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Women In Wellness: Donna Cryer of Global Liver Institute On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Slow down. I work fast. It is both a natural trait and an artifact of my less stable patient days when I was unsure of my energy or health sustaining over hours or days. Slowing down — in my speech, in my work, in my assessment of others, in my decision making — improves the quality and the appreciation I have of everything.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Donna R. Cryer, JD.

Donna is the Founder and CEO of Global Liver Institute, the premier liver health advocacy organization operating worldwide. Mrs. Cryer is an attorney who serves on the boards of organizations across health systems, medical societies, and governmental public-private partnerships. Mrs. Cryer is a 27-year (and counting) liver transplant recipient who resides in Washington, DC, with her husband and beloved Yorkies.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

My best friend in elementary school was the school nurse, Nurse Dietl. I always had mysterious stomach pains. By 8th grade I was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). A decade later that led to the removal of my colon to avoid imminent colon cancer and a liver transplant due to a rare autoimmune disease that affects a small percentage of people with IBD. Along the way I stayed number one in my class, graduating from Harvard University and Georgetown University Law Center. It wasn’t until the 20th anniversary of my liver transplant that I decided to start Global Liver Institute. I recognized that other patients coming behind me did not have the same access to innovative therapies and care that saved my life, and I couldn’t let that stand.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

Every day is interesting when the scope of the challenge is so large — representing the interests of the one and a half billion people living with liver disease, wherever they reside. The moment that changed me forever was during our second Advanced Advocacy Academy (A3). One of the advocates told me and the group that participation in the first year had “expanded her vision of what she could become”. That took my breath away, that I could have created something that had such an effect on someone’s life and on the lives of everyone she would move forward to help.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The biggest mistake(s) that I have ever made are hiring too fast. In one instance someone who was a high performer at a mature company could not transition to a startup environment that required more multi-tasking and, frankly, more humility. He resented being asked to do something because he was “EVP”. I responded that I was the CEO and was standing in Kinkos while talking to him, so we should just refocus on getting the job done. I have hired because I wanted someone to quickly take on a huge set of tasks, so I could move to the next. I have hired while assuming that everyone has the same work ethic, or just ethics, that I do. I learned to measure twice, cut once, as the saying goes, to slow down, to ask more questions, and to involve more people with different perspectives in the process.

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

Two million people die every year from liver disease. Upwards of 70% of those deaths are preventable. Global Liver Institute recently launched its Liver Health is Public Health Campaign to reach not only the 1.5 billion people who are already living with one of the more than 100 types of liver disease, but to reach their family and friends, and those who can make real change in the food, water, environment, and health systems to prevent, treat, and cure liver diseases. Everyone has a liver, so everyone is at possible risk for a liver disease.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

The exciting thing is that ways to improve your liver health also improve your heart, brain, skin, and overall health and wellbeing, since the liver is so central to energy, detoxification, hormone production and 500 different functions. My top five tips for liver health are:

  1. Reduce sugar consumption. We have no sodas in the house and the cookie dough is in the bottom drawer of the fridge. If I really want a cookie, I have to preheat the oven, put 2 cookies on the sheet, and wait until they bake.
  2. Squeeze in movement. To ensure that even on the busiest days I get some exercise, I have a pair of weights in my office. They come in colors to match any décor! Sometimes the camera is off during back-to-back zoom calls, and I do a 10 min set of arm exercises. Maintaining lean muscle mass is so important.
  3. Water, water, everywhere. To help make sure that I drink water throughout the day to help the liver do its work as the body’s filter, I have filtered water pitchers on every level of the house and an array of water bottles for travel — my new favorite is flat instead of round so it fits more easily in my purse.
  4. Eat the right fats. I rarely eat red meat and have at least two meals a week that feature salmon, tuna, or trout, fish that are high in omega-3 fatty acids. The types of fat found in these fish (unsaturated) and in other aspects of a Mediterranean diet help lower the rate of fat accumulating in the liver and reduce inflammation.
  5. Start drinking coffee. I have to admit this is a goal for me, as there is such a robust body of research supporting coffee as a liver protective beverage. I drink tea, which is also healthy –particularly green tea, which has substances (polyphenols, EGCG) that help prevent liver cancer.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I HAVE started a movement that will hopefully bring a significant amount of wellness to everyone — Liver Health is Public Health! Liver Health is Public Health is a global campaign launched in anticipation of National Public Health Week in 2022. It shines a spotlight on the facts that every person has a liver, that liver diseases can and do affect every type of person at any age, and that to reverse the rising rates of liver cancer and other conditions that are causing millions of deaths and lost vitality, we must use all the public health tools — data, education, advocacy — and engage a much broader segment of society in taking action.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

  1. Make a lot of money first. The early years of Global Liver Institute would have been so much easier if I had been able to self-invest. With such a deep and detailed understanding of both the initial set of problems and solutions in liver health advocacy, we have only been limited by the ability to hire people and establish infrastructure. It would have been worth spending a few years of practicing law at a firm or at a corporation before starting the nonprofit.
  2. Learn to ask. Even if I had done number one, starting and scaling a nonprofit organization to meet a need as big and diverse as representing all patients with all liver conditions in all countries would still require an endless list of asks — for volunteers, for donors, for partnerships, and for changes in policy, business practices, or how medicine has always been done. I had to get over any preference for or delusions of self-sufficiency.
  3. Learn to ask again. With a strong aversion to seeking help, it is worthwhile saying this twice. Insisting that others step up and take some of the weight is imperative for my own sustainability and that of the organization.
  4. Do less, better. To clarify, to do fewer things and polish them to their highest level of quality. Which pairs well with number five.
  5. Slow down. I work fast. It is both a natural trait and an artifact of my less stable patient days when I was unsure of my energy or health sustaining over hours or days. Slowing down — in my speech, in my work, in my assessment of others, in my decision making — improves the quality and the appreciation I have of everything.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

I would say mental health because without the right mindset, none of the others are possible. Sad, mad, overwhelmed people do not choose long term solutions, but short-term fixes.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnacryer/

Twitter @dcpatient @globalliver

Instagram @dcpatient @globalliverinstitute

Peloton LB name DCpatient

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Donna Cryer of Global Liver Institute On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.