A parathyroid adenoma is a growth in a parathyroid gland. The glands help regulate your body’s calcium level. Each gland s...

A parathyroid adenoma is a growth in a parathyroid gland. The glands help regulate your body’s calcium level. Each gland secretes parathyroid hormone, or PTH, based on the calcium level. The role of PTH is to help raise the blood level of calcium through several different mechanisms. As the calcium level in the blood goes down, the amount of PTH produced should go down, and, if the calcium leve...

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If you are reading this blog, it is likely that you or someone you love has been told they need hyperparathyroidism surger...

If you are reading this blog, it is likely that you or someone you love has been told they need hyperparathyroidism surgery. At the time most people are given this news by their doctor, they have no idea what hyperparathyroidism is, or even know what parathyroid glands are. If you’re just starting your journey to learn more about such a broad topic like hyperparathyroidism surgery, it can be da...

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Parathyroidectomy is the procedure to treat hyperparathyroidism, a condition in which there is an over production of parat...

Parathyroidectomy is the procedure to treat hyperparathyroidism, a condition in which there is an over production of parathyroid hormone by one or more of the parathyroid glands. These glands help keep the calcium level in our blood at the appropriate point. The only treatment for primary hyperparathyroidism is surgery to remove the abnormal glands. Many people worry about their scar after sur...

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Parathyroid glands are tiny organs that reside deep in the neck that function as the master “thermostats” for calcium in t...

Parathyroid glands are tiny organs that reside deep in the neck that function as the master “thermostats” for calcium in the body. When blood calcium levels dip too low, the glands activate and release parathyroid hormone (PTH). This PTH circulates throughout the body, signaling the bones, kidneys, and the gut to work together to drive the blood calcium level up. In hyperparathyroidism, one or...

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Health care providers often attribute the very common signs of hyperparathyroidism to natural aging and other health issue...

Health care providers often attribute the very common signs of hyperparathyroidism to natural aging and other health issues, such as obesity and poor diet. Consequently, the diagnosis of hyperparathyroidism is often delayed several years. This delay in recognizing the signs of hyperparathyroidism causes the continued destruction of body tissues such as kidneys, blood vessels, and bones. Thus, h...

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Primary hyperparathyroidism is a disease where one or more of our four parathyroid glands becomes hyperactive. This result...

Primary hyperparathyroidism is a disease where one or more of our four parathyroid glands becomes hyperactive. This results in high calcium levels, which over time leads to a number of significant health problems in addition to causing a constellation of symptoms that can significantly affect quality of life. In most cases, making a diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism is relatively simple...

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What is Hyperparathyroidism and Why Should I Cure it? Hyperparathyroidism is a 100% curable disease that is caused by ove...

What is Hyperparathyroidism and Why Should I Cure it? Hyperparathyroidism is a 100% curable disease that is caused by over function of one or more of the parathyroid glands. Parathyroid glands are four small glands in the neck that help regulate calcium levels in the blood. The glands monitor our calcium level and produce parathyroid hormone (PTH) to help keep it at a normal level. If it gets ...

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When evaluating patients with thyroid and parathyroid gland problems over the years, I have heard the same comments from t...

When evaluating patients with thyroid and parathyroid gland problems over the years, I have heard the same comments from them over and over again.  At the top of the list is “I did not even know I had parathyroid glands”, followed by “what is the difference between my thyroid and parathyroid glands, do they do the same things?”.  This is understandable since everybody has heard of a thyroid gl...

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Subtotal Parathyroidectomy in 5 questions; plus a bonus question you (probably) didn’t think of. A subtotal parathyroidec...

Subtotal Parathyroidectomy in 5 questions; plus a bonus question you (probably) didn’t think of. A subtotal parathyroidectomy is a phrase that describes one of the types of surgeries than can be performed to treat hyperparathyroidism. Hyperparathyroidism is a disease where the parathyroid glands are making too much of a specific hormone, called PTH. The gold standard for treating most cases of...

