Wise Wellness

Winston Curtis Wise, RMT’s availability for October 5th to Oct 8th, 2026.

Kindly Call/Text 613 559 2999 to book your next massage appointment, or to inquire about additional appointment availability.

🚨 Five common infections were linked to 2.3 million new cancers in a single year—nearly one in every eight diagnoses worldwide.

A new a**lysis in The Lancet Oncology makes the scale hard to ignore.

Infections accounted for about 12% of all cancers diagnosed in 2024, an estimated 2.3 million new cases, and almost the entire burden traces back to five pathogens that most people never treat as cancer risks.

The heaviest load belongs to Helicobacter pylori, a stomach bacterium that colonizes roughly half the planet.

In 2024 it was tied to about 760,000 cancers, mostly gastric.

Most carriers feel nothing.

Certain strains, however, inflame the stomach lining for years, thin out the local microbial community, and push the tissue toward malignancy.

That is not a story of a lone germ acting in a vacuum.

H. pylori itself disrupts gastric and gut balance.

Diets heavy in salt, refined grains, and ultra-processed foods, chronic stress, and chemical exposures that batter the microbiome can worsen that imbalance and make it easier for chronic inflammation to harden into cancer.

In other words, the bacterium is the spark; a damaged gut is often the dry timber.

Human papillomavirus sits almost even with it: about 750,000 cases.

HPV is linked to virtually every cervical cancer and a large share of a**l, vulvar, vaginal, pe**le, and some head-and-neck tumors.

Hepatitis B follows with roughly 360,000 cases, overwhelmingly liver cancer.

Epstein-Barr virus—the near-universal cause of mononucleosis, now more heavily weighted in these estimates because of stronger evidence tying it to gastric cancer as well as nasopharyngeal cancer and lymphoma—accounts for about 260,000.

Hepatitis C adds another 160,000, again mostly liver.

Together those five agents explain nearly the entire infection-related cancer total.

The map is as alarming as the count.

Three-quarters of these cancers occurred in low- and middle-income countries.

Eastern Asia alone accounted for 42% of the global total, driven largely by H. pylori and hepatitis B. Sub-Saharan Africa carries a crushing HPV burden.

The same infections that some regions have begun to blunt with screening, diagnosis, sanitation, and treatment still run almost unchecked where health systems are thinnest—and where industrial diets and environmental strain are rising fastest.

That is the cruel part.

These microbes can already make people very sick on their own.

The new estimates show they also seed a vast share of the world’s new cancers, and that the burden falls hardest on the places least equipped to catch the infection early or repair the terrain it exploits.

The authors argue that infection control still belongs at the center of cancer prevention, and that diagnostics, treatment, safer food and water, and attention to the conditions that wreck gut balance matter because the economic and social cost of cancer is already overwhelming.

Cancer risk is usually framed as a personal project: don’t smoke, drink less, move more.

Those still matter.

But 2.3 million cases a year say something else.

A quiet bacterium thriving in an unbalanced gut, a common sexually transmitted virus, two hepatitis viruses, and a childhood infection that almost everyone gets are rewriting the global cancer map.

Until those infections—and the modern exposures that help them take hold—are taken as seriously as the tumors they help create, that map will keep filling in the same places, with the same five names.

Winston Curtis Wise, RMT’s availability for September 28th to Oct 1st, 2026.

Kindly Call/Text 613 559 2999 to book your next massage appointment, or to inquire about additional appointment availability.

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Winston Curtis Wise, RMT’s availability for September 21st to 24th, 2026.

Kindly Call/Text 613 559 2999 to book your next massage appointment, or to inquire about additional appointment availability.

Oral vitamin B3 (nicotinamide) at 500 mg twice daily for 14 days improved nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC) patterns in around 45% of participants with primary or scleroderma-related Raynaud phenomenon (RP), with increased normal capillaries and reduced abnormal features. Participants with primary RP experienced improvements in RP-related quality of life. https://mdsc.pe/46Bv68I

As our celiac kids head back to school, it’s important to recognize that their teachers and other school adults can be some of their greatest allies for success.

Communicating with your child’s teacher is key to a safe school year. Schedule an unhurried time to talk about what celiac disease is, where gluten is found, how to prevent cross-contact, and what to do if your child accidentally ingests gluten.

Don’t forget to align on meal and snack routines! Your kiddo should have a “safe person” at school, preferably someone in the classroom whom they can talk to about their feelings and concerns related to celiac disease. (This should be included in the 504 plan.)

