Fig. 1.

Proposed relationship between aldosterone and extracellular volume in obese and non-obese individuals. These aldosterone-volume curves are based on the aldosterone-sodium curves reported by Brunner et al. [70]. The expansion of extracellular volume, which typically occurs via a salt load, should lead to suppression of aldosterone levels as represented by the dashed line. Obese individuals (solid line), however, possess a natriuretic handicap and therefore are hypothesized to be subject to both higher states of extracellular volume and, for such states, relatively higher aldosterone levels compared to the non-obese.