PH Miracle Dr. Robert Young strikes again

Dr. Robert O. Young chills ar his Valley Center ranch.

The dying officer treated for cancer with baking soda

Naima Houder-Mohammed

The father of the alkaline diet, Robert O Young, is hailed as an inspiration by one of the UK’s most popular food writers, Natasha Corrett, but he faces a jail sentence for practising medicine without a licence. One patient who believed he could cure her cancer, British Army officer Naima Houder-Mohammed, paid thousands of dollars for his alkaline treatment, which consisted mainly of intravenous infusions of baking soda.

In May 2009 Naima Houder-Mohammed was commissioned as a Captain in the British Army. The following year, tragedy struck. Naima was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She received treatment and was declared cancer-free. But in 2012, while training with the army skiing team, it was discovered the cancer had returned. Her condition was so serious she was offered end-of-life care.

“She refused to accept that this was the end,” recalls her friend and former fellow officer, Afzal Amin.

“Naima was a fighter. She fought to get through selection for Sandhurst. She fought through Sandhurst and she fought her way through her life in everything she dealt with – army skiing or whatever it may have been. And this for her was another fight in that long list of victories.”

Naima Houder-Mohammed
Naima Houder-Mohammed/DAVID POOLE

As her medical options were limited, Naima did what many of us would do – she turned to the internet for a solution.

She came across Dr Robert O Young, an American alternative health writer selling a message of hope for cancer patients online.

Naima began an email correspondence with him, which reveals how pseudo-science can be used to manipulate the vulnerable.

Young is the author of a series of books called the pH Miracle, which has sold more than four million copies around the world.

These books lay out his “alkaline approach” to food and health which has influenced many others, including the work of the British clean-eating guru Natasha Corrett, whose Honestly Healthy brand promotes her take on an alkaline diet.


Natasha Corrett

Natasha CorrettGETTY IMAGES
  • In the introduction to her book Honestly Healthy Cleanse, the food writer says acidity in the body causes “dis-ease”, which can show itself in “everyday discomforts” like acne, dry skin and bloating, “to much more serious illnesses, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity”
  • She says Young “discovered that eating a plant-based diet free from processed foods can help to cure terminal diseases in the body”
  • She adds that his work is not recognised by the medical industry, “perhaps because giant pharmaceutical organisations wouldn’t be able to make money out of doctors prescribing vegetables”

In one email Young sent to Naima in July 2012, he told her “there is a great need for a daily regime focused on… hyper-perfusing the blood with alkalinity”. He went on: “I would suggest your healing program is going to take at least 8 – 12 weeks. It will not be easy but you will be in a controlled environment that will give you the care you need.”

Naima set about raising the money she would need – in one email Young mentioned a figure of $3,000 (£2,440) per day.

Naima’s family used their savings, ran fund-raising events and managed to pull together tens of thousands of pounds with the help of a charity so that Naima could be treated by Young.

But the treatment did not have the outcome she was hoping for.

Email from Robert O Young to Naima Houder-Mohammed
Email from Robert O Young to Naima Houder-Mohammed

On one recent sun-kissed Californian morning, we drove up into the hills outside San Diego to visit Young. As we turned off Paradise Mountain Road, the parched golden grass eventually gave way to groves of avocado trees and we entered a millionaire’s paradise known as the “pH Miracle Ranch”.

The front door, preposterously set behind a moat, is reached by walking across some stone slabs.

As Young welcomed us into the ranch, our eyes were drawn to an empty spherical fish-tank built into the wall that separated the living area from the kitchen.

Noting our interest, he began to share his alkaline view of the world, starting with what he calls the fish-bowl metaphor. “If the fish is sick – what would you do? Treat the fish or change the water?”

He went on: “The human body in its perfect state of health is alkaline in its design.”

He went on: “The human body in its perfect state of health is alkaline in its design.”

The pH of our blood is 7.4, which is slightly alkaline, so Young is broadly correct – although different compartments of our bodies, such as our stomach, function at very different pHs.

But then Young’s “alkaline living” vision becomes complete fantasy. Young believes that in order to maintain the pH of our blood, we have to eat “alkaline” foods.

The main problem with this view is that it doesn’t appear to take into account the stomach, which functions at a pH of about 1.5 and is the most acidic compartment in the body. Thus, everything we consume, regardless of its starting pH, becomes acidic before passing into the intestines.

Also, the categorisation of foods into alkaline or acidic does not appear to follow any consistent rules, with certain citrus fruits (full of citric acid) considered to be alkaline, for instance.

