Promoting Unproven Health Devices
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Using the Flying “L” Ranch brand, Michael is actively promoting a product called the “Vortice Disc”, claiming that it provides health, healing and pain-relief benefits. Despite the absence of any verifiable clinical evidence, the promotional language claims it “works with the nervous system”, “supports natural healing”, and “helps the body’s signalling systems”, and the discs are presented as a “next-generation” drug-free solution for pain, inflammation, recovery, and general wellness.
Physically, the Vortice Disc is simply a clear plastic disc with a spiral pattern etched into it and sold in various sizes and kits at premium prices (in Italian "vortice" means "vortex, whirl, or swirl"). Around December 2025, the manufacturer introduced a new etched pattern on the plastic discs described as "refined open toroid design" (an "open toroid" is essentially a doughnut shape).
Michael’s social-media presentation may benefit from both a halo effect and parasocial trust. Followers who associate him with perseverance and apparent authenticity may transfer those favourable impressions to his unverified health-product claims. Repeated personal stories and direct communication can also create a one-sided sense of familiarity, causing promotional testimonials to be received more like advice from a trusted "friend" than advertising from a commercially connected promoter. Neither effect supplies evidence that the product works, but both can make weak evidence feel persuasive.
Based on the combination of Michael’s own postings and publicly available materials from the social-media accounts and website of Michael, Flying "L" Ranch, and Vortice disc, the available evidence is consistent with Michael and his family having significant promotional and commercial involvement with the product.
Here is a gallery of screen captures of Michael's 77 separate social-medial posts in which Michael promoted the Vortice Disc (from May 19, 2025 to July 26, 2026). Additional posts may not have been captured.
» Examples of dramatic, dangerous, and unverified, health claims:
The promoters, including Michael, attribute a wide range of healing and health benefits to the product and market it to "anyone seeking safe, natural pain relief and healing".
» Michael's claim it can stop and reverse shingles.
WARNING: Do Not Rely on the Vortice Disc to treat Shingles or Any Viral Infection.
The shingles claims made in promoting the Vortice Disc are especially concerning.
In a promotional Instagram story posted on or about April 2, 2026, Michael claimed the disc could “stop shingles in its tracks and reverse it within 24 hours if caught early” (image to the left). The Vortice Disc website goes beyond vague “wellness” language and specifically suggests that the disc may be used over a shingles outbreak.
That is a striking claim for a product whose own Terms say it is “not a medical device” and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any specific medical condition.
Shingles is not a minor irritation or a matter of “general wellness”; it is a viral condition that can involve severe pain, prolonged nerve complications, and, in some cases, urgent medical risk.
These shingles-specific promotions risk presenting an unverified product as a substitute for evidence-based care, which raises a clear public-interest concern. An etched plastic disc cannot resolve or reverse a viral infection, and no credible evidence has been presented showing that it can.
The established treatment for shingles is prompt medical assessment and, where appropriate, early antiviral medication, not reliance on an engraved plastic disc. Delaying prompt medical assessment and appropriate treatment could result in prolonged pain or other complications..
Anyone concerned about shingles and its treatment is advised to review authoritative sources such as the "Health Canada's Shingles (Herpes Zoster): Fact sheet", The National Shingles Foundation, and other credible medical resources.
If you think you may have shingles, consult your physician or other qualified healthcare professional without delay.
» Michael's claim that it can heal melanoma.
WARNING: Do Not Rely on the Vortice Disc to treat Melanoma.
On July 30, 2025, Michael posted an Instagram story promoting the Vortice Disc and asserted that it was “Actually healing a melonoma [sic] on the ole arm!”. The story displayed a disc taped to an arm and provided a direct “Get your discs here!” purchase link.
Michael's story provided no evidence that the skin lesion had been diagnosed as melanoma, that it was healing, or that the disc caused any therapeutic effect.
The image does not clearly identify the alleged melanoma or show what, if anything, had changed before or after the disc was applied.
Melanoma is a serious form of skin cancer that can spread to lymph nodes and internal organs. Prompt medical assessment matters because diagnosis ordinarily requires examination and biopsy, and treatment may include surgical removal and other established cancer therapies.
The story therefore documents an unverified cancer-treatment claim directly integrated with product promotion, it does not provide evidence that a Vortice Disc can treat melanoma.
If you think you may have melanoma, consult your physician or other qualified healthcare professional without delay.
