Hypertension is an important risk factor of atherosclerosis, glomerulosclerosis and progression of nephropathies and its risk is enhanced by concurrent insulin resistance (IR) which is encountered in essential as well as nephrogenic hypertension almost in half the patients and is an independent risk factor by increasing VLDL and lowering HDL cholesterol. The finding on the impact of a raised concentration of free intracellular Ca and reduced concentration of free intracellular Mg even without changes of the plasma Mg concentration in essential hypertension suggests changes in the compartmentalization of these minerals. In nephrogenic hypertension there are no changes in the intracellular free Mg concentration. These differences, however, do not reduce the importance of these minerals in the pathogenesis of hypertension and IR. They are the baseline for further research.