Your health care provider may choose to evaluate your blood sugar level. This simple blood test screens for some of the secondary causes of hypertension as well as evaluates risk factors for more accelerated disease. Diabetes and hypertension together are associated with more rapid progression of arteriosclerosis and damage to the kidneys. The medical term for this kidney damage is diabetic nephropathy. So, in a person who is newly diagnosed with hypertension, it is a good idea to find out if they are also diabetic. This can also influence the type of medication the health care provider chooses to control your high blood pressure.

High blood sugar levels are also associated with some rare, but real, causes of hypertension. These causes include unusual conditions such as primary aldosteronism, Cushing’s syndrome and pheochromocytoma, which is a tumor of the adrenal gland. All of these disorders are associated in some way with the adrenal glands, which are small glandular organs located near the kidneys. If the health care provider suspects that one of these may be the cause of high blood pressure, he/she will order additional, more complex and more specific tests.