The School of Doza Podcast

In this School of Doza episode, Nurse Doza kicks off a new series on the health numbers that matter more than the scale. Using the Hume Pod and app, he explains how body composition (body fat percentage, skeletal muscle mass, and visceral fat) tells a fuller story than weight alone, why two people at the same weight can differ, and a simple morning weigh-in habit that tracks trends, not daily swings. Next up: how these numbers connect to your liver and blood sugar. FEATURED PARTNER Hume Health makes the Hume Pod and companion app Nurse Doza uses in this series to look beyond body weight. Stepping on the pod shows body fat percentage, skeletal muscle mass, and visceral fat, and the app displays where you are alongside reference ranges so you're not guessing. Hume Health also backs its devices with a 10-year warranty. 👉 Shop Hume Health: https://humehealth.com Use code NURSEDOZA for 20% off. Disclosure: Hume Health provided the device featured in this series, and School of Doza earns a commission when you use the code NURSEDOZA. Only products Nurse Doza personally uses are featured. Body composition readings from at-home devices are estimates and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Talk with your healthcare provider about your results. JOIN THE SCHOOL Making sense of your numbers is easier with support. Inside the School of Doza, members learn alongside others working on the same goals, and every Wednesday at 1 PM Central there's a live group consult where you can bring your questions about labs, nutrition, supplements, and lifestyle. 👉 Start your free trial: https://community.schoolofdoza.com/c/start-here 5 KEY TAKEAWAYS Weight is just one number. The scale can't show what your weight is made of, and two people at the same weight can have very different body compositions. Body composition adds the missing detail. Beyond weight, the Hume Pod reports body fat percentage, skeletal muscle mass, and visceral fat, giving a more complete picture of where you stand. Visceral fat is the one you can't see. It sits deep in the abdomen around the organs, is associated with insulin resistance and fatty liver, and can be present even in people who look lean. Trends beat daily numbers. Nurse Doza suggests weighing in the same way, at the same time each morning, then watching the trend in muscle and visceral fat rather than fixating on the weight itself. This is Part 1 of a series. Up next, he connects these numbers to liver health and blood sugar. RESOURCES Based on peer-reviewed literature: Normal BMI, high body fat – Systematic review and meta-analysis of "normal weight obesity" (normal BMI with high body fat) and cardiometabolic risk factors. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 2022. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8987277/ Visceral fat & insulin resistance – Review of how visceral adipose tissue accumulation and liver fat relate to impaired insulin signaling. Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity, 2012. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4038351/ Visceral fat, liver fat & insulin sensitivity – Study of visceral and subcutaneous fat, intrahepatic lipid, and muscle microvascular function as independent contributors to obesity-associated insulin resistance. JCI Insight, 2017. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5499371/ Muscle mass & insulin resistance – Prospective study linking greater thigh muscle area with lower future insulin resistance. Diabetes & Metabolism Journal, 2018. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6300439/ At-home body composition devices: estimates, not diagnoses – Comparison of bioelectrical impedance (BIA) visceral fat estimates with quantitative CT, showing moderate agreement. Scientific Reports, 2021. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8154961/ 🔗 Connect with Nurse Doza: JOIN MY SCHOOL for FREE: https://community.schoolofdoza.com/c/start-here YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwcKyagDi468WscAOWM5VHA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nursedoza/ Website: http://www.nursedoza.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-mendoza-dc-aprn-np-c-0609a038/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nursedoza Twitter: https://twitter.com/nursedoza

Fatty liver and belly fat tend to show up together, and this episode makes the case that it isn't a coincidence. Your liver is one of the main places your body decides whether fat gets stored, moved, or burned for fuel. Nurse Doza walks through six things that get in the liver's way — insulin resistance, too little brown fat, gut damage, eating when you're not hungry, poor methylation, and shallow sleep — and what the research says about each one. FEATURED PRODUCT Liver Boost (Detox) — $111 Sixteen ingredients in a single capsule — milk thistle, NAC, alpha-lipoic acid, turmeric, broccoli seed extract, green tea extract, selenium — formulated to support phase I and phase II liver detoxification and your body's own glutathione production.