That sinking feeling in your stomach when you’re nervous? 😣
It’s the doing of your vagus nerve – or “wandering nerve” – a highway in the human body that connects to almost every internal organ.
It lets your brain talk to your gut (hence the stomach churn), but also regulates your digestion, heart rate, breathing, and a heck lot of other things.
Source: Google Trends, six-month rolling average
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As someone who only learned about it a year ago in The Body Keeps The Score, I felt pretty out of the loop. But as folks increasingly prioritize their mind-body connection, vagus nerve care got its share of Internet attention in recent years:
- “Vagus nerve exercise” gets 185m+ views on TikTok
- “Vagus nerve stimulation” gets 54k searches/mo, per Ahrefs
- Amazon’s bestselling stimulator raked in $1m+ last month
The global vagus nerve stimulation market is worth ~$483m in 2023, and set to exceed $1B by 2031.
It’s primarily driven by medical procedures and devices, but with rising awareness of everyday, non-intrusive nerve care, there are plenty of opportunities for the average business to cash in:
1. Vagus Nerve Care Spa Experience
The $21B+ medical spa market can be a solid investment, and a good fit for vagus nerve care.
Single-location spas get an average of ~$2m in ARR, with a 20%-25% profit margin. On average, a medical spa owner can make $300k – $375k a year.
You can incorporate vagus nerve massages or non-invasive stimulation into existing spa experiences, and market this feature to draw in more customers.
Source: Precedence Research
If a spa is too costly to start, you can also become a certified specialist in vagal toning – aka using the activity of the vagus nerve to improve overall health – for $599.
First operate out of your home or a small studio and save on COGS. Once you start getting clients and word of mouth, consider partnering with a spa to offer your services.
2. Content And Product Curation
This YouTuber focuses on nervous system healing and pain relief, and her most viewed videos are all about the vagus nerve – the highest being a vagus nerve exercise tutorial that got 6.8m views.
You can easily create content based on this trend. And don’t limit yourself to video tutorials – it can be as simple as curating a music playlist, like this video that gets 1.4m views on YouTube.
Or, use content as the funnel to a e-commerce offering, like a “vagus nerve self care kit” that includes:
- Vagal massage gadgets – e.g. the ZenBud headset
- Books on taking care of your nervous system
- Snacks with Omega-3 fatty acids (good for the vagus nerve), like flaxseeds and walnuts
- Supplements like this one
3. Supplements
With a $182B+ market size and average profit margins of 38%, the supplement piece can stand on its own, too.
Almost 40% of supplement takers are early adopter-types eager to try the newest thing, and vagus nerve support will likely play well in this crowd.
You can take a page out of Hims’ playbook and white label vagus nerve supplements with your own branding.
Source: SEC
4. Niche Down
Everyone and their dog (literally) has the vagus nerve, but solutions vary for different demographics, and even species.
So there’s opportunity to take all the ideas above and apply them to specific niches:
- Video content about vagus nerve exercises to calm kids down
- Vagus nerve supplements and spa care for postpartum moms
- Ice packs or cold plunges for those who need intense vagus nerve healing
Don’t forget about Fido – with any human health trend, expect pet solutions to follow.
Whether it’s pets with anxiety issues, digestion problems, or even epilepsy, there could be a product or specialized service that helps pet parents care for their fur babies’ nerves.
Source: Frontiers
One last thing: You can also think outside the box – good ol’ vagus might be the longest cranial nerve in our body, but other cranial nerves, like the vestibular nerve, can achieve similar health effects when properly stimulated.
And there’s already an FDA-approved device for that.
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