Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath on Sunday took to LinkedIn and shared update on his recovery journey. Almost 14 months ago, Kamath suffered a stroke and he is still recovering.

“My body is almost back to normal, and my mind is at about 85%. My writing hasn’t improved at all. Maybe because I don’t practice enough. My speech is, well… about 85%,” he shared in a recent post Linkedin.

Kamath first disclosed the stroke in February 2024, six weeks after it happened. “Around 6 weeks ago, I had a mild stroke out of the blue. Dad passing away, poor sleep, exhaustion, dehydration, and overworking out — any of these could be possible reasons,” he wrote at the time.

The symptoms were evident—facial drooping, an inability to read or write, and moments of mental fog. Over time, those eased.

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“I’ve gone from having a big droop in the face and not being able to read or write to having a slight droop but being able to read and write more. From being absent-minded to more present-minded,” he said, adding that full recovery could take another few months.

What were possible causes of Kamath’s stroke?

Media reports claim that stroke was caused by a combination of risk factors: emotional stress from the death of his father, disrupted sleep patterns, excessive workouts, dehydration, and sheer physical exhaustion. He suffered from ischemic stroke which is a blockage of blood flow to the brain.

Even Kamath admitted he was caught off guard. “I wondered why a person who’s fit and takes care of himself could be affected. The doctor said you need to know when you need to shift the gears down a bit. Slightly broken, but still getting my treadmill count.”

Following the attack, he was unable to read or write and caused weakness in his facial muscles. “Slowly getting back to normal,” he tweeted earlier, noting that full recovery could take 3-6 months.

“The thing about stroke is it immobilises you for a while. For 1-2 months, I was questioning a lot about life. I thought I was going to be like this forever, and started making peace with it. But then things got better, and I was on the treadmill two weeks into it,” Kamath told YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma at TechSparks Bengaluru 2024. “It was just a stroke, it had to happen… and it happened,” he said.

‘Surviving cancer, brain stroke’

Earlier this month, Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha and True Beacon, congratulated his brother, Nithin Kamath, for winning the EY Entrepreneur of the Year (EOY) 2024 award.

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Taking to X, Nikhil Kamath expressed his pride and admiration for his brother’s achievement. He wrote, “To both you and seems, one year after losing our father, surviving cancer and a brain stroke, for never complaining and always smiling you deserve another kind of award alltogether. In a world filled with glass half empty folk we need more glass half full.”

Seema Patil, wife of Nithin Kamath, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021. After undergoing an intensive 10-month treatment, she was declared cancer-free.