Vasopressin

Vasopressin, also known as antidiuretic hormone (ADH), is a stress-induced producer of water retention 4. It is involved in the regulation of salt and water balance in the body, and its effects are often misunderstood in medical tradition 1. In situations such as premenstrual syndrome, preeclampsia, or congestive heart failure, disturbances of salt and water regulation occur, but the mechanical medical tradition has often substituted beliefs for facts, leading to inadequate salt retention 1.

The decrease of blood volume is accompanied by an increase in extracellular fluid, edema, resulting from leakage of fluid through the walls of the capillaries, and albumin appears in the urine as it leaks through the capillaries in the kidneys 2. In both situations, preeclampsia and essential hypertension, there is an increased amount of aldosterone, an adrenal steroid which contributes to water retention and sodium loss 2. Estrogen also produces the same effect, increasing the influence of estrogen will also increase malfunctions involving serotonin 3.

Progesterone, on the other hand, would inhibit both ADH and aldosterone, regulating sodium and blood pressure and improving kidney function 5. Estrogen, however, lowers ANP, increases ADH/vasopressin, causes water retention and sodium loss, vascular leakiness, and weakens the heart's contraction 5. This is because estrogen increases the vascular permeability factor (VPF), now called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which contributes to degenerative problems including diabetes, glaucoma, arthritis, atherosclerosis, and cancer 5.

The reasoning behind the use of diuretics and low salt intake in treating hypertension and edema is flawed, as it ignores the significance of sodium's effects on albumin, aldosterone, and VEGF 2. Experiments in which an excess of aldosterone is combined with a high salt intake produce increased blood pressure, and salt is said to cause hypertension in certain people by invoking various genes 2. This is hardly different from the reasoning of the drug companies in the 1950s who said that women with toxemia should be treated with a diuretic and a low salt intake 2.