Hyperinsulinemia is when you have a higher than normal level of insulin in your blood. As long as your blood sugar remains in the normal range, it is not diabetes. However, people with type 2 diabetes often have hyperinsulinemia. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and helps regulate blood sugar. Once hyperinsulinemia is present, it sends a potential warning to the body’s normal blood sugar regulation: your pancreas needs to produce large amounts of insulin to keep your blood sugar in the normal range. The most common cause of hyperinsulinemia is insulin resistance – that is, a decrease or delay in your body’s response to the blood sugar-regulating effects of insulin, when the pancreas needs to struggle to produce more insulin to participate in regulating blood sugar. In the long run, when the pancreas can no longer produce enough insulin to keep blood sugar in the normal range, insulin resistance may eventually progress and lead to the development of type 2 diabetes. In rare cases, hyperinsulinemia also arises from the following causes: 1. tumors in the insulin-secreting islet cells (islet cell tumors); 2. an excessive number of insulin-secreting cells in the pancreas (islet cell hyperplasia). The core of hyperinsulinemia treatment is to improve the state of insulin resistance. Clinically, hyperinsulinemia often has no signs or symptoms unless it leads to hypoglycemia (syndrome) when symptoms such as panic, weakness, false sweating, and weakness of the hands and feet are detected.