess with this nerve. When we mess with the neck and the cranial system, we mess with the vagus nerve and its function. One injury, one intervention, and the downstream consequences touch cardiac, respiratory, gut, immune, endocrine, and behavioral function all at once.

And it doesn’t start at birth. Research now shows that high-stress, high-inflammation pregnancies delay vagus nerve development in utero. Children can be born already in a Sympathetic Dominant state, their vagus nerve was never fully online to begin with. Then birth trauma layers on top of that. Then early toxin and antibiotic exposure layers on top of that. This is The Perfect Storm.

“That one injury, that one intervention has a multitude of consequences short-term, but most importantly in our conversation with pediatrics in The Perfect Storm, long-term.”

Every System the Vagus Nerve Controls, and What Breaks When It Doesn’t Work [24:55 – 37:38]

The vagus nerve is not a specialist. It does not handle one system. It is the conductor of the entire body’s orchestra, and when it goes offline, the breakdown shows up in every section simultaneously.

Gut and GI function: The vagus nerve controls motility, moving food and waste through the digestive tract. It controls absorption, assimilation of nutrients, and elimination. It orchestrates the microbiome. Most children with autism, sensory processing challenges, anxiety, or ADHD have gut issues, constipation, absorption problems, or picky eating driven by sensory dysregulation. Those gut issues are secondary to vagus nerve dysfunction, not the primary cause.

Immune system and inflammation: Through a pathway involving the nucleus tractus solitarius, the vagus nerve controls cytokines and inflammation. When the vagus nerve is suppressed and the sympathetic nervous system is dominant, the body runs in a pro-inflammatory state. Kids are chronically sick. Autoimmune conditions become a problem. Every cold turns into a two-month illness. This is the vagus nerve failing to regulate immune homeostasis.

Tongue ties and primitive reflexes: If a child had tongue ties or tethered oral tissues and the laser treatment didn’t fully resolve the issue, the reason is that the underlying Sympathetic Dominance and vagus nerve insufficiency was never addressed. Tongue ties are secondary. Primitive reflex retention is secondary. They are symptoms of nervous system dysfunction, not the root cause.

Motor development: The vagus nerve connects to the cerebellum, which governs gross motor skills, balance, coordination, and vestibular function. It also reaches the tongue, jaw, and swallowing mechanism, the foundation of speech and communication. Gross motor delays, fine motor struggles, and speech delays all trace back to vagus nerve function.

Social and behavioral regulation: This is where the polyvagal theory, a future episode topic, comes in. The vagus nerve’s role in social engagement, emotional regulation, ADHD, and autism is substantial. When the vagus nerve is offline, a child cannot access their social engagement system. They are physiologically stuck in a defensive state.

Why Lifestyle Approaches Are Not Enough, and What Actually Works [30:13 – 41:14]

If you’ve already tried deep breathing, humming, grounding, essential oils, anti-inflammatory diets, and functional medicine supplementation, you are doing the right things. These approaches genuinely support vagus nerve function. But for most children dealing with multi-system, chronic challenges, these tools are not potent enough to reach the brainstem and unlock deep vagus nerve dysfunction.

The reason goes back to anatomy. When Subluxation, misalignment, fixation, and tension in the neurospinal system, is present along the pathway of the vagus nerve, it creates interference in the brain-body communication loop. The nervous system is so hardwired into sympathetic dominance through neuroplasticity that lifestyle tools cannot penetrate it.

Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care is different from chiropractic care for back pain or neck pain. This approach targets the specific locations where the vagus nerve originates and travels, the brainstem, the upper cervical spine, the thorax, using specific techniques at the right frequency based on neuroplasticity research. The goal is not to treat any condition. It is to remove the interference, activate the parasympathetic system, and let the body’s own healing mechanisms come back online.

The proof is clinical. After 15 years of caring for thousands of children, Dr. Tony Ebel has seen the pattern consistently: two or three vagus nerve-controlled systems are always involved in the presenting challenges, regardless of the diagnosis. Address the vagus nerve, and multiple systems begin to respond.

Dr. Tony’s son, Oliver, provides the most personal example. Born with a traumatic fast delivery that left him in the NICU with persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN), a condition where his heart and lungs couldn’t get oxygen, Dr. Tony made specific vagus nerve-activating adjustments while Oliver was on monitoring equipment. The nursing staff watched as Oliver’s oxygen saturation improved from the low 80s to 94–98% through those neuro-tonal adjustments. Medicine saved Oliver’s life. Chiropractic restored his nervous system function.

