Hello to the most incredible community!
I hope you're taking care of yourself this week — and if you're not quite there yet, that's okay. That's what this newsletter is for.
This week's questions come from three people who look like they're dealing with three different problems: a wife trying to help a stubborn husband lose his “diabetes beer belly,” a woman deep in the misery of menopause, and someone so exhausted their DHEA-s lab has bottomed out.
Here's the thread tying them together — blood sugar, hormones, and energy aren't separate systems. They all run through the same three organs: your liver, your gut, and your adrenals. Fix the inputs to those and all three questions start to answer themselves. Let's get into it.
Here's what we're covering in today's questions:
(Click to skip ahead)
Thank you for being here. Now on to the questions!
He's cutting sodas and energy drinks. Give him a clean swap.
Q1's first move is pulling the sodas and energy drinks — the fastest way to drop blood sugar and belly. The reason most people cave? They miss the lift. BOOST is the swap: one stick a day of clean, slow-release energy (about a cup of coffee, zero sugar, no crash), plus a full multivitamin with methylated B12 and electrolytes.
It's the multivitamin you can actually feel — which is exactly why people stay on it. The easiest way to make his diet change stick, for him and for you.
Buy 2, Get 1 Free — mix & match any flavor, lowest-priced item free. Free shipping. Offer ends July 31.
Q: Nurse Doza, my husband needs help but he's too stubborn to go to the doctor. He's gained a lot of weight over the years. He might take a supplement if I give it to him. Tell me what to buy for my husband. He has a beer belly because of his diabetes.
A: Nurse Doza: I get this request a lot. I think women take more of an initiative towards improving their health and will even go so far as to ask for help for their husband, children or another family member. I usually ask the husband's spouse, would he be willing to change his diet too? If the answer is no, tell him he will lose weight and increase his testosterone naturally. That's usually where they become convinced.
For your husband, based off the idea that he has high blood sugar (glucose) and most likely higher cholesterol (triglycerides), cutting out or cutting back on the following foods would be life changing:
Sodas
Bread
Tortillas
Energy drinks
Corn or rice products
Late night eating (>8pm)
He would lose 5–15 pounds in the first month. If he cut out more of those “foods,” there would be more weight loss due to less inflammatory foods being eaten. Most of that junk food goes into the fat cells leading to weight gain.
Next, I would get him to take our BERBERINE PLUS (1x/am and 1x/pm) and LIVER BOOST (1–3x/am). Berberine supports the body's own production of GLP-1s (yes, your body makes its own Ozempic). Berberine has been shown to help lower blood glucose, cholesterol, and insulin resistance (that would also help fatty liver too!)
Tell him to try this for 3–6 months. If he isn't losing that belly by then, book a 15 min consultation with me for him. I can be very helpful in person or over zoom.
Extra credit: Take our Brain Health course to understand how blood sugar drives cravings — or join the conversation in the Brain Health community.
Menopause isn't the end of your hormones — it's a new set of rules.
If Q2 hit home, our $10 Hormones course lays out exactly what shifts in perimenopause and menopause — why your liver, gut, and adrenals take over estrogen production, and what to actually do about it.
Same framework Nurse Doza uses in the clinic, minus the $300 visit. $10, lifetime access.
Q: Nurse Doza. I listened to your podcast on how to raise testosterone naturally (I made my husband listen to it!) I'm going through menopause right now and it's horrible. Is there anything natural that can be done to support your estrogen? I am so thankful for all your info!
A: Nurse Doza: Yes there is plenty that can be done to help support your estrogen!
Women make estrogen throughout their lives, including in perimenopause and menopause. The estrogen women make in the later years is very different from the estrogen that was made before. Before menopause the ovaries make the estrogen. In perimenopause and menopause, the fat cells (yes those same ones around your belly) make estrogen with the help of your adrenal glands. If a woman is inflamed, is insulin resistant, has a fatty liver, gut issues and/or is extremely stressed out, this can and will lead to a production of inflammatory estrogen at any time in their lives. If this is happening going into menopause, this would explain the worsening of hot flashes, night sweats, weight gain, low energy and spotting.
Optimal estrogen production comes from:
a healthy liver (the liver regulates any estrogen produced),
a healthy gut (there is a gut microbiome called the “Estrobolome” that helps the body recirculate healthy estrogen)
healthy adrenal glands (the adrenal glands make estrogen and estrogen precursors)
There is never a discussion about this approach from any doctor's office I know of. In fact, most doctors and women's doctors have no idea how bad digestive issues and stress can be on women's hormones. The “best” option doctors can offer is a hysterectomy (1 in 3 women will have a hysterectomy by the age of 60).
*Estrogen support should start at the earliest age possible and should continue throughout life.
How to support your estrogen:
Stop eating processed foods, like sugar, bread, rice, pasta and dairy. They all lead to leaky gut, fatty liver, insulin resistance and horrible estrogen (think acne when younger and PCOS, endometriosis and infertility when older).
