Esra Nur Gökçe1, Zehra Pınar Cengiz1, Oytun Erbaş2

1Biruni Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Öğrencisi, İstanbul, Türkiye
2İstanbul Bilim Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Fizyoloji Anabilim Dalı, İstanbul, Türkiye

Keywords: Inflammation; myocardial infarction; parasympathetic nervous system; vagus nerve

Abstract

Ischemic heart disease is the most common cause of death in the world and parasympathetic activity is a keystone in this disease. In addition, the vagus nerve has an anti-inflammatory effect, and considering of this effect‚ the fact that parasympathetic activity is equally important for each chronic disease emerges. Many diseases can be prevented by controlling of the vagal activity‚ and even a heart attack which can lead to the death of an individual can be prevented. For all these reasons, it is possible to describe the vagus nerve as a nerve that extends the lifespan. In this review‚ we discuss the cardioprotective effect of the vagus nerve.