Adrenocortical hyperfunction, Cushing's syndrome, and primary aldosteronism are endocrine causes of secondary hypertension.

“So, then there are endocrine causes of secondary hypertension, adrenocortical hyperfunction, Cushing's syndrome, primary aldosteronism, that is a tumor producing aldosterone, which is also part of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, exogenous hormones, glucocorticoids or estrogens, birth control can definitely do this.”

“The majority, I would say 97-98% of what we see in medicine is primary hypertension, but I wanted to point out that secondary hypertension does occur, and there are causes for secondary hypertension that can be corrected if you remove the tumor or you correct the endocrine abnormalities.”

“In medicine, we also wrestle with something called secondary hypertension. Secondary hypertension is different. I'm not really talking about secondary hypertension in this podcast, but many people do suffer with secondary hypertension. The numbers are much, much lower than primary hypertension, and the causes of secondary hypertension are things like kidney inflammation at the level of the glomerulus, the filtering apparatus called acute glomerulonephritis, chronic renal disease, which is chronic kidney disease, polycystic kidney disease, renal artery stenosis, if the arteries that supply the kidneys or leave from the kidneys become stenotic, that is narrowed, that can cause hypertension. Inflammation in the arteries supplying the kidneys, renal vasculitis, can produce hypertension. Renin-producing tumors, which are going to activate the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis, something that I'll talk about later in this podcast, or aldosterone-producing tumors can also do this. So, then there are endocrine causes of secondary hypertension, adrenocortical hyperfunction, Cushing's syndrome, primary aldosteronism, that is a tumor producing aldosterone, which is also part of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, exogenous hormones, glucocorticoids or estrogens, birth control can definitely do this. Pheochromocytoma, which is the tumor that everyone loves to think about in medical school, it's the the prime zebra, but it's very rare. Acromegaly, which is related to excess production of growth hormone, hypo- or hyperthyroidism, these have to”