Eat more foods for the liver (cruciferous vegetables, garlic, onions, turmeric, black coffee and green tea) and the gut (sweet potatoes, sauerkraut, beets, olives and kimchi)
Manage your stress better (this is our stress management course)
Weekly cold exposure (shivering increases brown fat cells that make less inflammatory estrogen) and weekly dry sauna (sweats out toxins like microplastics and mosquito bug spray that can lead to xenoestrogen production)
Take supplements: start our METABOLIC PACK, 3 powerful formulations that support your estrogen:
LIVER BOOST: 16 different nutrients to help decrease xenoestrogen production and help increase healthy estrogen production (it says it on the side of the bottle!)
MITOCHONDRIAC: Two incredible forms of Resveratrol, a longevity supplement that helps increase mitochondrial function (think better working ovaries!)
ZEN: our 3-in-1 multivitamin for overall adrenal support and function.
Work on better sleep (deep sleep helps regulate better estrogen production)
Check your labs like Estradiol (E2), Estrone (E1) and DHEA-s (adrenal function)
You should notice an improvement in your monthly cycles or an improvement in your menopausal symptoms. If you aren't noticing the improvement right away, book a $99, 15 minute consult with me to go over this plan and help figure out where we need to improve.
Extra credit: Take our Hormones course (great for both men and women) and/or our Menstrual cycle course.
You've got the lab list. Now get someone to actually read it.
Today's questions hand you a stack of hormone labs — Estradiol, Estrone, DHEA-s, cortisol, insulin. But a result you can't interpret doesn't change anything.
For $99, send Nurse Doza your labs ahead of time and get them read line by line, with a personalized plan for the energy, hormone, and metabolic issues hiding in the numbers.
Q: Hi Nurse Doza. You mentioned a test for someone who is always tired called DHEA-s in one of your videos. Mine is so low and I am tired all the time. What do I do to raise this number and will that help me in the long run? Thank you!
A: Nurse Doza: Support your adrenal glands daily with a lifestyle that promotes your nervous system's ability to get into “rest and digest” mode. This is the part of the nervous system where we heal and recover, head to toe, inside and out.
DHEA-s is a lab that measures the overall function of the adrenal glands, our body's natural stress response gland. The number will increase with stress & trauma when you are younger (>300) and it will decrease over time with life and more stress/trauma (<100). When DHEA-s is <100, that person is exhausted, all the time. They go to bed tired. They wake up tired. They are tired between 2pm–4pm everyday. Sound familiar?
Stress activates the adrenal glands to shift into “fight or flight” mode which causes Cortisol and Adrenaline to be released. Chronic stress = chronic Cortisol & Adrenaline released over time. That's why the adrenals become depleted and DHEA-s goes up, then goes down.
The goal short term and long term is to get into “rest & digest” mode. It's a daily lifestyle that does the following every day. (Trust me....it's worth it!)
Do any of the following in the morning:
Wake up to sunlight and go outside
Breathwork / yoga / meditation / journaling / reading / drawing / praying
Listen to your favorite music while you get ready for the day
Wait 90 minutes before drinking caffeine
10 minutes vibration plate and/or red light therapy (use code nursedoza)
Exercise (even if it's 5–10 minutes in your hotel room or at the airport)
Take your supplements: start our ZEN (1x am and 1x/pm). It has bovine adrenal gland and other vitamins to help calm your body and restore your adrenal function
Tell yourself you are incredible (No one else might say it to you!)
Mid day:
Take a break. Go outside
5–10 body squats or 20–100 jumping jacks
Fast
Drink water
Pray or meditate (it just takes a few seconds!)
In the afternoon:
Turn lights down by 8pm
No screens after 8pm
White noise in background
Binaural beats (sound therapy that heals your brain). This is what we use in the clinic: 15 mins = 2 hours of sleep! (Code nursedoza)
Breathwork / yoga / meditation / journaling / reading / drawing / praying
Take your supplements: try CHILL before bed. It helps with sleep and it's a powder that mixes with water that takes effect in 30 minutes.
Blackout curtains
Be grateful for the day you had and the lessons it gave you. You are blessed.
It takes as little as one second for you to make a new habit. All it takes is your decision to want to feel better. You can do this. It works if you work it.
Extra credit: Take our STRESS MANAGEMENT course and come up with your own personalized adrenal reset plan.
Your adrenals heal in the light — literally.
In Q3, Nurse Doza calls out red light therapy for a reason: 10 minutes in the morning supports your mitochondria and a calmer nervous system — exactly what depleted adrenals and a low DHEA-s need.
The panel she uses at home is the LightpathLED Diesel XL. Serious energy rebuild, one 10-minute session at a time.
Use code nursedoza at checkout.
Your body isn't broken. It's asking for better inputs.
Blood sugar you can finally steer. Hormones you can actually see on paper. A nervous system that isn't running on inflammation.
Start with one change. Do it daily. Repeat.
To your health, Nurse Doza
