Robert O. Young

Robert Oldham Young (born March 6, 1952) is an American naturopathic practitioner and author of alternative medicine books promoting an alkaline diet. His most popular works are the "pH Miracle" series of books, which outline his beliefs about holistic healing and an "alkalarian" lifestyle. Young came to prominence after appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show featured his treatment of Kim Tinkham for breast cancer. Tinkham and Young both claimed that he had cured her, but she died of her disease shortly afterward. He was arrested in January 2014 and convicted in 2016 on two out of three charges of theft and practicing medicine without a license. He spent several months in jail in 2017.

In November 2018 a San Diego jury awarded US$105 million in damages to a cancer patient he persuaded to forgo effective treatment in favor of his alkaline diet, resulting in her disease progressing to an incurable stage 4.

Young was convicted again in 2025 for practicing medicine without a license and sentenced to 68 months in prison.

Background Young's website states he attended the University of Utah on a tennis scholarship and studied biology and business in the early 1970s. He did not graduate. He then performed missionary work for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for two years in London. Young, who is not a medical doctor, has received doctorates for naturopathy and nutrition from Clayton College of Natural Health (formerly American College of Holistic Nutrition), a defunct correspondence school that was not accredited by any agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. and it was pointed out that he had gone from a bachelor's to a doctor's degree in eight months.

Published books Young has authored a series of books and videos titled The pH Miracle (2002), The pH Miracle for Diabetes (2004), The pH Miracle for Weight Loss (2005), and "The pH Miracle Revised" (2010). Other books he has authored include Herbal Nutritional Medications (1988), One Sickness, One Disease, One Treatment (1992), Sick and Tired (1995), Back to the House of Health (1999), and Back to the House of Health 2 (2003).

Work Young promotes an alkaline diet based on notions that are not compatible with the scientific understandings of nutrition and disease. Young writes about pleomorphism, a school of thought that was prominent in late-19th-century microbiology that asserts that red blood cells transform into bacteria when the surrounding environment becomes acidic—an idea that was proven wrong with the development of germ theory.

Young's books recommend a low-stress lifestyle and a high-water-content, high-chlorophyll, plant-based diet. He recommends moderate intake of high-carbohydrate vegetables, some grains, and fresh fish. Young recommends abstaining from "acidic" foods—sugar, red meat, shellfish, eggs, dairy, processed and refined foods, stored grains, artificial sweeteners, alcohol, coffee, chocolate, and sodas—because he believes that such foods overload the body with acidity and cause disease. A number of recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the medical literature have concluded that there is no evidence that alkaline diets are beneficial to humans.

According to a book review by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, some aspects of his diet, such as the emphasis on eating green leafy vegetables and exercise, would likely be healthy; however, the diet overall "is not a healthy way to lose weight." Quackwatch describes Young's claims as "fanciful". Live blood analysis has been described by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as an "unestablished laboratory test", or test that is not generally accepted in laboratory medicine.

Practicing medicine without a license In 1995, Young allegedly drew blood from two women, told them they were ill, and then sold them herbal products to treat these illnesses. He was charged with two third-degree felony counts of practicing medicine without a license, but pled guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge. Young argued that he had never claimed to be a medical doctor, that the women had entrapped him by asking to be part of his research, and that he "looked at the women's blood and simply gave them some nutritional advice."

In 2014 Young was arrested in San Diego and received 18 felony charges relating to practicing medicine without a license, and of theft. According to the Medical Board of California's press release, chronically ill patients were paying Young up to $50,000 for his treatments. His trial started in Vista Superior Court in November 2015. In February 2016, jurors found Young guilty of two counts of practicing medicine without a license. As of January 2017 he was facing a three-year jail sentence and was also to be retried on six charges of fraud, after a jury deadlocked 8–4. To avoid a retrial, Young pleaded guilty to two more counts of practicing medicine without a license. The 44-month sentence in the plea agreement included a declaration by Young that he has no degrees from any accredited schools, and that he is not "a microbiologist, hematologist, medical doctor, naturopathic doctor, or trained scientist".

In November 2018 he was ordered to pay US$105 million to a cancer patient who had sued him for claiming to be a doctor and advising her to forgo traditional medical treatment. The judge later reduced the cost to just over $25 million.

In February 2025 he was convicted by a jury in North County, San Diego, on a range of charges including elder abuse, theft from an elder and practising medicine without a license.

In Season 2, Episode 1 of the TV series "The Curious Case of..." on Investigation Discovery the program featured Young and his questionable practices (aired 12 January 2026).

Kim Tinkham In 2007, Kim Tinkham, diagnosed with stage three breast cancer, adopted Young's protocols and promoted them on her own website and on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She claimed to be "cancer free by all medical terms" in 2008, but died of cancer in 2010.

Claims about vaccines In 2020, at a meeting of the conspiracy theory group International Tribunal for Natural Justice, Young made a speech that included comments about Bill Gates and vaccines ("For the purpose of sterilization and population control, there’s too many people on the planet we need to get rid of. In the words of Bill Gates, at least three billion people need to die”; international health agencies are "using chemical warfare against all of us") that went viral on social media, which were dismissed as false by numerous fact-checking organizations.