The School of Doza Podcast

Your liver and blood sugar are far more connected than most people realize. In this episode, Nurse Doza walks through five links between the two: how the liver stores and releases glucose, where insulin resistance actually begins, how stress and cortisol raise blood sugar without food, how all of it lands on your mitochondria, and what obesity has to do with the whole picture.

Featured Product 
The Metabolic Pack bundles the three formulas this episode keeps circling back to: Liver Boost to support phase I and phase II liver detoxification pathways, Mitochondriac for resveratrol, quercetin and pterostilbene to support cellular energy production, and Zen to support a healthy stress and cortisol response. Liver, cellular energy, and stress — supported together in one simple daily protocol.

Suggested use: 2 Liver Boost, 1 Mitochondriac, and 1 Zen daily with food.

👉 Get the Metabolic Pack here: https://mswnutrition.com/products/metabolic-pack

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 explained the energy crashes, the 3pm cravings, or the blood sugar numbers that never seem to move, the next step is not another podcast — it is asking your own questions. Every Wednesday inside the School of Doza we run a live Ask Me Anything: a live-only group consult where you can bring your labs, your blood sugar, your liver questions, or your supplement routine and get direct answers in real time.

You also get the $10 course library, including the stress management course mentioned in this episode, plus a community of people working through the same metabolic questions instead of guessing alone.

👉 Start your free trial: https://community.schoolofdoza.com/c/start-here

5 Key Takeaways

Your liver is the body’s main glucose storage tank. It stores glucose as glycogen after you eat and releases it back into circulation when you fast — which is why your blood sugar keeps running even when you skip a meal.

Insulin is the middleman between the two. When there is more glucose coming in than your muscles are using, insulin keeps packing it into the liver and fat cells — and that pattern is where hepatic insulin resistance and fatty liver take hold.

Stress raises blood sugar without a single bite of food. Cortisol drives the liver to release stored glucose, and chronically elevated cortisol also drives the cravings that put more of it back.

Muscle is the escape valve. Roughly 80% of the glucose from a meal is designed to go to skeletal muscle — but only if you actually use it. Movement after meals is one of the most underrated tools for insulin sensitivity.

It all lands on your mitochondria. Insulin resistance and impaired mitochondrial function travel together in type 2 diabetes and fatty liver, which is why supporting the liver, the stress response, and cellular energy at the same time makes more sense than chasing one symptom.

Timestamps
00:00 START – Welcome and episode overview

01:54 – Class is in session: why liver and blood sugar belong in the same conversation

02:10 – LINK 1 — Your liver stores your blood sugar

03:52 – The four main storage sites: muscle, liver, fat cells, brain

05:10 – The refrigerator analogy: whatever is in your fridge ends up in your liver

06:10 – LINK 2 — Diabetes and where insulin resistance starts

07:46 – Insulin as the Uber driver for everything you eat

09:58 – What is inside Liver Boost and why those ingredients matter here

11:30 – LINK 3 — Stress raises blood sugar without you eating

11:51 – Cortisol, morning wake-up, and fasting blood sugar

13:50 – Zen, adrenal support, and the $10 stress management course

16:18 – Why exercise is the most underrated blood sugar tool

18:32 – The endurance athlete paradox nobody talks about

20:14 – LINK 4 — Blood sugar and the liver regulate your mitochondria

25:07 – LINK 5 — Obesity, resveratrol, AMPK, and PGC-1 alpha

Resources

Metabolic Pack — MSW Nutrition — https://mswnutrition.com/products/metabolic-pack

Liver Boost (Detox) — MSW Nutrition — https://mswnutrition.com/products/liver-boost

Mitochondriac (NAD+ Support) — MSW Nutrition — https://mswnutrition.com/products/mitochondriac

Zen (Stress Relief) — MSW Nutrition — https://mswnutrition.com/products/zen

School of Doza — start your free trial — https://community.schoolofdoza.com/c/start-here

School of Doza — $10 courses — https://schoolofdoza.com/courses

Hepatic Glucose Metabolism in the Steatotic Liver (Frontiers in Endocrinology) — https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2018.00802/full

Gluconeogenesis overview (Britannica) — https://www.britannica.com/science/gluconeogenesis

