My blood pressure

More than a year ago I went to the GP because I had a lot of headaches and some other complaints. Turns out I had a tremendously high blood pressure, up to 210 upper pressure! We started taking medication, but the blood pressure didn't go down enough. That's why the general practitioner wants to have it sorted out. So I got a strip card for the Internist. Blood tests, 24-hour urine readings, ultrasound of my kidneys.

Blood tests and urine measurements showed that my sodium level was too high and that the hormone Aldosterone is too high. That could explain the persistent high blood pressure. But further research is needed. The hormone can only be measured properly when the blood pressure drugs are phased out. So that's the plan now, to take down the drugs, to keep the blood pressure yourself, and in a week or 5, a salt load test. With it, they're going to insert a saline solution through an infusion to see how the hormone Alsosterone will react to it.

If it is the case that I do make too much Aldosterone, I still need to investigate where exactly the problem lies in my body.. The hormone is produced in the adrenal glands, in the adrenal cortex. That is where the problem could lie, but there are more organs that affect this, so that could also be the problem. That's for later care.

Below I try to explain with a drawing how the production of Aldosterone is regulated in a healthy body.