At first glance, the list reflects deaths tied to different organs and systems. Look closer, however, and a common thread emerges. Strip away the medical labels, and chronic inflammation appears again and again as a quiet but powerful driver behind many of Michigan’s deadliest conditions – and those of Americans across the country.

MORE NEWS: Judge Blocks DOJ’s Push for Clean Voter Rolls in Michigan

In a video from Northwell Health, Dr. Kevin Tracy points to 60 million deaths on the planet each year with 40 million of them being caused by conditions that at their root cause, have inflammation as a contributing factor.

When the immune system won’t stand down.

As explained in a special issue of National Geographic, which devotes almost 100 pages to inflammation – what it is, how it works, and how it can be treated – inflammation is meant to be a short- term response. It’s the body’s rapid reaction to danger, as macrophages, neutrophils, and other immune cells rush in and release cytokines to fight threats and repair damage. Ideally, once the threat is handled, the system powers down and stands down.

In easier-to-understand terms, it’s the body’s quick alarm system. When something goes wrong – like an infection or injury – immune cells rush to the scene to fight the problem and help the body heal. Once the danger is gone, that response is supposed to shut off and let the body return to normal.

But when inflammation never fully shuts off – thanks to stress, poor diet, chronic illness, environmental exposure, or aging – it stops protecting and starts destroying. Blood vessels harden. Organs scar. Cells misfire. That’s how heart disease stays No. 1, cancer stays No. 2, and stroke climbs higher.

The takeaway nobody likes.

Chronic respiratory disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, kidney failure, and liver disease don’t arrive suddenly. They build slowly, fueled by years of low-grade immune overreaction.

Michiganders aren’t dying from mystery illnesses. They are being worn down by long-term inflammation – the biological equivalent of running your engine in the red for decades. Michigan’s deadliest problems are slow, cumulative, and largely ignored.

MORE NEWS: Grand Jury Declines to Indict Slotkin Over ‘Seditious Six’ Video

Chronic inflammation doesn’t trend on social media or trigger emergency press conferences, but it quietly feeds the conditions that dominate the death list year after year. Until prevention, lifestyle factors, environmental exposures, and long-term health are treated with the same urgency as crises and headlines, Michigan’s rankings aren’t likely to change – just the numbers beside them.