A Michigan Medicine study found that high systolic blood pressure (the top number on the blood pressure reading and how hard the heart pumps blood to the arteries) increases the risk of the two most common types of strokes over time.

The study looked at the average systolic blood pressure years before the first stroke in over 40,000 adults aged 18 and older who had no history of stroke.

Researchers covered three types of stroke: ischemic, a clot that cuts blood supply to the brain and the cause of over 85 per cent of all strokes; intracerebral hemorrhage, a bleed within the brain; and subarachnoid hemorrhage, bleeding between the brain and the tissues that cover it.