Levothyroxine causing high calcium levels

[Lizzy1606]

Anyone had high calcium levels due to levothyroxine dose being to high, Or any info about this .

[PinkNinja]

Can you provide a little more information please

There are different causes of high calcium levels but don't know much about levothyroxine causing it. Hyperthyroidism can cause bone loss and consequently higher levels of calcium in urine and stools. I don't know about blood though. Has your doctor told you this is the reason for your high calcium? Has he ruled out other things such as vitamin D deficiency and hyperparathyroidism?

I think it is dangerous for a doctor to assume that the cause of your high calcium is due to your thyroxine dose only without checking out the other possibilities.

Do you have your blood test results (including thyroid) that have lead your doctor to this conclusion?

Carolyn x

[PinkNinja in reply to PinkNinja]

Ok, I have done a little reading and it seems that hyperthyroidism can cause high blood levels of calcium but so can hypothyroidism so it is worth bearing that in mind too. Diuretics can also cause high calcium blood levels as can some other diseases. Hyperparathyroidism is the most common cause of high calcium. According to this article, 80% of people who have a high blood level of calcium more than once have some sort of hyperparathyroidism.

endocrinesurgery.ucla.edu/p...

Basically hyperparathyroidism needs to be tested for if you have high calcium levels, regardless of whether your doctor thinks your dose of thyroxine is too high.

[Lizzy1606 in reply to PinkNinja]

Was told a year ago that i had high calcium ,first they were saying it was the parathyroid (and i had some really helpful advise from members) within 4 months they lowered my levo by half (was on 150 &125 alt days lowered to 75) then i was told that the calcium level was ok.and that it was probably due to levo being to high ,I was hypo on the 75 and they have gradually rised levo back to 125 .and will review in 3 months , but if the high calcium levels return they would need to lower the dose again,(i had a vit d test and urine was ok, bloods were tsh undetectable at the time .)

[PinkNinja in reply to Lizzy1606]

Ah, ok. It does seem that too much levo was a possibility. I'm glad they checked your parathyroids though. It wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on them.

It will be interesting to see what happens to your calcium level next time. I suppose that will tell you one way or the other whether it is too much levo.

[editfmrt in reply to Lizzy1606]

Couldn't agree more with Carolyn. Did you get copies of your parathyroid hormone levels (PTH)? Were they raised? Have you had this test taken again to make sure? High calcium and raised PTH should never be ignored or assumed to be something else. If they really said 'if the high calcium levels return they will just lower your thyroxine and take three months to possibly be blaming the wrong thing - I find this disconcerting.

As this extract shows: - Primary hyperparathyroidism is the most common cause of high blood calcium levels

Some rare reasons for high calcium levels:

Thyroid disease, such as hypothyroidism (too little thyroid hormone) and hyperthyroidism (too much thyroid hormone). The thyroid gland is a neighbor to the parathyroid glands but has a completely separate function. The thyroid gland governs metabolism, or how fast the cells in your body work. In rare cases of severe thyroid disease, blood calcium levels can become imbalanced.

Hypervitaminosis D, or too much vitamin D (See Vitamin D). In rare circumstances, people can receive toxic levels of vitamin D leading to high blood calcium.

[Lizzy1606 in reply to editfmrt]

Thanks that is very interesting , I have had a TT (2007)I did not know you could get high calcium ,but knew there was a risk of low after op.They did bloods for calcium over about 7 months ,first they said it was the parathyroid gland ,then i was told calcium levels ok and that it was due to levo being to high,(but i felt that i was not hyper)I do not take vit D but they did test for vit D .

[PinkNinja in reply to Lizzy1606]

If you had a TT there is a chance your parathyroids have been damaged. I really do think your PTH levels should be monitored regularly to make sure, especially given you had a TT.