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Screening for High Calcium, Parathyroid Tumors, and Other Endocrine Tumors Begins at HCA Hospital Emergency Rooms In Asso...

Screening for High Calcium, Parathyroid Tumors, and Other Endocrine Tumors Begins at HCA Hospital Emergency Rooms In Association with the Norman Parathyroid Center and the Hospital for Endocrine Surgery Endocrine tumors (tumors arising in the adrenal gland, parathyroid glands, and thyroid gland) occur with enough frequency that they can be found in many patients who go to an emergency room fo...

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New method may improve nerve healing after thyroid surgery. "The Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Shield is the most important d...

New method may improve nerve healing after thyroid surgery. "The Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Shield is the most important development in thyroid surgery in 50 years" Dr Gary Clayman. Injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve (vocal cord nerve injury) is the biggest worry people have when they are told they need to have a thyroid or parathyroid operation. There has never been shown anything the su...

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High cholesterol doubles your rate of heart disease and stroke, but did you know that high blood calcium is far more dange...

High cholesterol doubles your rate of heart disease and stroke, but did you know that high blood calcium is far more dangerous than high cholesterol? Hyperparathyroidism caries many significant health risks. High Blood Calcium Risks High blood calcium levels are almost never normal and increases the chances of developing a number of other health problems and even early death if ignored. For...

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Parathyroid disease and hyperparathyroidism are associated with weight gain.  The worries about gaining weight after para...

Parathyroid disease and hyperparathyroidism are associated with weight gain.  The worries about gaining weight after parathyroid surgery are understandable but unfounded. It is a myth that parathyroid surgery and removing a parathyroid tumor causes you to gain weight. Weight gain is a common concern for patients with many hormone problems, including hyperparathyroidism. This blog was prompted...

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Today's hyperparathyroidism case is quite sad and completely avoidable. Today we operated on a 15 year old high school fre...

Today's hyperparathyroidism case is quite sad and completely avoidable. Today we operated on a 15 year old high school freshman from Baton Rouge, Louisiana who had quite severe hyperparathyroidism. He was eventually brought to our center by his parents when his orthopedic surgeon made the diagnosis. Sadly, their family doctor and pediatrician remain unaware and were "keeping an eye on the high ...

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"My OB doctor is freaked out!". Today we operated on a 30 year old female with a parathyroid tumor and high blood calcium...

"My OB doctor is freaked out!". Today we operated on a 30 year old female with a parathyroid tumor and high blood calcium of 11.7 mg/dl. She is 20 weeks pregnant and the high calcium is a real and direct threat to the baby. She was sent to us by her OB in Los Angeles, California. Today's operation took 18 minutes. We evaluated all four parathyroid glands showing three normal parathyroid glands...

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Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy of parathyroid adenomas is a procedure we would love to see disappear! One of the para...

Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy of parathyroid adenomas is a procedure we would love to see disappear! One of the parathyroid operations that I performed this week that really stood out from the others was in a wonderful, somewhat chatty lady from New Jersey. Her PCP noted that she had high calcium and correctly proposed that the high calcium was why "Little Miss Chatty" was feeling so tire...

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The Risks and Benefits of Daily Calcium Supplementation. Is taking calcium every day dangerous?  For most people, taking c...

The Risks and Benefits of Daily Calcium Supplementation. Is taking calcium every day dangerous?  For most people, taking calcium pills every day for bone health is safe. But there are certain circumstances that may make daily calcium supplements inappropriate or even increase your risk for cardiovascular disease. Over the last few years, you may have seen reports warning of the risks associated...

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Primary hyperparathyroidism in children is rare, but when it occurs it can destroy a child’s life with kidney stones, depr...

