What is the LMUS level?

What does a significantly elevated insulin level mean?

• According to the multitude of tests that I've had done recently, my insulin level is 177. Which, from what I've gathered, is quite high. I’m not sure how badly elevated it is; I wasn’t given a reference scale to compare it to. But my doctors said that it’s not good. My C-Peptide test also came back as significantly elevated - it's 14 on a scale where 0.8 to 3.10 is normal. A lot of other tests that I’ve had done recently came back as abnormal, too. (Not all of the tests had anything to do with my insulin level; the doctors are concerned about all of my hormones, my thyroid, my adrenals, etc. Testing the insulin was kind of a side-note thing, because my mother is diabetic, and so they wanted to rule things out.) The thing is, I don’t really understand what my doctors said is happening to me. I originally went to my endocrinologist because I have a pituitary gland tumor, which we are still trying to get to the bottom of. However, my endo is making it seem like my pituitary is causing my insulin level to be so elevated. But I’m not quite sure how my pituitary could be contributing to it. I also have hypoglycemia. I was started on some medication to try to bring down my insulin level. If my blood work that I’m going to have done in a few weeks comes back and my insulin level has gone down as a result of the medication, then I’m going to be kept on the medication, but if it’s not lowered enough, then the doctors are going to up my medications and/or look into other medications and treatment options. What could possibly be causing my insulin level to be so high, and what does it mean? What is a normal range for insulin levels? I’m a 15 year old girl, if that makes a difference. Thank you!

• Answer:

  Most of the time, insulin resistance causes hyperinsulinemia (high insulin levels); however, in your case, I don't think this is the case. Fair warning: I'm not a physician. I'm just doing a little research. High insulin levels can result from "hypopituitarism." Hypopituitarism is when pituitary hormones are low or even nonexistent. The issue may also be Cushing's Syndrome. The hypoglycemia makes sense. Not only are your insulin levels high, but people who have adrenal disorders sometimes fail to produce the hormones necessary to counteract the action of insulin. One way doctors test for this disorder is the Insulin Tolerance Test. The doctor induces hypoglycemia and then measures hormone levels to test whether the adrenal system is reacting properly to low blood sugar. Again, I really don't know much about this subject, but it's possible your pituitary gland is the underlying problem.