[Lizzy1606 in reply to PinkNinja]

Thanks ,i knew that the parathyroids could get damaged but thought you could only get low calcium as was only told to look for symptoms of low calcium,I am going to ask more questions if it happens again ,as don't want my levo lowered back to 75

[editfmrt in reply to Lizzy1606]

I'm not medically qualified but have researched this because my sister has secondary hperparathyroidism. This is elevated levels of parathyroid hormone (hyperparathyroidism) but the secondary cause is low vitamin D which reduces the calcium levels. However, it can be really confusing. This was not helped by the many transcriptions errors in her medical records where mistakes were made mixing up hyper and hyper and parathyroid with thyroid. In the summary of one report it said she had hypoparathyroidism and secondary hyperthyroidism (can't even get the gland right) and in the body it was dfferent throughout. All the people reading her records get mixed up and think she has the opposite of her actual conditions. My reasons for telling you this is I know first hand how medical errors occur in diagnosis and treatment becase of transcription errors.

My novice understanding is that if parathyroids are damaged or removed during TT and the impaired function reduces parathyroid hormone secretion this will show in the tests as low PTH (hypoparathyroidism) which results in low calcium production.

As you have high calcium levels this does not fit. I would want to find out what the parathyroid hormone test results were. Are they raised or low i.e.hyperparathyroidism or hypoparathyroidism? In conjunction with your raised calcium, it is a very important distinction and it would be helpful to see the results for yourself to make sure they haven't made mistakes.

Good luck and take care x

[PinkNinja in reply to editfmrt]

Thanks for clearing that up. I find the subject of parathyroids a bit confusing as I don't know much about them.

I hope your sister is doing better

[editfmrt in reply to PinkNinja]

Thanks Carolyn and for asking after my sister. Not a success story I'm afraid but still working on it. She has gastro and endo appointment in October after lots of battles. Not holding my breath but still hang onto the thought I might being able to give a positive post one day. Hope you are well. - love all your posts by the way. You are helpng so many x

[PinkNinja in reply to editfmrt]

I'm sorry she's not getting better yet. She's lucky she has you to fight her corner. I am looking forward to hearing that positive post one day too. I'm sure that with you helping her she will get there one day

[editfmrt in reply to PinkNinja]

Thanks again Carolyn

[Lizzy1606 in reply to editfmrt]

Thanks i will make a note of this for next appointment

[PinkNinja in reply to Lizzy1606]

Let us know how you get on

[Lizzy1606 in reply to PinkNinja]

yes i will appointment not till november ,thanks to everyone for advice .

[Barbaraj]

What was your Vitamin D level? It is recommended that Vitamin K2 is taken if you are supplementing with Vitamin D. This ensures that calcium is directed to where it should go (bones) and not to where it may cause problems. Barbaraj

articles.mercola.com/sites/...

[Lizzy1606 in reply to Barbaraj]

I am not taking vit D ,did not think to ask for levels

[sunriserdawn59]

I'm not a professional on this subject , recently diagnosed g/daughter with high levels of calcium along with vitamin d deficiency. 16 yr s old and my instincts led me to swan.uk, a genetics clinic that enabled a blood test, came back with hypocalcemia and apparently common after a operation or feeling a little low. STOP AND PLEASE READ . If a child is showing development issues with no understanding or thought process, her sibling overtook both sibling and mother at 5 years old is there not a issue ? a simple blood test would have shown high calcium, but my knowledge some ten years later is that hypo or hyper can be seen on a pregnancy scan, the way that we have been treated by g p, teachers social workers is nothing more than a complete disgrace, now 16 and beautiful, teenager with a learning age of 5 and months. New mums ask this question when having a scan, CAN YOU CHECK THE THYROID FOR HIGH CALCIUM VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY PLEASE , IF REFUSED SAY IT'S MY BABY'S RIGHT AND NOT FORGETTING YOUR RIGHTS.Brain development can be misleading, mum has learning difficulties then of course the child is effected on thought processing but more importantly no emotions no empathy, i m picking up the mess left behind by services such as education or children's mental health services who now say it is to late to help her as her understanding and memory recall is to low, my concerns as you can see is having so much calcium that it was found in her urine, personally i i think it is hyperthyroidism / graves disease/ look up the effects of high calcium...GOOD NEWS IS IT IS MANAGEABLE IF CAUGHT EARLY.. I hope this helps just one person so my fight has not been a lost cause. peace to all..