Can Diet, Lifestyle Prevent or Reverse Chronic Disease? NBC 6 Series Explains

Myriam Masihy is a consumer investigative reporter for Telemundo 51 and NBC 6 South Florida. She has dedicated her 21-year television career to addressing viewers’ concerns and working to solve problems in the community. Her work has helped recover hundreds of thousands of dollars for viewers and has earned her 19 Emmy awards. 

In 2017, Myriam was diagnosed with Sjogren’s, an autoimmune disorder. As most patients, she underwent immunosuppression therapy and was given steroids to control flares for two years, but the side effects of the medication started feeling worse than the disorder itself. Despite being told by her rheumatologist that changing her diet would have no effect on her disease, Myriam decided to do what she knew best: research.

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Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Dr. Ana M. Negrón is a bilingual board-certified family physician and author of the book Nourishing the Body and Recovering Health: The Positive Science of Food published by Sunstone Press. Her book is an antidote to our reliance on pharmaceuticals to address all health problems. Vegan for 30 years, Dr. Negrón educates and empowers us to recover health by returning to our earth roots.

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Evelisse Capó received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Purdue University and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. While practicing clinical pharmacy, she witnessed the pain and suffering of many chronically ill patients in hospitals and long-term care institutions. Questioning the effectiveness of the conventional approach to treating diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, she trained in Culinary Medicine and founded The Food Pharmacy (thefoodpharmacy.com)/Farmacia en La Cocina (farmaciaenlacocina.com) where she provides guidance and support to those looking to adopt a whole food plant-based lifestyle.

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Saray Stancic, MD, FACLM, is the director of medical education for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting preventive medicine, especially better nutrition, and higher standards in research.

As director of medical education for the Physicians Committee, she works to develop and support innovative programs and campaigns to bring plant-based nutrition to the forefront of medical treatment and education.

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Cesar Berrios, originally from Venezuela, decided to turn his life around at the age of 28.

He suffered from spondylarthritis which considerably limited joint mobility throughout his body. Desperate after not finding relief in the conventional medical field, he discovered a way out of pain by reading and researching what truly causes autoimmune diseases. That’s when he adopted a plant-based diet, and within a year, he was completely cured.

Since then, he has become certified as a personal trainer, breathing coach and plant-based nutrition expert. Cesar is part of the wellness team for Bacardi USA where he has implemented nutrition talks and has managed to include juices, shakes and plant-based options in employee meals.

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Born and raised in Mexico, Katya Galbis is passionate about all things nutrition, especially plant-based nutrition, which is the reason she studied nutrition in Mexico. She is a licensed nutritionist in Florida, where she currently resides, and is dedicated to promoting a plant-based diet through different social networks and classes on her website Veggisima. Galbis is certified in plant-based nutrition by the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She is also board certified in Lifestyle Medicine by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and recently graduated as an instructor for the Physicians Committee's "Food for Life" program.  She aims to help the Spanish-speaking community to adopt a healthy plant-based diet for health, animals, and the planet.

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Dr. Vanessa Méndez is a triple board-certified gastroenterologist, internist, and lifestyle medicine physician. She specializes in digestive disorders, which include liver diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases, and nutrition based-disorders, such as obesity and constipation. Her approach to patients and their diseases is holistic and comprehensive — she does not just want to treat symptoms, but to get to the root cause of an ailment and provide lasting relief. All her methods are evidence-based and she is a proponent of lifestyle changes first to promote wellness.

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Karla Salinari is a Holistic Health Coach. After gaining 82 pounds when she was pregnant with her daughter, she learned the importance of nutrition. On this new path, she began to explore how to better nourish herself and her family. As a Puerto Rican woman born and raised in Miami (now living in Brooklyn), she began to “flip” recipes.  By using whole foods and higher-quality, delicious ingredients instead of unhealthy ones, she gained a healthier body weight and a happier outlook on life.

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Dr. Eddie Ramírez is a medical doctor, research scientist, published author and international speaker. He has 27 years of experience working in lifestyle centers worldwide applying therapeutic modalities to different medical problems. He has more than 120 published studies in the scientific literature documenting the effects of lifestyle changes on different pathologies and the effects of Dr. Neil Nedley’s depression program.

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