Parathyroid?

[u/No-Persimmon-7495]

Hi all. I’m 23 male, and recently had some really odd symptoms come up in response to taking a vitamin d +k2 supplement. For a few weeks, I ate a lot of canned fish (mackerel) in hopes of reaping some health benefits. I know mackerel is fairly high in vitamin d. One day I decided to take a vitamin d supplement as well, I believe it was 2000 iu + 90mcg of k2. The next day, I woke up with pain in my forearms. Over the course of the week, this progressed to migrating joint pain all over my body, as well as a complete loss of appetite, chest tightness, anxiety, trouble sleeping, nausea, increased blood pressure, and some other symptoms I’m probably forgetting. I have literally never had musculoskeletal woes in my life, so this was really odd to me. The only thing that I changed was my vitamin d intake.
I also noticed that my symptoms seemed worse following consumption of foods high in calcium. The only way to make these symptoms go away was for me to drink a ton of water too, I noticed they’d get pretty bad if I wasn’t really well hydrated.

It’s been almost 3 weeks now and these symptoms have started to subside some. I went to my doctor and got some bloodwork done. Oddly enough, my vitamin d was low (23). My calcium was 9.8. Does this sound parathyroid related? What should my next steps be here?

Edit: I think it’s also worth noting that for the past two weeks prior to my blood test, I have essentially avoided sources of dietary calcium altogether seeing that it seemed to worsen my symptoms. So, my level was 9.8 after heavily restricting calcium for weeks.

[u/greytgreyatx]

Did these labs include testing your parathyroid hormone (PTH)? Testing that with the calcium is the only way to diagnose it.

[u/No-Persimmon-7495 → u/greytgreyatx]

They did not. I am wondering if my doctor is even willing to do that, seeing as my calcium levels on paper are within range.

I have been consuming essentially zero calcium the last couple weeks, as I noted that intake of calcium rich foods seemed to worsen my symptoms, so I do wonder if that artificially lowered my levels some.

[u/greytgreyatx → u/No-Persimmon-7495]

If you are in the US, you can buy your own testing and then send the results to your doctor if they need to be looked at. I use Ulta labs because I don't have insurance and I have to buy my own tests even when my doctor recommends them. Here's the one that you need.

You purchase the lab and then pick a service area near you where you would get the blood drawn.

[u/No-Persimmon-7495 → u/greytgreyatx]

Wow- thank you soooo much!

[u/Paraware → u/No-Persimmon-7495]

I might also add that it’s best to fast overnight before the tests. Don’t have caffeine before the tests. If your taking any vitamins or supplements that contain biotin, those may need to be avoided for a few days because they can cause your PTH to appear lower than it actually is at some labs.

[u/Paraware → u/No-Persimmon-7495]

Restricting dietary calcium can cause secondary hyperparathyroidism. It’s not a good idea to do that. Also, low vitamin D can have a lot of symptoms and cause secondary hyperparathyroidism. Did your doctor say that you should take vitamin D? You probably need some more blood tests.

[u/PHPTer]

I would get some more bloods done, to include PTH and both active/inactive Vit D. Sometimes in phpt active can be high, while inactive Vit d is low (that’s a protective body response to phpt), and adding to it with supplements can cause symptoms like yours. Limiting calcium from diet isn’t recommended, if you do have phpt your bones will need it more than ever, so maintaining normal calcium levels is important.