What if one nerve quietly connects your brain to your heart, gut, immune system, and even how long you live? Dr. Elisabetta Burchi explains why the vagus nerve may be the missing link in stress resilience, cognition, and longevity. CHAPTERS: 0:00 - The vagus nerve and longevity medicine 0:27 - Show intro 1:18 - Welcome Dr. Elisabetta Burchi from Florence 2:04 - Psychiatry, neuroscience, INSEAD MBA 6:25 - Joining Parasym as 4th employee 14:10 - What is the vagus nerve? Neuromodulation 101 18:00 - Autonomic nervous system: sympathetic vs. parasympathetic 20:00 - Fight-or-flight and the modern chronic stress problem 23:22 - Chronic stress as a driver of disease and aging 26:30 - Vagus nerve stimulation as therapy 28:40 - Vagal tone, HRV, and aging 30:36 - Invasive vs. noninvasive VNS 33:00 - How transcutaneous auricular VNS works 34:00 - Published findings: HRV, inflammation, cognition 36:00 - 55+ published clinical trials 36:30 - Cardiovascular, long COVID, fibromyalgia 38:00 - Cognitive enhancement in healthy people 40:00 - How to use it: 30-minute sessions 43:00 - Sleep improvement 45:50 - Athletic recovery and performance anxiety 47:22 - Elisabetta's personal routine 49:56 - The future of neuromodulation 55:00 - Long COVID data 57:00 - Longevity medicine and vagal neuromodulation 58:42 - Closing REFERENCES: Parasym / Nurosym Scientific Evidence (50+ Studies): nurosym.com/scientific-evidence taVNS Improves Long COVID Symptoms (Frontiers in Neurology, 2024): PMC11097097 Cholinergic Anti-Inflammatory Pathway (PMC, 2018): PMC5826620 HRV and Exceptional Longevity (Frontiers, 2020): PMC7527628 Baseline HRV as Guide to taVNS Response (Translational Psychiatry, 2025): PMC12689627 GUEST: Dr. Elisabetta Burchi, MD, MBA - Head of Research, Parasym HOST: Dr. Robert Lufkin MD New episodes every Tuesday & Thursday. Subscribe so you don't miss one. Continue this conversation on Substack: https://robertlufkinmd.substack.com Lies I Taught In Medical School — Free sample chapter: https://www.robertlufkinmd.com/lies/ Web: https://www.robertlufkinmd.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/robertlufkinm d X: https://x.com/robertlufkinmd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robertlufkinmd/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@robertlufkin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertlufkinmd/