IU's Marieke Van Puymbroeck Conducts Stroke Research

This morning's Bloomington Herald-Times newspaper contained a front-page story on Marieke Van Puymroeck's research on a rehab program for TIAs. For those who don't know Marieke, she is a professor of therapeutic recreation at Indiana University.

It is exciting for me to see the research of one of our own featured in a newspaper story. I've already sent Marieke an email message of congratulations.

To provide a sense of her research, in this post, I'm including the information that follows -- which was taken from an I.U. press release on Marieke's research:

Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIA) are often called “mini strokes” for good reasons – the short-term symptoms can mimic a stroke and up to 10% of first-time sufferers often experience full-blown strokes within as little as 90 days. Despite the well-known statistics, no post-TIA regimen exists to help prevent future strokes -- but this might be changing.

Indiana University researcher Marieke Van Puymbroeck has discussed preliminary—and promising -- findings that a modified version of cardiac rehabilitation was effective at addressing some of the risk factors for stroke in just six weeks. The most common risk factors for stroke – hypertension, physical inactivity, elevated lipids and diabetes – also are leading risk factors for heart disease.

Van Puymbroeck, one of four researchers discussing TIA-related research during a press conference at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2010, is teaming up with Bloomington Hospital, in Bloomington, Ind., to look for a possible post-TIA treatment. She said more research and treatment options are needed to help people who experience a TIA reduce their risk for stroke, which can be debilitating and deadly.