Ken Walker (physician)

Last updated
Ken Walker
Born
Kenneth Francis Walker

(1924-02-28) 28 February 1924 (age 100)
Croydon, England, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish Canadian
Other namesW. Gifford-Jones (pen name)
Education Harvard Medical School
Occupation(s)Medical writer, celebrity doctor
SpouseSusan (m. 1956)
Children4
Medical career
Sub-specialtiesObstetrician, gynaecologist

Kenneth Francis Walker (born 28 February 1924) is a British-born Canadian medical writer, celebrity doctor, [1] and retired obstetrician and gynecologist. As an author and columnist he publishes under the pen name W. Gifford-Jones, M.D.. [2]

Contents

Background

Walker was born in 1924 in Croydon, England. His family moved to Canada when he was 4, settling in Niagara Falls, Ontario. [3]

Walker earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1950. [4]

Author and columnist

He adopted the Gifford-Jones pseudonym when he wrote his first book in 1961, Hysterectomy: A Book for the Patient, due to the College of Physicians and Surgeons which ruled he could not publish a medical book under his own name as this would constitute advertising for patients and was not permitted under the college's rules. He went on to publish several more books under his pen name and used it when he launched his column, "The Doctor Game" in 1975 [3] in the Globe and Mail . It was syndicated to over 40 newspapers by the end of the 1970s. [1] [3]

The column appeared in the Globe and Mail until 1989 when it moved to the Toronto Sun . At its peak it was syndicated to over 85 newspapers in Canada, 300 newspapers in the United States, including the Chicago Sun-Times , and newspapers in Europe. He has also written nine books, has been a senior editor of Canadian Doctor magazine, and was a regular contributor to Fifty Plus magazine. [5] [2]

The Postmedia chain, including the Toronto Sun ceased carrying the Gifford-Jones column at the end of 2019. [6]

The weekly column continues to be published online and in smaller newspapers such as the Westerly Sun , the Kingsville Times, the Penticton Herald , [7] and the Prince Albert Daily Herald [8] [9] and has been co-authored with his daughter, Diana MacKay (using the pen name Diana Gifford-Jones), since 2020. [10]

Campaigns and advocacy

While practicing in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Walker was an advocate of women's right to choose abortion and was an abortion practitioner in the area after the procedure became legal in 1969, resulting in death threats from abortion opponents. [2]

In 1979, he began campaigning for the legalization of heroin as a painkiller for terminal cancer patients through his column, by creating the Gifford-Jones Foundation to raise money for the campaign and through newspaper advertisements and collecting 30,000 names on a petition and soliciting 20,000 letters from his readers in support of his efforts. [1] [11] His foundation donated $500,000 to the University of Toronto Medical School to establish the Gifford-Jones Professorship in Pain Control and Palliative Care. [12]

Walker has also advocated the right to assisted suicide and euthanasia and is a member of the physicians advisory council of Dying with Dignity Canada. [13]

Controversies

At age 73, Walker suffered a serious heart attack, and soon after had a triple bypass. He rejected the recommended statin therapy and recalling an interview he had with Linus Pauling advocating Vitamin C megadosage, began a regimen of 10 grams of Vitamin C, and 5 grams of the amino acid lysine, which he claimed saved his life. [14] Walker's advocacy of a combination of large dosages of Vitamin C and lysine to prevent or reverse coronary disease and his questioning of the use of statins has been criticized by medical professionals and also led to accusations that Walker's advocacy of this and other alternative treatments puts him in a conflict of interest as he sells vitamin supplements online, including a product that combines Vitamin C and lysine. Dr. Raphael Cheung, an endocrinologist at Windsor Regional Hospital, wrote in an op-ed response to Walker's advice that: “Dr. Gifford-Jones’ anecdotal experience belongs to medicine that was practiced half a century ago!” adding "Why does [the Windsor Star ] keep printing articles written by a retired OB-GYN regarding vascular health? Not knowing any better, there are patients who are at high risk for heart disease and stroke in our community who have stopped taking their medications after reading Gifford-Jones articles." Cheung also stated that he was surprised when a patient with coronary heart disease told him that he had stopped his heart medications and "had started taking Dr. Gifford-Jones’s Medi-C Plus treatment purchased online.” [15]

In 1986, Walker participated in a "fact finding" tour of South Africa sponsored by the apartheid government. Upon his return he wrote an op-ed in the Globe and Mail titled "The good side of white South Africa" which opposed sanctions against or disinvestment from South Africa and also opposed the prospect of ending white minority rule in the country. [16]

In 2018, the Toronto Sun pulled a Gifford-Jones column from its website following an outcry over its urging readers to consider "both sides of the vaccine debate". Sun editor Adrienne Batra said it was removed from the newspaper's website after medical professionals pointed out inaccuracies in the column. [17] By 2021, Gifford-Jones was taking a stronger position in favor of vaccination writing "I have never been against vaccination and proven science" and in regards towards COVID-19 vaccines "the risk is so, so minimal versus the risk of dying unvaccinated". [18]