» Other examples of Michael's extraordinary, but unverified, health claims:
Specific examples of dramatic health claims being made for a product that is explicitly disclaimed as ‘not a medical device’ and ‘not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any specific medical condition’ include, but are not limited to:
Michael claims, among other implausible effects attributed to these plastic discs is that they have reversed the age of the 14 year old family dog:
We have truly reversed his age with the @vorticedisc but his ear mites we just can't get ahead on so he's going to @dragon_lake_vet_hospital to see Dr. Ginger and get that dealt with and a full check up! Our 14 year old ranch pup Frisky! He looks happy! (September 3, 2025 story)
Michael also claims the plastic discs allowed him to avoid surgery:
Thanks to Vortice Disc I don't think I'll be needing that surgery anytime soon! (November 24, 2025 story)
Michael promotes the plastic discs to "condition spaces":
You can also condition spaces with these Discs! Happy Vibes! (February 17, 2026 story)
Michael promotes the plastic discs on the Vortice Disc Facebook page:
Love these Discs! They really work! (Michael's comment around December 5, 2025) and repeats "one user's honest story" from a recent ranch visitor crediting Michael with introducing her to the plastic discs (also found on the Flying "L" Ranch and Vortice Disc Instagram).
Despite such broad claims a disclaimer is found in the Vortice Disc Terms and Conditions:
Product Use Disclaimer:
The Vortice Disc is not a medical device. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any specific medical condition.
Always consult your healthcare provider before beginning any new health practice.
See Red Flag Cautions (below).
» Indications of Michael's Commercial ties to the Vortice Disc:
The company responsible for the plastic discs is Spinfield Technologies Inc., incorporated by Arthur B. Flick with whom Michael has a long standing relationship.
During a chat session on November 20, 2025, the Vortice Disc website’s AI Chat Support disclosed additional details about Michael’s relationship with Flick and their respective involvement with the Vortice Disc:
They've known each other for decades — Dr. A. B. Flick's work spans over 40 years and his collaboration with SpinField Technologies (associated with Michael Lares) grew out of that long history of development and clinical work.
...
Dr. A. B. Flick provided the scientific and clinical foundation: as founder and inventor he discovered the healing patterns, designed and prototyped the Vortice Disc, led clinical testing and placement protocols, and leveraged decades of orthopedic research and FDA submission experience to ensure the device's safety and clinical applicability.
SpinField Technologies / Michael Lares handled the technology and commercial pathway: as the partner organization linked to Michael Lares, they turned Dr. Flick's prototype into a manufacturable, patent-pending product, managed production, packaging, distribution, and the business operations that make the Vortice Disc available for purchase.
Within hours of that session, the Vortice Disc AI Chat Support was disabled. When it returned three days later, inquiries about Michael Lares or related matters were met with prompts directing users to email "manager@vorticedisc.com".
Our research indicates this is consistent with the use of the Wix AI Site Chat which allows site operators to curate its data sources and direct what may be presented:
Inject your own business knowledge into the AI Site Chat to enhance its performance. The more knowledge rules you add in the dashboard, the more accurate its responses will be.
You can also add restriction rules to prevent it from responding to certain topics, giving you more control over the way it communicates.
More about Michael's long-standing connections with Arthur B. Flick may be found below.
» It's a family affair:
Michael first introduced these plastic discs on the Flying "L" Ranch Instagram around May 19, 2025 ("These are just wow!!"). He has continued to actively promote them on the Instagram pages of both the Ranch and Vortice Disc, as well as the Vortice Disc website. This raises the question of the extent to which Michael receives financial or other benefit from such promotion.
There are multiple indicators consistent with a close operational and promotional connection between Michael and Vortice Disc. By way of but one example, on September 11, 2025 on the Flying "L" Ranch Instagram Michael posted a promotional story of his son Dylan lifting weights with one of the discs taped to his right shoulder with the text reading:
Fighting inflammation before, during and after workouts. Easy to wear and stays on with simple adhesives.
Simultaneously Michael posted the same story on the Vortice Disc Instagram.
On November 19, 2025 the entire family was involved in a 20-minute long Instagram post entitled "Time for the Vortice Disc Giveaway!!" in which they described the pain relief and restoration of "full mobility" received by affixing these plastic discs to parts of their bodies. This transcription of the Instagram post includes a link to the video.
I mean, these discs really work, man. So that's why we were wanting to share it. Cause we're excited to see people benefit from it.
We have collected and preserved a multitude of examples of Michael's promotions of the plastic discs which involve not only Michael himself, but his entire family as well as guests who visited the ranch.
