Where your DNA places you among other people, and the studies behind it.
Not tailored to your result, and not medical advice
Know Your Blood Pressure: In INTERSTROKE, a case-control study of acute stroke across 32 countries, high blood pressure carried the largest population attributable risk of any single factor at 47.9%, and ten modifiable factors together accounted for about 90.7% of stroke risk worldwide. Chronically raised pressure damages the small deep-penetrating arteries of the brain, the vessels behind both lacunar infarcts and bleeding into brain tissue. Raised pressure produces no symptoms, so a reading is the only way to know where you stand, and it is a reasonable thing to raise in a conversation with a clinician. Note the honest limit of that figure: roughly a tenth of population-level stroke risk was not explained by those ten factors at all. The Lancet (INTERSTROKE)
Cut Back On Salt: The SSaSS trial randomised 20,995 people across 600 rural Chinese villages, all of whom had either a previous stroke or were aged 60 or older with high blood pressure, to a blend of 75% sodium chloride and 25% potassium chloride or to ordinary salt. Over a mean 4.74 years stroke occurred at 29.14 versus 33.65 events per 1,000 person-years, a rate ratio of 0.86, and serious events attributed to high potassium were no more common in the substitute group. This was a deliberately high-salt, high-risk population, so the size of the benefit may not carry over to everyone, and potassium-based substitutes are worth checking with a clinician if you have kidney problems. New England Journal of Medicine (SSaSS)
Quit Or Avoid Smoking: A dose-response meta-analysis found current smokers had roughly double the odds of stroke compared with never smokers (OR 1.90), with the association strongest for subarachnoid hemorrhage (OR 3.39) and ischaemic stroke (OR 2.09). The odds tracked with amount, rising from 1.44 at five cigarettes a day to 1.86 at 35. Smoking injures the artery lining and makes blood more prone to clotting, which is why it shows up in both clot-driven and bleeding stroke types. The same analysis reported significantly lower stroke odds among people who had stopped for three years or more. Frontiers in Neurology (PMC)
Get Regular Physical Activity: In the dose-response meta-analysis prepared for the Global Burden of Disease study, people accumulating 600 to 3,999 MET-minutes of total activity a week had about 16% lower ischaemic stroke risk than those below 600, rising to 19% at 4,000 to 7,999 and 26% at 8,000 or more. Around 600 MET-minutes corresponds roughly to the 150 minutes of moderate activity a week that national physical activity guidance describes. Most of the gain appeared at the low end of the curve, so moving from nothing to something counted for more than moving from a lot to more. These are pooled observational cohorts, so the pattern is an association rather than proof of cause. The BMJ (PMC)
Learn The Sudden Warning Signs: Stroke damage accumulates by the minute, and the American Stroke Association estimates about 1.9 million brain cells die every minute a stroke goes untreated. The BE FAST signs are sudden loss of balance, sudden vision change, face drooping, arm weakness and speech difficulty, with the T a reminder to call emergency services immediately. Symptoms that appear and then fade, a transient ischaemic attack, still warrant that call after they have gone. Of everything on this list, this is the only item that works in minutes rather than years, and it applies to the people around you as much as to you. American Stroke Association
How much of this is genetic?
Genetics explains 38% of why people differ in this trait. The rest is environment, daily habits and chance.
Heritability estimate: Bevan et al. 2012, Stroke
Background and further reading
Stroke is a leading cause of death and long-term disability worldwide, responsible for roughly 1 in 6 deaths from cardiovascular disease. The great majority (about 85%) are ischemic strokes, in which a clot blocks an artery supplying the brain; the remainder are hemorrhagic strokes caused by bleeding from a ruptured vessel. Ischemic stroke is further divided into subtypes such as large-artery atherosclerosis, small-vessel disease, and cardioembolic stroke (often driven by atrial fibrillation). Symptoms come on suddenly and can include facial drooping, arm weakness, and speech difficulty, which is why rapid recognition and emergency care are critical to limiting brain damage.
Genetic Basis: Twin and family studies estimate the heritability of stroke at roughly 30-40%, with somewhat higher estimates for specific ischemic subtypes than for stroke overall. Stroke is highly polygenic, and much of its genetic architecture overlaps with related conditions such as hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and coronary artery disease. Large genome-wide association studies, including the MEGASTROKE consortium, have identified dozens of loci: HDAC9 is associated with large-artery stroke, PITX2 and ZFHX3 act largely through atrial fibrillation and cardioembolic stroke, and the 9p21 locus (CDKN2A/CDKN2B) is shared with coronary disease. Rare monogenic causes such as CADASIL (NOTCH3) exist but account for only a small fraction of cases; most population risk is spread across many common variants of individually small effect.
Modifiable and Associated Factors: A large share of stroke risk is attributable to modifiable factors, which is why lifestyle and medical management matter regardless of genetic predisposition. High blood pressure is the single most important treatable contributor, and atrial fibrillation, diabetes, high cholesterol, and cigarette smoking substantially add to risk. Physical inactivity, obesity, excessive alcohol intake, and diets high in salt also raise the odds of stroke. Because these factors are largely controllable, a higher polygenic score is best viewed as a reason to pay attention to blood pressure, heart rhythm, and heart-healthy habits rather than as a fixed outcome.
The published research behind your score, and the variants it draws on.
23 published scores from 9 studies
The stroke score combines 23 polygenic scores drawn from 9 published studies.
These traits are influenced by some of the same genes and variants as this one
Content updated August 2026.
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