The Story of One Woman Who Fell Prey to the Medical Freedom Movement

Sad!

In 2007, more than 1,440,000 Americans were diagnosed with cancer. Dawn Kali was one of them. Then in her mid-30s and raising three kids, Ms. Kali’s natural warmth and openness made her a popular waitress at the raw-food restaurant where she worked in San Francisco. When her doctor told her she had Stage 1 breast cancer, the fact that survival rates for her cancer type were in excess of 90 percent (and rising) did little to soften the emotional blow. Ms. Kali knew what cancer entailed: a barrage of medical treatments that seemed to sap people of their quality of life. And then they’d die anyway. “That’s not going to be me,” she swore.

Ms. Kali had grown up in a family that revered the principles of all-natural living. She liked her burritos G.M.O.-free and her milk raw. She was wary of medical interventions that exposed the body to chemicals and radiation. Sometimes she suspected that the entire medical system had been captured by special interests. She wanted health care that felt caring, not the impersonality and inaccessibility that she encountered in hospitals. And so while she agreed to undergo surgery to excise her tumor, she declined to follow up with an oncologist. Instead, she began searching for alternatives…….

This new Wild West awaited Ms. Kali when, after her 2007 cancer diagnosis, she began searching for possible cures. She discovered “The pH Miracle,” a 2002 book written by a charming self-proclaimed naturopath named Robert Oldham Young. Mr. Young asserted that deacidifying the body through diet, exercise and his pH Miracle-branded pills and creams could cure virtually any sickness. Cancer, Mr. Young taught, was merely a symptom of an acidic internal environment. His credibility was bolstered by his appearances on national talk shows that featured him as a diet guru.



https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/...e_code=1.7k4.4Xp3.cy0VD6cAvb3w&smid=url-share

 

One of my favorite thing about this pH fad was once seeing Gwyneth Paltrow, of Goop fame, talk about how she likes to start her day with a glass of alkaline water spritzed with lemon juice.

And, ah, funny thing seeing how official quacks and non-official quacks alike look at exercise as magical medicine. Funny that.