Health
Woman with cancer reveals the diet that she says saved her life
Liana Werner-Gray began a cancer battle 15 years ago — and she believes that if she had not made substantial changes to her diet and lifestyle, she might not be alive today.
Fox News Digital spoke to the author and wellness advocate about her health journey on Wednesday on Capitol Hill as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was speaking during his hearing for Health and Human Services secretary. (See the video at the top of this article.)
While living in her native Australia, Werner-Gray, when she was just 21 years old in 2009, was told she had a tumor and the early stages of cancer in her lymphatic system. She was also suffering from chronic fatigue, parasites and other digestive issues.
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The lymphatic system “is the body’s sewage system,” Werner-Gray said.
“The only reason you get cancer in your lymphatic system is because you have too many toxins in your body.”
Liana Werner-Gray, pictured in 2019, said she believes the food she was eating was making her sick. (Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images )
Werner-Gray had a hunch that the food she was eating had caused her illnesses.
“I knew it was because of my diet,” she said. “Because my diet was horrendous.”
Rather than pursue traditional cancer treatments such as surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, Werner-Gray instead made radical changes to her diet.
“The only reason you get cancer in your lymphatic system is because you have too many toxins in your body.”
Working with a naturopath and a functional doctor, she embarked on what she called a “massive detox plan” and focused in particular on improving her gut health.
Werner-Gray quickly saw positive results, she told Fox News Digital.
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“After three months, the tumor had completely dissolved,” she said.
Her other health issues also improved considerably, she added.
Following her recovery, the author said she felt moved to create “The Earth Diet,” which began as a blog about what she ate to help fix her health problems and promote healing.
The Earth Diet, she said, is “all about going back to nature and eating foods from nature, eating real nutrition, eating foods that God provides us with naturally.”
Liana Werner-Gray published her book, “The Earth Diet,” in 2014. Her eating plan is “all about going back to nature and eating foods from nature, eating real nutrition, eating foods that God provides us with naturally,” she said. (Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
Her book, also called “The Earth Diet,” was first published in 2014, five years after she began her health transformation.
Werner-Gray has since published several other books on curing both physical and mental conditions with food.
Over 1,600 people die from cancer each day in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society.
The Make America Healthy Again movement, or MAHA, is something that’s been “needed” in the United States, according to Werner-Gray.
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Over 1,600 people die from cancer each day in the U.S., per the American Cancer Society.
“That’s just not acceptable,” Werner-Gray said.
Fox News Digital talked to the Australian author and wellness advocate on Capitol Hill this week. (Fox News)
She believes that “cancer is preventable” and that unless things change – including nutrition – the statistics will continue to worsen.
“There are many, many cures for cancer other than conventional treatments,” she said.
‘Combined approach’
Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health and Fox News senior medical analyst, pointed out that “all cancers have spontaneous remissions.” (He was not involved in Werner-Gray’s care.)
“Having said that, diet and exercise have been shown to play a huge role in cancer treatment and recovery,” he told Fox News Digital.
“While there are many anecdotes of full remission following natural treatments alone, it’s crucial to remember that every person responds differently,” a doctor (not pictured) told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“Standard treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and immunotherapy are very important and have been evolving with the help of biotechnology,” Siegel said.
The doctor also predicted that artificial intelligence will play a huge role in matching patients with personalized medicine.
“So it isn’t one way or another — it’s a combined approach, and prayer also plays an important role,” he said.
‘Personal and complex’
Fox News medical contributor Nicole Saphier, M.D., associate professor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, noted that navigating cancer treatment is “deeply personal and complex.”
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“Every individual’s cancer journey is unique — which means what works for one person might not be effective for another,” she told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“I advocate for a balanced approach where natural treatments can complement traditional methods,” Saphier said.
“It isn’t one way or another — it’s a combined approach, and prayer also plays an important role.”
Treatment approaches should consider the specific type of cancer, a patient’s overall health and the person’s beliefs about medicine, according to the doctor.
“While there are many anecdotes of full remission following natural treatments alone, it’s crucial to remember that every person responds differently,” Saphier noted.
“I have seen many people suffer and die who have forgone traditional treatment for natural methods alone,” she said. “I have also seen many people suffer and die because of complications of their traditional treatments.”
It is essential that the benefits and risks of treatments are fully disclosed so that patients can make educated decisions for their health, Saphier added.
Sydney Borchers of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
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Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
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After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
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This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
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Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
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By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
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Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
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Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests.
The observational study, led by Jorge Nieva, M.D., of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at Keck Medicine, was presented this month at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in San Diego. It has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Researchers looked at dietary, smoking and demographic data for 187 patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer at age 50 or younger.
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They found that among non-smokers, there was a link between healthier-than-average diets – rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains – and the chance of lung cancer development.
Young lung cancer patients ate more servings of dark green vegetables, legumes and whole grains compared to the average U.S. adult, the researchers found.
Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests. (iStock)
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association.
“Commercially produced (non-organic) fruits, vegetables and whole grains are more likely to be associated with a higher residue of pesticides than dairy, meat and many processed foods,” according to Nieva. He also noted that agricultural workers exposed to pesticides tend to have higher rates of lung cancer.
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“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” Nieva told Fox News Digital.
The disease is becoming more common in non-smokers 50 and younger, especially women – despite the fact that smoking rates have been falling for decades, the researcher noted.
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association. (iStock)
“These patients tend to have eaten much healthier diets before their diagnosis than the average American,” he went on. “We need to support research into understanding why Americans – and women in particular – who no longer smoke very much are still having lung cancer,” he said.
DEATHS FROM ONE TYPE OF CANCER ARE SURGING AMONG YOUNGER ADULTS WITHOUT COLLEGE DEGREES
The study did have some limitations, Nieva acknowledged, primarily that it relied on survey data and was limited by the participants’ memories of their food intake.
“Also, the survey participants were self-selected, and this could have biased the findings,” he told Fox News Digital.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking.”
The researchers did not test specific foods for pesticides, relying instead on average pesticide levels for certain types of food. Looking ahead, they plan to test patients’ blood and urine samples to directly measure pesticide levels, Nieva said.
Although the study shows only an association and does not prove that pesticides caused lung cancer, Nieva recommends that people wash their produce before eating and choose organic foods whenever possible.
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“This work represents a critical step toward identifying modifiable environmental factors that may contribute to lung cancer in young adults,” said Nieva. “Our hope is that these insights can guide both public health recommendations and future investigation into lung cancer prevention.”
“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but is by no means certain,” a doctor said. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, said the study is “interesting,” but that it “raises far more questions than it answers.”
“It is a small study (around 150) and observational, so no proof,” the doctor, who was not involved in the research, told Fox News Digital.
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“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but it is by no means certain,” Siegel went on. “How much exposure is needed? How much of it gets into food and in which areas? This requires much further study.”
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Kayla Nichols, communications director for Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network, a distributed global network, said the organization agrees with the study’s conclusion that more research should be done on the rise in lung cancer, particularly in individuals eating diets higher in produce and fiber.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” the researcher told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“There is a bounty of existing research that already links pesticide exposure to increased risk of multiple types of cancers,” Nichols, who was also not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. She called for more research on chronic, low-level exposures to pesticides, as well as more effective policies to protect the public from pesticide residues on food.
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The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, as well as industry partners including AstraZeneca and Genentech, among others.
Fox News Digital reached out to several pesticide companies and trade groups for comment.
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