Cortisol, insulin resistance and metabolic regulation (Metabolites, MDPI) — https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/14/6/336

Hepatic mitochondrial function in insulin resistance and NAFLD (PMC) — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7811046/

Mitochondrial dysfunction, obesity and insulin resistance (Frontiers in Physiology) — https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2019.00532/full

Resveratrol, AMPK and hepatocyte mitochondria (Molecular Pharmacology) — https://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/article/S0026-895X(24)09107-7/abstract

World Obesity Day — global obesity projections — https://www.worldobesityday.org/

🔗 Connect with Nurse Doza
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In this School of Doza episode, we break  down the loop between stubborn belly fat and low testosterone: fat tissue raises aromatase activity, converts testosterone into estradiol, and releases inflammatory signals that can suppress the brain-to-testes axis. He then walks through five everyday factors pushing testosterone the wrong direction—alcohol, fast food, sugar, sitting, and poor sleep—and what to change first when energy, motivation, and workouts have all quietly flattened out.

FEATURED PARTNER

Zen by MSW Nutrition is the adrenal and adaptogen formula Nurse Doza reaches for when stress is the thing driving the loop. Every one of the five factors in this episode—alcohol, processed food, blood sugar swings, sedentary days, broken sleep—lands on the same stress-response system that sits upstream of hormone signaling. Zen pairs bovine adrenal concentrate with Asian ginseng, eleuthero, schisandra, and rhodiola, plus 150 mg of pantothenic acid, P-5-P (activated B6), and vitamin C, to support the body's adaptogenic response and normal adrenal function—without caffeine.

👉 Get Zen (Stress Relief): https://mswnutrition.com/products/zen Two capsules daily. Free shipping on orders over $149, and 5% off when you subscribe.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Zen is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Zen is not a testosterone treatment. If you're pregnant or nursing, have high blood pressure, or take prescription medication—including blood pressure or blood-sugar medication—talk with your provider before starting a new supplement. Licorice root may raise blood pressure in some people.

5 KEY TAKEAWAYS
Belly fat and low testosterone feed each other. Fat tissue is hormonally active. As it increases, aromatase activity can rise—converting more testosterone into estradiol—while inflammatory signals and adipokines like leptin may suppress the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis. Low T makes fat easier to gain, and that fat makes healthy T harder to hold.
Alcohol disrupts the signal, and the pattern matters more than the drink. Alcohol can interfere with GnRH from the brain and LH and FSH from the pituitary—the chain that tells the testes to produce testosterone. Heavier intake shows a stronger effect than light or occasional drinking, and beer adds phytoestrogenic hops compounds like 8-prenylnaringenin on top.
Fast food creates a metabolic environment that isn't testosterone-friendly. Refined carbs, certain polyunsaturated fats, low fiber, and packaging and pesticide exposures stack up. One meal isn't the issue—the repeated pattern is, because it drives belly fat, insulin resistance, and inflammation right back into the aromatase loop.
Sitting is a hormonal input, not just a posture problem. Research has found a non-linear relationship between sedentary time and testosterone deficiency, with a marked jump in likelihood once daily sitting exceeds roughly 4.5 hours. Large-muscle work—squats, hinges, lunges, leg press, loaded carries—sends a stronger signal than isolation work alone.
Testosterone is made on a sleep schedule. Levels rise during sleep and are typically highest in the morning. Sleep restriction and fragmentation can blunt that rhythm, disrupt diurnal GnRH release, and cut into the early REM window when testosterone tends to run higher. Fix sleep before you chase anything exotic.
RESOURCES

Based on peer-reviewed literature:

Alcohol, LH, FSH & testosterone https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11759224/
Dietary fat quality & androgens – Cross-sectional analysis of dietary fat quality and serum androgen concentrations in middle-aged men. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41430-023-01358-9
Leptin, obesity & low testosterone – Review of the role of leptin and low testosterone in obesity, including HPG-axis suppression and aromatase activity. International Journal of Impotence Research, 2022. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41443-022-00534-y
Sedentary time & testosterone deficiency – Non-linear association and threshold effect of sedentary behavior on testosterone deficiency (marked risk increase past ~4.5 h/day). Endocrine, 2025. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12020-025-04199-7
Sleep restriction & testosterone – Leproult R, Van Cauter E. Effect of 1 week of sleep restriction on testosterone levels in young healthy men. JAMA, 2011. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4445839/

🔗 Connect with Nurse Doza:

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In this School of Doza episode, Nurse Doza reframes "I'm so tired" as a code with five different signals—and shows how to read yours. He breaks down the five types of energy the body actually runs on: dopamine for drive, cortisol for the morning wake-up, blood sugar and mitochondria for cellular fuel, glutathione to clear cellular clutter, and NAD for turning food into energy. Instead of masking fatigue with more caffeine, he explains how to spot the one you're missing and fuel it.

