The discovery of low-grade inflammation and its effects has simultaneously created new opportunities to combat disease and unleashed new worries. In the last decade, chronic inflammation has been strongly implicated as a major cause of dozens of noninfectious diseases associated with aging, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. The more we look, the more we find the fingerprints of chronic inflammation on yet more diseases including colon cancer, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and just about every medical condition with the suffix “-itis” including arthritis.31
