With a B.S. in Medical Technology from Southern College of Seventh Day Adventist and an M.D. from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in California, Dr. Cruz did not spend all her time in classrooms. She taught English for one year in Thailand and provided medical care to natives along the Amazon River before she joined the U.S. Navy to complete her Internal Medicine Internship at the Naval Hospital, Oakland, California, and the University of California, San Francisco. As a Naval physician, Dr. Cruz was deployed to Guam to fulfill her commitment to the U.S. Navy, where she served as a Staff Internist at the U.S. Naval Hospital. During her active duty years in the Navy, she received the Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal as well as the Humanitarian Service Medal and the National Defense Medal for service during Operation Desert Storm. During her last two years in Guam, she was the Head of the Internal Medicine Division at the U.S. During her early years in medicine, Dr. Cruz realized that many of her patients were coming in with issues that were directly or indirectly related to gastrointestinal distress. In 2000, she decided she wanted to specialize in Gastroenterology (GI) to help those who couldn’t find answers. She returned to the University of California, San Francisco where she completed training in her new specialty. In 2004, Dr. Cruz moved to Arizona to join the Arizona Medical Clinic in Peoria. She served as a full-time gastroenterologist in both the outpatient and inpatient settings doing the full range of general gastroenterology including endoscopic procedures, as well as hepatology. In January 2007, she opened the doors to her own practice, Dr. Liz Cruz Partners in Digestive Health in Phoenix, Arizona. Since then Dr. Cruz has cared for a registry of over 12,000 patients and strives to be their advocate by listening carefully to get to the root of these troublesome GI issues like acid reflux, gas & bloating, diarrhea and constipation. In 2010, Dr. Cruz began educating patients on how to naturally heal their digestion problems by achieving their own personal “digestive balance.”
