Where your DNA places you among other people, and the studies behind it.
Not tailored to your result, and not medical advice
Cut Down On Salt: Sodium holds extra fluid in the circulation, which raises the pressure the arteries carry between beats as well as during them. In a Cochrane systematic review of 34 randomised trials with 3,230 adults, cutting salt intake by roughly 4.4 g a day for at least four weeks lowered diastolic pressure by 2.06 mmHg and systolic by 4.18 mmHg. The effect was larger in participants who already had raised blood pressure, at 2.82 mmHg diastolic, than in those who did not, at 1.00 mmHg. BMJ, Cochrane systematic review (PubMed)
Eat A DASH-Style Diet: The DASH pattern emphasises vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, nuts and low-fat dairy, with less red meat, sugary food and salt, which raises potassium intake while lowering sodium. Across 17 randomised trials with 2,561 participants, it lowered diastolic pressure by 3.54 mmHg and systolic by 6.74 mmHg compared with control diets. Reductions were larger in trials that combined the diet with energy restriction and in participants who already had hypertension. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases (PubMed)
Add Isometric Holds To Cardio: Diastolic pressure largely reflects the resistance the smaller arteries offer while the heart is refilling, and training appears to act on that resistance. A network meta-analysis of 270 randomised trials with 15,827 participants found every mode lowered resting pressure: aerobic training by 2.53 mmHg diastolic, dynamic resistance by 3.04 mmHg, combined training by 2.54 mmHg, and isometric work such as wall sits by 4.00 mmHg. Isometric training gave the largest diastolic reduction of those five modes and ranked first for systolic pressure, though when the analysis was broken down by specific activity, running came out top for diastolic. Both sit alongside the general activity guidance of about 150 minutes of moderate movement a week. British Journal of Sports Medicine (PubMed)
Keep Alcohol Intake Low: Alcohol raises blood pressure in proportion to how much is drunk, and cutting back reverses part of that. In a meta-analysis of 36 randomised trials, people drinking six or more drinks a day who roughly halved their intake lowered diastolic pressure by 3.97 mmHg, and those drinking about three a day lowered it by 1.09 mmHg. Among participants already drinking two or fewer drinks a day, reducing further produced no measurable diastolic change, so the honest reading is that the benefit is concentrated in heavier drinkers. The Lancet Public Health (PMC)
Understand How Age Shifts Diastolic: Diastolic pressure is what remains in the arteries between beats, and it does not follow systolic pressure across the lifespan. In the Framingham Heart Study, systolic pressure rose steadily from age 30 through 84, while diastolic pressure rose only until roughly age 50 to 60 and then declined, widening the gap between the two numbers. The authors read that late fall as a marker of stiffening large arteries, so a diastolic figure drifting down in later life is not by itself evidence of better vascular health. A clinician is the right person to interpret a pattern of readings rather than any single measurement. Circulation, Framingham Heart Study (PubMed)
How much of this is genetic?
Genetics explains 40% of why people differ in this trait. The rest is environment, daily habits and chance.
Heritability estimate: Twin studies estimate the heritability of diastolic blood pressure at roughly 40-60% (pooled near 50% across studies), while family-based and DNA-based estimates tend to run lower; the remainder is attributable to environment and lifestyle.
Background and further reading
Diastolic blood pressure (the lower number in a blood pressure reading, for example the 80 in 120/80 mmHg) is the pressure in the arteries during the resting phase between heartbeats. It reflects the tone and resistance of the small arteries and how much the vasculature relaxes while the heart refills. Diastolic pressure is a continuous trait that varies across the population and tends to rise through mid-adulthood before often plateauing or falling in later life as arteries stiffen. Along with systolic pressure, it is one of the standard measures used to describe cardiovascular health, and consistently elevated readings are associated over time with greater strain on the heart, arteries, and kidneys.
Genetic Basis: Blood pressure is highly polygenic, shaped by hundreds to over a thousand common variants each with a small effect, rather than by any single gene. Large genome-wide association studies of blood pressure, including analyses of over a million individuals, have identified more than a thousand independent loci influencing systolic and diastolic pressure. Implicated genes point to biological pathways that regulate pressure, including vascular tone and smooth-muscle signaling (for example CACNB2 and ARHGAP42), the natriuretic peptide system (NPPA/NPPB), fibroblast growth factor signaling (FGF5), calcium transport (ATP2B1), and immune and hematopoietic regulation (SH2B3). A polygenic score sums many such variants into a single estimate of genetic tendency; it captures only part of the inherited component and is not a measurement of your actual blood pressure.
Environmental Factors: Diastolic blood pressure is strongly influenced by modifiable lifestyle and environmental factors that act on top of genetic tendency. Higher dietary sodium, low potassium intake, excess body weight, physical inactivity, heavy alcohol use, and chronic stress are all associated with higher readings, while regular aerobic activity, a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, and whole grains (such as the DASH pattern), maintaining a healthy weight, and adequate sleep are associated with lower pressure. Because so much of everyday variation is environmental, two people with similar genetic scores can have quite different measured pressures depending on their habits, age, and overall health.
The published research behind your score, and the variants it draws on.
43 published scores from 13 studies
The diastolic blood pressure score combines 43 polygenic scores drawn from 13 published studies.
These traits are influenced by some of the same genes and variants as this one
Heart Failure: A syndrome in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's needs.
Content updated August 2026.
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