Young was born on July 11, 1949 and attended high school in Challis, Idaho. In his late teens, Young moved to Canada with the intention of homesteading in British Columbia. By Young's account, at the age of 24, he suffered a near-fatal logging accident, and had to use a wheelchair for a time, and he further claimed that while rehabilitating, he began to experiment with essential oils. In 1980, Young enrolled in a therapeutic massage program at the “American Institute of Physiogenerology”; however, according to the Institute's founder, Young left after attending only a few classes, doing a third of the homework, and owing an unpaid debt for tuition. Young claimed to have earned a doctorate degree in naturopathy in 1985 from Bernadean University, an unaccredited school described as a “mail-order diploma mill”.
Career
In 1982, Young opened a clinic in Spokane, Washington, which offered unlicensed medical services, including childbirth. In 1983, Young was the subject of a joint undercover investigation launched by the Spokane Police Department and the state of Washington. During the course of the investigation, Young offered to deliver a baby, and he claimed that he could detect cancer with a blood test and treat the disease. He was subsequently arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license, to which he ultimately pleaded guilty. Young was fined $250, given a 60-day suspended sentence, and placed on probation for one year. In 1986 while promoting himself as a naturopathic doctor, Young was operating the Rosarita Beach Clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, offering "detoxification" for cancer and lupus using treatments whose efficacy was questioned in an investigative report by the Los Angeles Times. To test the veracity of Young's clinical diagnosis, a reporter submitted cat and chicken blood to a clinic employee, who failed to determine that the samples were non-human, and further diagnosed that the "patient" had an aggressive form of cancer and liver disease. Young also founded and operated the Young Life Wellness Center, a medical clinic in Chula Vista, California, which in 1988 was ordered by a court judge to be shut down. In 2000, Young opened the Young Life Research Clinic. Located in Springville, Utah, the clinic provided essential oils and alternative therapies to people suffering from a variety of ailments, including depression and cancer. In 2004, the Utah Attorney General charged a clinic employee with practicing medicine without a license for conducting diagnostic tests and prescribing products to patients at Young's clinic between 2000 and 2002. The clinic had also employed a pediatrician whose medical license had previously been suspended by the state medical board following a manslaughter conviction in connection with the improper treatment and death of a cancer patient under his care. In 2005, the clinic settled a lawsuit with a patient who claimed that they were given infusions of vitamin C that caused near-fatal kidney failure. Young then closed the Utah clinic and opened a new one in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Young Living
In 1993, Young and his third wife, Mary, founded Young Living Essential Oils in Riverton, Utah, later moving the company to Lehi, Utah. As of 2017, Young Living was reported to have become one of the largest vendors of essential oils in the United States with over three million customers. In 2014, while Young was chief executive officer of Young Living, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter reprimanding him and Young Living for illegally marketing products unapproved by the FDA as treatments or cures for Ebola virus, and other medical conditions, after they identified multiple instances of such false claims being made by Young Living's distributors on social media and other websites. In 2015, he stepped down as CEO with his wife Mary assuming the role.
Personal life
Young had two sons, and a daughter. In 1982, Young and his then-wife Donna attempted to give birth to their daughter in a whirlpool bath located in Young's "health club", but the child died of cardiac arrest during delivery. According to the Spokane countycoroner, the child, who was born normal and healthy, died due to oxygen deprivation and would have survived if a conventional delivery had been performed. No criminal charges resulted from the death, but it prompted an investigation into Young's practices. In 1994, Young married his third wife, Mary, a trained opera singer.
Death
Young died on May 12, 2018, in Salt Lake City due to complications from a series of strokes.
Publications
Young authored several self-published books on essential oils and other health-related topics including:
