The Connection Between Fascia and the Vagus Nerve: How Your Body Holds Trauma

Understanding the connection between fascia and the vagus nerve can provide valuable insights into how your body responds to stress and trauma.

What is Fascia?

Fascia is a fibrous connective tissue that extends throughout the entire body, creating a continuous web that surrounds and covers every structure and system. Fascia is now recognised as one of the largest sensory organs in the human body, housing approximately 250 million nerve endings (Langevin, 2021). This makes fascia an important part of our brain-body's communication network.

There are several types of fascia, including:

• Superficial fascia just beneath the skin
• Deeper layers that wrap around bones and muscles
• Specialised fascial structures that connect to our internal organs and enteric nervous system (our "belly brain")

The Sensory Role of Fascia

Research has shown that there are approximately three times as many sensory neurons as motor neurons in fascial tissue (Schleip, 2019). This suggests that fascia's primary role involves communicating information about what's happening in your body to your brain, rather than just facilitating movement. This bottom-up information from the body to the brain is important when it comes to nervous system regulation.

The Dynamic Nature of Fascial Tissue

Fascia is not static and it's constantly evolving and adapting to influences, including:

• Sustained postures and repetitive movements
• Stress and trauma responses
• Biochemical factors including neurotransmitters and hormones

Imagine your favourite leather shoes that gradually mould to fit your feet perfectly. Well, your fascia adapts to how you use your body. Under normal, healthy conditions, fascial tissues expand and contract, maintaining a balance between stability and mobility. 

The Fascial-Nervous System Connection

One of my favourite modules of the Vagus Nerve Program covers how fascia receptors communicate directly with both branches of the autonomic nervous system:

1. The sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight response): When activated this system releases neurotransmitters that can increase tension in fascia throughout the body. Chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system due to ongoing stress can lead to increased tone and stiffness in fascial structures.
2. The vagus nerve: Strong vagal tone helps counterbalance sympathetic-induced fascial tension. When the vagus nerve is properly engaged, it can facilitate the release of fascial restrictions that may have developed during chronic or traumatic stress.

Trauma, Fascia, and the Nervous System

The bidirectional relationship between fascia and the nervous system explains how emotional and physical stress can manifest physically in the body. When we experience physical injury or emotional trauma, our bodies often enter protective states that restrict movement to ensure survival. Initially these adaptations help us, but these patterns can persist long after the danger has passed.

Fascia may hold trauma through chronic tension patterns that continue after an event has passed.

Embodiment—the conscious awareness of your felt sense of self—can be cultivated by paying attention to the connections between fascia and the vagus nerve. This happens when you notice changes that occur in your muscles, organs, or heart rate.

Think of it as becoming fluent in your body's language. Most of us have been taught to ignore or override body signals, but developing this awareness is like having access to your body's own early warning system and wisdom.

Interoception, the perception of sensations from inside the body, plays a crucial role in this process. By developing awareness of these internal changes, we can strengthen our internal sense of self and potentially influence our nervous system regulation.

Practical Applications

Understanding the connection between fascia and the vagus nerve has important applications in various fields:

• Physical therapy and bodywork: Techniques that address fascial restrictions while supporting nervous system regulation may be more effective than approaches that focus solely on mechanical aspects.
• Nervous System Regulation: Bottom-up approaches that include awareness of fascial patterns can help address trauma held in the body.
• Building Vagal Tone: Practices that promote vagal tone.

Your body's physical structure and emotional regulation system are not separate systems but deeply integrated. The tightness in your shoulders, the knot in your stomach when anxious, the way your posture shifts when confident—these aren't coincidences but reflections of this intricate fascial-vagal conversation happening inside you.

By understanding and working with this connection, you gain access to a powerful pathway for both physical and emotional wellbeing. 

There will be an entire module on the body, the fascia and it's link to the sensory systems in the 8-week Vagus Nerve Program. A reminder that early-bird pricing closes Monday, May 19.

References

Langevin, H. M. (2021). Fascia mobility, proprioception, and myofascial pain. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 25, 5-11.

Schleip, R. (2019). Fascial plasticity – a new neurobiological explanation. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 23(2), 282-288.

Bordoni, B., & Simonelli, M. (2018). The awareness of the fascial system. Cureus, 10(10), e3397.

Van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.

Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. W.W. Norton & Company.