However, Young’s view that alkalinity is good and acidity is bad goes beyond food. He told us: “All sickness and disease can be prevented by managing the delicate pH balance of the fluids of the body.”

He believes that when your blood becomes acidic, something weird happens, and your blood cells transform into bacteria – a phenomenon he calls pleomorphism – thereby resulting in a diseased state.

This, frankly wild, view goes against all current scientific understanding.

When we put this to him, he simply disagreed, saying: “Germs are nothing more than the biological transformation of animal, human or plant matter. They’re born out of that.”

This is post-truth.

Dr Giles Yeo with Robert O Young
Dr Giles Yeo with Robert O Young at the Valley Center “pH Miracle Ranch”

The biggest problem is that because Young believes that disease emerges from acidity, then by extension disease can be reversed with alkalinity – echoing his fish-bowl metaphor that you don’t treat the disease, but you change the environment.

When Young said Naima would be cared for in a controlled environment, he meant the pH Miracle Ranch, which has a large area set aside as a “clinic” to treat cancer.

Young told us he uses the term “cancerous” as an adjective to describe a state of acidity.

Since 2005 he has brought more than 80 terminally ill patients to stay at his ranch for months at a time. Treatment has included intravenous infusions of an alkaline solution of sodium bicarbonate – the same Arm and Hammer stuff you stick in your fridge to absorb smells.

This was the “healing programme” that was being sold to Naima.

There is no doubting the impact of Young’s message. In an email, Naima wrote to him: “I’ll be pronounced text book perfect in a few months.”

According to her friend Afzal Amin: “Naima was supremely confident that, with her willpower and this therapy, she would be healed. That was the overriding emotion in her that yes, I am going to better.”

We put it to Young that someone like Naima, in a terminally ill state, who was desperate for a cure, would buy anything, try anything to help get better.

He responded: “But I wasn’t selling her anything… I didn’t force her to come here, it was her decision.”

Yet, in one email Young insisted on Naima paying for her treatment, before she stepped on to the plane.

Email from Robert O Young to Naima Houder-Mohammed

All in all, Naima and her family paid Young more than $77,000 (£62,700) for the treatment.

Young told us: “The doctors need to be paid and the people that are doing the massages need to be paid and the colonics, but I gave her the best price to make sure that those people were paid.”

There is no evidence whatsoever that infusing an alkaline solution into your bloodstream will do anything against cancer. When we raised this with Young, he said: “These things need to be studied.”

After about three months at Young’s facility, her condition worsened and she was taken to hospital. Naima was brought back to the UK and died with her family. She was 27.

Afzal Amin told us: “They feel utterly betrayed. It’s just horrific that somebody could exploit people for money. This is I think for them the most disturbing element, that for something as cheap as money he was just able to destroy people’s lives.”

Young’s activities at the pH Miracle Ranch have not gone unnoticed by the authorities.

In 2011 the Medical Board of California began an undercover investigation after concerns were raised by a woman treated there.

Investigators were able to establish the prognosis of 15 cancer patients treated at the ranch – none of them outlived it.

One patient, Genia Vanderhaeghen, died from congestive heart failure – fluid around the heart – while being treated. Young told us he was “out of town” at the time.

According to an invoice we obtained, she had been given 33 intravenous sodium bicarbonate drips, each charged at $550 (£448), over 31 days. Some were administered by Young himself.

Last year Young was convicted of two charges of practising medicine without a license, and now faces up to three years in prison.

In court it was revealed that he is not a medical doctor and bought his PhD from a diploma mill.

We asked him if he felt remorse for what he had done. He said: “I don’t have remorse because of the thousands if not millions of people that have been helped through the [alkaline diet] programme.”

We asked Natasha Corrett to comment on the influence of Robert Young on Honestly Healthy. She told us: “We believe that our bodies should be fuelled with healthy and nutritious ingredients but we also believe that life is about having things in moderation.”

This was originally published by BBC Stories and re-printed by special permission. For more, visit BBC News Magazine

8 Comments on "PH Miracle Dr. Robert Young strikes again"

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  3. This is such a stupid fucking article. It’s extremely biased. I deal with brittle type 1 diabetes and under my allopathic Doctors Care I was only becoming worse . I found dr. Young’s books and started following him his support and natural regimes and literally save my own life . I met dr. Young, he’s trying to help people educate themselves to understand what causes and cures cancer. You can’t blame him for what allopathic doctors had already failed before him.

