Witnessed: Devil in the Ditch - Dr. Miracle I 1. The Alkaline Diet

Episode Date: July 1, 2024

Larrison Cambell, host of Witnessed: Devil in the Ditch returns with a new case – Dr. Miracle. Search for Chameleon: Dr. Miracle wherever you get your podcasts to get all episodes today.  From his stunning avocado ranch in San Diego County, Dr. Robert Young devotes his life to spreading the word about the increasingly popular alkaline diet. Tony Robbins becomes a fan, and one of Dr. Young’s patients is featured on Oprah. Up in the Bay Area, a young mother of three, Dawn Kali, gets a diagnosis that leads her to Dr. Young’s ranch for a fateful stay. A Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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when the wellness movement looked very different. It was a time when drinking juice didn't mean cucumbers and aloe and kale, but rather, Tropicana, with or without the pulp. It was a time when people went for wogs, something between a walk and jog, or they just did step aerobics at the gym. It was a time of boy bands and velour tracksuits

of big blondes falling out of nightclubs in Tybo on VHS. But even if trends felt different back then, a lot of the goals were the same as they are today. Look hot, lose weight, feel energetic, be healthy. Atkins diet is more popular than ever. Lose 20 pounds for $20. Low energy, brain fog, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, high cholesterol, heartburn, fatigue. 99% of the cases, the prescription that I wrote for them, it was food. That's

right, food. Food is the foundation of wellness. What you choose to eat and when you choose to eat it become rules. They become rituals. If we can follow certain principles, we get to feel good. If we fall short, we feel bad. And these principles, these rituals and beliefs, they help create order out of the chaos of daily life. More than just a lifestyle, a wellness trend can become like a religion. And like with any religion, people can get a little fanatical. Things can go off the rails.

I'm going to talk to you about one of the big wellness trends of the early aughts. It's one you may not have heard of — the alkaline diet. Back to the garden, back to the greens, back to God's butter, avocado. It's all about eating lots of leafy green vegetables and, yes, God's butter avocados. There's a lot of juicing involved. And there is even a loose guenafaltro connection. She's basically the spokesperson for a particular brand of alkaline water.

Blow water. Our great partners, we love Blow. It's an incredible water, naturally alkaline. It's incredible water, naturally alkaline. In some ways, the alkaline diet is just another one of these little wellness religions that pops up, then fizzles out, only to be replaced by the next trend. But the story of this particular diet is much bigger than that. It's about how terrifying things can get when people take wellness a step too far. Because some people on this diet would end up being dumped alone at hospitals.

Some would die. And others would lose their hope completely. The situations that would arise from this diet are deeply disturbing. But they didn't arise just from the diet. They were spun into existence by one man who claimed he had all the wellness answers that some people on the alkaline diet were seeking,

even if they were very sick with terrible diseases, including cancer. This man gave cancer patients what they thought was a cure. He seemed to be absolutely sure that everything he said about medicine and nutrition and really life in general was true. He played God, and he seemed so nice at first. From Sony Music Entertainment, Campside Media, and Dorothy Street Pictures, I'm Larysyn Campbell and this is Dr. Miracle, episode one. I'm in my 40s and from Mississippi, where you're far

likelier to find racks of ribs than bone broth. But I also grew up in the 1980s and 90s when following fad diets was practically an act of virtue. My mom had that little scale from NutriSystem and stacks of Jane Fonda videos. And I've always kept an eye on health trends, even before self-care became a buzzword. I tried The Zone in the 1990s, Atkins in the early 2000s. I ate ostrich jerky and fistfuls of soy nuts, which are objectively terrible.

I even used to have a job writing about public health and saw firsthand the absolute mess that is the US healthcare system. I understand why many people are desperate for an alternative. But there are so many alternatives out there. Should you go paleo or keto or maybe try the Whole30? Should you be intermittent fasting

or eating three square meals a day? Or is it six small ones? A new study says a little bit of cheese is good for you. There are about a million diets to choose from, but some diets are more intense than others, and the alkaline diet is one of them. Let's talk about alkalinity right now, because one of the greatest changes

that I experienced in my life was by alkalizing and energizing. Tony Robbins was very into alkalinity. Kelly Ripa, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth, name a celebrity, chances are they've tried it. Victoria Beckham, known at one point as Posh Spice, and for singing about desire, even alkalize. — Yo, I'll say you what I want, what I really, really want.

