PhD’s Gone Wild by Pat Conrad MD

Robert Young, PhD is in trouble (again) for practicing medicine without a license. The author of “The pH Miracle” was convicted last year of being a fake physician, and was charged with defrauding patients: “Young not only has touted himself as a doctor and a naturopath over the years, but his doctorate in nutrition is from a non-accredited, now-defunct correspondence school, and he does not have a medical degree, according to the BBC.” Far be it from me, a mere mortal, to disagree with the health recommendations of Victoria Beckham, Kate Hudson, Jennifer Aniston, and of course, Gwyneth Paltrow, who all love Young’s diet. But alas, a 27-year-old British woman flew to California and stayed at Young’s ranch, paying him $77,000 before she died three months later. British army captain Naima Houder-Mohammed, diagnosed with recurrent breast cancer, turned in apparent desperation to Young for treatment.

“Dr.” Young recommended to the woman that she be treated at his “pH Miracle Ranch, which has a large area set aside as a “clinic” to treat cancer.” Young equates “cancer” with “acidity”, and has hosted over 80 terminally ill patients at his ranch, treating them with – sigh – IV sodium bicarbonate. These treatments were supplemented with equally efficacious massages and colonics.

Another patient died from congestive heart failure, but not before heroic treatments of 33 intravenous sodium bicarbonate drips at $550 a pop, some administered personally by Young. Be sure to enjoy his website, where you can sign up for, among other things, a “group cleanse.”

More sensible counter-points in defense of alkaline diets emphasize the shift toward a great proportion of fresh fruits and vegetables, and away from more pro-inflammatory, processed foods. The Gracie Diet, developed and promoted by the first family of MMA, is an alkaline diet that has been around for years and is very well thought of by those with the discipline to follow it (and no, they do not make fraudulent health claims). But nutrition, like chemo, NSAID’s, CABG’s, physical therapy, and every other damn thing we do, has its limitations. It is sad that desperate people are exploited by total scumbags, but it will always still fall on the individual to ask whether a treatment makes sense.