“…Multi-disciplinary studies incorporating advances in next generation sequencing (NGS), have revealed that various systemic diseases, such as arthritis, atherosclerosis, IBD, as well as diabetes and obesity, show significant changes not only in the composition of the resident gut microbiota but also in the host’s gut homeostasis and metabolic processes (Musso, Gambino, & Cassader, 2011; Scher, et al, 2015; Vieira, et al, 2015; Yamashita, et al, 2015). In essence, the gut microbiota influence and even facilitate various metabolic processes such as regulating xenobiotic metabolism and energy production.…”