In this series, we’ll share how the latest developments in this medical frontier are transforming our approaches to illness and offering new strategies to heal and prevent disease.
Previously: Scientists are examining thousands of people’s stools in an effort to infer a “normal” gut microbiome. This would create a standard that should help clinicians and researchers figure out when someone has a microbial imbalance. 
Sometimes, microbiome terminology is like the science itself: unfamiliar, incomplete, and confusing. Dysbiosis is no exception.
Dysbiosis is often used as a synonym for “imbalanced” when describing the state of someone’s microbiome. The problem is knowing what constitutes balance when there are trillions of bacteria—not to mention viruses and fungi—in the human gut….