* This whole episode is about clearing the path for the organ doing the work. Liver Boost is support for that organ while you change the sleep, the food, and the fasting window. One to two capsules a day. Through October 31: buy 2, get 1 free — 3 bottles for $222, roughly a six-month supply. No code needed; the discount applies at checkout. 👉 Get Liver Boost here: https://liverboost.mswnutrition.com *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Individual results vary; this is education, not medical advice. JOIN THE SCHOOL OF DOZA If this episode left you looking at a lab report that never had fasting insulin or leptin on it, that gap is exactly what the School of Doza was built for. Same for the belly fat that hasn't moved in a year of doing everything right. Every Wednesday there's a live Ask Me Anything that runs like a group consult — labs, nutrition, supplements, liver questions, belly fat questions. You bring it, Nurse Doza answers it directly. It's live only and never recorded, so being in the room is the whole point. Inside you will also find the courses referenced in this episode — fasting, the liver, MTHFR, and sleep — plus the community working through the same things you are. 👉 Start your free trial: https://community.schoolofdoza.com/c/start-here 5 KEY TAKEAWAYS Insulin resistance usually shows up before the weight does. Research associates fatty liver with higher insulin resistance, and the early liver changes often appear ahead of obesity — which is part of why "eat less, move more" stalls out for so many people. Fat tissue behaves like an organ, not a storage closet. Inflamed white fat around the middle loses some of its ability to help regulate insulin, and cold exposure is associated with more brown fat activity and better clearance of circulating glucose and triglycerides. The gut tends to struggle first. Dysbiosis and a compromised gut lining are linked to liver fat and inflammation, and your gut microbiome is part of your own GLP-1 production — which is rarely part of the conversation. Leptin is insulin's shadow. It rises when you eat, it tracks with how much body fat you carry, and leptin resistance is why people end up eating on schedule instead of on hunger. Neither leptin nor fasting insulin is on a standard panel. Methylation and deep sleep are the two clearance pathways nobody checks. MTHFR variants are associated with higher fatty liver risk, and short sleep duration is associated with fatty liver — so the overnight hours matter as much as the plate. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 START – Welcome and episode overview 02:54 – #1 Insulin resistance 05:59 – Fasting to lower insulin 07:14 – Diet, simple carbs, and berberine 08:44 – #2 Not enough brown fat 11:35 – Cold exposure and thermogenesis 14:03 – #3 Gut issues and your own GLP-1 16:33 – Leaky gut, dysbiosis, and testing 18:58 – The inflammation cascade: IL-6 and hs-CRP 22:02 – #4 Eating when you're not hungry 23:25 – Leptin resistance and the missed signal 25:52 – Fasting insulin and leptin on labs 28:28 – #5 Poor methylation and MTHFR 33:21 – #6 Deep sleep 38:07 – Liver Boost and the October offer RESOURCES Links are printed as visible text — YouTube strips hyperlinks from descriptions. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and insulin resistance — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10638269/ Brown adipose tissue, cold exposure and hepatic fat (Cell Reports Medicine) — https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(21)00255-X Role of Leptin in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (Biomedicines, 2021) — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8301314/ Leptin secretion and body energy stores (Metabolism) — https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0026049514003060 Gut microbiome and NAFLD: impact and therapeutic potential (Frontiers in Microbiology, 2024) — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11632136/ MTHFR C677T and A1298C polymorphisms and NAFLD risk (PLOS ONE) — https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0154337 MTHFR variants and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2797657/ Liver detoxification and endogenous antioxidants — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10181083/ Short sleep duration and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11729180/ Liver Boost by MSW Nutrition — https://mswnutrition.com/products/liver-boost School of Doza — free trial — https://community.schoolofdoza.com/c/start-here CONNECT 🔗 Connect with Nurse Doza: JOIN MY SCHOOL for FREE: https://community.schoolofdoza.com/c/start-here YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwcKyagDi468WscAOWM5VHA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nursedoza/ Website: http://www.nursedoza.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-mendoza-dc-aprn-np-c-0609a038/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nursedoza Twitter: https://twitter.com/nursedoza

