1/x full disclosure: not a bone mineral disease connoisseur here. An unusual case of refractory hyperphosphatemia in ESRD led me to read more about calcitonin. We certainly don’t talk much about it compared to PTH.

2/x turns out we humans don’t depend on calcitonin as much other species. This is interesting excerpt about how big snakes engulf large vertebrates and need to have an effective way to mitigate a surge in serum Ca from digested bone

4/x the commercial calcitonin we use to treat hyperCa is salmon calcitonin. Salmon calcitonin is 10-40 times more potent than juman calcitonin. Why on earth? Salmons certainly don’t come across as voracious predators. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5285350/ ">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5285350/&...

5/5 it may come down to their migration from between seawater and freshwater. The concentration of calcium on sea water is 40 mg/dL! That looks like a good reason to have a potent hormone (calcitonin) to prevent severe hyperCa O suppose. Gotta love nature.

3/x because we don’t eat like Phythons, we don’t need a super potent calcitonin to regulate Postprandial calcium

*pythons, sorry