Health Blurbs

Are tingling, spasms and cramps inciting a muscular affect on your well being? There are various health conditions that can cause these physical discomforts. One of the rarest is hypoparathyroidism.

Hypoparathyroidism is an endocrine disorder caused by the failure of your parathyroid gland to produce enough of its hormone. It’s the flip-side of hyperparathyroidism, which is a much more common health problem.

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) regulates calcium and phosphorus quantities in blood and bones. Whenever this hormone is abnormally insufficient, it leads to low calcium (hypocalcemia) and high phosphorus (hyperphosphatemia) blood levels.

Hypoparthyroidism’s imbalance creates an unpleasant situation in reference to your bones, muscles, skin and nerve endings. For example, low blood levels of calcium increase nerve ending excitability. Thus, symptoms of tingling, muscle spasms and cramps can result.

Besides the tingle, spasm and cramp distress of hypoparathyroidism, some other symptoms and complications you may encounter are:

• dry hair
• cataracts
• headaches
• brittle nails
• memory loss
• muscle aches
• stunted growth
• abdominal pain
• patchy hair loss
• fatigue, weakness
• scaly, coarse skin
• face, leg, foot pain
• teeth malformation
• grand mal seizures
• painful menstruation
• anxiety, nervousness
• impaired kidney function
• slow mental development
• depression, mood swings
• fingertip, toe tip, lip, tongue burning
• arrhythmias, fainting, even heart failure

Severe, prolonged muscle spasms (tetany) can occur in your throat, causing breathing difficulty and stridor. And in some cases it evolves into a life threatening situation.

Several circumstances can be a cause for hypoparathyroidism, including:

• metabolic alkalosis
• DiGeorge syndrome
• parathyroid glands missing, don’t function properly at birth
• hemochromatosis, multiple blood transfusions, Wilson disease
• surgical damage to, removal of parathyroid glands ~ most common cause
• radioactive iodine treatment for hyperthyroidism, Grave disease~ uncommon
• low levels of magnesium in blood can affect secretion function of parathyroid glands
• extensive cancer radiation treatment to face or neck, causing parathyroid gland destruction
• autoimmune disease ~ immune system creates antibodies against parathyroid tissues causing it to stop making PTH hormone

Hypoparathyroidism increases your chances of developing pernicious anemia, Addison’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Standard lifelong treatment for hypoparathyroidism consists of taking high doses of calcium carbonate and vitamin D supplements to restore health promoting levels of calcium and phosphorus. And high doses of calcium can cause gastrointestinal side effects, such as constipation.

The purpose for taking vitamin D is it assists with calcium absorption and phosphorus elimination. The most often recommended treatment forms are:

• calcitriol
• ergocalciferol
• dihydrotachysterol

Reason why is that these provide more potent action. And if supplement treatment doesn’t raise your calcium, you may be prescribed a thiazide diuretic.

Self treatment of hypoparathyroidism is not reasonable because to get your tingling, muscle spasms and cramps under control you’ll need a high dosage of supplements.  As such, regular health care monitoring and dose adjustment is vital. Lest you want to deal with another health issue, as in hypercalcemia.

Dietary increase in calcium rich foods and lower phosphorus consumption will likely be advised. This means more dairy products, green leafy vegetables, broccoli, kale and fortified orange juice.  And less carbonated soft drinks, eggs and meats.

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