The fundamental fault in hypertension is unknown. Calling it a
fundamental fault, indeed, tacitly begs the question: Is there one
fundamental fault, or are there several that are interlinked or
interdependent? A simple yes or no answer cannot be offered. This volume
is not designed to survey the up-to-date recent advances in research on
hypertension, nor intended to provide provisional an- swers to the so
many unknowns in this topic. It is, in fact, an attempt to articulate
questions that are worth asking, given the license of an unhibited,
albeit disci- plined, inquiry. The range of expression varies from
dogmatic opinion to a declared speculation. Is the primary abnormality
an excessive sodium and reduced potassium intake over generations? Or is
it hormonal excess, deficiency, imbalance or altered synthesis of
abnormal forms? Does the nervous system playa role of active initiation
or only of passive maintenance in the genesis of hypertension? Is the
heart only a pump acting in concert with the happenings to the
vasculature trying to provide adequate flow in the face of
vasconstriction induced by neural or humoral factors, or does it
sometimes become the culprit by pumping blood flow in excess of demand
and thus initiating hypertrophic changes in blood vessels, or by
assuming the role of an endocrine organ and being the source of a
hormone with influence on cellular transport of sodium and on vasomotor
tone? Is an elusive and mysterious fault in the kidney, the primary
basis of all of the above