Take a family member or friend along, if possible, to help you remember the information you're given.
All medications, vitamins and other supplements you take, including doses.
Key personal information, including major stresses or recent life changes, medical history, and family medical history.
Your symptoms, including those that seem unrelated, and when they began.
Here's some information to help you get ready for your appointment. However, you'll likely be referred to a doctor who specializes in treating hormonal disorders (endocrinologist). You might start by seeing your primary care provider. Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic Clinical trialsĮxplore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this condition. A special scanning test uses an injection of a small dose of radioactive material to pinpoint the gland or glands that aren't working properly. In many cases, only one of a person's four parathyroid glands is affected. Problems associated with overactive parathyroid glands often can be cured by surgery to remove the tissue that's causing the problem. You might need hospitalization for treatment with IV fluids and diuretics to promptly lower the calcium level to prevent heart rhythm problems or damage to the nervous system. Extremely high calcium levels can be a medical emergency. If your hypercalcemia is caused by high levels of vitamin D, short-term use of steroid pills such as prednisone are usually helpful. This drug is often used to treat people with cancer-caused hypercalcemia who don't respond well to bisphosphonates. Risks associated with this treatment include breakdown (osteonecrosis) of the jaw and certain types of thigh fractures. Intravenous osteoporosis drugs, which can quickly lower calcium levels, are often used to treat hypercalcemia due to cancer. Cinacalcet (Sensipar) has been approved for managing hypercalcemia. This type of drug can help control overactive parathyroid glands. This hormone from salmon controls calcium levels in the blood. In some cases, your doctor might recommend: And after the operation, you should be taking calcium and Vitamin D, but not before.If your hypercalcemia is mild, you and your doctor might choose to watch and wait, monitoring your bones and kidneys over time to be sure they remain healthy.įor more severe hypercalcemia, your doctor might recommend medications or treatment of the underlying disease, including surgery. Your Vitamin D level will improve after parathyroid surgery. The treatment for this is removal of the parathyroid adenoma. But if that “low Vitamin D” is actually due to a parathyroid adenoma (benign tumor), it should not be treated. They see a low Vitamin D and they automatically prescribe Vitamin D supplementation. Most doctors will not remember this about Vitamin D and PTH (it’s not something they really need to know for most patients). Since that is the form we measure, patients are diagnosed with deficiency. If you measure this active form of Vit D in parathyroid patients, it is often high. When you have a parathyroid tumor, which produces too much PTH, your inactive Vit D is converted to active Vit D (which we usually do not measure). The enzyme that converts the inactive form to the active form is stimulated by parathyroid hormone (PTH). This is an inactive form, which gets converted in the body to the active form, or Vit D 1,25-diOH. The one we most commonly measure is Vit D 25-OH. They often come with a diagnosis of “ Vitamin D deficiency.” But Vitamin D exists in multiple forms in your body. Patients with primary hyperparathyroidism often are told that they have low Vitamin D levels. If your blood calcium level is already high, you don’t want to take Vitamin D and raise your calcium further. Calcium is the fifth most abundant element in the human body. Introduction Calcium is important for the maintenance of healthy teeth and bones, cell signalling, coagulation, muscle contraction, neural transmission and many other functions. One of the main roles for Vitamin D is to help your intestines absorb calcium, thus increasing your blood calcium level. Tolerable Upper Intake Level of calcium EFSA Journal 2012 10(7):2814 5 ASSESSMENT 1. When you have high calcium, it does not make sense to take Vitamin D supplements, because this can raise your calcium further.