Hyperparathyroidism
One in 100 women will develop primary hyperparathyroidism in her lifetime.
One in 500 women will walk out of a doctor's office each month with an undiagnosed or misdiagnosed parathyroid tumor. Men are affected as well.
PHPT: A Calcium Disorder
Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is a disorder where one or more parathyroid glands make too much hormone, causing high calcium levels in the blood.
There are four tiny glands behind your thyroid that have nothing to do with your thyroid, the sole purpose being to regulate the amount of calcium in the blood. If a tumor develops in one or more of the parathyroid glands, the amount of blood calcium increases causing one or more of the following symptoms:
Irritability / crankiness
Memory loss / feeling like you might be developing dementia
Gastric acid reflux / heartburn / GERD
Decrease in sex drive
Thinning hair (predominately in middle aged females on the front part of the scalp)
Kidney stones (We have an entire page on kidney stones).
Chronic kidney disease / kidney failure
High Blood Pressure / Hypertension / Erratic blood pressure
Frequent headaches
Heart palpitations
Atrial fibrillation / cardiac arrhythmias
High liver function tests (liver blood tests)
Development of MGUS and abnormal blood protein levels
On your lab work you will notice a marker that says SERUM CALCIUM. THE RANGE IS 8.5-10.3. This is where your doctor may miss the diagnosis because 1 out of 5 people will have NORMAL CALCIUM. Blood calcium is age dependent and women over 50 with a serum calcium of 10.0 are usually positive for the tumor.
THE ONLY TREATMENT IS SURGERY
A parathyroidectomy should only be done by a doctor who has done at least 50 procedures as the parathyroid glands are very close to your laryngeal nerve, and nicking or cutting could cause a permanent loss of speech.
I can recommend, without reservation, Dr. Pedro de Andrade at Loma Linda University Health.
Don't consider UCLA unless your calcium is very high because Michael Yeh of the endocrinology department is only concerned with a 100% success rate and does not consider symptoms, only UCLA's image.
Another option is the Norman Parathyroid Clinic in Tampa, Florida where an entire floor of the hospital is dedicated to parathyroid surgery. Dr. Norman's wonderful team performs about 80 surgeries a week, and often has patients in and out of surgery in 20 minutes.
Everything you could possibly know about this dreadful disease is available on Dr. Norman’s site. www.parathyroid.com
An important parting note: Never, ever, have a general surgeon perform this delicate surgery.
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