Excess Calcium Disease: What you should know about high blood calcium, parathyroid hormone and hyperparathyroidism

A layperson's guide to hyperparathyroidism, “Excess Calcium Disease” is intended to help persons with high blood calcium self-diagnose and obtain surgery to cure the disease even if, as often happens, the primary care physician misses the diagnosis and/or recommends "monitoring" instead of surgery. This is an area of medical care where the reader must take charge of his or her own diagnosis and treatment!

High calcium disease may be the most under-diagnosed medical condition in America. There are an estimated 3 million sufferers, 75% of whom are women. Three of four women with the disease do not know they have it. Parathyroid experts state that roughly half of America’s family physicians do not properly diagnose the disease.

Most sufferers are over 50 and the primary symptoms are often confused with simple aging or menopause. Not true! Symptoms include chronic fatigue (frequent naps), excessive irritability, low mood (even depression), feeling miserable, and generally missing “the joy of life.” Don’t be fooled: a 20-minute outpatient surgery can cure the disease and make you feel 20 years younger!

High calcium disease is an objective condition evidenced by blood tests. You have it if you are over age 35 and your calcium level is 10.0 or higher. (Caution--75% of labs in America list too high a range for acceptable calcium levels!) In 80% of cases, you will also have a high level of parathyroid hormone (PTH). No recent blood test? Without consulting a doctor, you can get a simple calcium blood test at a walk-in lab for under $30.

High blood calcium is caused by a non-cancerous tumor growing on one (or more) of your four parathyroid glands. This tumor secretes too much parathyroid hormone, which, in turn, leaches calcium from your bones, weakening them. The excess calcium in your blood is deposited throughout your body. Left untreated, this results in chronic fatigue, low mood, serious physical ailments like kidney stones and weakened bones, and a shortened life expectancy. The longer you have the disease, the more damage it does to your body and your mind.

In the hands of an experienced parathyroid surgeon, excess calcium disease can be 100% cured by removal of the gland and tumor in less than 30 minutes. Medicare and all forms of private insurance cover the cost of surgery. There is no need to consult an endocrinologist—armed only with blood test results, you can self-refer to a parathyroid surgeon. Expect to feel decades younger!

Despite annual blood tests and physicals, Peter A. Galbraith suffered from excess calcium disease for almost ten years until a 17-minute surgery in 2014. He is the author of "Denali Justice."