Something is Emotionally, Mentally, and/or Physiologically Wrong and It’s Not Spiritual

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

This is a very tough issue for me because I speak from experience and I’m not sure how much I want to share. Let me start by stating that our health – physical and mental – can and will affect the way we think as Christians. We have all the eternal promises of the Bible to draw on, yet for many, the truth seems difficult to grasp deep within ourselves. Even when we are able to grasp the truth, it doesn’t provide much solace at times. Why is that?

First of all, this one article is not meant to be all-inclusive. It cannot (and doesn’t) provide every answer for everything that ails us. Second, I’m not a doctor and because of that, I cannot diagnose anyone. I can barely come to terms with how my own body works and why. I’m trying to whet your appetite, that’s all.

Within the past three months, it was determined that I have an overactive parathyroid gland (hyperparathyroidism). The parathyroid is made up of four individual pea-sized glands that often sit near and behind the thyroid gland. Their job is to control how much calcium gets into our blood stream. All human beings need some calcium in their blood. However, when the parathyroid becomes overactive, by secreting too much PTH (parathyroid hormone), too much calcium is introduced into the blood stream. Too much calcium in the blood stream can cause minor to serious and even fatal (yes, the word is FATAL), problems for people. If left untreated, strokes and heart attacks can occur.

The normal parathyroid gland is about the size of a grain of rice. When they start putting out too much PTH, which results in too much calcium in the blood stream, it becomes enlarged, tumorous. These tumors are usually benign, but they still need to be dealt with before they cause major problems. I find that fascinating, don’t you? A gland the size of a grain of rice, when it becomes tumorous can cause that much problem in our system. Gee, I guess “evolution” just hasn’t figured it out yet (snark).

By the way, as the article I’ve linked to explains, calcium is necessary for our body. There are three main benefits to having calcium in our systems:

1. To provide the electrical energy for our nervous system.
2. To provide the electrical energy for our muscular system.
3. To provide strength to our skeletal system.

You have some idea what we would experience if we had little or no calcium in our bodies. It wouldn’t be good. But, what about side effects or issues caused by having too much calcium? Here’s a general list from the same article:

• Loss of energy. Don’t feel like doing much. Tired all the time. Chronic fatigue. (#1 symptom)
• Just don’t feel well; don’t quite feel normal. Hard to explain but just feel kind of bad.
• Feel old. Don’t have the interest in things that you used to.
• Can’t concentrate, or can’t keep your concentration like in the past.
• Depression.
• Osteoporosis and Osteopenia.
• Bones hurt; typically it’s bones in the legs and arms but can be most bones.
• Don’t sleep like you used to. Wake up in middle of night. Trouble getting to sleep.
• Tired during the day and frequently feel like you want a nap (but naps don’t help).
• Spouse claims you are more irritable and harder to get along with (cranky, bitchy).
• Forget simple things that you used to remember very easily (worsening memory).
• Gastric acid reflux; heartburn; GERD.
• Decrease in sex drive.
• Thinning hair (predominately in middle-aged females on the front part of the scalp).
• Kidney Stones (and eventually kidney failure).
• High Blood Pressure (sometimes mild, sometimes quite severe; up and down a lot).
• Recurrent Headaches (usually patients under the age of 40).
• Heart Palpitations (arrhythmias). Typically atrial arrhythmias.
• Atrial Fibrillation (rapid heart rate, often requiring blood thinners and pacemakers).
• High liver function tests (liver blood tests).
• Development of MGUS and abnormal blood protein levels.

If you’ll take the time to read and thoroughly digest the above symptoms, you should come away with a question that I hope this article answers: how does a Christian who is experiencing some of many of these symptoms “feel” like a Christian?

The short answer is that you don’t. The most you can do is fake it. What do I mean by that? Well, look through some of those symptoms. For the record, I’ve experienced/am experiencing most of them, though fortunately, not all at the same time. In short, it is very difficult to be around people because I do not have the energy to be polite and “up.” I want them to go away. Sad, but true. Sometimes the irritability can be overwhelming, but fortunately, I have trees in the back of my home that I can yell it if I need do instead of taking it out on my family, though at times, I still take it out on my family and that’s not fair to them…at all.

There is no prescription or medical treatment available for this issue apart from surgery to remove the tumorous parathyroid glands. Imagine waking up daily to dull, throbbing pain. Imagine getting up from the couch and feeling “crippled” or “old.” Imagine feeling as though you have one foot in the grave. Imagine not being able to remember things or being unable to concentrate. Imagine your heart experiencing palpitations and fibrillation? Imagine being obnoxious to people because irritability has become your constant companion?

I am here to tell you that prayer does work, however, just like Job and many others who experienced physical, mental, emotional, and physiological issues, prayer only goes so far, I’m sorry to say. By making that statement, I’m not saying it’s God’s fault. It’s mine because under conditions like these, I cannot muster enough faith to believe that He will see me through. I cannot praise Him enough and rest on His promises enough so that symptoms disappear or that I become oblivious to them. They can’t disappear unless God chooses to heal me and I do not know how to get to a point of truly being able to ignore them. I’m sorry to my heavenly Father about that.

The only thing that minimally helps is to drink 50 to 80 ounces of water daily. Why does that help? Because it forces my kidneys to remove the excess calcium. However, if I do that for too long, my kidneys could decide they don’t want to work anymore and who could blame them? As it is, my surgeon tells me that kidneys tend to slow down as we age. Now, I’m trying to force them to work harder.

Moreover, I learned that when the parathyroid gland is not working correctly, taking certain supplements like vitamin D only makes symptoms worse. So, no more vitamin D for now. My surgeon also tells me that I’ve had a “corrupt” parathyroid gland since I was born, created by a mutated cell I was born with, which, over time, kept reproducing more mutated cells. Most of my life this has gone under the radar, even though I’ve experienced numerous symptoms (though the obvious one – high calcium in the blood), remained hidden until now.

Why am I telling you all of this? Simply because I think it is important for Christians to understand that we are not perfect and sometimes, our faith has nothing to do with how we feel. It has to do with other things like what we eat, what we drink, or the imperfections in our bodies due to our own corrupted and frail human bodies. We also cannot forget that we have the sin nature, which continues to work with our enemy (Satan) to defeat us at every turn.

I’m now more convinced than ever that as Christians, we should do whatever we can to strive to eat healthy foods. This alone will reduce and/or eliminate many of the physiological, emotional, and mental issues we face daily. I’ll get more into this an another article.

My surgery to remove my tumorous parathyroid glands is to take place in a few weeks. You have no idea how glad that makes me feel, in spite of my symptoms. All those aches, pains, lack of focus, foggy brain, fatigue, and the rest all have a cause and the cause is not my lack of “spirituality.” It’s physical.

Hyperparathyroidism is a rare disease that happens more in women than in men. I would say I’m “lucky,” but I don’t believe in luck. Therefore, though Satan means this for evil, God means it for good and I’m certain He will clarify His meaning for me over time.

Maybe God has allowed this to happen in my life so that I can begin to help others (Christians or not) understand the importance of eating healthy and paying attention to our bodies. There are certain things we should have checked every year. The more we treat our bodies as though they are actually the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the better off we’ll be.

Of course, the food industry as well as Big Pharma wants us to do the exact opposite. I now know better and I hope to wake you up to that fact.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective