Article on vagus nerve stimulation via ear

[p8d]

This isn’t related to POTS specifically but is still relevant as it discusses sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.  I think Vanderbilt is/was doing a study on this technology in pots.  https://www.aging-us.com/article/102074/text. Anybody tried it?

[Jason_X]

I’ve tinkered with this a bit with limited success.  I have an issue with inappropriate sinus tachycardia, and my resting heart rate makes me tired, yet disrupts sleep if I don’t take a beta blocker and/or Ivabradine (Corlanor).  I tried this to see whether it might help to reduce my heart rate and/or make it easier to sleep.

 

Results

I actually fell asleep once with this because I felt so relaxed.  This gave me hope that this technique might be useful.  A few times, it seemed like it may have been mildly helpful.  However, most of the time, it was just painful and not helpful at all.  I tried it about ten times, and then near tried it again.

 

Details

I already had a TENS device for another issue, and I ordered additional electrodes that could be attached with a clamping mechanism.  I attached one of the clamping electrodes to my ear (tragus), and I attached a standard pad electrode to other areas. 

 

The clamping electrodes were cheaply made, and I had to wrap a rubber band around it to hold it tight.  It also only had an electrode on one side, which reduced the electrical contact area. The weak point of the circuit was the ear electrode, and it was painful if I cracked up the TENS power at all.  

 

I was usually really hard to objectively determine whether it was being helpful.  My pulse rate is highly variable from hour to hour and day to day.  Like I mentioned early, I actually fell asleep once while experimenting.  Sometimes, it deep seem relaxing, but it usually required cranking up the TENS unit near my pain threshold for my ear.  The ear electrode had very little contact area, so it didn’t take much to cause pain there.

 

Determining where to place the other electrode (standard TENS pad) was also uncertain. I tried a variety of places, and it didn’t seem to matter much.

[p8d]

Thanks for the response.  I am thinking of having my husband get one of these units specifically for tvns https://www.parasym.co/ when he is in the UK.  We shall see.  The research devices have good success with autoimmune diseases.

[JCO]

p8d, did you get the Parasym and try it?