Don't tell me what you want, what you really, really want. I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it. I want it, really, really, really want it, because it's time. — The alkaline diet was a cultural signifier of its time. Like red Kabbalah bracelets, the diet became a brand, a religion even. Its adherents called themselves alcholarians, which does sound a little kooky. And it all kind of was, at least at first. There was one man who was leading this charge, Dr. Robert Young.

My background is in microbiology, nutrition, and biochemistry. Dr. Young is the face of the alkaline diet, a friendly face. He's published many books, including his blockbuster, The pH Miracle, Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health. We take better care of managing the pH of our swimming pools, and we do our own internal fluids. Managing that through an alkaline diet and lifestyle is the healthiest advice, and it's inexpensive, you see? It's easy. Dr. Young wants to make people's bodies more alkaline and less acidic. That means avoiding

the stuff we all know is bad for you. Alcohol, sugar, those little apple pies from McDonald's. Because those are acidifying. There's some confusion here. It's not that we're overweight. It's that we're over acid. Let me take you back for a moment to middle school science class. Acidity and alkalinity are measured on the pH scale.

Pure water is neutral, with a pH of 7. Acids like vinegar have a pH lower than 7. And alkaline substances like dish detergent have a pH above 7. Fresh leafy greens and vegetables, tofu, Young says that stuff makes you more alkaline. But to really alkalize, you need to help your body eliminate acids. And one way to do that, according to Young, was through colonics. You lay down on the table and they put this tube up your butt and they put all this water in, and then everything comes out. As gross as it sounds,

Young maintained that this was a key method for eliminating acids from your body. Four channels of elimination, urination, perspiration, respiration, or defecation. For respiration and perspiration, there were exercise classes. Dr. Young was a former tennis player, a college tennis star, and he loved movement. Hi, I'm Dr. Rob Young,

and I'd love to introduce you to a new form of exercise that I created called Yunga Yoga. This type of exercise incorporates cardio, stretching, breathing exercises, and core exercises that will make you sweat till you're wet. Dr. Young wasn't from California, but you can tell he fit right in. So laid-back, happy. He was the type of guy who got really into things like decorating for Christmas. Here's another employee. At Christmas time, he had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight trees, I think.

He loved singing Christmas carols. We found this recording of him performing one. When it seems the magic slips away, we find it all again on Christmas Day. Believe in what your heart is saying. People really loved Robert Young. His passion, it was infectious. He was easy to trust, to believe in.

Now if you only wanted to lose a little weight or have more energy, maybe like those celebrities who did the diet for a time, you were sort of on the outer rung of the Alkalarian lifestyle, and you probably didn't even know Dr. Young. But if you wanted to address something more serious, like immune diseases, diabetes, HIV, cancer, you might go see Dr. Young at his wellness center, which was called the P.H. Miracle Center, though everyone called it Miracle Ranch. I was actually at the ranch not that long ago. It's up in the hills of North San Diego County.

Everywhere you look, there is abundance and beauty. Groves of citrus trees drop ripe fruit right onto the street. The lush green hills are dotted with these vibrant wildflowers. A winding road curves uphill, and if you follow it, you'll come upon an iron gate and then a house. White and California modern, with a koi pond and big stepping stones leading to the front door. Follow the path behind the house and suddenly you're looking out over a vast 48-acre property. A bounty of cactus and trees heavy with fruit.

Pomegranates, grapefruit, guava. So many avocados. Framing the image are distant snow-capped mountains. It's awe-inspiring. Like you're both small and part of something majestic. Everything for me was just so powerful. That's Dawn Calley. Dawn is one of Dr. Young's followers, and you'll be hearing a lot from her. Everything meant so much. The grounds were beautiful with bougainvillea everywhere.

The avocado farm and grapefruit ranch The grounds were beautiful with bougainvillea everywhere. The avocado farm and grapefruit ranch and all these little dwellings, the tennis courts, it was just gorgeous. I'm here at the pH Miracle Center where so many people would just die to be in my position. Mary, a cook at the ranch, thought it was beautiful too. You walk down a big,

a long path and you go into this entry way and there's a big glass wall that looks out on the pool and looks at Palomar Mountain. You'd have people up to the kitchen, they'd set up a table and people would sit around and he would talk. The people at Miracle Ranch really loved listening to Dr. Young spin his theories. Donigan.

