**2. Effects of inflammation**

Recent literature has demonstrated that a growing number of disease states result from chronic inflammation [8]. Inflammation is the body's response to a variety of stimuli such as viral or bacterial infection, disease state markers, and injury resulting in tissue damage. The body has developed and refined this inflammatory response as an immune response to protect the body from damage from these stimuli. In general, an individual's immune response is elicited only as a result of the stimulus. This specific response may cause an acute inflammatory response of increased inflammatory markers which generally function to protect the body for a short period of time, but then return to normal levels. Acute inflammation, although potentially serious in some cases, can be expected to alleviate over time. In contrast, chronic inflammation is the type of inflammation that is typically associated with disease states or development of disease. Chronic inflammation is an

#### *Therapeutic Potential of Dietary Polyphenols DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99177*

ongoing, constant and consistent release of inflammatory markers that ultimately result in damage to the tissues. In many cases, chronic inflammation results from obesity, continuous stress or anxiety, diabetes, and poor sleep. Autoimmune conditions can result from chronic inflammation, or can themselves add to the chronic level of inflammatory proteins circulating in the body. Oftentimes this is a whole body inflammatory response rather than an isolated location or injury as seen in acute inflammation.