Primary hyperparathyroidism in children is rare, but when it occurs it can destroy a child’s life with kidney stones, depression, fractures, and a failure to thrive and be happy.  “Primary Hyperparathyroidism:  The Silent Destruction of My Teenager” is a mother’s story of how a dozen doctors ignored the obvious parathyroid problem that ruined the life of her teenage daughter for nearly 6 years....

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Parathyroid venous sampling is an expensive and dangerous test that probably should never be done because it doesn't wor...

Parathyroid venous sampling is an expensive and dangerous test that probably should never be done because it doesn't work. It is also called: "Selective Parathyroid Venous Sampling" and you should not let it be done on you! Selective parathyroid venous catheterization is an invasive x-ray test performed by an invasive-radiologist. The goal of the test is to help find which part of your n...

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The last four years of my life have been miserable because of mistakes I made when choosing my parathyroid surgeon. I have...

The last four years of my life have been miserable because of mistakes I made when choosing my parathyroid surgeon. I have written this blog and asked the Blog Editor David Moon to post it for me, changing my name to "Susan".  I successfully sued my first surgeon-not just for his treatment of me in the operating room, but for his marketing ploys that greatly over-state his expertise and the siz...

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Parathyroid surgery can be tricky, and when things don't go well, they can go quite badly. Here are the 5 most basic que...

Parathyroid surgery can be tricky, and when things don't go well, they can go quite badly. Here are the 5 most basic questions you should ask your parathyroid surgeon when choosing who will perform your operation. If you have hyperparathyroidism, the best thing you can do for your health is find a good parathyroid surgeon. Not every surgeon can do a parathyroid operation, and experience ...

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Parathyroid Punk is a amazing music video who's purpose is to teach about hyperparathyroidism caused by a "punk" parat...

Parathyroid Punk is a amazing music video who's purpose is to teach about hyperparathyroidism caused by a "punk" parathyroid gland that makes people miserable by causing high calcium. Here is my story and the genesis of Parathyroid Punk! https://www.parathyroid.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/PunkVideoFront-300x159.jpg PunkVideoFront Link to the video is at the bottom of ...

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Hyperparathyroidism (parathyroid disease) occurs most commonly at age 61, thus Medicare pays for thousands of parathyroid ...

Hyperparathyroidism (parathyroid disease) occurs most commonly at age 61, thus Medicare pays for thousands of parathyroid operations per year. New data shows where Medicare patients go for parathyroid surgery. This graph shows where 100% of all parathyroid operations were performed on Medicare patients in 2012. The data was made public in April, 2014 (link to government Medicare database below...

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Canadians with hyperparathyroidism claim expertise in parathyroid surgery and long wait times as the reasons for traveling...

Canadians with hyperparathyroidism claim expertise in parathyroid surgery and long wait times as the reasons for traveling to Tampa for surgery. https://www.parathyroid.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/CalgaryHeraldNespaperArticle.jpg Parathyroid surgery in Canada Canadians travel to Tampa for parathyroid surgery. On April 6, 2014, the Calgary Herald published a...

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GERD (Gastro-Esophageal-Reflux Disease) occurs in 65% of patients with primary hyperparathyroidism and high calcium. Remov...

GERD (Gastro-Esophageal-Reflux Disease) occurs in 65% of patients with primary hyperparathyroidism and high calcium. Removing the parathyroid tumor cures the GERD in the majority of patients. A 51 year old male school teacher presented with fatigue, tiredness, memory loss, and GERD-typical signs and symptoms of primary hyperparathyroidism. His primary care provider was “monitoring” his blood ...

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Chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety, sleep problems, and even fibromyalgia are misdiagnosed in patients who have high blo...

Chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety, sleep problems, and even fibromyalgia are misdiagnosed in patients who have high blood calcium from hyperparathyroidism.  Mental health issues occur in over 90% of patients with primary hyperparathyroidism and even slightly high blood calcium. A guest Parathyroid Blog by a leading psychiatrist that regularly finds people sent to her office with symptoms du...