Later life

After spending much of his life in Niagara Falls, Walker and his wife moved to Toronto's Harbourfront neighbourhood where they celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2016. [19] [2] Walker retired from his practice at the age of 87. As of 2024, the couple live in a retirement home in Toronto. [20]

He turned 100 on February 28, 2024. [20] The city of Niagara Falls, Ontario declared the day Dr. W. Gifford-Jones Day and staged a special illumination of Niagara Falls in his honour. [21]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niagara Falls, Ontario</span> City in Ontario, Canada

Niagara Falls is a city in Ontario, Canada, adjacent to, and named after, Niagara Falls. As of the 2021 census, the city had a population of 94,415. The city is located on the Niagara Peninsula along the western bank of the Niagara River, which forms part of the Canada–United States border, with the other side being the twin city of Niagara Falls, New York. Niagara Falls is within the Regional Municipality of Niagara and a part of the St. Catharines - Niagara Census Metropolitan Area (CMA).

Wilfred Gordon "Bill" Bigelow was a Canadian heart surgeon known for his role in developing the artificial pacemaker and the use of hypothermia in open heart surgery.

<i>Toronto Sun</i> Canadian tabloid newspaper published in Toronto

The Toronto Sun is an English-language tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several Sun tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices are located at Postmedia Place in downtown Toronto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Stowe</span> Canadian physician

Emily Howard Stowe was a Canadian physician who was the first female physician to practise in Canada, the second licensed female physician in Canada and an activist for women's rights and suffrage. Stowe helped found the women's suffrage movement in Canada and campaigned for the country's first medical college for women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Coren</span> British-Canadian writer and clergyman

Michael Coren is a British-Canadian writer and clergyman. A long-time television personality, Coren hosted The Michael Coren Show on the Crossroads Television System from 1999 to 2011 before moving to the Sun News Network to host The Arena with Michael Coren, from 2011 until the channel's demise in early 2015. He has also been a long-time radio personality, particularly on Toronto talk radio station CFRB. Coren is currently a columnist for the Toronto Star and iPolitics.

<i>Toronto Telegram</i> Canadian daily newspaper

The Toronto Evening Telegram was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at the federal and the provincial levels. The paper competed with an afternoon paper, The Toronto Daily Star, which supported the Liberals. The Telegram strongly supported Canada's connection with the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Empire as late as the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allan Fotheringham</span> Canadian journalist (1932–2020)

Allan Fotheringham was a Canadian newspaper and magazine journalist. He styled himself Dr. Foth and "the Great Gatheringfroth". He was described as "never at a loss for words".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morton Shulman</span> Canadian politician, physician, businessman, and broadcaster (1925–2000)

Morton Shulman was a Canadian politician, businessman, broadcaster, columnist, coroner, and physician. He was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1925 to a Jewish family. He first came to fame as Ontario's Chief Coroner in the early 1960s. During this period, he also became a very successful stock-market player, and authored a bestselling book about how to make money in the stock market. In the mid-1960s he embarrassed the provincial government when he found them to be disobeying provincial health and safety laws. He was fired and then ran for elected office in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, avenging himself by beating a government Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP). He completed two terms as the High Park electoral district's MPP, and did not run in the 1975 Ontario general election. His fame grew in the late 1970s and 1980s when he hosted a nationally distributed television talk show called The Shulman File. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in the early 1980s and became a pharmaceutical entrepreneur specializing in treatments for that disease. Near the end of his life, he received recognition for his lifetime's work, when he was appointed to the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian award. He died in Toronto in the year 2000.

Matthias Rath is a doctor, businessman, and vitamin salesman. He earned his medical degree in Germany. Rath claims that a program of nutritional supplements, including formulations that he sells, can treat or cure diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. These claims are not supported by any reliable medical research. Rath runs the Dr. Rath Health Foundation, has been closely associated with Health Now, Inc., and founded the Dr. Rath Research Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert S. Mendelsohn</span> American pediatrician (1926–1988)

Robert S. Mendelsohn was an American pediatrician, anti-vaccinationist and critic of medical paternalism. He denounced unnecessary hysterectomies, radical mastectomies, and dangerous medications, reminding his readers of public health failures such as the 1976 swine flu outbreak and the damage caused to daughters of women who took the drug diethylstilbestrol during pregnancy. He portrayed doctors as powerful priests of a primitive religion, with dishonesty as its central ethic. His mild manner appealed to the public, while his message infuriated his medical colleagues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry</span> Medical and dental school of the University of Western Ontario

The Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry is the combined medical school and dental school of the University of Western Ontario, a public university in London, Ontario, Canada

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Ablow</span> American novelist and life coach

Keith Russell Ablow is an American author, life coach, former television personality, and former psychiatrist. He is a former contributor for Fox News Channel and TheBlaze.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllis Cilento</span> Australian doctor and medical journalist (1894–1987)

Phyllis Dorothy Cilento, Lady Cilento was an Australian medical practitioner, prominent medical journalist, and pioneering advocate of family planning in Queensland.

Mark Bonokoski, is a Canadian conservative newspaper columnist and commentator. In November 2017, he was inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame. He has covered topics ranging from civil wars in Africa to federal Canadian politics. Former Toronto Mayor John Tory once stated "He's a tough columnist but always a fair columnist."

