“Your system does better on plants. Be sure you’re getting your sugars from fruit. Take B12—double what it says on the bottle—and occasionally zinc.”
This is advice the Medical Medium gave me over a phone call some 10 years ago. He was kind enough to speak with me briefly for free after I’d contacted his office, even though I could not afford his sessions. In hindsight, what he said made sense, as I eventually had to admit refined sugars were giving me a throat reaction. When I tried supplementing zinc, it helped me sleep and soothed my anxiety.
However, is it really possible to have a “Spirit of Compassion” spilling accurate health secrets into your ear? This is the gift that Anthony William—nicknamed the Medical Medium—says he has had since age 4. His drive-by readings of those around him turned into a professional practice; from there, he grew a large following and wrote a handful of bestselling books. We previously reported on the Medical Medium in 2019 after Jenna Dewan’s endorsement got our attention. Other celebrity endorsers on his site include: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert DeNiro, Diane Von Furstenberg, and so many more.
It wasn’t until I got extremely sick in 2022 though that I rediscovered Anthony William, and realized he gives general guidance to the human population and not just individual readings. I found his book Cleanse to Heal, which offers plans for recovery from various illnesses. In a snap, I was hooked. The info just so happened to resonate with my low-fat, whole-food and plant-based lifestyle. Though many of his fascinating claims were contrary to the current science, they could plausibly be proven true someday, I thought.
I became thrilled to let this this Medical Medium be a source of certainty for me. My whole life, I’d been frustrated by debates over whether we need animal foods, low-carb versus high-carb, and I felt powerless to sway anyone to join me in my fruit-and-veg-filled lifestyle. Now, at last I had the secrets I needed to go from struggling vegan, to a thriving vegan with the confidence to inspire.
As I began doing the Medical Medium protocol—such as the morning celery juice, followed by Heavy Metal Detox Smoothie—I was slowly getting better from the devastation of my 2022 health scare. My progress was hard to separate from the placebo effect and other factors, but I believed I was better off thanks to the Medical Medium’s teachings.
For one, I’ve learned to be more wary of ways toxins can get in my body—even through something as seemingly innocent as an air freshener spraying its chemicals, or an aluminum pot getting chipped, or a cheap dermaroller you can buy on Amazon. From now on, I hope to create better habits to minimize my exposure to pollutants. I think it will really help my long-term health.
In another post, I shared 8 other ideas from the Medical Medium that added variety to my diet and seemed to help my conditions. The back of his book Cleanse to Heal has felt like a great resource for finding good supplements, as have the lists on his website. Sometimes, you just need a new health leader in your life to shake up your routine and get you trying new things. In my case, I was already eating a fruit-friendly diet similar to what he recommends, so I bet people who have never done that before would see even more sweeping improvements to their health.
However, just the other week, I heard something awful from an old friend I trust. It burst my bubble of gaiety and hope around the Medical Medium. It changed everything.
After I mentioned Medical Medium to this friend in a chat, they reached out explaining why they weren’t a fan. They told me that a dear friend of theirs worked closely with the Medium, following him for all of their diagnoses and health advice. Then, they turned out to have a form of cancer the Medical Medium had never identified. Soon, the person passed away.
I was horrified to hear this. And while I don’t want to spread secondhand claims of malpractice that I cannot prove to you… I also don’t want to spread health information that is itself unverified, but that sells itself as the absolute truth.
Look, there is a good chance Anthony William has a real intuitive ability. For this one horror story I have told, there are probably countless tales of people whose diagnoses from him felt surprisingly spot-on, or who healed thanks to the information in his books. Instagram is full of such transformations; just search the MedicalMedium hashtag. However, there is also a good chance that the voice Anthony hears—while far more accurate than what most human minds would make up—could still be less than 100% reliable.
Of course, there are plenty of people who would dismiss him as a source entirely. The point is, it becomes perilous when we rely entirely on what one person says. While it is most dangerous for someone getting a 1-on-1 health reading and failing to visit an actual doctor, it can still be risky for folks surfing around online, thinking if they just follow the MM religiously, then everything will be golden.
In my own case, I can see that not every MM-recommended thing I tried was helpful. While the majority of supplements have felt super, I had a bad reaction to hibiscus and lemon balm teas. Swapping regular water with lemon water felt good at first but soon appeared to mess with my blood sugar. The worst fail was a set of four dental care products I bought off the suggestions list on Anthony’s website. I can’t use any of them! The neem made me instantly lightheaded, and the hydrogen peroxide mouthwash threw off my digestion. Thank you Amazon customer service for being willing to refund that many items.
I started to wonder if I was wasting my energy, chasing random health cures that make a rich man richer via affiliate links. Was there value in exploring the Medical Medium, treating what he says as tentative ideas rather than certain instructions? Or was it all too much of a mystical mind-trap, a black hole of alleged divinity?
One last note of caution here is that the supplement company Vimergy, which Medical Medium followers swear by, does not appear to go through third-party testing. All they say right now on their About page is, “We rigorously research and test all of our products.” The company clearly is in close communication with Anthony as to formulating their products, but I haven’t seen him divulge if or how he shares in profit. I wish there was more transparency. Collaborating with external testing authorities—and being open about his failures, like what happened to my friend’s friend—could earn him more credibility with skeptics like myself.
What I do know for sure is this: I can’t let these disappointments disrupt my passion—or my hope—as I go about my healing journey.
I happen to have enjoyed celery juice a lot, even if the claims are contestable (as Dr. Kirstie Fleetwood explains for us here). Juicing celery has been a satisfying way to pre-game my day with greens, and part of me still wants to believe it will accelerate my recovery like Anthony says. In fact, after I stopped juicing celery out of laziness, my condition got worse again, which was terrifying. Now that I’m back on my 32 ounces a morning, things have marvelously turned back around! It’s hard not to believe there’s something special about that CJ.
I’m not done browsing his books, either. I know he has plenty to say about meditation, calling on angels, as well as brain health with his upcoming Brain Saver, and I’m intrigued by each of those topics. Some of his suggestions—like building my way beyond the RDA of iodine with plenty of dulse and spirulina—seemed to help even though they differed a bit from my previous health education. So I’m curious to keep taking note of all his claims, so I can contrast them with our sources and carefully test out what makes sense.
Most posts I’ve seen about the Medical Medium are either wonderful success stories, or arguments for why his work is complete quackery. My own experience has left me in the messy middle. I bet that his protocols, if tried with an open mind but not religiously, would have a very net positive effect on the human race. Unfortunately, his style of delivery tends to invite dogmatic belief, and that is of concern. I wish he would encourage people to learn from the Spirit of Compassion, whom he channels, with a spirit of healthy skepticism.
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Photo: Medical Medium via Facebook
