Can I just wait and see what happens? Is parathyroid disease really that bad?
Well…The problem with this type of management of parathyroid disease is that the parathyroid hormone is working 24 hours per day to take calcium out of your bones. ALL patients with hyperparathyroidism will get osteoporosis if they wait long enough. Furthermore, most patients (about 95%) claim to feel a lot better once the parathyroid tumor is removed…thus you may be cheating yourself out of a better, more healthy lifestyle. We also know that long-term exposure to high calcium in the blood increases the chance of developing breast cancer, colon cancer, and kidney cancer. It also causes significant heart problems. People with untreated hyperparathyroidism have been shown in multiple studies to die several years earlier than they would. This is all covered on our Symptoms page. Bottom line, almost all patients with parathyroid disease will be better off if they find a doctor who performs LOTS of parathyroid operations and has been trained in mini parathyroid surgery. Most people can
