Where your DNA places you among other people, and the studies behind it.
Not tailored to your result, and not medical advice
Cut Back On Sodium: In the DASH-Sodium trial, 412 adults ate either a control diet or the DASH pattern (rich in vegetables, fruit and low-fat dairy, low in saturated and total fat) at three sodium levels for 30 days each. Lowering sodium reduced systolic pressure on both diets, and the effect grew at the lower end: on the control diet, moving from the intermediate to the lowest sodium level lowered systolic pressure by 4.6 mm Hg. The DASH diet at the lowest sodium level ran 7.1 mm Hg below the control diet at high sodium in participants without hypertension, and 11.5 mm Hg below it in those with hypertension. Sodium reduction and diet pattern added to each other rather than overlapping. New England Journal of Medicine (PubMed)
Eat More Potassium-Rich Foods: Potassium offsets part of sodium's effect on vascular tone and pressure. A BMJ systematic review of 22 randomised trials found that increasing potassium intake lowered systolic pressure by about 3.49 mm Hg in adults, an effect the authors saw in people with high blood pressure but not in those without it, while pooled cohort data linked higher potassium intake to roughly 24% lower stroke risk. The review found no adverse effect on kidney function, blood lipids or catecholamine concentrations in people without impaired kidney handling of potassium; potassium is handled differently when kidney function is reduced, which is a fair thing to raise with a clinician. Food sources include beans and lentils, potatoes, leafy greens, tomatoes, bananas and plain yoghurt. BMJ (PubMed)
Add Isometric Holds To Training: A large pairwise and network meta-analysis of randomised trials in the British Journal of Sports Medicine compared exercise modes head to head for resting blood pressure. Isometric training, meaning sustained holds such as wall squats and handgrip, produced the largest mean reduction in systolic pressure at 8.24 mm Hg, ahead of combined training at 6.04, dynamic resistance at 4.55, aerobic training at 4.49 and high-intensity intervals at 4.08. Isometric training also ranked first on the network's SUCRA measure at 98.3%. Every mode lowered systolic pressure, so the practical reading is that regular training of any kind helps, and short isometric holds are a reasonable addition to the 150 minutes of moderate weekly activity in national guidance. British Journal of Sports Medicine (PubMed)
Lose Excess Body Weight: A meta-analysis of 25 randomised trials covering 4,874 participants, published in Hypertension, found that a net weight reduction of 5.1 kg was accompanied by a 4.44 mm Hg fall in systolic pressure and a 3.57 mm Hg fall in diastolic pressure. That is a comparable effect size to sodium reduction, and it comes from trials in people who were carrying excess weight to begin with. Weight loss is not a separate lever from the diet and activity items above; the same changes tend to move both. Hypertension (PubMed)
Know The Limits Of Lifestyle: Systolic pressure climbs with age largely because the aorta and other large arteries stiffen and lose their cushioning function. A JACC state-of-the-art review describes this large-artery stiffening as the cause of isolated systolic hypertension, in which systolic pressure is high while diastolic pressure is normal or low, and reports that stiffness rises across the lifespan from a carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity of about 7.1 m/s under age 30 to about 14.6 m/s over age 70, accelerating markedly after about age 50. Each lifestyle change above shifts average systolic pressure by a few mm Hg and individual responses vary widely, so behavior slows that trajectory rather than reversing it. Blood pressure produces no symptoms at the levels that matter, so measurement is the only way to know where yours sits, and it is a routine part of most clinical visits. Journal of the American College of Cardiology (PMC)
How much of this is genetic?
Genetics explains 50% of why people differ in this trait. The rest is environment, daily habits and chance.
Heritability estimate: Twin studies estimate the heritability of systolic blood pressure at roughly 40-60%, with meta-analyzed pooled estimates near 54% (Wang et al., meta-regression of twin studies); a representative mid-range value is used here.
Background and further reading
Systolic blood pressure is the higher of the two numbers in a blood pressure reading (for example, the 120 in 120/80 mmHg). It represents the peak arterial pressure generated each time the heart contracts and pumps blood into the circulation. Systolic pressure tends to rise gradually with age as arteries stiffen, and it is one of the strongest predictors of long-term cardiovascular health at the population level. This polygenic score summarizes the combined effect of many common genetic variants that nudge systolic pressure slightly up or down. It is educational and reflects inherited tendency only, not an actual blood pressure reading, which depends heavily on lifestyle, age, and the moment of measurement.
Genetic Basis: Blood pressure is a highly polygenic trait. Twin studies place the heritability of systolic blood pressure at roughly 40 to 60 percent, with pooled estimates around 50 percent, meaning that a meaningful share of person-to-person variation reflects inherited differences, while the remainder reflects environment and behavior. A landmark genome-wide analysis of over one million people identified more than 500 new genomic regions associated with blood pressure, no single one of which has a large effect on its own. Implicated genes cluster in biologically sensible pathways, including natriuretic peptide signaling (NPPA and NPPB), the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (AGT), kidney sodium handling (UMOD and SLC39A8), and calcium handling and vascular tone (ATP2B1, GUCY1A3, and FGF5). The polygenic score aggregates these many small contributions into a single tendency estimate.
Modifiable Factors: Genetics sets a tendency, but systolic blood pressure is strongly shaped by lifestyle. Factors associated with lower systolic pressure include a diet lower in sodium and richer in potassium (such as the DASH eating pattern), regular aerobic physical activity, maintaining a healthy body weight, moderating alcohol intake, and managing chronic stress and sleep. Because these influences are large relative to the genetic tendency for most people, a higher polygenic score does not mean elevated pressure is inevitable, and a lower score does not guarantee low readings. Actual blood pressure is best understood through direct measurement over time.
The published research behind your score, and the variants it draws on.
62 published scores from 19 studies
The systolic blood pressure score combines 62 polygenic scores drawn from 19 published studies.
Kauko A (2021). Sex Differences in Genetic Risk for Hypertension. Hypertension: 1.1M
These traits are influenced by some of the same genes and variants as this one
Stroke: Interruption of blood flow to part of the brain by a clot or a bleed, injuring brain cells.
Content updated August 2026.
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