If you suffer from hypercalcemia, then it means that you have a high level of calcium in your blood. When your blood tests come out indicating that this might be a problem, the first thing that you need to do is talk to your doctor about it.
But don’t worry about it because although hypercalcemia is not normal, in most of the cases it doesn’t indicate serious health problems such as the existence of a tumor somewhere in the body.
A High Level of Calcium Isn’t Always Indicating That You Have Cancer
The most common cause of high calcium in the blood is parathyroid disease and not cancer. The first thing that you need to do is to do more tests to see if you suffer from hyperparathyroidism or not. This hormone imbalance occurs when a parathyroid gland produces too many hormones. Usually, one of these glands grows a tumor which causes the excess hormones, that leads to lower levels of calcium in the bones.
Normal Levels of Calcium in the Blood
The normal level of calcium depends mostly on the age of the patient. A higher level is normal for people with ages between 15 and 25 years old because that’s when the growing process peaks and bones start getting bigger. Then it starts to decrease, and after 35 the normal level should be lower than 10.2 mg.
Most labs don’t analyze these levels according to the age of the person who’s getting tested, and this is one of the mistakes that lead people to believe that they have abnormal calcium levels in the blood.
A young person should have a calcium level between 10 and 10.7 mg / dl. Someone older than 50, has around 9.0 – 9.7 mg/dl calcium in their blood. If a person who’s 50-60, for example, has a level of 10.4 it might indicate the presence of a tumor, while the same level is completely normal for someone young.
