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Canadian Quackery Watch - Hot Topics
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Ginseng Cures for Cancer? |
Ginseng Huckster Dave Wickware + Brasilian Psychic with Fake PhD Target cancer patients |
The woman in the ad, Lu Lanzon, never earned a real PhD, and the Centre is not licensed to treat cancer patients in any manner. In fact, in the summer of 2004, Dave Wickware claimed on Usenet that Lanzon actually was a psychiatrist from Brasil, yet he provides no evidence. When Dr. Polevoy questioned him about Lanzon and other false claims on the internet he refused to provide validation. Lanzon claims to be a psychic, not a psychiatrist. There IS a big difference!! In the Spring of 2005 Lanzon moved her operation to a building at 33 Bridgeport Street East in Waterloo. The initials that she uses after her name are Ph.D, D.D., H.H.E. None of them are valid professional designators.
Of course none of her treatments can be used to treat real illness. Some of her treatments are illegal i.e. ear candling. Allergy testing by untrained people is nonsense and can result in serious injury or death to anyone who accepts those treatments. She in other words is practicing medicine without a license.
The way I see it, Wickware and Lanzon's operation, which was originally nestled in an office building next to the Waterloo campus of Conestoga College, did a very good job of fooling the public about their credentials and their intentions. In fact, one of the most interesting claims that flowed from local media publicity was the claim that Wickware contacted the family of a three-year-old girl who had terminal brainstem cancer. Wickware later on said that he provided the family with one of the ginseng products that he was marketing for free. He made claims on the internet that she was still alive because of these products. When Dr Terry Polevoy asked questions about their operation and outrageous claims, Wickware began a defamatory and libelous attack over the internet that continued for weeks.
For over a year or so the community helped to raise money for the little girl, and even one of the best-known radio personalities, Fred Merritt of CKWR radio, helped to spread the news about a fundraiser that was sponsored by the Schneiders Male Chorus, one of our communities most outstanding public service organizations. Neither the radio station, or Fred Merritt bothered to respond to my questions about the publicity about the fundraiser that was supposed to raise money for alternative therapy.
Who is going to take responsibility at Bell Canada's Yellow Pages division for this? If you would like to ask Bell Canada yourself you can contact them at:
The Record, our local newspaper that is owned by the Toronto Star recently gave some free publicity to one of their sales talks:
Advanced Wholistic Centre The operators offer several unproved methods of diagnosis such as iridology, and what is very surprising, they utilize ear candling, which in Canada is not only unsound, it is illegal!.
It would appear that there are at least two people who operate out of the Advanced Wholistic Centre. Lu Lanzon, who claims to be a psychic and a "doctor" of natural medicine, and Dave Wickware, a self-proclaimed former businessman for a Fortune 500 company who had his life saved by a miraculous "cure" with an oriental ginseng. Of course he then turned it into a money making operation, offering people a discount if they bought into his scheme, and if they marketed it with him, they could make even more. It's sort of an MLM structure (Multi-level Marketing).
To get an idea of how pervasive some of the stealth marketing is for one of his pet projects, namely Immunocal, just do a Google Search for "Immunocal scam" and you come up with sites like this, that are actually run by a major Immunocal MLM distributor named Health-ebiz.com. Take a look at it, and you might think that the site was set up to warn you about MLM scams. But look again at the bottom of the page.
Dave Wickware
Wickware, who goes by the name "Dave" on the internet has posted numerous posts on a variety of Usenet sites, as well as on the Curezone.com web site. This site is notoriously innacurate, and is associated with and has links to supporters of Hulda Clark. At the end of February it was impossible to get to their site. So, if theses links are dead, don't blame me. If you know how to use archive.org's web site or use the cache on Google, that's your best bet. Right now the Curezone.com folks are plenty worried that they are scurrying for financial support, while blocking unwanted people like me from contributing.
Curezone is an outgrowth of the mind of someone named Dusan where you will find links back to such quack-filled pages such as:
The family claims that they did not discover this web site, nor were they aware of what Dave Wickware had done until 11 months after their daughter's death. They are also upset that this web site would repeat Dave's statements here, and that we included a copy of her obituary and a copy of an advertisement that ran in the local paper.
The reason that we post stories like this and included Dave's public statements is to warn people about hucksters and scam artists who are out there. These people try to manipulate the press and attempt to confuse and defraud patients and their families. Their agenda usually includes an unhealthy dose of untrue stories about the dangers of chemotherapy or radiation therapy and how doctors are getting rich by poisoning their patients. We don't, I am sorry to say, have all of the answers, and certainly no oncologist is getting rich off the backs of their patients here in Canada.
