glenm@athena.UUCP (Glen McCluskey) (03/18/86)
I know someone who was recently diagnosed as having hypercalcemia. His chronic intake of calcium from all sources was 1500mg, and of vitamin D 700iu. My question is: are these levels of calcium and D enough to cause the problem? Goodman & Gilman's pharmacology book says that simply taking too much calcium alone is unlikely to cause hypercalcemia. The vitamin D intake, while really too high, doesn't seem like enough to cause the problem.
dyer@spdcc.UUCP (Steve Dyer) (03/21/86)
In article <57@athena.UUCP>, glenm@athena.UUCP (Glen McCluskey) writes: > I know someone who was recently diagnosed as having hypercalcemia. > His chronic intake of calcium from all sources was 1500mg, and of > vitamin D 700iu. > > My question is: are these levels of calcium and D enough to cause > the problem? Goodman & Gilman's pharmacology book says that simply > taking too much calcium alone is unlikely to cause hypercalcemia. > The vitamin D intake, while really too high, doesn't seem like > enough to cause the problem. Hypercalcemia is almost always a symptom of some underlying problem; it isn't a "disease" in and of itself. While excessive vitamin D intake can cause hypercalcemia, 700 IU is a pretty ordinary dose. Actually, there are a surprising number of different disease entities which can produce this condition. If *I* were diagnosed with hypercalcemia, I'd certainly want to get more information from my physician. -- Steve Dyer dyer@harvard.HARVARD.EDU {bbncca,bbnccv,harvard,ima,ihnp4}!spdcc!dyer