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Measuring parathyroid hormone (PTH) in the operating room has some theoretical benefits, but in real life, the intra-opera...

Measuring parathyroid hormone (PTH) in the operating room has some theoretical benefits, but in real life, the intra-operative PTH assay (io-PTH testing) doesn't really help and may hurt. Measuring parathyroid hormone in the operating room cannot determine if a patient is cured of hyperparathyroidism. Intra-operative PTH Assay: The theory of measuring PTH in the operating room (io-PTH). ...

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Parathyroid surgery can be tricky which is why all your doctors will tell you "get the most experienced parathyroid surgeo...

Parathyroid surgery can be tricky which is why all your doctors will tell you "get the most experienced parathyroid surgeon you can" or you can have a failed parathyroid surgery or a bad complication. The fact that we have a business that is exclusively parathyroid surgery is evidence that this is not always a simple operation. If parathyroid surgery were simple, and if every town had an exper...

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What is hyperparathyroidism? How are we getting the word out? Hyperparathyroidism is a disease that is dramatically under-...

What is hyperparathyroidism? How are we getting the word out? Hyperparathyroidism is a disease that is dramatically under-diagnosed. We now have so many technological outlets to help spread the word about hyperparathyroidism that it is getting harder to escape the knowledge that high calcium is bad. I recently gave an interview to a radio station in Austin, Texas (1370 AM Talk Radio). It was...

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Thyroid and parathyroid surgeons have been told that monitoring vocal cord laryngeal nerves during surgery may decrease th...

Thyroid and parathyroid surgeons have been told that monitoring vocal cord laryngeal nerves during surgery may decrease the incidence of vocal cord nerve injury, but the data shows vocal cord nerve monitoring dramatically increases nerve damage. Surgeons don’t like hurting their patients. We will do anything, it seems, to prevent injuring our patients while they lie on an operating table allow...

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Hyperparathyroidism sneaked up on me. I was feeling tired and old. I'm a family practice doctor so my job is to take c...

Hyperparathyroidism sneaked up on me. I was feeling tired and old. I'm a family practice doctor so my job is to take care of other people-to make them feel better. Yet I was miserable myself. My name is  Ashok Goyal MD and this is my story. I found myself not enjoying my job like I used to. I was tired all the time and I just thought I was over worked and getting old. And then it h...

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I'm a nurse; a parathyroid nurse.  I've taken care of thousands of patients with primary hyperparathyroidism over the year...

I'm a nurse; a parathyroid nurse.  I've taken care of thousands of patients with primary hyperparathyroidism over the years and am very familiar with the high blood calcium and all the symptoms of hyperparathyroidism. This can't be happening to me!?  I have a parathyroid tumor!? Let me put parathyroid problems and hyperparathyroidism aside for a minute and give you a little background.  I am n...

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The internet is full of surgeons who claim to be experts at parathyroid surgery. But are they really doing expert work...

The internet is full of surgeons who claim to be experts at parathyroid surgery. But are they really doing expert work, or are they cheating and doing a simple operation that any joe-blow surgeon could do? Parathyroid surgery can be very tricky for a number of reasons.  First, there are four parathyroid glands and a person with hyperparathyroidism can have one, two, three, or rarel...

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As an endocrinologist, nearly 95% of my patients are referred from primary care physicians who know the patient feels ...

As an endocrinologist, nearly 95% of my patients are referred from primary care physicians who know the patient feels bad, but hasn't uncovered the true problem: primary hyperparathyroidism.  A Parathyroid Blog by guest writer: Lee Metchick, MD, an endocrinologist in Lake Mary, Florida. Most of the time the patients sent to my office who have hyperparathyroidism have been dealing w...

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Sexual dysfunction and loss of sexual desire and interest in sex is common in patients with high blood calcium and hyperpa...

