For over two decades, Dr. Liz Cruz has dedicated her career to understanding the delicate relationship between digestive health and overall wellness. As a board-certified gastroenterologist in the valley, she has been practicing for more than 20 years, with the early part of her career spent doing exactly what she trained to do: performing colonoscopies, upper endoscopies, running diagnostic tests, and prescribing medications meant to treat common digestive complaints from gas and bloating to constipation, diarrhea, and acid reflux.
But something didn't add up shares Dr. Cruz. "I was seeing young people coming in with the same symptoms I was used to seeing in older patients.” Even after extensive testing available through traditional medicine, the root cause of their discomfort often remained unknown. "I'm not the kind of doctor to tell my patients I don't know what to do," she says. "I didn't like telling a 20-year-old they had to be on medication for the rest of their life."
That discomfort proved to be a turning point. She approached her wife, Tina, who managed the practice, and said something had to change. Together, they began a two-year journey into what Dr. Cruz describes as "what my medical degree did not teach me about how the body truly works and what it needs to heal itself." Tina became so inspired she returned to school after getting her marketing degree, and completed a certification in holistic nutrition.
This new understanding became the core of a wellness movement. In 2010, they started a digestive wellness program that eventually grew into an international business, serving thousands of patients and clients all around the world.
Over time, their work grew into a full ecosystem of resources including a long-running podcast with more than 500 episodes, multiple books, an online home-study program, and their own line of US-manufactured supplements. After nearly 20 years in medical practice, Dr. Cruz made the difficult but purposeful decision to close her gastroenterology office in April 2025 to focus entirely on the wellness business that was helping people finally get well.
“I wanted to be a doctor to help people get well and that business is doing just that,” she says. Her long-term vision is bold, “My goal is to become a household name across the U.S. and eventually around the world. I want to set a new standard of care where we can get people off their prescription and over-the-counter medicines, and start investing in products and services that help the body work as it was intended to work.”
Even though her focus has expanded, Dr. Cruz remains deeply connected to her original specialty. "I'm so glad I decided to do GI," she says. "The gut is the second brain, and when it's not functioning properly, it can throw off the whole body physically and mentally." She still has a strong passion for colon cancer awareness and emphasizes that colonoscopy remains the gold standard for lifesaving prevention.
When asked to define healthy living in 2026, Dr. Cruz makes it clear that the original ideas haven't changed, it’s only access to reliable medical care that has shifted. A shortage of new doctors entering the field, plus declining insurance reimbursements and skyrocketing insurance premiums, means people often find it challenging to find physicians who can take the time to listen and truly guide them. "It's more important now than ever that we take our health into our own hands," she says.
She feels most people know the definition of living healthy, eating real food, drinking water, exercising, getting rest, managing stress, and seeing your doctor regularly for checkups. However, the Standard American Diet, such as eating processed foods and fast foods, drinking coffee and energy drinks, not exercising, not getting good rest, letting stress rule their life, all get in the way of moving forward. "Our mindsets are broken, and our medical system is broken," she says. "If you truly want to live healthy in 2026, we all must take a long hard look at our habits and get back to the basics."
Dr. Cruz provides five clear steps anyone can take to start improving their health:
- Drink half your body weight in ounces of water daily, with electrolytes for clean hydration.
- Incorporate more liquid foods like soups and smoothies to assist you with detoxing after holiday indulgences.
- Eat greens daily, striving for 2–3 servings.
- Exercise 3–4 times a week, enough to break a sweat; and if you're starting from zero, start with stretching and build from there.
- Be in bed by 10 p.m. most nights. The more rest we get, the harder our body can work to keep us healthy.
She emphasizes that all habit changes should be done gradually. “Being healthy is a journey and lifestyle, not a destination,” she says.
Digestive issues are super common this time of year, she reassures. Stress, rich foods, and disrupted routines can really throw the gut into chaos. Her go-to tools for getting back on track are simple: a digestive enzyme with meals and a probiotic taken twice daily on an empty stomach. These help break down food effectively and strengthen your gut microbiome to support physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
Dr. Cruz offers a free 30-minute wellness consultation by phone, available through her website at www.drlizcruz.com. She can also be reached by phone at 602-829-5656. Many of the items she listed above like electrolytes, digestive enzymes, probiotics, greens, detox, and a cookbook for healthy soup and smoothie recipes can also be found on her website. On a separate note, she is also seeking active business partners to help expand her mission. She strongly feels that, with the digestive health industry currently valued at $260 billion, the time is just right to shift global health from disease management to true prevention.