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 couple trying to conceive and running out of ideas, someone who falls asleep just fine but wakes up over and over through the night, and someone carrying a fatty liver, a gallbladder that came out in 2003, and weight that will not move.
Here's the thread tying them together — every one of these is a hormone question. And hormones don't get made in a vacuum. They get built, used, and cleared by three systems: your liver, your gut, and your sleep. Fix those inputs and the hormones start behaving. 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!
Some plans work better when someone reads your numbers with you.
Today's first question is the one Nurse Doza gets more than any other, and his answer is a full protocol — diet, supplements, sleep, movement, and a liver reset. But "trying to conceive" is also the moment where generic advice stops being enough, because the thing holding you back might be an estrogen clearance issue, or insulin, or a thyroid number nobody flagged. You can't guess your way to that.
That's what an online consult is for. Nurse Doza takes the plan below, looks at your actual hormone labs, and customizes it for you and your partner — together, which is how he works with every couple. Telehealth, so it doesn't matter where you live.
Stop guessing at your plan — build it around your labs.
Q: Nurse Doza, my husband and I are trying to get pregnant but we are struggling! Is there anything natural we can do that would help? Thank you!
A: Nurse Doza: Yes, there is! It will be a combination of diet, supplements and lifestyle changes.
How to support healthy fertility:
Both you and your husband doing this together and being on the same mindset is the first step.
Focus on a diet high in Omega 3s: Fatty fish like salmon, sardines, mackerel, tuna, eggs. Diets high in omega 3s have been linked to better fertility rates. Diets high in omega 6s, which include fast food, seed oils, beef, pork, and bacon have all been linked to lower fertility rates.
Stop putting your cell phone near your groin and in your pockets. Cell phones are like little microwaves with high amounts of radiation. The last thing we want is to overheat our private parts.
Regulate your insulin: There is a direct link between high insulin (insulin resistance/prediabetes) and low estrogen and low testosterone. This is our insulin course that provides a plan for reversing insulin resistance.
Detox your liver as the liver directly regulates your estrogen and testosterone. Take our LIVER BOOST (1–2x/am).
Repair your gut as there is a part of the gut microbiome (the estrobolome) that also regulates excessive estrogen levels. We have a digestion course that can help you have good poops that help get rid of unwanted inflammatory estrogen that suppresses fertility.
Start yoga as this movement is great for opening up tight hips, hip flexor muscles and anything around that area that could be constrictive on your private parts.
Make sleep a priority as poor sleep leads to hormone imbalances, insulin resistance, poor recovery and low sex hormone production. We have a sleep course that can help.
Supplements: The following supplements can help support healthy hormones:
Omega 3 Fish Oil — helps both ovaries and testes. Go higher dose on this one!
Carnitine — an amino acid that has been linked to better ovary and testicular health.
Vitamin D3 5,000 units — one of the most common nutritional deficiencies in the world is also related to low fertility.
Alpha Lipoic Acid — known for its antioxidant properties, has been shown to improve fertility in infertile, PCOS women.
NAC — another antioxidant that has been shown to help PCOS women.
My favorite supplements of ours I recommend to couples:
I know this is a lot of information but this is the starting plan I give women and couples who are actively trying to conceive. It has been successful over the years and I am always thrilled when I hear another success story. I am excited to hear about yours. And if you need a consult to go over this plan and customize it, go over hormone labs, or simply have someone in your corner supporting you, please book an online consult with me.
Extra credit: Insulin is the lever most couples never touch. Start with our $10 Insulin course and go through it together.
You just read a plan built on hormone labs. Do you actually have yours?
Fertility, cortisol, thyroid, insulin — the last question ended with "go over hormone labs," and the next one starts with "have you ever checked your cortisol?" There's a reason Nurse Doza keeps landing there. You can follow every protocol in this newsletter and still be guessing if you've never seen your own numbers.
Superpower runs a full biomarker panel — hormones, thyroid, metabolic markers, the works — and you don't need a doctor's order to set it up. It's what Nurse Doza uses for his own labs. Use code NURSE20OFF.
Get your numbers first — everything else gets easier.
Q: Hi Nurse Doza. I am having trouble with sleep. I can fall asleep but I wake up throughout the night. Could it be cortisol related? I feel like I can handle stress pretty well but any suggestions would help. Thank you! Love your podcast and I have been meaning to join your school!
A: Nurse Doza: Stress can directly affect your sleep at night by raising your cortisol throughout the day. Cortisol should be higher in the morning due to natural sunlight but unfortunately most of us miss out on morning sunlight and trade it for artificial lights throughout the day and into the night. This means our body's natural circadian rhythm can be affected, compromising our sleep at night and our precious melatonin production. I think a daily plan to help regulate cortisol throughout the day should be implemented.
How to control daily cortisol:
Morning sunlight — our body's circadian rhythm helps regulate our metabolism, our energy, our hormones and of course our sleep. Poor sleep could literally come from morning sunlight deficiency as the body needs both sunlight and darkness to truly complete the cycle. Morning sunlight not only helps promote natural, healthy cortisol production in the day, but morning sunlight can also make serotonin which converts into melatonin at night.
Belly breathing — diaphragmatic belly breathing has been shown to immediately lower cortisol production in as little as just a few seconds. Belly breathing lowers resting heart rate and increases heart rate variability, two important health markers that are measured by wearable devices like the Oura ring and the HumeHealth wristband (code nursedoza) while you sleep. More belly breathing can lead to better sleep and better heart health.
