**2.1 Why is inflammation a health issue?**

Although it appears to have taken decades to confirm the involvement of inflammation in disease risk, it seems to be a logical expectation. Inflammatory markers in circulation are chemokines that direct the body's processes. They exist simply to allow the body to detect a problem and illicit a response. Inflammation represents one of our most innate protective responses. However, it stands to reason that if the body detects a damage risk, the response will be elevated. This elevated inflammatory marker level itself can result in damage that increases the response further. The inflammatory response becomes chronic and continues in a feed forward loop continually signaling the body to respond. The effects of this endless response cycle result in disease state symptoms that require therapeutic intervention. In a similar fashion, tissue damage resulting from chronic inflammation can result in the development of diseases of metabolic dysfunction, asthma, cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis, among others.

It has become more common to exist in a continuous loop of stressors. Some of these stressors include: malnutrition, chronic stress, obesity, inactivity, and toxin exposure. All of these conditions can lead to chronic inflammation and result in further tissue and cell damage. Although a healthy lifestyle can certainly help to alleviate these responses, sometimes the disease state itself makes achieving the ideal healthy lifestyle nearly impossible. Careful attention to the type of foods selected can help decrease the chronic inflammation and break the continuous cycle. Certain foods and spices contain high levels of polyphenols which have been shown to help mediate the inflammatory process. Visceral obesity in particular can increase inflammation and associated markers including reactive oxygen species, interleukins 6 and 8, adiponectin and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) [9, 10].
