ask: Are there any Chinese medicine or ayurvedic formulations that practioners in those disciplines might use to shrink a nonmalignant tumor (adenoma) on my parathyroid (gland or glands)?

Hi, Aracee,

I looked for articles regarding acupuncture and hyperparathyroidism, but as I am sure you have found, there's not a lot of information about it.

The information on hyperparathyroidism I did find mention that "watchful waiting" is OK depending on the severity of your symptoms. For instance:

What are your calcium levels?

Do you have any kidney damage?

How is your bone density?

Here, for example, is the Mayo Clinic's analysis of these indicators:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hyperparathyroidism/DS00396/DSECTION=tr...

Surgery IS a common treatment; the Mayo says it fixes 90 percent of cases, which is why it's probably an easy thing for your doctor to recommend. But that page also mentions medications that can be used (though perhaps you are too sensitive to those as well).

Have you spoken with your acupuncturist about this? Did he or she have any thoughts or advice?

I have primary hyperparathyroid and had actually been seeing an accupuncturist for symptoms which I now know are caused by the over-acting parathyroid. I have had a range of symptoms including bone pain, nausea/vomiting, mild depression, etc. I plan on going for surgery, however my accupuncturist has been very helpful in keeping the troublesome symptoms at bay and I have even experienced a reduction in serum calcium levels - though that can happen on its own, too. My accupuncturist has been careful to tell me that this would need to be corrected surgically, so maybe tumor reduction is beyond the scope, but symptom management seems to be a real possibility.

I ran across your question while researching ways to help my own patient who already had parathyroid surgery but continues to have elevated levels of parthyroid hormone although calcium levels are now normal. There are acupuncture treatments available which may help correct the imbalance of the glands. Of course you should continue blood testing to be sure it's changing the blood levels. Another treatment I came across is using glandulars. Several types of natural health experts use glandulars and have their own ideas of how they work. Biotics Research Corp., for example, has a product with a blend of calcium, magnesium, and bovine prathyroid. Their researchers have found it to be useful in hyperparathyroidism.