Muscle after 40 is the thing women are told to ignore, and it is the one that changes everything. Nurse Doza breaks down why skeletal muscle is an organ, how it makes its own estrogen, why insulin resistance shows up in muscle first, and how much protein menopause actually calls for. Plus the amino acid most women have never been told about. Featured Product Liver Boost (Detox) by MSW Nutrition — a comprehensive formula designed to support phase I and phase II liver detoxification of environmental toxins.* Estrogen doesn't simply disappear once it has done its job: it gets conjugated in the liver and cleared through bile. This episode is about the estrogen your muscles make, and the liver is the organ standing at the end of that pathway — the same organ Nurse Doza points back to when he talks about glycogen, fatty liver, and hormones in your forties. October only: buy 2, get 1 free — 3 bottles for $222, a six-month supply. No code needed; the discount applies at checkout. 👉 Get Liver Boost here: https://liverboost.mswnutrition.com Also mentioned in this episode — Gut (Digestive Health), the L-glutamine powder Nurse Doza takes at 8 grams each morning, 4 grams per scoop, nothing else added. 👉 Get Gut here: https://mswnutrition.com/products/gut These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Join the School of Doza If this episode named something you have been living with — aches that got written off as aging, a scale that will not move no matter how little you eat, hormone advice that contradicts itself every time you ask — the School is where those questions get answered directly instead of in a comment thread. Every Wednesday at 1pm Central there is a live Ask Me Anything that runs like a group consult. Labs, nutrition, supplements, what is actually going on in your body. You bring the question, Nurse Doza answers it in the room. These are live sessions, not recordings — you have to be there. The Liver Course is running right now, class plus Q&A every Tuesday, wrapping October 13 with Building Your Liver Protocol. September 29 is The Gut Liver Loop, which connects straight to the gut and muscle conversation in this episode. Your first 7 days are free, so you can sit in on an AMA or a class and decide for yourself. 👉 Start your free trial: https://community.schoolofdoza.com/c/start-here 5 Key Takeaways Your muscles are an organ, not just tissue. Skeletal muscle is a collection of muscle, connective, nervous and vascular tissue working together, and it releases signaling molecules of its own. Treating it as decoration misses what it actually does for posture, structure, and metabolism. Skeletal muscle makes its own estrogen. Beyond the ovaries, muscle carries the enzymes to produce what researchers call myogenic estrogen. Exercise appears to support that local production, which in turn supports muscle mass, function, metabolism, and repair — a loop that matters most for women after menopause. Menopause raises the protein bar. The general recommendation is 1.0 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. At 150 pounds that is roughly 68 to 81 grams daily, which is four to five eggs in the morning and something comparable at every other meal. Insulin resistance shows up in muscle first. Skeletal muscle is where most insulin-driven glucose uptake happens, so it is also where impaired glucose handling appears earliest — often years before anything shows on a routine panel. As estrogen falls, insulin sensitivity tends to fall with it, which is part of why weight becomes harder to manage in the forties. Toning versus bulking is a programming decision. Moderate weight, 8 to 12 reps, 2 to 3 sets, bodyweight and banded work mixed in — that builds strength and shape without the volume and intensity that drive maximum size. Bulk is something you train for on purpose, not something that happens by accident. Timestamps 00:00 START – Welcome and episode overview 01:45 – What is happening inside the School of Doza 03:00 – #1: Your muscles are an organ, not just tissue 04:39 – #2: Your muscles need estrogen 05:20 – Myogenic estrogen: made in skeletal muscle 07:01 – Atrophy, aches, and estrogen receptors 08:10 – Protein in menopause: the actual number 08:50 – The protein math: 68 to 81 grams a day 11:16 – When protein is simply too much food 13:40 – L-glutamine, and four grams per scoop 14:35 – #3: Insulin, the most anabolic hormone you make 15:48 – Estrogen, insulin, and the ovaries 18:12 – Glycogen, fatty liver, and fatty muscle 20:33 – #4: You will not bulk up unless you want to 25:18 – #5: Testosterone is not always the answer Resources Why are muscles considered organs — WellBX: https://wellbx.com/why-are-muscles-considered-organs-a-deep-dive-into-their-complex-anatomy Myogenic estrogen and skeletal muscle — J Endocrinol Invest, 2025: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40618-025-02726-x Menopause and metabolism — Oura: https://ouraring.com/blog/menopause-and-metabolism/ Skeletal muscle insulin resistance — PMC: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2811436/ How to lift without bulking — Simply Strong: https://www.simplystrongapp.com/blog/how-to-lift-without-bulking Low testosterone in women — Cleveland Clinic: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24897-low-testosterone-in-women Hume Health body composition (Things We Love, code NURSEDOZA): https://schoolofdoza.com/recommendations Liver Boost by MSW Nutrition: https://liverboost.mswnutrition.com Gut by MSW Nutrition — L-Glutamine: https://mswnutrition.com/products/gut 🔗 Connect with Nurse Doza JOIN MY SCHOOL for FREE: https://community.schoolofdoza.com/c/start-here YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwcKyagDi468WscAOWM5VHA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nursedoza/ Website: http://www.nursedoza.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-mendoza-dc-aprn-np-c-0609a038/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nursedoza Twitter: https://twitter.com/nursedoza

