Unusually high calcium levels in the blood can almost always be traced to primary hyperparathyroidism, an under-treated, underreported condition that affects mainly women and the elderly, according to a new study by UCLA researchers.<\/p>\n
The condition, which results from overactive parathyroid glands and includes symptoms of bone loss, depression and fatigue that may go undetected for years, is most often seen in African American women over the age of 50, the researchers discovered.
\nThe study is one of the first to examine a large, racially and ethnically diverse population \u2014 in this case, one that was 65 percent non-white. Previous studies had focused on smaller, primarily Caucasian populations.
\nThe four parathyroid glands, which are located in the neck, next to the thyroid, regulate the body’s calcium levels. When one is dysfunctional, it can cause major imbalances \u2014 for example, by releasing calcium from the bones and into the bloodstream. Over time, calcium loss from bones often leads to osteoporosis and fractures, and excessive calcium levels in the blood can cause kidney stones and worsening kidney function.
\nThe UCLA researchers determined that hyperparathyroidism is the leading cause of high blood-calcium levels and is responsible for nearly 90 percent of all cases.
\n‘The findings suggest that hyperparathyroidism is the predominant cause of high calcium levels, so if patients find they have high calcium, they should also have their parathyroid hormone level checked,’ said the study’s lead author, Dr. Michael W. Yeh, an associate professor of surgery and endocrinology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. <\/p>\n
Hyperparathyroidism, which affects approximately 1 percent of the population, can be detected by measuring parathyroid hormone levels to determine if they are elevated or abnormal.\nUCLA<\/link>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unusually high calcium levels in the blood can almost always be traced to primary hyperparathyroidism, an under-treated, underreported condition that affects mainly women and the elderly, according to a new study by UCLA researchers. The condition, which results from overactive parathyroid glands and includes symptoms of bone loss, depression and fatigue that may go undetected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}