Robert O. Young, the controversial figure behind the pH Miracle diet, has been sentenced to prison alongside his co-defendant Galina Migalko, after they were found guilty of several felony counts. As reported by the San Diego County District Attorney's Office, the pair was charged with practicing without a medical license and theft from an elder, among other offenses. Young, at 73, received a sentence of five years and eight months in prison on May 28, while Migalko, at 61, was given a sentence of four years and four months.
District Attorney Summer Stephan condemned the actions of Young and Migalko, stating, per the San Diego County District Attorney's Office, "It is unconscionable that this defendant continued to treat patients for serious illnesses when he had twice been convicted of practicing medicine without a license and has nothing more than a high school education and purchased 'degrees' from unaccredited correspondence schools." Young has been a figure of notoriety for promoting his pH Miracle diet, which includes an all-vegetable smoothie diet and intravenous infusions of sodium bicarbonate to supposedly "alkalinize" the body. Despite the medical community having debunked these claims, Young and Migalko managed to convince a 79-year-old woman with a life-threatening liver illness to abandon her conventional medical care and seek their treatment instead.
From September 2020 to January 2021, the woman with liver disease was under the care of Young and Migalko, exposing her to significant risks due to their unapproved treatments. The district attorney emphasized the grave nature of their crime, asserting that, "His fraudulent treatments did not address the serious illnesses of his patients, putting them at serious risk." The medical community has repeatedly criticized Young's treatments as lacking a scientific basis, highlighting the danger posed to patients seeking such alternative methods, as cited by the San Diego County District Attorney's Office.
