Aldosterone As the Most Physiologically Important Hormone

Cortisol, aldosterone and androgens are all hormones used in the human body to perform one or more important roles that ensures healthy and effective operations of the human body. Cortisol is a glucocorticoid which is engaged in stimulating production of glucose in the body. Aldosterone is a mineralocorticoid which assists in controlling the level of water and salt in the body. Androgen on the other hand is a male sex hormone which plays a great role in growth and development of male sex organs and public hair growth in female during puberty (Friedman 1).  Each of the three hormones play important and unique physiological role in the body, however, in my opinion, aldosterone is the most physiologically important in the body.

The reason of choosing aldosterone as the most significant physiological hormone is due to its important role in the regulation of blood pressure. Low content of aldosterone results to excessive loss of salt in the kidney, which result to excessive diffusion of water from the body to the urine due to high salt concentration. This situation is likely to result high pulse, low blood pressure and severe dehydration which can result to dizziness. However, high content of aldosterone in the body system can result to high blood pressure and low potassium a situation that can result to development of stroke (CSRF 1).  Cortisol is involved in body metabolism process helping in conversion of fats into glucose. It thus plays a great role in weight control. Cortisol is also regarded as stress hormone which is engaged in other important body activities that include fighting infection, promoting the heart functions, and ensuring bones, and skins quality. Cortisol deficiency can also result to serious health issues; however, the cited issues cannot be as life threatening as those caused by lack of enough aldosterone. They are highly manageable, meaning one can survive much longer with cortisol initiated health issues compared to than aldosterone health issues. Androgen on the other hard seems only to influence male maturity or transition from child to adulthood and hence it does not have major health related issues, and thus its deficiencies may not result to any life threatening issues, and may be less significant to women too (CSRF 1). This leaves aldosterone as the only hormone among the three that seems to hold the highest level of physiological importance in the body.

Aldosterone is said to play a major role in regulating the blood pressure in human body. It is therefore said to play a great role in determining cardiovascular health. Excess aldosterone can result to high blood pressure and decline in potassium ions in the body. This can result to direct health effect such as stroke or even serious cardiovascular damages. According to Rocha and Williams (725), these aldosterone cardiovascular initiated damages can be prevented by use of a discriminative mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist. These receptors help in the regulation of potassium and sodium content in the blood, providing an improved environment to control the blood pressure in the body.  Aldosterone antagonistic can also assist in improving other postischemic cardiac fibrosis, oxidative stress and hypertrophy (Cannavo et al. 5). This demonstrates that aldosterone antagonistic can be clinically used to offer therapy to patients experiencing health conditions related to excess aldosterone in the blood, since they block the aldosterone, promoting increase of potassium ions in the blood.  Potassium plays the main role in regulating the blood pressure.

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