When he walked in the room, there was definitely that celebrity feeling. He was extremely trim and very fit. I remember exactly he was wearing a blue V-neck, like cashmere sweater, and he just came in nonchalantly. And, like, you almost could have missed it, you know? And he just came in and just introduced himself

and started talking. And I felt this really sentimental attachment because my father had recently passed away. And I had been kind of following all his teachings. I just felt almost like a father feeling towards him and Jesus Christ because I'm very, I'm not religious but I'm very spiritual and Jesus is a friend of mine and so I saw him as both those two things. That's pretty powerful, you know? And I cried.

I cried when he came in. Meeting Dr. Young and being on his ranch stirred up a lot of feelings in Dawn. What she didn't know, and no one else around the ranch knew at this time, was that Dr. Young had been arrested years earlier. He told two women he could cure their diseases with herbal products, made all sorts of claims about how he was a doctor who could heal them. He was charged with two third-degree felonies,

but the case was ultimately settled as a misdemeanor. And yet, now, Dr. Young was to Don and so many others, a famous savior, a bestselling author and healer, a pop culture diet Jesus. But could he be trusted? Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you. Heading for adventure? We'll help you breeze through security. Meeting friends a world away?

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Benefits vary by card. Terms apply. In the mid-2000s, there was a wellness trend that was all the rage. Back to the garden, back to the greens, back to God's butter, avocado. It was called the alkaline diet, and it was pioneered by Dr. Robert Young. Breakfast should start out with a fresh juice. But Robert Young didn't just promise weight loss. He promised a miracle cure. Follow my protocol. I've cured cancer.

She was desperate. Robert Young's followers called themselves Alcalarians. They followed his protocol even when it made them feel sicker. I just felt like a father feeling towards him and Jesus Christ. That's pretty powerful. Hear the story of a diet with deadly consequences and the search for truth when everything goes awry. Everyone's dying. Why is everyone dying?

From Campside Media, Dorothy Street Pictures, and Sony Music Entertainment, this is Dr. Miracle. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. So as I said, you're going to be hearing a lot from Don Calley. The reason is that Don is one of Dr. Robert Young's adherents who had a very particular relationship with him, one that became quasi-familial in very much about life and death. It started many years ago and and things got quite dark. Because Dr. Robert Young didn't only believe that his diet could help people lose weight.

He believed it could help people with the most serious diseases out there, including cancer. Don Callie has short gray hair and a beatific smile. She's only just turned 50. Her parents gave her the middle name Kali after the Hindu goddess of time and death. And she took it as her last name when she got divorced. She surrounds herself with beautiful things. Colorful jewelry, vibrant houseplants, big crystals.

The crystals actually are sort of a relic of her unusual upbringing. My dad was a dreamer. He was an artist, a guitar player. I was going through kind of a rough junior high, and I was having some troubles with some of the girls there. I was getting bullied, and he sent me to school with a crystal. Did it work, hold this. Did it work?

Hold this. If I used it as a weapon, maybe. So that was like my father's way of dealing with my emotional problems. It wasn't just crystals. They were also into alternative medicine. When she was sick, it was primarily tinctures and home remedies. She was born on a commune in Humboldt, California. Her parents were hippies, and their drug use got harder and harder. So to get away from this scene, they moved to San

Francisco, where she felt like an outcast, until she started a friendship with a kid next door whose family was also vegetarian. And then Dawn's father left Dawn's mother for that kid's mom. But even that didn't really break up the family. We all became like kind of one big happy family. So with the exes and everybody, you know, we did birthdays and even eventually vacations. Then as a teenager, something weird happened. That kid's aunt, who was now her aunt, was a spiritual teacher.

She was intuitive and even told Dawn that she was the chosen one, going to have a special role in the world. No one had ever given this kind of attention to Dawn or told her she was special. And the two grew very close. But her practice evolved to include ecstasy and sessions where 30 people would sit in a circle and read spiritual tomes, then go off into corners once the drugs kicked in. One night, Dawn met a handsome man there. He was 22 and she was just 16.

