In 90% of cases, calcium increases in the blood due to the parathyroid glands or due to a malignant tumor.
Due to what, in principle, it rises
Calcium floats in the blood, and then it can be absorbed into the bones or poured out in the urine. If it enters the bloodstream faster than it leaves, then its concentration in the blood will increase.
Our bones are not as solid as one might think. Inside the bones, such a seething is constantly going on when calcium is deposited and at the same time washed out from the other side. And if the bones dissolve faster than usual, then the calcium in the blood may rise.
And it also happens that calcium is absorbed too well from the intestines. Well, that is, we can all try to eat dairy and greens, but at some point the calcium from these products suddenly begins to penetrate too well into the bloodstream.
Or something inside us tells the kidneys not to drain calcium into urine, but to leave it in the blood. And he obediently remains in the blood.
Usually, not one such mechanism works, but several at once. For example, if you overeat yourself with vitamin D (as we do at every step), then vitamin D will forcefully drive calcium from the intestines into the blood and will pull it out of the bones.
I didn't make a reservation. Vitamin D will pull calcium out of your bones. That is, the main task of vitamin D is to maintain the level of calcium in the blood. If there is too much vitamin D, then he, like that proverbial fool who was forced, will struggle to pull calcium from the intestines into the blood. And when the possibilities of drawing calcium from the intestines into the blood are exhausted, it will stupidly begin to draw out any calcium into the blood that it can reach. Including from bones.
Hyperparathyroidism
In hyperparathyroidism, even more different mechanisms simultaneously increase the level of calcium in the blood. There, usually the parathyroid glands go crazy and pour parathyroid hormone into the blood in a continuous stream. This hormone strikes on all fronts. It draws calcium from the bones, increases its absorption in the intestines, prevents the kidneys from excreting calcium in the urine, but at the same time forces the kidneys make many active forms of vitamin D, which differ from ordinary vitamin D as a professional special forces soldier differs from an urgent recruit service.
In short, calcium can be increased in the blood in a variety of ways. Most often this occurs with hyperparathyroidism and malignant tumors.
Simple causes of high calcium levels, such as binge eating on calcium supplements or thiazide diuretics, are less common.
More interesting about oncology
Approximately 20-30% of patients with malignant neoplasms have calcium in their blood. Most often, breast, kidney, lung, or myeloma cancers are to blame.
There are three different mechanisms in this case:
- the tumor itself secretes a parathyroid hormone-related protein;
- tumor metastases simply eat away at the bone, from which calcium spills out;
- the tumor can secrete active metabolites of vitamin D, which should normally be produced by the kidneys.
Parathyroid hormone-related protein
If a cancer patient has begun to scale calcium in his blood, then with a probability of 80% it is this protein that is the problem.
Parathyroid hormone-related protein is produced in different places in our body. It is clear that if a tumor is able to produce it, then by its mean malignant nature it will produce a lot of it.
This protein was called related for a reason. If you look closely, it resembles parathyroid hormone, which is produced by the parathyroid glands. Because of this familial similarity, the parathyroid hormone-related protein is able to sit on the same receptors as the parathyroid hormone. And he even manages to twist something there. That is, this distant relative can pluck calcium out of the bones and prevent the kidneys from excreting calcium from the blood. As a result, calcium accumulates in the blood in frantic amounts.
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