Strokecast

Strokecast regular, neurologist Dr. Nirav Shah joins us again this week to talk about Remote Ischemic Conditioning. Essentially it makes the body more resistant to oxygen deprivation by depriving it of oxygen. It's a fascinating area. In some respects, it does the opposite of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. As we learned in episode 48, the theory is that Hyperbarics, which floods the body with extra oxygen at high pressure can bring back the stroke damaged brain tissue and help with recovery. And while hyperbaric oxygen therapy does help for a lot of conditions, the science doesn't back it up for stroke. Remote Ischemic conditioning does appear to have positive results in the early studies and may be helpful in the future. Does this mean you should go ahead and tie a tourniquet around your limbs to give it a shot? Absolutely not. That would be a terrible idea. At least for now. I like the potential in Remote Ischemic Conditioning. I also like that it is potentially simple, inexpensive, and something I can do at ho