But they fell in love and she got pregnant for the first time at 17, then again at 18. Her family was by now so anti-hospital that she had home births. Her father had even told Dawn that she was a nervous person because her mom had delivered her in a hospital. We went to, like, homeopathic doctors. My family didn't like antibiotics, didn't like anything medicinal, unless it really was necessary. But of course, sometimes medical things really are necessary. Let me take you back to 2007. By now, Dawn's in her 30s. It's afternoon, and she's sitting on the couch talking on the phone to a friend when something strange happens.

I had breast implants at the time, so I was always feeling my breast implants. And so I was touching the side of my breast implant and I felt this lump. And it was hard. And I was like, oh, what's that? Dawn didn't have health insurance. She didn't go straight to a primary care doctor or an oncologist. She went to the plastic surgeon who did her breast implants. And she said, I don't like it. You were never here.

Go get yourself some insurance. And I was like, oh, okay. And a week later I was in surgery. The doctors were concerned enough that they wanted to remove the lump immediately. I remember coming out of the anesthesia and seeing the doctor leaning over me. And I said, was it cancer? And she said, yes. And we always, we knew it was. And we always, we knew it was. Now the tumor her doctor had found was tiny, only about the size of a pea. She had stage one breast cancer.

Dawn's chances of surviving, of even being cured completely, were extremely good, the doctor said. But she had to get it treated. She just laid it on thick about how serious this was, how dangerous this particular type was, how aggressive it was. With some cancers, you could get away with just radiation

and maybe a lumpectomy, but she said, with yours, you need everything. You need the chemo, you need the radiation. Dawn was out on the street in her car and all this information is swirling around in her head. She's only in her 30s, the single mother of three kids. Her own mother was on the fence about what Dawn should do. She was terrified of Dawn getting chemotherapy and radiation and, at the exact same time, was terrified of her not getting those things. And Dawn is also torn. She wants to get better, but the prospect of more surgery and being injected with toxic

chemicals that would make her sick, really sick. It goes against everything she was raised to believe. I was driving down California Street and I just remember like the buildings were so tall and everything. I felt so surreal. I called my aunt. Dawn's aunt, remember, the spiritual leader. I just started freaking out. And she, in her very stern voice that she was saying,

mama, stop! And now her aunt was confessing something to Dawn, something she'd never told Dawn before. She'd been diagnosed with cancer too. She didn't tell anybody. And she just went on this natural journey. Her aunt encouraged Dawn to do the same thing that she had, to go on her own natural healing journey. There are herbal remedies, detoxification therapies, all these alternative diagnostic tools. But they're no match for cancer.

Like for example, there's microscopy or blood analysis. When you get your blood drawn at a doctor's office, they can tell you if you're pre-diabetic or at a higher risk for a heart attack. Microscopists say they can tell you even more. But they can't. Microscopy is like reading tea leaves. It's a parlor trick. It's not science.

Still, Dawn's aunt takes her to see a microscopist. He looks a lot like the people Dawn grew up with. He has a sort of hippie vibe. But at the same time, his setup feels very science-y. He pricks her finger, puts the blood under a microscope, and when the images appear on the screen, he starts interpreting what he sees. This one's yeast, this is fungus, oh, this is mold, this looks bad. It looks like you have cancer. And like here, this guy didn't even know. And he was able to say, because

it showed up in this certain area, that it was in my breast region. And he was able to say, because it showed up in this certain area, that it was in my breast region. And I was just like, wow. As far as Dawn can tell, this guy knew she had breast cancer just from eyeballing a drop of her blood. It seemed like proof that microscopy was the real deal. So whatever advice this guy gave, she was ready to follow it. And what he recommended was that Dawn follow an alkaline diet to heal herself. Because as it happens, the microscopist who trained this guy? That was Dr. Robert Young, the guru of the miracle ranch. Just like in a swimming pool or in an aquarium,

that delicate pH balance, if the pH goes off a little bit, the fish gets sick. And of course, it's a metaphor that I use. What would you do? Would you treat the water or treat the fish or change the water? The water in the fish tank is our environment, specifically the food we eat.