In this Wellness Tech Series episode, Nurse Doza breaks down the Hume Band and why daily health data changes how he makes decisions. He walks through the metrics he checks every morning — sleep depth and wake-ups, heart rate variability as a window into stress and recovery, pulse oximetry day and night, body temperature, and steps — then explains how the Hume Pod adds body fat, skeletal muscle mass, and visceral fat. Labs are a snapshot; this is the daily trend line underneath them.   ---   ## Featured Partner: Hume Health   **Hume Health** makes at-home health tracking gadgets — the Hume Band (wrist wearable) and the Hume Pod (smart body composition scale) — paired with a free app and a 10-year warranty.   - **Storefront:** https://humehealth.com - **Discount code:** `NURSEDOZA` - **Offer:** 20% off *Note: a wearable is a trend-tracking tool, not a diagnostic device. Metrics like overnight oxygen saturation are worth discussing with a licensed provider if the pattern looks unusual — they do not replace a sleep study or clinical evaluation.*   ---   ## School of Doza   Want help turning your own health data into decisions? **School of Doza** is a health-education community with live group consults every **Wednesday at 1 PM Central**, plus courses and protocols you can actually follow.   **Start your free trial:** https://www.schoolofdoza.com   ---   ## 5 Key Takeaways   1. **Labs are a snapshot; wearables are the trend line.** A panel drawn twice a year can't tell you what last night did to your recovery. Daily metrics fill in the space between blood draws. 2. **Sleep isn't one number.** Total hours matter, but so do depth, light sleep, and how many times you were awake. Seeing the breakdown each morning is what makes the adjustment obvious. 3. **HRV reads both sides of the day.** Overnight HRV reflects recovery; daytime HRV reflects the stress load you're carrying right now. Watching both separately is more useful than either alone. 4. **Pulse ox is the quietly important one.** Continuous oxygen saturation — especially overnight — is a pattern worth bringing to your provider if you snore or wake up unrefreshed. Screening data is a conversation starter, not a diagnosis. 5. **The Pod covers what the band can't.** Body fat percentage, skeletal muscle mass, and visceral fat round out the metabolic picture. Visceral fat in particular is the depot most consistently associated with insulin resistance and fatty liver in the research. ---   ## Peer-Reviewed References   1. *Impact of objectively-measured sleep duration on cardiometabolic health: A systematic review of recent evidence.* PMC. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9806213/ 2. *Stress and Heart Rate Variability: A Meta-Analysis and Review of the Literature.* PMC. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5900369/ (PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29486547/) 3. *Overnight pulse oximetry for obstructive sleep apnea.* PMC. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6259496/ 4. *Using wearable skin temperature data to advance tracking and characterization of the menstrual cycle in a real-world setting.* PMC. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11294004/ 5. *The role of adipose tissue dysfunction in hepatic insulin resistance and T2D.* PMC. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11378142/ (PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38967989/) *Citations were located via PubMed/PMC search and are listed by title and PMC ID. PMC blocks automated page fetches, so individual author lines were not machine-verified and are deliberately omitted rather than guessed.*   ---   ## Connect with Nurse Doza   - Website: https://www.schoolofdoza.com - Supplements: https://mswnutrition.com - Recommendations & partner codes: https://www.schoolofdoza.com/recommendations - YouTube / Instagram / TikTok / X / LinkedIn: @nursedoza

Most people handed an MTHFR result never get it explained. This episode connects MTHFR and liver function — why so much of that gene's work happens in the liver, what methylation actually means in plain language, and how the pathway ties into glutathione, detoxification, and mood. Nurse Doza also covers why methylfolate alone is rarely the whole picture, and what's worth discussing with your own provider. Education, not a protocol. Featured Product The MTHFR Stack — Bliss + Boost + Liver Boost Three formulas built around the same pathway this episode is about. Bliss is a sublingual shot with SAMe and TMG (trimethylglycine) — it supports biochemical reactions that require methyl groups and supports neurotransmitter synthesis and healthy mood. Boost is a morning stick pack built on methylcobalamin — B12 already in its methylated, active form — alongside methylated B vitamins, electrolytes, and antioxidant nutrients (heads up: it contains caffeine, roughly 95 mg). Liver Boost is the capsule piece, formulated to support phase I and phase II liver detoxification. The rhythm is simple: Boost in the morning, Bliss whenever it fits your day, Liver Boost with a meal. 