Last Updated on December 4, 2024 by Carrie Korem, FNTP
We live in a face-paced world and it can be easy for the nervous system to become dysregulated which can then cause a cascade of health issues. Thankfully, there are simple ways to heal a dysregulated nervous system naturally.
What is the nervous system?
The nervous system is made of three main parts – your brain, spinal cord and nerves. This system helps you move, think and feel and even regulates things like digestion and hormone balance.
The nervous system works by sending messages between the brain and other parts of your body. It keeps track of what’s going on inside and outside of your body and then sends messages to tell your body how to respond in whatever situation you’re in.
The Gray’s anatomy textbook tells us that the nervous system controls and coordinates all organs and systems of the body. So, it obviously plays a huge role in how you feel and function.
The nervous system plays a role in things such as:
- Thoughts, memory, learning and feelings
- Movements (balance and coordination)
- Senses (how your brain interprets what you see, hear, taste, touch and feel)
- Wound healing
- Sleep
- Hormone production and balance
- Heartbeat and breathing patterns
- Response to stressful situations, including sweat production
- Digestion
- Body processes, such as puberty and aging
What are the parts of the nervous system?
The nervous system has two main parts:
- Central nervous system (CNS): Your brain and spinal cord make up your central nervous system. Your brain reads signals from your nerves to regulate how you think, move and feel.
- Peripheral nervous system (PNS): Your PNS is made up of a network of nerves and it relays information from your brain and spinal cord to your organs, arms, legs, fingers and toes.
There are two parts to your peripheral nervous system:
- The somatic nervous system which guides your voluntary movements.
- The autonomic nervous system which regulates the activities you do without thinking about them (involuntary movements).
Common symptoms of a dysregulated nervous system:
You constantly feel overwhelmed
Irritability
Digestive issues – heartburn, bloating, gas, constipation, etc.
Chronic gut issues and bacterial imbalances such as leaky gut, SIBO, etc.
Hormone imbalance
Blood sugar imbalance
High or low TSH
Low fT3
Elevated rT3
Hair loss
Low thyroid hormones
Clenching or grinding your teeth
High or low blood pressure
Difficulty maintaining chiropractic adjustments
Difficulty losing weight or too much weight loss
Foggy brain
HPA-axis imbalance
Adrenal fatigue
Mood swings
Anxiety
Depression
Stress
Difficulty recovering from exercise
Feelings of worry, panic or fear
Feeling easily overwhelmed
Difficulty concentrating
Increased susceptibility to infections or illness
Highly sensitive to sensory stimuli – like light or sound
What causes nervous system dysreguation?
It can be caused by a variety of things, but here are some of the most common:
Chronic stress
Being in a hurry all the time
Not getting enough sleep
Not eating enough food – too much fasting
Trauma
Abuse
Processed foods
Lack of physical activity
Stimulants like caffeine or alcohol
Medication
Autoimmunity
Nutrient deficiencies
Noise or light pollution
Can you heal a dysregulated nervous system?
The short answer is, yes! It takes some effort and time, but you can definitely turn things around. I see this happen for clients all the time!
20 Ways to Heal a Dysregulated Nervous System Naturally:
1. Stop being in a hurry and slow down. I really can’t emphasize this one enough. We live in a fast-paced world and so many of us have gotten into a habit of doing everything fast. The problem with this is that your nervous system thinks you are in fight-or-flight when you are in a hurry.
Don’t speed walk when you’re doing errands or try and grocery shop as fast as you can. Don’t do the dishes or laundry or clean the house as fast as you can. Don’t do tasks at work as fast as you can. Walk a little slower. Do your tasks a little bit slower. Don’t be in a hurry when you drive. Do you hair slowly. Take a shower slowly. Are you getting the drift?
The biggest signal you want to send to your body is that “I’m safe”. Slowing down can start to send that powerful signal to your brain.
2. Eat breakfast within one hour of waking. If you wait any longer than this, it can cause your blood sugar levels to decrease too much and your adrenals can start producing excess cortisol and this creates stress in the body which causes the nervous system to be out of balance.
3. Avoid intermittent fasting right now. While intermittent fasting can be very helpful for many health issues, I don’t recommend it when there is nervous system imbalance because it can create additional stress on the body. I see this play out over and over at my nutrition practice. If a client has been fasting and has symptoms of a dysregulated nervous system and we switch to eating three meals a day, their symptoms greatly improve and cortisol levels begin to balance.
4. Eat regular meals throughout the day and include some protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fat in each meal. I know this is a simple step, but skipping meals can put a strain on the adrenals and cause nervous system imbalance overtime.
5. Remove all processed foods from your diet. Processed foods are a stressor on the body, and the goal is to remove stressors as much as possible to help support the body.
6. Only do low-impact exercise like walking, pilates, gentle yoga or stretching. High impact exercise puts strain on the adrenals, increases cortisol which can then lead to nervous system imbalance.
When the nervous system is balanced and the body isn’t under chronic stress, a rise in cortisol when you workout is ok. But, if the body is under chronic stress then this can add fuel to the fire. So, pulling back on high impact exercise for a little while can be incredibly helpful.
If you’re having trouble losing weight, I know this can seem counter-productive, but I’ve seen clients lose weight by resting and following the steps I’m listing here. Here’s more info on this topic written by Dr. Erik Korem.
7. Diffuse essential oils throughout the day to help you feel more relaxed. If you can’t diffuse the oils, put a drop or two on the bottoms of your feet or on the spine twice a day to help lower stress levels. In fact, this study found that inhaling lavender essential oil can decrease cortisol levels. That’s good news for the nervous system!