Less screens/blue light at night — start turning off the lights around 8pm and stop using your phone, laptop or watching tv at least an hour before bed. Blue lights from screens have been shown to increase nighttime cortisol which suppresses nighttime sleep and melatonin.
Take supplements, other than melatonin:
I love Betaine (Trimethylglycine) for melatonin production. Betaine is a naturally occurring compound in the body that can help us make all the neurotransmitters including serotonin and melatonin. If you take our BLISS (which has Betaine) in the daytime for more serotonin production, this can lead to more melatonin at night as serotonin literally converts to melatonin at night! Some of our clients even report taking our BLISS at night right before bedtime for extra natural, melatonin production.
I love our ZEN for better cortisol support. This is literally a "chill pill" where you can feel the calmness almost an hour or two after you take it. This calm energy can last throughout the day helping your body get ready for deep sleep at night. We also have a HUGE sale on ZEN right now at mswnutrition.com so load up as three bottles of ZEN can last up to 6 months or longer! Imagine being chill and zen everyday for the next 6 months! What would your sleep and energy the next day look like?
Have you ever checked your cortisol levels in labs before? It would be interesting to see your numbers, and pairing that with your sleep numbers from your wearable devices, it is possible that you will have the data to track your sleep journey with real feedback. If you want to order cortisol, along with all your other hormones, get your labs done through Superpower labs (code NURSE20OFF). It's quick, easy to set up and you don't need a doctor's order to get them done! I get my labs done with Superpower as well and once you have your results, you can book a $99 consult with me and we can go over the labs and your wearable device sleep numbers. This is how you make sleep a priority.
Extra credit: If you want the full nighttime protocol — light, timing, temperature, supplements — it's all in our $10 Sleep course.
Three bottles of ZEN, and you only pay for two.
Nurse Doza just told you to load up, so here's the actual offer: ZEN is Buy 2, Get 1 Free through August 31. No code needed — it applies automatically at checkout.
ZEN is our adaptogenic support formula, built for exactly the pattern in today's question: the daytime cortisol load that follows you into the night. It's the "chill pill" he reaches for when someone can fall asleep but can't stay asleep. Calm during the day, so your body can actually drop into deep sleep at night.
This month only — Buy 2, Get 1 FREE on ZEN. Ends August 31.
Q: Nurse Doza, I have been struggling with weight gain. I know it's related to my liver. My doctor told me I have a fatty liver and my gallbladder was taken out in 2003 so I know I have gut issues too. I've tried Semaglutide for a few months but it didn't work as well as I wanted. I feel lost especially since everything I eat makes me bloated. You talk about a "liver detox" in your videos. What does that look like and do you think that would help me?
A: Nurse Doza: Weight loss is nearly impossible with a fatty liver. Most Ozempic prescribers do not realize this connection. We have helped a lot of people throughout the years with natural weight loss successfully when a liver detox is implemented.
How to detox the liver:
Stop eating processed foods: processed grains, processed sugars, processed dairy.
Eat more omega 3s like fatty fish and eggs which also have high amounts of choline which is low in fatty liver.
Eat more cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower (great for rice!), and Brussels sprouts. Include more garlic, onions and turmeric as well.
Switch to black coffee and/or green tea. If you can not because of the taste, try our delicious BOOST energy drink that gives you clean, green tea and whole coffee fruit caffeine. Plus it has tons of B vitamins, minerals, electrolytes and amino acids. You are not deficient in coffee.
Fast: 24–36 hrs. It's a water fast that has been shown to reverse fatty liver, lower insulin and blood sugar and even lower visceral fat. I can teach you. Listen to our Fasting podcast.
Start our LIVER BOOST supplement (1–3x/am) which can help you with inflammation, detox and even good poops. And yes, it can help you lose weight too.
Continue this for up to a year if needed. It took years to get here. Recheck your labs (code NURSE20OFF) and imaging to see the difference.
Extra credit: Sign up for our Nutritional Weight Loss course going on now LIVE at schoolofdoza.com. I will be your teacher and help you lose the weight. Plus you will find a community of online students just like you, supporting you through this journey.
Extra extra credit: No gallbladder changes how you digest fat for the rest of your life, and almost nobody explains that at discharge. Our Gallbladder Health space walks you through it.
No gallbladder, bloated after everything, and a liver that can't keep up. That's one problem, not three.
Today's last answer is a liver protocol — but look again at what else the reader said: gallbladder out in 2003, and everything they eat makes them bloated. That's the part that usually gets skipped, and it's the part that comes first. You develop a leaky gut before you develop a fatty liver. Inflammatory food hits the gut on the way in, long before it ever reaches the liver for storage.
Our $10 Digestion course is built for exactly that reader: what actually changes after your gallbladder is removed, how to repair a leaky gut, and how to get the good poops that carry inflammatory estrogen out of the body instead of recycling it. Self-paced, ten dollars, and it's the piece that makes a liver detox hold instead of stalling out.
Fix the gut first — just $10.
Your body isn't broken. It's asking for better inputs.
A liver that can clear your hormones makes conception a fairer fight.
A cortisol curve that rises in the morning lets you sleep through the night.
A body that isn't storing fat in the liver finally starts letting the weight go.
Start with one change. Do it daily. Repeat.
To your health,
Nurse Doza
