Scientists know genes are responsible for roughly half your chance of having a heart attack, but they didn't know which genes were important.

Now, in a huge world-first study, Australian scientists say they have discovered the DNA patterns that can raise our risk.

People with high-risk DNA are more than four times more likely to have a heart attack than people with low-risk DNA, their study reveals.

Meanwhile, some women with the right DNA are at extremely low risk of having a heart attack even if they have high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

And healthy people with a high-risk score have the same chance of having a heart attack as people with high blood pressure and high cholesterol but a low genetic risk score.