Calcitonin hormone and the thyroid.

[Read58]

A recent article released by the British Heart Foundation ( apparently a game changer) links lack of the hormone calcitonin with heart problems, including atrial fibrillation, strokes, etc. If Calcitonin is produced by a functioning thyroid , does this make us more susceptible . Tried reading up on mr google but still no clearer (to me anyway ).

[Read58]

Thanks Scrumbler, thats excellent. Reassuring to know its not just produced in the thyroid. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

[buddy99]

Have you tried pubmed? I found a lot of articles (did not read, though).

[Poniesrfun]

This was of great interest to me as I have medullary thyroid cancer and the marker tested for recurrence is calcitonin. It was challenging to find good discussions. But what I did find is that the “calcitonin” produced by cardiac cells as discussed in the article is not the same as the bone-modulating calcitonin produced by C-cells in the thyroid. Thyroid calcitonin is “a 32 amino acid polypeptide hormone” while the cardiac “calcitonin” is caused by “Alternative splicing of the gene coding for calcitonin produces a distantly related peptide of 37 amino acids, called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), beta type. ”. Despite the similar name very different proteins and functions.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyli...

As the study abstract (the complete study is behind a paywall) does not make this distinction - in fact it conflates cardiac calcitonin gene-related peptide with thyroidal calcitonin, it’s no wonder the article author makes the same error - a disservice to thyroid patients.