These predators often pounce on high-profile cases like this and call press conferences, help to organize fundraisers, send out thousands of e-mails, or set up their own web sites or blogs to push their own agenda forward. And guess what, they sometimes have the press on their bloody side. We saw that clearly demonstrated by Bill O'Neill and his CCRG with at least two cases of note -- Tyrell Dueck, and Sandra Schmirler.
Wickware is just another example of those who attack medical professionals who are critical of alternative medicine, and/or quackery. It is really unfortunate for families to be dragged into this when they are at the end of the line for conventional treatment, but it happens more than you can imagine.
Hope's story is just one of many that could have been told. The family has requested that all references to their daughter be deleted from this web site and that I issue an apology. They feel that I have created this web site to invade their privacy in their time of grief and sorrow and to enhance my own politics or agenda, whatever that means.
I have to state clearly that my interest in this is not political and I don't have an agenda. As a local physician who lives here where this story broke, I feel that the story is an important one. Whatever the family feels about me personally they are entitled to state their case publicly, and I have invited them to share their point of view with our readers. However, the story about cancer quacks who still live and still apparently thrive in our community, is an important one. When the local press and media ignores the quacks we all lose. We should not ignore this story.
Terry Polevoy, MD
Dave Wickware's Curezone.com post about a three year-old girl named Hope who has a brain tumour.
"To summarize, Hope's healing program is GlowLife Ginseng, HMS90 (Immunocal) and energy healing sessions by a powerful healer. What will cure this little girl? All of these things together will heal her."
He even had the gall to post a full colour picture of Hope on the Curezone web site. I believe that this has now been removed. Wickware said that she had terminal brain cancer, and the parents told Dave that her uncle had found high levels of aluminum in her hair analysis, and that's what caused the tumour. The parents, on the other hand, told me 13 months later that the hair analysis was done to provide information about Hope's nutritional status. Unfortunately hair analysis as a means for detecting nutritional status is unreliable.
Another post about the powers of his amazing ginseng: with links to a forum that is all about, you guessed it, the magic ginseng formula that he sells.
What's really insane here is that his associate Lu Lanzon, a self-proclaimed psychic, had absolutely no trouble gaining membership to the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce last Fall. I have no idea of what she told them she was doing, but why in the world would the C of C take her money?
She is now in practice at another location in Waterloo and I believe that she shares an office with someone named Gabriele. This could be Gabriele Sutton, but we are not certain. If it is Sutton, then Lanzon has joined up with someone who has been active for years teaching quackery around the Province.
[At the time of the concert, Dave Wickware was busy telling people on Usenet that the little girl was back in the Hospital, and was not doing very well at all. Why in the world would a major community group like the Schneider's Male Chorus support such nonsense?]
Date: Tuesday, August 17, 2004.
Time: 7:00pm.
Free will offering! All funds raised will help the family with expenses for holistic treatment which she seems to be responsing too at the present time. For further information call 885-4329.
(NOTE: All typos are Dave's - not mine)
"The Doctors are offering two months of life to a little 4 year old girl. The
parents are so deoressed and confused that
they are not likely making good decisions for those of us with
understanding. For the resident killers, it appears to be
a victory. A new grave to dance on."
"I am curious to know how you think someone is "seduced" into a treatment? Do you assume that everyone but you is a mindless, uninformed, sheep deserving of no opinion? In fact this
family was "seduced" into not using ginseng which has a long history in more informed cultures of assisting in the elimination of cancer."
"Last week the family called me to ask if I could help. The doctors have placed Hope, who turned 4 years of age two weeks ago, on steroids and chemotherapy treatment. The oncologists said they expect to have extended Hope's life by two month's. The parents want more! If you are compassionate in any way, pray for her. I know miracles exist."
[It would be easy for Dr. Polevoy to defend himself in court against such outrageous charges by Wickware. Why in the world would Dave make such outrageous claims? The use of the word "threat" is a criminal term, but I don't think that Wickware knows anything about the law. It is clear grounds for a defamation lawsuit to suggest that anyone is threatening someone else.]
Freda Chen and Frank Young will explain the history of the creation of this
ginseng and its properties. Dave Wickware speaks about Dave's Story of
overcoming severe asthma and emphysema with the aid of this ginseng.
A Blood Microscopy technician will do a live blood demonstration using an
electron microscope and camera, to show the effects of the ginseng on
several volunteers from the audience.
"A spokesman for DH said, 'DH has instructed the importers
of the two products to recall the products from the market and
to surrender them to the department.'"
"Members of the public who have purchased the products, are
advised to immediately stop using it, dispose of it or surrender it
to the Pharmaceutical Service of DH at 3/F, Public Health
Laboratory Centre, 382 Nam Cheong Street, Kowloon during
office hours. DH will issue them a receipt."
Fax your story to 519-725-4953 |