Here are 2. This simple, at-home test can introduce you to your metabolic hormones. Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Calcium Blood Test. Medically reviewed by Stacy Sampson, D. Purpose Preparation Procedure Results High result Low result Takeaway Overview The total calcium blood test is used to measure the total amount of calcium in your blood. Test uses and purpose. Test preparation. Test procedure. Test results. What could a high level mean?
What could a low level mean? The takeaway. Read this next. How is the doctor supposed to know? Almost all of our lab values are the same for children, teens, adults, and us old guys. The amount of chloride, sodium, potassium, magnesium, etc, etc, is the same for all age groups. Blood calcium levels is the big exception. The reason the blood calcium levels increase during the teenage years is because of the normal growth spurt that occurs. There is a lot of bone growth and bone cell "turnover" as new bone is formed and the bones get stronger and more dense.
During these years of active bone formation and maturation, blood calcium levels are the highest. The graph above very clearly shows a big increase in blood calcium during the teenage years lasting into the 20's, and then decreasing until age 35 or so when adults should have all or almost all of their blood calcium levels "in the 9's".
In other words, the lab will say the normal range is between 8. The photo to the left is a perfect example. This is from a 52 year old woman that I consulted with today. She has all the classic symptoms of hyperparathyroidism but her doctors had absolutely no clue that she had this disease because the lab was providing a normal range for her calcium for ALL humans, not a 52 year old woman!
As you can see, from on she has had calcium levels "in the 10's", but her lab usually gives normal ranges of I have to admit, her doctors could have picked up on this, but every time they thought her calcium was high, the next level a year or so later showed the calcium to be "normal". The labs give a normal range for all humans most of the time , so the calcium levels "in the 10's" are not appreciated. You can see that her first and last labs were done at a different laboratory, where the normal range was given as This lady diagnosed hyperparathyroidism herself.
She got a copy of her labs, realized that a calcium level of Why do patients have to diagnose themselves with tumors? Where are our doctors??
Since most doctors are not aware that blood calcium levels are different for different ages heck, we were never taught this either! If you are over 35, however, nothing could be further from the truth, but nobody is aware because the lab did not give the normal range for somebody your age which is 9.
It can be quite a fine balance. Read more about this next. The normal calcium range is around 2. You will probably feel extremely symptomatic at each end of this range and feel more comfortable somewhere in the middle.
You will find that you have a small window within this range where you feel best. Read Hannah's story. A long term maintenance level of 2. A calcium level of Teenagers with hyperparathyroidism typically have blood calcium levels between For adults over 40 years old, however, frequent or persistent calcium levels above One point here Remember, people of any age above 10 can get a parathyroid tumor, but the peak incidence is between the ages of 50 and See our page on age for more about this.
Other pages of this website have different graphs that show average blood calcium and PTH for our last 20, patients, but here we can easily show that most parathyroid tumors increase the calcium in your blood only modestly which is shown by the purple area. Thus, most adults with hyperparathyroidism have calcium levels "in the 10's". Remember, adults over 40 or so should have calcium levels "in the 9's". Now you see the biggest challenge we face Every day we see patients with parathyroid tumors who have never had a calcium level that was "out of range" - because the range given was incorrect.
In many areas of life, and many areas in medicine for that matter, a higher number is more significant than a lower number. A cholesterol of is "worse" than a cholesterol of , for instance. Blood calcium levels are the big exception to this rule. This is why we do not recommend "watching" or "monitoring" your slightly high calcium to see if it goes any higher. First, how high it is doesn't matter!
A "slightly" high calcium for a number of years can cause severe health problems discussed in great detail elsewhere. Second, we know what happens when parathyroid disease goes untreated. The calcium level may never get into the "extremely high" range, but over time the risk of complications from the disease including osteoporosis, kidney stones, kidney disease, cardiac arrhythmias, chronic fatigue, memory loss, insomnia, and more rises.
How high the calcium has become is a very poor indicator of the severity of primary hyperparathyroidism. In summary, normal calcium levels vary with age. Your body wants to keep your calcium in a tight range, and the parathyroid glands are responsible for that.
For adults over about age 40, the calcium level should generally be in the 9. High calcium levels almost always indicate parathyroid disease.
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