» A pattern of promotion:
This shilling (‘shilling’ in the colloquial sense of persistent promotion) for unverified and unproven "health and healing" products goes back more than a decade. Examples include Michael’s disclosed ownership interest in SomniResonance (per his December 5, 2011 Bankruptcy Petition) and his relationship with the creator(s) of these purported healing devices, A. B. Flick and F. W. Lawrie, as disclosed in various interviews with Michael (found below).
» Observations consistent with Michael’s close involvement with Vortice Disc
Based on publicly available materials, including Michael’s own posts, recordings, and interviews, the available evidence is consistent with Michael playing an unusually active role in promoting Vortice Disc and Spinfield Technologies’ marketing efforts. The breadth and frequency of this promotion raise a reasonable question as to whether he receives some form of financial (or other) benefit from it.
The observations below explain why (these are observations and inferences are drawn from the cited materials; readers are invited to review the source links).
- Pre-launch access/promotion. Corporate records show Spinfield Technologies Inc., the company producing and marketing the discs, was registered on June 3, 2025, yet the discs appeared in Michael's Instagram post on May 19, 2025 — suggesting involvement and early access to the product prior to Spinfield’s June 3, 2025 incorporation.
- Mirrored “block” behaviour at account creation. At its inception in July 2025, the Vortice Disc Instagram account blocked several of the same accounts previously blocked from the Flying “L” Ranch Instagram, even though these accounts had no interaction with the new @vorticedisc account. Because Instagram provides no standard feature to import/copy a block list between accounts, this pattern is most consistent with blocking done by the same person, or at their direction, already familiar with the ranch account’s block targets.
- Follow pattern matches Michael’s network. The Vortice Disc Instagram initially followed only one account (Michael's). By December 10, 2025 it added just two others, each of which is associated with Michael’s social media influencer ecosystem (Dawn Olivieri and Ben Greenfield), reinforcing the appearance of coordinated promotion.
- Active moderation consistent with the ranch account. In the “Time for the Vortice Disc Giveaway!!" post of November 19, 2025, a comment comparing the disc's swirl pattern to patterns produced by a Spirograph was deleted within hours. That kind of rapid comment removal mirrors moderation behaviour observed on the Flying “L” Ranch account.
- High-volume cross-posting and shared content production. There is extensive Vortice Disc promotional content produced by Michael and his family, featuring Michael and the family members[1], the ranch, ranch animals and pets, as well as visitors to the ranch, across multiple social media platforms and accounts (Instagram, Facebook, Vortice Disc website). The volume and integration of these promotional materials are consistent with coordinated marketing rather than casual third-party endorsement.
- Insider knowledge of Vortice Disc promotions (Black Friday rollout). In the November 19, 2025 "Time for the Vortice Disc Giveaway!!" post Michael announces "Vortice Disc is putting on a Black Friday event sale" while Vortice Disc Black Friday promotional artwork is visible on his computer screen. This appears before the Black Friday campaign was publicly visible on the Vortice Disc website on November 21, 2025 — a timeline that is consistent with advance knowledge of, or coordination with, campaign materials and rollout planning.
- Proactive denial of direct compensation. On October 18, 2025 Michael explicitly denied being paid to promote Vortice Disc and said he had no discount code; in the November 19, 2025 giveaway post he again explicitly denied being paid to promote Vortice Disc, promoted a Black Friday sale, provided a 20% discount code, and in both cases provided viewers with the product link. This language and conduct are consistent with campaign-style or affiliate-style promotion and suggest a deliberate effort to pre-empt concerns about sponsorship, while not addressing whether any other form of benefit (financial or otherwise) may exist.
- Continued offering of Ranch-branded Discount Codes. Michael continues promotional postings with branded links to the manufacturer's website as well as Flying "L" Ranch branded discount codes.
- Production, distribution and business operations. Michael's involvement with SpinField Technologies, production, packaging, distribution, and the business operations of Vortice Disc as revealed by the Vortice AI Chat Support noted above.
Taken together, these observations are consistent with coordinated, insider-level involvement in the promotion and commercialization of the Vortice Disc, rather than independent third-party endorsement.
When you see a device marketed with dramatic testimonials but no real clinical evidence, loads of impressive-sounding technobabble instead of clear, testable explanations, and claims that it can help almost every condition (for you, your family, your pets, and even your plants), that’s a red flag.
Claims a plastic disc with etching can
stop and reverse shingles which, is a viral conditions that if not treated effectively, can involve severe pain, prolonged nerve complications, that's a red flag.
Phrases like "drug-free pain relief", "enriched living without side effects", "rebalance pain and nerve signalling",
but with zero specifics, throwing in impressive technobabble word salads like “energetic resonance”, “quantum fields”, “bio-holographic torsion”, "frequency fields", and "interaction of magnetic and electromagnetic fields with biological systems", etc., but absent any verifiable explanation about exactly how it works in a way that could actually be tested, that's a red flag.