The teacher will be the main person implementing many of the accommodations listed in the 504 plan, such as contacting you in advance of classroom celebrations, ensuring extra hand-washing, and cleaning work surfaces.

Check out our ROCK Back-to-School Packet for a sample teacher letter to help you kick off the conversation: nationalceliac.org/bts

We are adding to our savings again! Tomorrow the Health First Network Magnesium Complex (Kate’s current favorite formula) will be on sale for 40% off!! Only while supplies last.

Be sure to come in tomorrow!

Most people think gluten is only a problem if you have coeliac disease or a diagnosed sensitivity.
However, every single human being mounts an inflammatory response to gluten, regardless of whether they ever feel a symptom.

What Actually Happens When You Eat Gluten:
When gluten enters the small intestine, it triggers the release of a protein called zonulin in every human digestive system, without exception. Zonulin was discovered by gastroenterologist Dr Alessio Fasano and his research team, and it is one of the most significant findings in gut health research of the past two decades.

Zonulin acts as a gatekeeper of the tight junctions between the cells lining your intestinal wall. These tight junctions are meant to be selective, allowing nutrients through while keeping larger molecules, bacteria, and undigested food particles out of the bloodstream.

When zonulin is released, it temporarily loosens these tight junctions. In a healthy gut with good resilience, they tighten back up again relatively quickly. In a gut that is already compromised by stress, nutrient depletion, dysbiosis, or frequent gluten exposure, those junctions may stay loose for longer, or become chronically loosened over time.
This is the mechanism behind what is commonly called intestinal permeability, or leaky gut.

Why This Matters for the Thyroid:
🦋 Gliadin, one of the proteins in gluten, has a molecular structure that closely resembles thyroid tissue. When immune cells are activated in response to gluten crossing the gut wall, there is a risk of those immune cells also attacking thyroid tissue through a process called molecular mimicry
🦋 This molecular mimicry is considered one of the contributing mechanisms in the development and progression of Hashimoto's thyroiditis and Graves disease
🦋 A chronically permeable gut allows lipopolysaccharides (bacterial fragments) and other inflammatory molecules into circulation, which drives systemic inflammation and can further suppress thyroid hormone conversion in the liver

Why the Effects Are So Different Between People:
🦋 Someone with a diverse, robust gut microbiome recovers quickly from the zonulin response, with tight junctions closing again efficiently
🦋 Someone with pre-existing gut dysbiosis, nutrient deficiencies, chronic stress, or a history of antibiotic use may have structurally weaker tight junctions that take much longer to recover, or do not recover fully between exposures
🦋 Genetics play a role in how strongly the immune system responds to gliadin specifically, with certain HLA gene variants associated with a much more aggressive immune reaction
🦋 Other co-existing factors like alcohol consumption, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use, and chronic psychological stress all independently loosen tight junctions, compounding the effect of gluten

This is why two people can eat the same meal and one feels fine while the other does not. It is not that one person is reacting and the other is not. It is that one person's gut has far more capacity to absorb the hit.

Food Sources That Support Gut Barrier Integrity
🦋 Bone broth contains collagen, gelatin, and glutamine, all of which support the structural integrity of the gut lining. Aim for one to two cups daily if gut healing is a priority
🦋 Zinc-rich foods such as pumpkin seeds, oysters, beef, and chickpeas support tight junction protein synthesis. Daily requirement is approximately 8mg for women and 11mg for men
🦋 Vitamin D, found in fatty fish like salmon and sardines, eggs, and liver, plays a direct role in regulating zonulin production. Daily requirement is 1,500 to 2,000 IU for maintenance, though many thyroid patients are depleted and may need more under practitioner guidance
🦋 Quercetin-rich foods such as capers, red onion, apples, and green tea have been shown in research to help stabilise tight junctions and reduce zonulin release
🦋 L-glutamine, found in meat, fish, eggs, dairy, and legumes, is the primary fuel source for intestinal lining cells and supports repair of a compromised gut wall

Action Steps:
🦋 Consider trialling a strict gluten-free period of at least 60 to 90 days if you have Hashimoto's or Graves disease and have not yet explored this. Partial reduction is unlikely to give you a clear picture
🦋 If you have ongoing gut symptoms alongside thyroid dysfunction, ask your practitioner about testing zonulin levels, intestinal permeability markers, or a comprehensive stool a**lysis
🦋 Keep a symptom diary when making dietary changes, tracking energy, digestion, brain clarity, and mood, since improvements can be gradual and easy to miss without a record to compare

Gluten does not affect everyone the same way, but it does affect everyone.