008: The anxiety that came out of nowhere — what your vagus nerve has to do with it

You have always been someone who handles pressure well. Uncertainty doesn't rattle you. Stress comes in and you deal with it. That has been your baseline for as long as you can remember.

And then something changed.

Maybe you snap at someone and immediately wonder where that came from. Maybe you lie awake at night with your mind going even when nothing is actually wrong. Maybe little things are bothering you in a way they never used to. Or maybe you just feel wound up — and you can't explain it to anyone, including yourself.

For women in their 40s and 50s navigating perimenopause and the years that follow, this is one of the most unexpected experiences of this season. And like everything else we have been covering in this series — it has a specific biological explanation.

By the end of this episode, you'll understand exactly what is driving anxiety that feels new or out of character — and one simple practice you can start today that directly supports your body's ability to return to calm.

If you have been following this series, the hormonal foundation may feel familiar by now. And it is worth revisiting briefly here — because it leads directly into something we have not covered yet.

The hormonal foundation

In Episode 003, we covered how progesterone — the calming hormone — converts in the brain into a compound that directly supports your nervous system's ability to process stress and return to calm. As progesterone shifts during this season, that natural buffer softens. The same stressors that used to pass through now linger. Your nervous system stays in alert mode longer than it used to. And the anxiety that follows has a hormonal root — and that root responds to support.

Estrogen plays a role too. Estrogen supports serotonin production — the brain chemical most connected to mood stability and the feeling that life is manageable. As estrogen fluctuates during these years, serotonin fluctuates with it. This is part of why anxiety during this season can feel so inconsistent — better some days, harder on others — in a pattern that doesn't always connect to anything happening in your outside life.

We also covered in Episode 003 how more than 90% of the body's serotonin is produced in the gut — and how the hormonal shifts of this season can disrupt the gut bacteria that support that production. The gut and the brain are in constant communication. The state of your gut directly affects the chemicals available to your brain. When gut health shifts, mood and anxiety shift with it.

All of this is important context. And there is one more layer that connects it all.

The vagus nerve

Your vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body. It runs from your brainstem all the way down through your throat, your heart, your lungs, and your gut. It is the physical highway between your brain and your body — the actual pathway through which your gut and your brain talk to each other constantly, in both directions.

The vagus nerve governs something called the parasympathetic nervous system — the part of your nervous system responsible for rest, recovery, and calm. When your vagal tone is strong, your body moves efficiently between alert and calm. Stress arrives, gets processed, and your nervous system returns to baseline. You feel resilient. You feel like yourself.

When vagal tone is low, that recovery slows. Your nervous system stays in alert mode longer than it should. The same stressor that used to resolve quickly now lingers. And the anxiety that follows — the on-edge feeling, the racing heart, the sense of dread with no clear cause — has a specific physical explanation. Your vagus nerve is at the center of this and during this season of life, it needs support.

Here is why this matters specifically during perimenopause and the years that follow:

Estrogen supports vagal tone. As estrogen shifts during these years, vagal tone can shift with it. The buffer that was quietly keeping your nervous system resilient and recovery-ready has become less consistent. And the anxiety you are experiencing is, in part, a reflection of that change.

When you understand what the vagus nerve is doing — and what it needs — the anxiety picture starts to make a different kind of sense.

What this means for you

If you are in your 40s, 50s or 60s and have been experiencing anxiety that arrived without a clear reason — this may well be a physiological event. Hormonal shifts, gut changes, and a vagus nerve working in a less supported environment than it was before can all contribute to anxiety that feels like it came out of nowhere. And physiological events respond to physiological support.

Women who understand this and act on it give their nervous system what it needs to recover more efficiently. And one of the most direct ways to do that is to tone the vagus nerve itself.

And here is what makes this genuinely empowering.

Vagal tone is trainable

Your vagus nerve responds to specific inputs — and one of the most accessible and well-researched of those inputs is, believe it or not, humming.

The vagus nerve runs directly through your throat. When you hum, the vibration travels through the exact tissue the vagus nerve passes through — stimulating it directly. Research shows that humming activates the parasympathetic nervous system, lowers heart rate, and produces a measurable calming response in the body. Traditional cultures have used chanting, singing, and toning for thousands of years across every civilization on earth. The biology behind why it works is now well documented.

Your takeaway from today

The next time you feel the anxiety rising — the on-edge feeling, the racing heart, the unease with no clear cause — try this before anything else.

Hum. Quietly, if you need to. To yourself, in the car, in the shower, wherever you are. Hum a single note for as long as one breath allows. Then take a breath and hum again. Do this for two to three minutes.

You are doing this to directly stimulate your vagus nerve — to send your nervous system a signal of safety through the one pathway that responds to vibration. Done consistently, this practice builds vagal tone over time. The more you do it, the more efficiently your nervous system learns to return to calm.

Start today. You do not need a quiet room or a special practice. You just need your own voice.

Humming gives your nervous system a direct signal of safety — and what you eat gives it the raw materials to stay resilient. Specifically, the nutrients your nervous system depends on to produce the calming chemicals, maintain the nerve fibers, and support the gut health that feeds directly into how calm and balanced you feel every day. The full nutritional foundation that supports your hormones, your gut, and your brain during this season is what I teach inside Nourish.

Nourish is my 21-day ancestral nutrition immersion — designed for the woman who is ready to give her body what it actually needs to thrive during this season of life. It includes daily education, recipes, shopping lists, a suggested menu plan, and a bonus masterclass called Nourishing Your Hormones, for women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, navigating perimenopause and the decades that follow. You'll find it at nourishwithkatrina.com/nourish.

To your vibrant health and freedom,
Katrina