 In severe cases, permanent kidney failure or death may result.Among people hospitalized with high blood calcium, milk-alkali syndrome is the third most common cause, after hyperparathyroidism and cancer.The name "milk-alkali syndrome" derives from a reaction that arose to a treatment for gastric ulcers created in the early 1900s by Bertrand Sippy; Sippy prescribed his patients milk and alkali on the theory that ulcers were caused by excessive gastric acid.