Testimonials with lots of dramatic success stories alleging a device eliminated the need for surgery or medication, cured chronic pain elusive to conventional and licensed medical treatments, or otherwise "fixed everything" (like being told surgery would be done when the pain was unbearable to having ‘no pain’ and ‘full mobility’ thanks to the plastic discs), that's a red flag.
Disclaimers in the fine print, such as "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.", that's a red flag.
A
Cautionary Tale - "A Red Flag Product Sheet" - Introducing the Ecitrov Patch™” (PDF)
This is a parody “product sheet” that imitates the marketing style of
unverified energy devices that promise pain relief, healing, and even age reversal without a plausible mechanism or credible evidence. It exaggerates the technobabble and miracle testimonials to highlight how such language can be used to sell ordinary plastic objects lacking demonstrated clinical evidence to people who are often in pain, frightened, or desperate for solutions. It’s included here as an illustration of the kinds of claims and sales tactics that should trigger extreme caution, not as a description of any real medical device.
[1] Such family-produced content includes a Vortice Disc instructional video posted on the ranch and Vortice Disc Instagram accounts on September 14 and 15, 2025. The demonstrator in the video has visible tattoos. Lara, who according to the Flying "L" Ranch website is the "Website Designer, Digital Media Manager", and according to her own Instagram account holds a diploma in Screenwriting for TV and Film from the Toronto Film School.
Return to footnote reference in text.
» More about Michael's long standing connections with Arthur B. Flick:
In a podcast interview with Ben Greenfield Michael (March 23, 2016) Michael spoke of his decades–long relationship with Flick. In the interview Michael and Greenfield collaboratively promoted a device marketed by Michael and Flick (the SomniResonance SR1 Delta Sleeper) with Greenfield offered an affiliate-type 10% discount code ("Greenfit10").
In a later podcast interview with Greg Zuffelato (Feb 22, 2017), Michael again ties the SR1 pitch to his long-standing relationship with Flick, while describing himself as an “angel investor” and board member. He layers regulatory-sounding reassurance that may be read as implying FDA endorsement, but the interview does not provide evidence of FDA approval, supporting documents, or third-party verification. He leans on authoritative medical and technical language (e.g., “brain” sleep frequencies, “nudging” sleep stages, “resetting” circadian rhythm, and gauss comparisons) while advancing broad efficacy and safety claims, including medication-adjacent “step-off” comments, without the interview providing supporting evidence, references, or independent validation a reader can check. He offers a 5% discount to those who email him at Delta Sleeper.
Around the same period a November 24, 2016 WHOOP feature likewise describes Lares as proprietor of an “FDA–approved” sleep aid and summarizes SR1 as using pulsing electromagnetic signals to help induce sleep, again utilizing regulatory-sounding language presented without supporting documentation or independent verification in the article.
On January 23, 2026 Michael posted a story of Greenfield promoting the Vortice Disc. The very same story was concurrently posted on the Vortice Disc and Greenfield Instagram accounts offering an affiliate-type 15% discount code ("BEN15"). Here is a transcript of that story.
Who is Ben Greenfield? Michael's says he's "one of the U.S. top health experts" but we cannot find anything to verify that statement. Greenfield identifies himself as the "World's Top Biohacker", and appears to have over 870K social media followers/subscribers
But Greenfield has also been subject to criticism for promoting devices and treatments in product categories that independent experts/regulators often say lack solid evidence and may be dangerous. Greenfield recommends things like coffee enemas, injecting an experimental peptide clearly labeled "not for human use" (Met Enkephalin), and "doing daily rectal ozone insufflation for myself and my family" (meaning: blowing ozone gas up the anus).
One critic describes Greenfield’s site as a ‘cesspool of pseudoscience’, alleging that it promotes anti-vaccine content, unsupported nutrition claims, and other unverified health practices.
Ben Greenfield’s site is a cesspool of pseudoscience. He promotes anti-vaccine propaganda, his nutrition ideas are not supported by robust science, his podcast guests are quacks, his advice to cancer patients dangerous, and his biohacking experiments are often ridiculous.
(Source: Sheila Kealey article).
More about Ben Greenfield may be found here.
Nothing on this page is medical advice. It is commentary on marketing and evidence, not a recommendation for or against any medical treatment. Consumers are best protected when health-related claims are supported by verifiable evidence rather than personal testimony or promotional narrative.
July 29, 2026