Sexual dysfunction and loss of sexual desire and interest in sex is common in patients with high blood calcium and hyperparathyroidism.  Both women and men have a nice benefit to their sex lives from parathyroid surgery and cure of the high blood calcium / hyperparathyroidism. We have known for years that people with primary hyperparathyroidism and high blood calcium become depressed, fatigued...

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Parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels are typically steady and constant in the patient with normal parathyroid glands, but a pa...

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels are typically steady and constant in the patient with normal parathyroid glands, but a parathyroid tumor can make PTH levels jump around in a chaotic, disorderly fashion.  This PTH variability routinely confuses doctors and patients. Problems with parathyroid hormone levels that jump up and down cause a delay in the diagnosis of hyperparathyroidism when they sh...

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Hyperparathyroidism should be easy to diagnose in about 95% of cases. Unfortunately many doctors and endocrinologists ...

Hyperparathyroidism should be easy to diagnose in about 95% of cases. Unfortunately many doctors and endocrinologists don't have much experience diagnosing parathyroid problems and thus it takes too long and too many tests are performed.  How do we diagnose hyperparathyroidism when many doctors don't know how? medium https://www.parathyroid.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/...

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A broken parathyroid tumor can be a devastating complication of parathyroid surgery. Parathyroid tumor cells will grow a...

A broken parathyroid tumor can be a devastating complication of parathyroid surgery. Parathyroid tumor cells will grow almost anywhere, so they must not be broken during surgery! Parathyroid tumor implants are very hard to cure. Today's story illustrates one of the most important rules of parathyroid surgery - "do not break the parathyroid adenoma; it must be removed from the patient...

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Parathyroid tumors located in the chest can almost always be removed via a small neck incision. Don't split your sternum o...

Parathyroid tumors located in the chest can almost always be removed via a small neck incision. Don't split your sternum open to remove a parathyroid adenoma in your chest! https://www.parathyroid.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/PTH-Location.gif Parathyroid glands can be located from chin to bottom of heart. Parathyroid glands are located in the chest in about 2% of all people. This...

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Parathyroid disease has only one cure: Surgery. Parathyroid drugs don't exist. There are just medicines directed at the sy...

Parathyroid disease has only one cure: Surgery. Parathyroid drugs don't exist. There are just medicines directed at the symptoms. Take a drug for your hyperparathyroidism and be disappointed! June is 74 years old, and she recently discovered that she has a parathyroid tumor (hyperparathyroidism). The cure is surgery, but that has not been recommended to her. She is being prescribed parathyroid...

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Blood calcium levels vary as we age, but labs don't give normal calcium ranges according to age. The highest blood calcium...

Blood calcium levels vary as we age, but labs don't give normal calcium ranges according to age. The highest blood calcium levels are seen between the ages of 15 and 25.  Adults over 40 should not have calcium levels above 10.1 mg/dl. High blood calcium is never normal. Unfortunately, very few doctors understand that the normal range for blood calcium changes as we age. This graph shows how bl...

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Ectopic parathyroid glands occur in 5% of people, occasionally located high in the neck under the jaw (called an un-des...

Ectopic parathyroid glands occur in 5% of people, occasionally located high in the neck under the jaw (called an un-descended parathyroid gland). Inexperienced surgeons almost always overlook parathyroid adenomas when they are in uncommon or rare positions (ectopic parathyroids). https://www.parathyroid.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/PTH-Location.gif Ectopic parathyroid gl...

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Race car drivers die because of lethal injuries caused by 6 different mechanisms  which are examined here in detail. Much ...

Race car drivers die because of lethal injuries caused by 6 different mechanisms  which are examined here in detail. Much has been done, but much more must be done as most of racer deaths in the past few years are preventable with changes to track design. Today (October 9, 2014) I update this article because of Jules Bianchi terrible accident at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. Although Jules has...

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Parathyroid tumors may look benign (harmless) under a microscope, but they damage many organs in the body over time-making...

