#315 - Can We Treat Disease Through the Nervous System? | Dr. Kevin Tracey & Mike Haney

Most of NextLevel starts with a measurement problem: we can see more biology than ever, but we still have to figure out what to do with it. Bioelectronic medicine flips that sequence. We already know how to send electrical signals into the nervous system to change biology, including an FDA-approved vagus nerve treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, even though we still can’t map or read most of the individual nerve fibers carrying those signals.

Mike Haney talks with Dr. Kevin Tracey, a pioneer of neuroimmunology and bioelectronic medicine, about what becomes possible when nerves become a therapeutic target. The opportunity is not simply vagus nerve stimulation, but learning which signals control specific organs, then building systems that can read and write them. That is still some distance away, and Tracey separates it from looser claims about vagal tone and vagus nerve hacks.

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What We Cover:

Why the vagus nerve is not one wire
How one minute a day became an FDA-approved rheumatoid arthritis treatment
Why a nerve target can be more precise than a drug
Why mapping the vagus fiber by fiber is only beginning
Why CRP and cytokines are not a true inflammation readout
What HRV, breathing, humming, and cold plunges can and cannot show

🎙️ About the Guest:

Dr. Kevin Tracey is a neurosurgeon, scientist, and President and CEO of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. His work helped establish how the vagus nerve regulates inflammation and helped launch bioelectronic medicine. He is also co-founder of SetPoint Medical and author of The Great Nerve.

📍What Dr. Kevin Tracey & Mike Haney discussed:

00:00 - A nerve can treat one organ. A pill cannot
04:43 - The vagus nerve is 160,000 fibers, not one wire
07:53 - Why the first fiber-by-fiber map of the human vagus is only months old
10:29 - FDA-approved vagus nerve stimulation for rheumatoid arthritis
14:33 - Why one minute a day can quiet inflammation for 12 to 24 hours
17:39 - Why it took 30 years to get from the mouse finding to patients
31:53 - How one minute of current reaches millions of immune cells
41:19 - Why arthritis has a known mechanism and epilepsy and depression do not
49:16 - What single fibers could change in diabetes, the liver, the gut, and stroke recovery
52:59 - Why CRP and cytokine levels still fall short of a true readout
1:04:18 - Resting heart rate, not HRV, is the cleaner vagus signal
1:09:55 - Why deep breathing and humming are not vagus nerve stimulation
1:16:35 - A cold plunge is fight-or-flight first, vagus second
1:20:23 - The spleen signal he would measure if he could

🔗 Helpful Links:

Watch the conversation: https://youtu.be/x_h6Dd_Ap_o

Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1

📲 Connect:

Connect with Dr. Kevin Tracey at Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research

👋 Who we are:

Levels helps you understand your metabolic health with personalized data, expert guidance, and tools that connect your daily choices to measurable changes in your body. Our goal is to help you make better decisions about food, exercise, sleep, and long-term health.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

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