  4. I think as an Australian and a European alternate medicine is well respected because it works. Dr Young or even if he is not referred to as a dr. is to many including myself a person that has taken responsibility for his own health and seen amazing results from a plant based diet. Its a tragedy that most Americans think that the so called medical doctor is almost god like in his knowledge however the facts speak for themselves. All chronic diseases ar on a relentless rise and nothing is being cured especially cancer that has seen billions spent on research.

    I think America needs to wake up to a natural approach to medicine and not the medical system that thinks taking a drug or pill is going to cure anything. You Americans spend more money on healthcare than all the western countries put together yet you rank about 33rd on the life expectancy ratings and worse on infant mortality. Wake up America Dr. Young is right and a victim of a broken system. Michael Breeze (Australian/UK Citizen) P.S. I was sad to hear of Naima Houder-Mohammed passing, my Brother died a terrible agonising death from 5FU chemo plus radiation and my wife also from the depression drugs till i woke up to this broken medical system. Dr. Young is I believe on the right track but its a very brave person that goes against traditional medical practices. I hope he continues his work and I hope he is genuine and not in it for the money (i dont think so)

  5. This man is a liar he teaches people to check blood which takes a degree in Microbiology well his wasn’t real, and to sell his products. He promises that he is the answer to all the problems with cancer. He is not a doctor in natural medicine or any kine of medicine I found out when I went to court. He does not even have a degree in anything its all lies. I am one of the people that he plead guilty at court, he ordered an IV and had his nurse administer it to me saying it had all the vitamins and minerals to help me feel better. guess what it was nothing but sodium bicarbonate that I can buy in the store for 2.00 . His jacket he wore at class had a label in thread DR. YOUNG. He calls his self doctor. that’s on there to make us feel safe because we feel safe with doctors. I thought he was promoting natural healing why did he find it necc. to have that lie on his jacket. was that to justify charging enormous amounts of money for baking soda IVs and saying he has the cure? His wife is the one who is a diatician not him. the one with the knowledge of a good diets for diabetics is Mrs Young. its great for them. But people with cancer and autoimmune diseases such as I myself have its not the answer. He stold money from desperate people. A regular IV in the hospital was 120.00 for me never 500.00 I thought he must have something really special in that IV i was excited. just to feel better for a few days would be great. My feet just swelled up i felt worse. He over charged he didn’t care about us he only wanted to line his pockets and that of his Cohorts, This man should have gotten life for his deceitfulness. He also claims to be a Mormon a Godly man, if he loved people he would not have charged that kind of money. A colonic is 20.00 most places, a massage is 40.00 at most places, his IV cost maybe 5.00 to make. how does that add up to 3000.00 a day to stay at his ranch a hotel for me close by was 48.00 a night. These wonderful people looking for a last chance got took for every penny they had and that of there family and still died even sooner some of them then if they didnt come to him. They still had to bury there loved one now in debt on top of going thru a loss. No money back guarantee we humans dont come with one. I got deathly sick drinking alkaline water. not better The natural water we drink filtered of germs is great for us. a slice of lemmon did the same as his alkaline machine.that cost how much? We all should take a lesson from this man on how to get rich if that is what you want out of life, I myself wanted to help people like me for free. I paid all that money for His class to help people that cannot even be used its not real, To bad I didn’t know this man before I went and trusted him. If it is to good to be true it is. Except the Love of Jesus Christ He is the only way to healing miracles if it is in His will. and not our own definitely not Mr YOUNG and his so called miracle diet

  6. The man is a quack. He’s admitted he has no formal education and purchased his “doctorate” From a diploma mill. Unfortunately, he was only given three years in prison and then given credit for time served. He is the worst type of charlatan. I’m not saying Western medicine is perfect but I’ll take science over someone trying to line their pockets any day of the week. By the way: I have Parkinson’s disease and if it wasn’t for l-dopa… A substance sold by pharmaceutical companies, I would’ve committed suicide years ago. Pharmaceuticals are a terrible alternative… Except for all the other alternatives!

  7. Dr.Young’s theories of Acid/Alkaline Balance is similarly based on the 10,000 years Traditional Chinese Medical practice of Yin and Yang Balance theory. All diseases are caused by acidosis and the traditional Chinese Medical Practice to cure is using Herbs which are nearly all Alkaline. Look deeper into Dr.Young’s Colloidal Science and you find the Quantum leap in medical Science for the new age.

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