Having trouble with insulin in people who have diabetes or are overweight might play a role in getting high blood pressure — which often shows up with those conditions — but we're not sure if it's actually causing it.

When someone has metabolic syndrome, high blood sugar and unhealthy fats in the blood team up with high blood pressure to harm the blood vessels and kidneys, making things worse over time.

High insulin levels and insulin resistance are linked to high blood pressure in people, especially those who are overweight — but even some people at a healthy weight. This connection doesn’t show up in other types of high blood pressure, so it might be a key factor in the most common kind.

People with mild high blood pressure who have trouble using insulin well also tend to have muscles that don’t take in sugar properly and don’t get as much blood flow — suggesting their metabolism and blood vessels might be struggling together.

Some people and animals can have serious insulin problems without getting high blood pressure — even when they're obese — which means these insulin issues don't always cause high blood pressure.

When your body becomes resistant to insulin, it makes more insulin to compensate, and that extra insulin can make your kidneys hold onto too much salt, which over time can lead to high blood pressure.