Guest guest Posted September 20, 2011 Report Share Posted September 20, 2011 Read the DASH book. It should have almost everything you need. there is also a DASH web site but costs $4 per month which is excellent. Can't recall exact url now.CE Grim MD My PA came out during the delivery of my last baby. I had low K during the pregnancy but BP was o.k. until they salt loaded me during delivery. That was 4 yrs ago and it took the docs about 6 months to diagnose PA. I'm 26 weeks pregnant now with my sixth child and have much smarter doctors. My K is lower now than it has ever been, so I'm on 20 meq 2x a day and on a very low sodium diet. As long as I eat potatoes, rice, oatmeal and fruits and veggies, the BP is normal. Once slice of pizza or chunck of cheese and BP goes dangerously high for three days. I'd like advice on low sodium or no sodium sources of protien. > > > I have searched the board and found a few people who had this show up during pregnancy... Is it common for pregnancy to cause PA? Have been told by several doctors "Your blood pressure problems will go away in 6 weeks" That was well over a year ago, and it keeps getting worse! Just curious to hear stories of women who's symptoms started while pregnant. > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 20, 2011 Report Share Posted September 20, 2011 My record time in Dx is about 10 min based on a good history ie listening to the patient.CE Grim MD How long did it take you to get a diagnosis? > > > > > > > > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > > > > > > > My problems did not start during pregnancy but they started about 2 weeks after my son was born. 10 years on and still trying to get sorted! > > > > > > > > > > > > ________________________________ > > > > > > > > > > > > From: hyperaldosteronism on behalf of Stump > > > > > > Sent: Tue 20/09/2011 13:13 > > > > > > To: hyperaldosteronism > > > > > > Subject: PA and pregnancy > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I have searched the board and found a few people who had this show up during pregnancy... Is it common for pregnancy to cause PA? Have been told by several doctors "Your blood pressure problems will go away in 6 weeks" That was well over a year ago, and it keeps getting worse! Just curious to hear stories of women who's symptoms started while pregnant. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 20, 2011 Report Share Posted September 20, 2011 Well it is the aldo that causes kidney cells to let sodium leak in to the tubule cells and then it is pumped back into the blood by a pump at the blood side of the tubule cell. K flows back into the urine to maintain electrical neutrality. So you only had that part backward. I'm not the expert on here but no, high sodium doesn't influence aldosterone levels as far as I understand it. This is how I understand PA in layman's terms (and I'm sure the experts will chime in with corrections ;-) ). The link is that if your adrenal gland(s) is playing up - for whatever reason - you could be overproducing aldosterone and underproducing renin (in the case of Conns at least). These two hormones are normally the ones that send a message to your kidneys about which salts the body needs to retain and what to expel via urine. If the balance is wrong, your kidneys get the wrong message so you end up expelling potassium (K) and retaining sodium (Na). The secondary effects of this are that the excess sodium causes fluid retention in the body which in turn is what causes the high blood pressure. So the options are: 1) To make sure your dietary intake of sodium is very low so even if your kidneys try and retain it, there's not enough there to muck up your blood pressure (and the blood pressure part is what causes the most long term damage to your body). 2) To ensure you have lots of potassium in your diet so even if a lot is expelled, you retain enough for good health (prevent muscle wastage etc.) 3) Use the appropriate drugs which block the receptors in the kidneys which normally respond to renin and aldosterone. So even if they're still produced wrongly, your kidneys don't 'realise' and keep a happy Na/K balance. Normal bp drugs will not do this which is why PA is pretty resistant to the 'normal' primary hypertension treatments. 4) If the cause of the hormone imbalance can be narrowed down to one adrenal gland via MRI/CT and then AVS, have that adrenal gland removed and hope that the other adrenal gland kicks in by producing the correct levels of hormones. So for general feeling better health, you should eat as little sodium as possible (easier said than done) and lots of potassium containing foods. But for the sake of some of the tests, they might want you to 'sodium load' for a while to see how your body reacts. Personally I didn't have to do that as part of my diagnosis at all and if you haven't yet had your aldosterone/renin ration measured, I think that sounds like it should be the first step and I don't think eating a lot of salt prior to it will make any difference and if it is PA will just make you feel worse. I was warned of some things not to eat before the test - liquorice being one - and I think the aldosterone levels can be influenced by whether you've been resting before hand and what position you are in when the blood is taken but my results were so clear cut, it was immaterial. Hope you get some answers from your Oct 3rd test. H > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > > > > > > > > > My problems did not start during pregnancy but they started > > > about 2 weeks after my son was born. 10 years on and still trying to > > > get sorted! > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ________________________________ > > > > > > > > > > > > > > From: hyperaldosteronism on behalf of > > > Stump > > > > > > > Sent: Tue 20/09/2011 13:13 > > > > > > > To: hyperaldosteronism > > > > > > > Subject: PA and pregnancy > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I have searched the board and found a few people who had > > > this show up during pregnancy... Is it common for pregnancy to cause > > > PA? Have been told by several doctors "Your blood pressure problems > > > will go away in 6 weeks" That was well over a year ago, and it keeps > > > getting worse! Just curious to hear stories of women who's symptoms > > > started while pregnant. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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