What Is Hyperinsulinemia?

Insulin is a very important hormone in our body, since it regulates the amount of sugar in the blood and tissues so that they can perform their different functions. However, when we find high blood insulin, we may be facing hyperinsulinemia. 

Normally, the effect of a lack of insulin in our body or hypoinsulinemia is known, since it occurs in people with type 1 diabetes. But there is a lack of recognition of hyperinsulinemia, which makes its diagnosis difficult. Therefore, in this article we will explain what hyperinsulinemia is and what causes it.

What is Insulin?

Before explaining what hyperinsulinemia is, we will review how insulin works. Insulin is a hormone synthesized and stored by the beta cells of the pancreas. 

After eating, food is fragmented into minimal substances capable of passing through the intestine and reaching the blood. One of these substances is glucose, which is the fundamental sugar that our body uses to produce energy and carry out its functions.

When glucose reaches the blood, it passes through the pancreas, activating beta cells that release stored insulin. This insulin passes into the blood and directs the glucose to the tissues so that it can be used. That is, insulin is responsible for maintaining correct glucose levels. 

Blood glucose or blood glucose levels

Normal fasting blood glucose levels are between 70-110 mg / dl. If your blood sugar is too high or too low, it can cause serious health problems. Abnormal glucose levels are known as:

• Hyperglycemia: abnormally high blood glucose values.
• Hypoglycemia: low blood glucose values.

What is hyperinsulinemia?

There is no specific definition of hyperinsulinemia. It is often described as more insulin than normal in the blood. The causes are diverse, we explain them below:

Insulin resistance

Insulin resistance is an entity that has gained strength in recent years, given the increase in people suffering from type 2 diabetes.

When there is poor control of sugar for years, insulin rises to carry this excess sugar into the tissues and keep blood levels stable. However, our body will get used to using larger amounts of insulin.  Therefore, it will not respond to smaller amounts, which will create resistance.

To compensate for the resistance, the body will generate more insulin than will be circulating in the blood. Then we will have a hyperinsulinemia with hyperglycemia. 

Insulin-producing tumors

A less common cause of hyperinsulinemia is insulin-producing tumors, also called insulinomas. Insulinomas are tumors that are difficult to diagnose because they are small in size and are difficult to see on imaging tests. About 10% of insulinomas are malignant.

They are tumors derived from the beta cells of the pancreas that produce and release a lot of insulin in the blood. This hyperinsulinemia causes all the glucose to be carried to the tissues and there is no glucose left in the blood, that is, hypoglycemia occurs.

Hypoglycemia is a serious situation. It can give many symptoms, such as:

• Nervousness.
• Tremors.
• Palpitations
• Sweating.
• Irritability.
• Hunger.
• Paleness, etc.

If hypoglycemia is very marked, it can affect the brain, which is the quintessential consumer of glucose, and cause alterations such as:

• Headache or headache.
• Blurry vision.
• Paresthesias : tingling, usually in the extremities.

• Behavioral disturbances.
• Confusion.
• Convulsions.
• Memory loss.
• Eat and, in the worst case, death.

Therefore, we see that it is a tumor that must be removed to avoid these symptoms. Also, insulin is a growth factor that can cause a person to gain weight.

The location of the insulinoma is usually the pancreas, but there are people who may have pieces of the pancreas that are not in their usual position, which would be called ectopic pancreas; this makes diagnosis more difficult. Fortunately, insulinomas are rare in the population.

External insulin

Another cause of hyperinsulinemia can be because insulin has been injected externally. It can happen in two cases:

• A person with diabetes who mistakenly injects more insulin than he touches. This causes you to have hypoglycemia which, as we have explained before, is very serious.

• Factitious hypoglycemia:  the person self-injects insulin without having diabetes. This occurs in the well-known Munchausen syndrome, in which the person self-medicates or injures himself in order to appear sick.

In both cases, we would find low blood glucose levels with high insulin levels, but this insulin is not produced by the body but is external.

Important keys about hyperinsulinemia

If you have hyperinsulinemia, the most common is that we are facing insulin resistance, that implies that you will have a lot of sugar in your blood. This hyperglycemia is dangerous because it will cause diabetes and damage your cardiovascular system. In addition, as we have said before, insulin is a growth factor and conducive to the growth of tumors.

Therefore, you must control your sugar and lead a healthy life. If there is not a good control of the sugar, your doctor will recommend certain treatments to be able to control it. On the other hand, if you have symptoms of hypoglycemia, you should also see a doctor given its severity.