“The adjustment doesn’t do the healing. The adjustment does the activation and the appropriate stimulation. It gets the sympathetic nervous system to calm down and the vagus nerve to wake up.”

Measuring Vagus Nerve Function with HRV Technology [41:14 – 49:36]

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is the technology that makes vagus nerve function measurable. Dr. Tony Ebel uses clinical-grade HRV scanning in every PX Docs office, not the consumer wearable version, but medical-level technology that provides a precise picture of autonomic nervous system function.

HRV measures not just heart rate, but the variability between beats. A child with a healthy, functional vagus nerve will show high variability, meaning the autonomic system is adaptable and responsive. A child whose vagus nerve is suppressed will show low variability, a sign of parasympathetic exhaustion, sympathetic dominance, and vagal nerve insufficiency.

What is showing up increasingly in children and teenagers is something more alarming: both the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are exhausted. The nervous system has been so chronically dysregulated that by the time the child develops POTS, chronic depression, or severe autoimmune conditions, the whole autonomic system has essentially shut down. That is how serious and how chronic vagus nerve dysfunction has become.

HRV scanning also allows practitioners to track progress. When adjustments are activating the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic system, the HRV scores improve. That data is available at pxdocs.com, along with pre- and post-care videos on YouTube showing exactly what nervous system improvement looks like.

The path forward: learn about the vagus nerve (this episode), understand HRV and how to assess whether your child’s vagus nerve is compromised, and then find a nervous system-focused chiropractor who uses HRV technology and specific neuro-tonal techniques.

“We aren’t the healers, we’re the catalyst. The adjustment gets the sympathetic nervous system to chill out. The adjustment gets the vagus nerve to wake up. That’s what’s different about nervous system-focused chiropractic.”

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the vagus nerve and why is it important for kids’ health?

The Vagus Nerve is the 10th cranial nerve, the body’s longest cranial nerve and the primary parasympathetic nerve. It originates in the Brainstem, exits the skull, and travels through the neck, chest, and abdomen, regulating heart function, breathing, gut motility, immune inflammation, hormones, and social-emotional behavior. Because it controls every major regulatory system, Vagus Nerve Dysfunction is a root cause behind conditions like autism, ADHD, anxiety, constipation, and chronic illness.

Can birth trauma cause vagus nerve dysfunction in my child?

Yes. Birth interventions, forceps, vacuum extraction, emergency C-sections, induced labor, and breech deliveries, apply force to the neck and brainstem area where the vagus nerve originates. This physical trauma disrupts vagus nerve function at its source. Because the vagus nerve controls so many systems, a single birth-related injury can create downstream effects in gut health, immune regulation, motor development, and behavioral regulation that persist for years without being identified or treated.

Why does my child still have problems even after trying diet, supplements, and natural remedies?

Nutrition, anti-inflammatory diets, supplements, and gut-focused protocols genuinely support vagus nerve function and are worth doing. But when Subluxation, misalignment and tension in the neurospinal system, is blocking the vagus nerve at its origin in the brainstem and upper cervical spine, lifestyle approaches often can’t fully penetrate that dysfunction. The nervous system becomes so hardwired into Sympathetic Dominance through neuroplasticity that more targeted intervention is needed to remove the interference and get the parasympathetic system back online.

What conditions are linked to vagus nerve dysfunction in children?

Vagus nerve dysfunction is connected to autism, ADHD, anxiety, sensory processing disorder, PANDAS/PANS, POTS, chronic ear infections, colic, constipation, eczema, asthma, allergies, autoimmune conditions, developmental delays, gross and fine motor delays, speech and communication delays, tongue ties, and chronic illness. Because the vagus nerve regulates every major system, dysfunction rarely shows up as just one condition, it typically presents as multiple overlapping challenges.

How does chiropractic care activate the vagus nerve?

Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care targets the brainstem and upper cervical spine, the origin point and earliest pathway of the vagus nerve. Using specific neuro-tonal adjustment techniques at clinically appropriate frequencies based on neuroplasticity research, these adjustments remove subluxation and interference, calm sympathetic dominance, and stimulate vagal tone. Progress is tracked with clinical-grade HRV (heart rate variability) technology. This is distinct from general chiropractic care for back or neck pain, it is specifically designed to restore autonomic nervous system function.

How do I find a nervous system-focused chiropractor near me?

The PX Docs Directory lists trained, nervous system-focused chiropractors who use HRV technology and neurologically-focused adjusting techniques. These practitioners are specifically trained in the protocols Dr. Tony Ebel has developed through PX Docs and his postgraduate program through Life University.

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