I think most of these claims are BS, but I've met several people who have claimed to heal their own inflammatory diseases through non-medical practice to help regulate their vagus nerve. I know for me, these types of practices seem to help manage my symptoms. So maybe there is some connection.
The vagus nerve sits inside the collarbone right next to the carotid artery. As a doctor told me once, if you're able to physically stimulate your vagus nerve, you need to get to A&E posthaste, lol
That makes more sense for IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) than it does for IBD (inflammatory bowel disease). IBS is caused by the gut-brain nervous system acting up due to stress, and vagal maneuvers forcibly turn off the fight-or-flight response from the nervous system. On the other hand, IBD is caused by your immune system attacking itself in the gut, and the T cells aren't really connected to the nervous system in any physiologically relevant way. So your friends were probably talking about IBS, not IBD.
There could still be a link between the nervous system and IBD, too.
When I was diagnosed with UC, the inflammation perfectly correlated with a portion of the colon that was connected to a particular nerve (I can remember which - it was a few years ago by now).
I dismissed it as BS at the time, but a physiologist once asked me where I feel the physical sensation when I am stressed or anxious, and I said my gut. He thought that was very interesting (since I had recently been diagnosed with UC). I thought nothing of it, but maybe there is a link. (My wife, in contrast, feels anxiety and stress as a feeling in her chest.)
More and more, scientific research is pointing towards how all the systems in the body are connected one way or another, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is also a link between IBD and the nervous system.
> The vagus nerve regulates inflammation and cytokine release through the inflammatory reflex. Recent pilot clinical trials using implantable bioelectronic devices have demonstrated the efficacy of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) in adult patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) as an alternative to drug treatments.