Gordon Singleton was a Canadian world-record holding track cyclist. In 1982, he became the first Canadian cyclist to win a world championship. He was the first, and only, cyclist in history to simultaneously hold world records in all three of track cycling's sprint races: the 200m, 500m and 1000m distances, all in a 24-hour span from October 9–10 in 1980. An Olympic racer, he was deprived of competing in the 1980 Summer Olympics at the peak of his career by Canada's boycott of those games in Moscow. He also competed and won gold medals in the 1978 Edmonton Commonwealth Games, and the 1979 Puerto Rico Pan Am Games for Canada. At the end of 1986, he was named a Companion of the Order of Canada. In his middle-age, he continued to cycle and took part in Master Series races, getting a bronze medal at the Canadian Nationals for his age group in 2014. He was inducted into the Canadian Cycling Hall of Fame in October 2015 along with some of his teammates from the 1970s and 1980s. His hometown of Niagara Falls, Ontario celebrated him many times over his life, including in 2004, as their best athlete in its first 100 years. After his cycling career was over, he took over his father's automotive parts business in Niagara Falls. In 2023, he was diagnosed with Cancer, and died from the disease in March 2024.

David Frederick Hepburn is a Canadian author and a retired medical doctor. He was a Canadian naval surgeon in the Persian Gulf War in 1991. He is the author of the book Doctor is In(sane) and he also writes columns by the names "Dave Barry of medicine" and the "Patch Adams of the podium" which are published simultaneously in Canada and the United States, as well as a radio show called "WiseQuack." He received the "Columnist of the Year" award for both the Arizona Newspaper Association and the Canadian Community Newspaper Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jen Gunter</span> Canadian-American gynecologist, columnist, and author

Jennifer Gunter is a Canadian-American gynecologist, a New York Times columnist covering women's health, an author, and a specialist in chronic pain medicine and vulvovaginal disorders.

Joel K. Kahn is an American cardiologist, integrative medicine practitioner and promoter of whole food plant-based nutrition. He has been criticized for promoting anti-vaccine and COVID-19 misinformation.

William James McCormick was a Canadian physician and nutritionist. Influenced by the Battle Creek Sanitarium of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, he became an early proponent on the use of Vitamins B and C for treating diseases. In 2004, McCormick was inducted into the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Richert, Lucas (October 2, 2017). "Heroin in the hospice: opioids and end-of-life discussions in the 1980s". Canadian Medical Association Journal. 189 (39): E1231–E1232. doi:10.1503/cmaj.170720. PMC   5628036 . PMID   30969939. S2CID   80421909 . Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Keeping up with Dr. W. Gifford-Jones". Montreal Gazette. October 23, 2017. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 "A columnist's radical medicine; Gifford-Jones's autobiography recounts battles over views on abortion, heroin use", by Valerie Hill, Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 1 December 2000 (retrieved via Factiva)
  4. ↑ "Walker, Kenneth Francis". CPSO. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  5. ↑ Cross, Brian (October 13, 2015). "Dr. Gifford-Jones has 'never been a fence sitter". Windsor Star. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  6. ↑ "Farewell Sun readers". Toronto Sun. December 28, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
  7. ↑ "Starting week with 100th trip around the sun". 4 March 2023.
  8. ↑ "The Doctor Game: Why wouldn't you take care of your heart?". 21 February 2022.
  9. ↑ "Is Cholesterol the Enemy?". 19 April 2022.
  10. ↑ "W. Gifford-Jones, MD and Diana Gifford-Jones, Author at Kingsville Times". 29 February 2024.
  11. ↑ Richert, Lucas (July 26, 2017). "Cancer controversies and traditional medicines". Regina Leader-Post. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Who Is W. Gifford-Jones, MD". W. Gifford-Jones, MD. Kenneth Francis Walker. Retrieved April 26, 2024.
  13. ↑ "Dr. Ken Walker (a.k.a. Dr. Gifford Jones)". Dying with Dignity Canada. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Dr. Gifford-Jones' Second Opinion on Heart Disease: Vitamin C & Lysine Supplements - Seminar Series". YouTube . 18 September 2014.
  15. ↑ "As the old sayings goes: Buyer beware" by Dr. Raphael Cheung (guest columnist), Windsor Star, December 31, 2013.
  16. ↑ "Taking Sides" (PDF). Southern Africa Report (pg 1-2). Vol. 2, no. 4. Toronto Committee for the Liberation of Southern Africa. February 1987. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  17. ↑ Burns, Adam. "Toronto Sun newspaper pulls column skeptical of vaccines after backlash". National Post. Canadian Press. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
  18. ↑ "The Case for Vaccination is Clear".
  19. ↑ "Dr. Gifford-Jones celebrates 60 years of marriage". The Bulletin. March 3, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2024.
  20. 1 2 Connor, Kevin (February 25, 2024). "Former Toronto Sun columnist Dr. W. Gifford-Jones to turn 100". Toronto Sun. Retrieved April 26, 2024.
  21. ↑ "Prolific medical columnist Dr. W. Gifford-Jones turns 100". Niagara Falls Review. April 26, 2024. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.