The YouTube Video That Saved My Liver: My Turning Point in 2015

By Wynonah Dove Chronic Illness Lived Experience Coach | Autoimmune Health & Women’s Wellness Advocate

In 2015, sitting on a train heading home from my day job at Macquarie University in Sydney, I stumbled onto a video that changed - and possibly saved - my life.

At the time, I had been living in Australia for only a year. After immigrating from the United States in 2014, one of the biggest immediate changes was finally having access to healthcare through Medicare. Back home, I had known for years that something was wrong with my body, but without insurance, going to a doctor simply wasn’t affordable. So I stayed in survival mode and ignored the growing list of symptoms.

That changed when I arrived in Australia. My new GP took one look at my bloodwork and ultrasound scans and immediately noticed a problem with my liver.

Diagnosis: Non-Alcholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD).

My ALT levels - which should sit between 5-25 UL for females - kept rising each month. No matter what we did, the number didn’t budge. It climbed until it hit 52, and my GP was out of answers.

He kept repeating “diet and exercise”… but never explained what that meant because (let's be honest) most doctor's just aren't educated properly in that area. He had me stop all consumption of alcohol for a month, which did nothing. He encouraged exercise, which also changed nothing. He didn’t refer me to an hepatologist.

And the liver issue was just one part of the picture.

I was also dealing with chronic back and neck pain, numbness/pins/needles in my hands and arms, fibromyalgia, constant fatigue, cognitive issues and constant inflammation that no one ever named. A neurologist ran MRIs and tests and eventually dismissed me, telling me my symptoms were “in my head” - despite the fact that I actually had degenerative disc disease, foraminal narrowing, stenosis, impingement, and osteophytes forming on my cervical spine.

My body was screaming, but the system wasn’t hearing me.

So I did what many desperate patients do: I started researching on my own.

One evening, on the train, I found a lecture from Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist in California. The video was about an hour long - maybe more. I watched the entire thing during my commute. By the time the train pulled into my station, everything in my understanding of my own health had shifted.

Dr. Lustig explained the role of fructose and added sugars in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. He talked about how the liver is forced to urgently metabolize fructose and how chronic overload quietly creates liver damage over time. As he spoke, I saw my life reflected back at me.

Not just the obvious sugar I consumed - desserts, treats, the things I knowingly indulged in - but the hidden sugars in nearly every packaged food I ate.

Condiments.

Pasta sauces.

Freezer meals.

Canned foods.

Even the brine on the olives in our fridge had sugar in it.

I got home, walked straight into the house, and told my partner, “I think we have to quit sugar.”

And we did.

We pulled everything out of the pantry, fridge, freezer - every single item - and read the labels. If it had sugar in any form, it went in the bin.

Raw sugar, coconut sugar, honey, agave, table sugar - gone.

I learned that honey (even the “healthy” kind) is still roughly 60% fructose, 40% glucose, and the body doesn’t care how natural it is. Sugar is sugar.

Following the I Quit Sugar protocol, I even removed fruit for the first phase.

I went completely cold turkey.

Eight weeks later, my GP retested my liver.

My levels had dropped 25 points, sliding back down into the normal range for the first time in years.

My liver has been in remission ever since.

Quitting sugar didn’t just help my liver - it changed everything.

It started my pathway to reducing the inflammation that no doctor had named.

I began to get my life back.

When my partner and I transitioned to keto in 2017, it was almost effortless because we were already living without sugar, and most processed foods were already out of our home. Sugar had been the first domino, and removing it changed the whole chain.

Looking back, I realize this:

Finding Dr. Lustig’s lecture was the catalyst I desperately needed.

His bravery in speaking out against the food industry - long before it was mainstream -changed the course of my health.

I genuinely believe he helped saved my life.

So if you’re reading this and struggling with chronic symptoms, inflammation, fatty liver, or just the sense that something is “off” in your body…

please know this: you’re not imagining it.

And you’re not alone.

There are answers out there, and sometimes they arrive in unexpected ways - like a YouTube video on a train ride home.

Thank you, Dr. Robert Lustig.

You sparked the beginning of my healing.

Watch "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" on YouTube.