Dr. Kevin Tracey

And there's some experimental tools on the West Coast that are being developed in laboratories.

So it'll happen.

But until then, the absolute best indicator...

of a person or a mammal with increased vagus nerve activity is that their heart rate is slower.

And that's because

One of the branches of the vagus nerve, it goes to the heart and the fibers traveling in that branch tend to slow heart rate.

So that's interesting and pretty easy to understand.

I mean, it doesn't mean if you gargle or hum that you're stimulating specifically those branches to your heart any more than if you...

gargle or hum that you're specifically stimulating the branches to your pancreas or your spleen either.

But at least we know there are branches that go to the heart and slow heart rate.

So that's interesting.

The second thing I find incredibly interesting is back to your world.

The Framingham study showed that the single predictor

of longevity in a population was the population with the slowest heart rate lived longer than the population with the fastest heart rate, regardless of other conditions.

And that study and that exact finding with a few minor tweaks was replicated in the French study, which was what, four times bigger or something.

Tens of thousands of patients.

If you had a slower heart rate, if the population with the slower heart rate lived longer than the population with the faster heart rate, all caused mortality.

So that's interesting.

So is it possible that those people with increased vagus activity are protected against inflammation and have less heart disease?

Maybe.