American Heart Association Launches Brain Center
The new American Heart Association Center for the Brain aims to advance research on the links between heart and brain health.
Updated on Nov. 9, 2026 in Stroke
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The American Heart Association has established the American Heart Association Center for the Brain to advance science and deepen understanding of heart and brain health. The center will bring together researchers, healthcare professionals, policymakers, advocates and communities.
Why it matters
Many factors that affect the heart, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and smoking, also affect the brain. The center responds to growing scientific evidence linking the two organs.
The American Heart Association has awarded nearly $800 million for brain and stroke research, and since its 1924 founding, cardiovascular death rates have fallen by half and stroke deaths by one-third. The stub does not indicate what specific outcomes the new center will be measured against.
The players
American Heart Association
A major nonprofit health organization founded in 1924 that funds cardiovascular and brain research and publishes clinical guidelines for heart and stroke care.
The details
The Center for the Brain will draw on the association's experience in science, guidelines and systems of care to turn heart-brain research into practical action. The organization, supported by more than 35 million volunteers globally, has been a leading source of health information for more than a century.
Timeline
1924: American Heart Association founded.
1998: American Stroke Association began generating brain and stroke research.
November 8, 2026: American Heart Association Center for the Brain announced.
Roadmap
The center extends the American Stroke Association's brain and stroke research program, which began generating findings in 1998, into a formal center linking heart and brain health. It builds on decades of work that has already cut cardiovascular death rates in half since 1924 across the United States.
Because high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and smoking affect both heart and brain, managing these factors remains a practical way to lower risk of both conditions. The center's work may shape future guidance on how these shared risks are addressed.
The takeaway
Many of the same habits that protect the heart, including controlling blood pressure and cholesterol, avoiding smoking and managing diabetes and weight, also protect the brain. Keeping those numbers in check is a simple, shared step toward both.
Further reading
Explore more on the link between heart health and brain health in our Stroke coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by American Heart Association.
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