👉 Get The MTHFR Stack here: https://mswnutrition.com/products/mthfr-stack If you take medication, run any new supplement by your provider first. Join the School of Doza If you walked out of an appointment holding a genetic result and no explanation, that's exactly the gap the School of Doza was built to close. Every Wednesday at 1pm Central we run a live Ask Me Anything — a group consult where you bring your labs, your questions, and whatever's actually going on with you, and Nurse Doza answers directly. It's live only, so you're getting a real conversation, not a recording. We're in the middle of The Liver Course right now — live class plus Q&A every Tuesday at 5:30pm Central. October 6 is the MTHFR and the Liver class, which goes deeper than this episode with diagrams, handouts, and live questions. October 13 closes the series with Building Your Liver Protocol. Your first 7 days are free, so you can sit in on a class and an AMA before you decide anything. 👉 Start your free trial: https://community.schoolofdoza.com/c/start-here 5 Key Takeaways MTHFR isn't abstract — a lot of its work happens in your liver. The gene is expressed throughout the body, but the liver is where a large share of methylation activity plays out, which is why a variant shows up as a liver-support question and not just a vitamin question. Methylation is a cycle, not a single step. Folate gets converted to its active form, that feeds the methionine–SAMe cycle, homocysteine gets cleared down the transsulfuration pathway into cysteine, and cysteine is the rate-limiting input for glutathione. Slow the cycle down anywhere and everything downstream feels it. Glutathione is the connection point. It's one of the most abundant antioxidants the body makes, it's produced largely in the liver, and it's central to phase II detoxification — which is the same phase where methylation lives. Folate status and mood are genuinely linked. Folate deficiency is documented as a risk factor for major depressive disorder and for poorer response to antidepressants, and L-methylfolate has research behind it as a supportive option. Variants in MTHFR can reduce how well someone converts dietary folate and folic acid to the active form. Methylfolate alone often isn't the whole picture. The research on SAMe and betaine (TMG) points to the rest of the cycle mattering too — betaine supplementation lowers serum homocysteine, and SAMe plus betaine has been studied as an add-on with more effect than SAMe alone. Timestamps 00:00 START – Welcome and episode overview 02:08 – Who this episode is for, plus the Liver Course dates 04:27 – Why he started ordering MTHFR on everyone, including himself 06:27 – The gene is everywhere in the body, but concentrated in the liver 08:51 – How common variants are, and what epigenetics actually means 11:16 – Folic acid vs folate, and everything else the gene does 13:34 – The homocysteine and glutathione pathway 16:20 – The mood connection: folate, serotonin, and the gut 18:46 – What a clinic rotation taught him about prescribing B9 21:06 – Where serotonin is made, and where folate is stored 23:24 – Third: the pathway needs daily vitamins and supplements 25:50 – SAMe, methionine, and betaine (TMG) 29:11 – Fourth: what changes, and how to measure it 31:32 – Phase I and phase II detox, and the full methylation stack 33:49 – What to check, and closing Resources DNA Methylation in Liver Disease (Int J Mol Sci) — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7662478/ MTHFR Polymorphisms, Homocysteine and Disease Risk (Genes) — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12027316/ Glutathione Overview (ScienceDirect Topics) — https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/glutathione Glutathione Conjugation and Detoxification (PMC) — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2696075/ L-Methylfolate and Depressive Symptoms (Neurology) — https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.92.15_supplement.P3.9-057 Folate, MTHFR and Depression (PMC) — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4750636/ SAMe Plus Betaine as Add-On Therapy (PMC) — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4303396/ Betaine Supplementation and Serum Homocysteine (Nutrition Research) — https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0271531724000691 Betaine, B12, Choline, Glutathione and Diabetes Parameters (PubMed) — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39442756/ Connect 🔗 Connect with Nurse Doza: JOIN MY SCHOOL for FREE: https://community.schoolofdoza.com/c/start-here YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwcKyagDi468WscAOWM5VHA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nursedoza/ Website: http://www.nursedoza.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-mendoza-dc-aprn-np-c-0609a038/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nursedoza Twitter: https://twitter.com/nursedoza