Could repeated squeezes to the arms, legs protect the brain?

[Farooqji]

What if wearing a blood pressure cuff could help prevent stroke? In a new study, people who restricted their blood flow by wearing inflated blood pressure cuffs on an arm and leg showed signs of more controlled blood flow to their brain, a process that could be protective if blood flow is more severely restricted in the event of a stroke, according at a study published in the May 29, 2019, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

eurekalert.org/pub_releases...

[Rhyothemis]

The formal name for the treatment/procedure is remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC - guess the C is needed so the abbreviation isn't 'RIP' - might not find a lot of study participants for 'RIP').

"Fifty participants were enrolled (age 34.54 ± 12.01 years, 22 men). Compared with the results on the day without RIPC, dCA was significantly increased at 6 hours after RIPC, and the increase was sustained for at least 24 hours. After RIPC, 2 neuroprotective factors (glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor and vascular endothelial growth factor-A) and 4 inflammation-related biomarkers (transforming growth factor-β1, leukemia inhibitory factor, matrix metallopeptidase-9, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1) were significantly elevated compared with their baseline levels. Conversely, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 was significantly lower compared with its baseline level."

n.neurology.org/content/ear...

So GDNF was increased in the blood, but then there's that whole blood brain barrier thing.

There was also a significant increase in dynamic cerebral autoregulation. "Cerebral autoregulation (CA) refers to the ability in the brain to maintain constant blood flow despite changes in cerebral perfusion pressure."

ahajournals.org/doi/full/10...

I'm wondering if RIPC would help with regulation of blood pressure generally, sort of like exercise for the autonomic nervous system.

[Rhyothemis in reply to Rhyothemis]

Seek and ye shall find - on PubMed (it usually delivers, unless it is Japanese research):

Remote ischemic preconditioning triggers changes in autonomic nervous system activity: implications for cardioprotection.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/281...