And our bodies are the fish. So if you're eating toxic or acidic foods, well, it's going to make every cell in your body acidic. And like that fish, you're going to get sick. But take body becomes alkaline. And he says an alkaline body cannot get sick. This makes sense to Don and a lot of other people, people who wanted to heal themselves. Except it is complete garbage. It is not true. It may be great to eat green foods. It may be great to eat green foods. It definitely is great to eat green foods.

But it does not change the pH of your blood, period. Dr. Robert Young's bigger point was that you are in charge of making your body alkaline. By following his diet, you are able to make yourself healthy. This was really the central tenet of the wellness movement that was ramping up around this time in the 2000s. And it was all very tied in with one of the biggest cultural touchstones of that moment, a movie and book called The Secret. The secret is the law of attraction.

Everything that's coming into your life, you are attracting into your life. The secret was all about positive thinking and manifesting your desires, even in the realm of health and wellness. Well, we come with a basic program. It's called self-healing. You get a wound, it grows back together.

The immune system is made to heal itself. In terms of Dr. Robert Young, the secret became very important to his popularity in sort of a roundabout way. It became important through one of his adherents, a 50-year-old woman named Kim Tinkham. Here's Kim. Kim Tinkham, Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., Ph.D.,

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choice was surprising from someone like Kim in a way that it wasn't from Dawn. See, Kim's a type A entrepreneur. What Kim was seeking was a sense of control. I'm very practical. I have a lot of common sense. I do a lot with my intuition. But I felt really stupid when I was talking to the doctors. And I didn't like that feeling. And I didn't like being rushed because I'm a researcher. So she searched for another path to healing and wrote a letter about it to Oprah. And Oprah invited her on the show. The next thing she knew, Kim was on her way to Chicago.

She was entering the green room in Oprah's soundstage. And then she was sitting next to Oprah on a cream-colored sectional, so close their knees are almost touching. — The medical community, as we know, have been able to perform what some people call miracles. I think it's irresponsible not to take advantage of that. — Oprah is saying when chemo, radiation, and other interventions have been proven to help people survive cancer, why would you say no? But Kim stuck to her guns.

Is this about holding on to the breast? It's about holding on to my right for choice. Okay. That I respect. Okay. I wish you the best. And what choice did Kim Tinkham make? She chose to follow Dr. Robert Young in his pH miracle program.

My joints, within a week, my joints were, I woke up and I thought, oh my gosh, I slept through the night. Even though Dawn and Kim were complete opposites, when they got their breast cancer diagnoses, they both ended up in the same place, under the care of Dr. Robert Young at Miracle Ranch, hoping, believing that he would help them heal themselves, just like in the secret. Three simple words. Thoughts become things.

What most people don't understand is that thought has a frequency. Thoughts are sending out that magnetic signal that is drawing the parallel back to you. Now Robert Young didn't exactly say that your thoughts could cure you. He believed that his program could cure you, he believed that his program could cure you. And his program appealed to both hippie, idealistic Don and nose-to-the-grindstone Kim. He'd combined what he said was rigorous research and science with nature, with tapping into the healing powers

of Mother Earth. But was it all it was cracked up to be? In 2009, Dawn Calley finds another lump in her breast. But instead of calling her doctor, she calls Robert Young. And he tells her, this time she needs to stay away from surgery. This is Dawn's chance to go all in on the alkaline diet. Now, Young has designed liquid cleanses that are supposed to alkalize your body in a more intense way than just the regular alkaline diet.

You lived on the toilet on his plan. Like I said, Dr. Young's diet was intense. Like if you had 20 times, you know, and you were, your bowel movement was all liquid, he would celebrate it. Just because it was acids. This regimen was tough. I was like, oh my God, I can't eat anything. Like you can't eat a thing.

Like you can't, it's like mushrooms, no. You know, no starches, no breads, not even quinoa. I mean, nothing in for 12 weeks. You have to do this liquefied diet and I'd always fail and eat a burrito or something. She feels like if she can't stick to the diet, then she can't beat her cancer. As the months pass, Dawn falls into a cycle.