Parathyroid tumors may look benign (harmless) under a microscope, but they damage many organs in the body over time-making hyperparathyroidism act more like a cancer tumor. While parathyroid cancer is extremely rare, benign parathyroid tumors causing high blood calcium can mimic the effects of cancer. "It's a benign parathyroid tumor. Why do we need to remove it?" Phyllis's doctor in Virginia o...

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Parathyroid cysts are uncommon, but can cause lots of symptoms of hyperparathyroidism sometimes, and no symptoms at all at...

Parathyroid cysts are uncommon, but can cause lots of symptoms of hyperparathyroidism sometimes, and no symptoms at all at other times. Cysts are fluid-filled sacks. Parathyroid cysts, therefore, are fluid-filled sacks that are growing out of one of the parathyroid glands. Parathyroid cysts are rare, occurring in about 1 out of 200 parathyroid operations for hyperparathyroidism.  We perform abo...

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Because 30% of people with hyperparathyroidism will have more than one parathyroid tumor, the most successful parathyroid ...

Because 30% of people with hyperparathyroidism will have more than one parathyroid tumor, the most successful parathyroid surgery only happens when surgeons examine all four parathyroid glands. This week we performed 52 parathyroid operations. Seven of these 52 had a previous parathyroid surgery somewhere else that was not successful so they came to see us.  In three cases, the surgeon could no...

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Parathyroid symptoms can vary, but almost everybody will have them. Fatigue is by far the most common of all symptoms. Let...

Parathyroid symptoms can vary, but almost everybody will have them. Fatigue is by far the most common of all symptoms. Let's look at Crabby Abby! Crabby Abby will forever live in my mind, because she described parathyroid symptoms and the effects of high calcium on your brain better than any patient ever. If somebody says "people with hyperparathyroidism don't have many symptoms," don't tell th...

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High blood calcium is almost never normal, and it makes people feel miserable! It is the duration of high calcium, not the...

High blood calcium is almost never normal, and it makes people feel miserable! It is the duration of high calcium, not the actual number! Lisa is a 57-year-old lady from Ohio with primary hyperparathyroidism. She has seen her primary care doctor for several years and is always noted to have high blood calcium levels, but they are "just a little bit high." Her blood calcium level is just above t...

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High blood calcium over a number of years can cause kidney failure (renal failure). Nephrocalcinosis (calcification of the...

High blood calcium over a number of years can cause kidney failure (renal failure). Nephrocalcinosis (calcification of the kidney) is a completely avoidable complication of hyperparathyroidism. Kidney failure due to high blood calcium is less common than kidney stones, but the consequences are far more severe. Kidney stones are a well known complication of high blood calcium due to primary hype...

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High blood calcium almost always makes people feel bad. Sometimes it make them fatigued and depressed… and sometimes i...

High blood calcium almost always makes people feel bad. Sometimes it make them fatigued and depressed… and sometimes it makes them angry and crazy!  Just listen to Robert's story! High blood calcium due to hyperparathyroidism is well known to cause "psychiatric" problems. It's part of the classic "Bones, Stones, Groans, and Psychic Overtones" that was coined in the 1950's.  Fatigue...

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Atrial fibrillation (A-fib) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heart beat) and high blood calcium due to...

Atrial fibrillation (A-fib) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heart beat) and high blood calcium due to primary hyperparathyroidism is a leading cause. A-fib is the rapid contraction of the upper two chambers of the hear (the right and left atrium). This rapid contraction is not coordinated so it is ineffective in pumping blood. Thus patients with A-fib have an irreg...

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The Hyperparathyroidism Blog Has Begun! Interesting and compelling stories from the parathyroid patients we see every da...

The Hyperparathyroidism Blog Has Begun! Interesting and compelling stories from the parathyroid patients we see every day. Fun reading, and great learning! A new blog starts today on the topic of parathyroid disorders, hyperparathyroidism and high calcium. Patients and doctors seeking information on parathyroid topics will have a fresh choice-a blog written by the world's most experience...

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