There is a growing consensus that the underlying cause of most chronic diseases is increased inflammation.  Not the type of inflammation that causes pain, but a much more subtle and insidious type of inflammation that is below the threshold of pain.   I call this silent inflammation.  Although silent inflammation can be measured by blood testing, there is no drug that can reverse it.  However, an anti-inflammatory diet such as the Zone Diet can.  This is the foundation of anti-inflammatory medicine and becomes your first line of action to return to a state of wellness.  This is why I see the future of health care will focus on the practice of this type of medicine. This doesn’t mean that an anti-inflammatory diet will replace drugs, but it does mean that diet can make drugs work better at lower concentrations.  In the final analysis, the goal of medicine is maintain wellness, not to treat the symptoms of chronic disease.  The pathway to wellness starts with anti-inflammatory diets like the Zone Diet.