Commit to cutting out all acidic foods, cave and eat something acidic, vomit, get back on the wagon, repeat. And in the middle of Dawn's spiral, as if she doesn't have enough on her mind. I also found out in February of 2010 that I was pregnant. Now this was totally unexpected. It had been a few years since she split up with her husband, who was the father of her first three children. And that had been a dysfunctional relationship, tumultuous. Now she had a new boyfriend and things were much more stable. But they weren't even thinking about having a baby.

It was all so intense. But birth, death, the cycle of life, this sort of intensity was normal for the people connected to Miracle Ranch. Because even as Dawn was dealing with being pregnant, Kim Tinkham, Dr. Robert Young's most famous patient, was still battling her cancer. I was amazed because I said, what causes cancer? This is Kim in a video with Dr. Young. And you said there is no such thing as cancer. The cancer or cancerous conditions

is a result of metabolic or dietary acids that are being eliminated into the fatty tissues. Kim's husband, Scott Tinkham, says it seemed like the alkaline diet was helping Kim. She wasn't tired. She was in the same health. She kept good care of herself, exercised every day. She'd spend time on the ranch.

And then she'd come home to Texas, and their life was normal. Scott said sometimes he even forgot she'd been diagnosed at all, except for one thing. She had a lump on her chest. He didn't even know it was a tumor. He didn't even know it was a tumor. He didn't even know it was a tumor. He didn't even know it was a tumor. He didn't even know it was a tumor. He didn't even know it was a tumor.

He didn't even know it was a tumor. He didn't even know it was a tumor. He didn't even know it was a tumor. He didn't even know it was a tumor. He didn't even know it was a tumor. He didn't even know it was a tumor. He didn't even know it was a tumor. He didn't even know it was a tumor. When Kim's tumor stuck out more, Young supposedly said it wasn't growing bigger. It was just working its way out, trying to escape her alkaline body.

This was a good sign, according to Dr. Young. And Kim's husband Scott believed him that she was getting better. Even though to the naked eye, the mass was growing steadily, alarmingly bigger, it would be a matter of months until Kim and her husband had to face the truth. The truth being that Dr. Young is a fraud who seems willing to play with people's lives. And listen to this. As much as Dr. Young espoused green and clean living, employees say he didn't follow the diet himself.

He had a sweet tooth. I remember on his birthday, Rosie buying him a box of eclairs, and he would eat all of them. Another employee said she also saw Young sneaking junk food. I'd go up there a couple of times when they were eating sandwiches from Whole Foods and chips from Whole Foods. What does it mean that Dr. Young didn't stick with his own diet, even as he's telling very sick people that this diet can cure them, save their lives.

Maybe it means he doesn't appreciate right from wrong, doesn't care about others. He's reckless. And eventually, that recklessness would capture the attention of law enforcement in California. After a meticulous investigation, they would learn that the basis of Dr. Young's business, that he was a good doctor, who like all doctors, was upholding an oath to heal and not harm, was based on a lie. Dr. Young didn't have a medical degree to be advising any patients at all. Robert Young's not a doctor. He's not who he portrayed himself to you as.

He got all of his degrees from a diploma mill that was shut down in the state of Alabama. He obtained a bachelor's, a master's, and a PhD, I think all in the span of 18 months. The thing is, nobody who was at Miracle Ranch would know any of this for a long time. Not until way after his patients started dying. This season on Dr. Miracle. There are losers. There are people that owe us money.

They're going to have to tell the truth instead of some bullshit lie. When we found that out, we're like, oh, this changes the game a little bit. We might have a homicide charge. One time she told me, I've never seen you look worse. She said, just be careful. Dr. Miracle is a production of Campside Media, Sony Music Entertainment, and Dorothy Street Pictures. The show was hosted by me, Laris and Campbell. I reported it with Lily Houston Smith, our producer,

and also our field recordist. Shoshie Smolovitz is our managing producer and editor. Our executive producers are Vanessa Gregoriotis and me, Laris and Campbell. From Sony Music Entertainment, our executive producer is Catherine St. Louis. Our sound designer and mix engineer is Michelle Macklem. Studio recording by Ewan Lai-Trimuan.

Story editing by Amy Padula. Fact checking by Julia Case-Lavigne. Additional help from Rachel Yang and Rajiv Gola. If you're enjoying the show, please tell a friend. It really does help spread the word.