Here are some of my personal favorites:
Forgive Blend (I diffuse this in my office when meeting with nutritional therapy clients and they all comment on how calming it is!)
Lavender
Balance blend
Citrus Bliss blend
8. Spend more time outdoors. Getting fresh air and being in nature helps reduce the stress response in the body and calms the nervous system.
9. Go walking outside daily. Walking outside is a fantastic way to reduce stress in the body, lower cortisol and encourage nervous system balance.
10. Avoid a low-carb diet right now. While a lower carb diet can be a helpful way to reduce inflammation, eating this way for too long can put stress on the adrenals and cause nervous system imbalance. So it’s important to get good, healthy carbs into your diet each day such as: potatoes (make sure to eat with plenty of butter), root vegetables, peas, properly prepared legumes or gluten-free grains (if you can tolerate them), apples, pears, berries, and beets.
11. Take an epsom salt bath a few times a week (or each evening, if you can). When you’re stressed, the first mineral your body burns through is magnesium (this is why so many people are magnesium deficient!). Soaking in a bath with 1 cup of epsom salts and a few drops of your favorite essential oil will help you relax and replenish your magnesium stores.
12. Get at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Honestly, the best way to balance your nervous system is with sleep.
13. Consider supplementation to help support your nervous system. Here are a few of the ones I use in my practice:
Neuroregenex – This is a fabulous herbal formulation to support the brain, mental clarity, and nervous system.
Here’s a good dosage for most people (ask your practitioner what’s best for you):
Month 1 – 2 tablets, 3 times daily
Month 2 – 2 tablets, 2 times daily
Month 3 and moving forward – 1 tablet, 2 times daily
Drenamin – This is my go-to for adrenal support and so helpful for the nervous system. It contains vitamin C, B6, choline as well as many other nutrients, and helps address the nutritional deficiencies that the adrenals may be experiencing and supports them at a foundational level. One at each meal is often a good dose.
E-Z Mg – this is a wonderful magnesium supplement to support the nervous system. Since this plant-based magnesium contains multiple forms, it helps take the guesswork out of which kind of magnesium to take.
Min-Tran – this is a vegetarian nervous system support supplement that I use often with my clients. It’s also helpful for sleep. Keep in mind that it does contain iodine, so if you have hyperthyroidism or Graves’, talk to you practitioner about if this is a good fit for you.
Cataplex B – B vitamins are very helpful to support your adrenal glands’ cortisol response to stress. Cataplex B is my go-to and is an excellent source of thiamin, niacin, and vitamin B6. They also have a gluten-free option.
Nevaton Forte – contains Skullcap, St John’s Wort, Schisandra and Saffron to support healthy nervous system function including mood balance.
14. Eat magnesium-rich foods. We burn through magnesium very quickly when the nervous system is out of balance, so eating mg-rich foods can be very helpful to keep the body more calm. Foods such as dark leafy greens, fatty fish, avocado, and soaked nuts, seeds and legumes are all good sources of magnesium to include in your diet throughout the week.
15. Eliminate all caffeine. Unfortunately, caffeine is like liquid stress for the body right now. I know this is a hard one, but your adrenals will thank you! Here’s a post about how I kicked the coffee habit — with step-by-step instructions for you.
16. Take one day of rest each week. While it’s popular to “hustle”, that kind of daily mentality can lead to all sorts of health issues and will continue to create nervous system dysregulation.
Take a day each week to rest. Turn off your phone, get outside, or just sleep all day if that’s what your body needs. It’s ok. God set the example by taking a day to rest, so I order my week that way, too!
17. Learn to recognize stressful thinking – It’s important to understand that the mind is separate from the brain. The mind is the thoughts we think, and this influences the brain, and the brain influences the nervous system. As I mentioned before, The Grey’s Anatomy textbook tells us that the nervous system controls and coordinates every organ and system in the body.
So, the thoughts we think can have a huge influence on our nervous system. If we’re thinking about stressful events (even if nothing stressful is actually happening) the body will think it’s in fight or flight and it will raise stress hormones.
Checking in with yourself during the day to see what you’re thinking about can be a good first place to start. If you find that you have a lot of negative thoughts, then start working on thinking about more positive things. I personally like to listen to uplifting music, go outside on a walk, or pray when I find that my thoughts are more negative than they should be.
Also, be aware of the things you are listening to or watching such as podcasts, music, other people, movies, etc. If these things are negative, sad, etc. then this can cause you to start thinking in this way too.
18. Turn off your phone or put it somewhere that is out of sight. “Your cortisol levels are elevated when your phone is in sight or nearby, or when you hear it or even think you hear it,” David Greenfield, professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Elevated cortisol can contribute to a deregulated nervous system.
So, taking breaks from your phone, putting it away at various times during the day and definitely not sleeping with it next to you can be very helpful!
19. Get a massage – Massage has been shown to have a positive effect on the nervous system and can help reduce stress hormones.
20. Work with a counseling or therapist on past trauma – Past trauma can get stored in the body and continue to create nervous system imbalance. It takes time and work, but it can be so worth it! A great book on this topic is The Body Keeps Score.
Sources:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/21202-nervous-system
my.clevelandclinic.org/…/12148-sleep-basics
my.clevelandclinic.org/…/23123-peripheral-nervous-system-pns
https://qbi.uq.edu.au/brain/brain-anatomy/peripheral-nervous-system/somatic-nervous-system
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327450
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6143708/
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5981243
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