FEATURED PARTNER

Boost by MSW Nutrition is the "multivitamin you can feel"—the raw-materials approach to energy Nurse Doza describes in this episode. One stick delivers a big hit of methylated B12, electrolytes and minerals, plus antioxidants like glutathione and vitamin C, and it uses a slow-release caffeine technology for steady, usable energy instead of a spike-and-crash (a Caffeine Free option is available too). That's why Boost is his go-to for filling the nutritional gaps behind low energy.

👉 Get Boost (Buy 2, Get 1 Free): https://boost.mswnutrition.com
Mix & match any flavor—Mixed Berry, Citrus, or Caffeine Free—and your lowest-priced item is free. Free shipping over $150. Offer ends July 31, 2026.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Boost is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Persistent fatigue can have medical causes—if you're pregnant or nursing, take prescription medication, or have ongoing symptoms, talk with your provider before starting a new supplement.

5 KEY TAKEAWAYS

Dopamine is your "let's go" energy. More than a pleasure chemical, dopamine drives the motivation and focus to actually start and finish tasks. If you feel physically capable of moving but have zero drive, a dopamine gap—not laziness—may be the issue.

Cortisol is your wake-up energy. A healthy morning cortisol rise is part of what gets you out of bed. When it runs low, fatigue can feel bone-deep and may show up alongside low mood, muscle aches, or dizziness—so a constant morning slump is worth examining (and worth a provider conversation if it persists).

Blood sugar control feeds your mitochondria. When blood sugar swings or cells stop responding to insulin well, the mitochondria can't produce energy efficiently and you crash. Steady blood sugar supports steady energy—and regular exercise is one of the best ways to improve insulin signaling.

Glutathione is your cellular cleanup crew. This master antioxidant helps reduce cellular damage; a cluttered, "dirty" cell can't make energy well. Supporting glutathione may support insulin sensitivity and that lighter, more-mobile feeling—so sluggishness can be a dirty engine, not just low fuel.

NAD powers the food-to-energy conversion. NAD is central to turning food into usable cellular energy, and B vitamins, resveratrol, and taurine support that pathway. Taurine is a standout: beyond heart support, its action on GABA receptors is tied to calm, steady energy instead of jitters.

RESOURCES
Based on peer-reviewed literature:

Dopamine, motivation & drive – Review of dopamine's role in effort-based decision making and the "activational" side of motivation. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2011. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3122071/
Low cortisol & fatigue – Review of hypocortisolism and its links to fatigue, burnout, and stress-related bodily disorders. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2005. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15950390/
Blood sugar, exercise & muscle – Review of how exercise regulates glucose uptake and insulin signaling in skeletal muscle. Advances in Physiology Education, 2014. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4315445/
Glutathione, oxidative stress & insulin – Review of glutathione insufficiency, oxidative stress, and insulin function in type 2 diabetes. Biomedicines, 2024. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11762874/
NAD, mitochondria & cellular energy – Review of NAD⁺ metabolism and its central role in mitochondrial function and energy production. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 2021. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41580-020-00313-x

🔗 Connect with Nurse Doza:

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Roughly half of the average American's daily calories now come from ultra-processed foods — and cutting them out changes how you feel faster than you'd expect. Nurse Doza breaks down five shifts that show up within weeks: steadier blood sugar and energy, a healing gut, lower inflammation, clearer thinking, and hunger hormones that finally reset. Learn what really separates processed from ultra-processed food, and why just two weeks of whole food can change everything.

Featured Product: Boost by MSW Nutrition
When you're riding the ultra-processed blood-sugar roller coaster, energy is the first casualty — the mid-afternoon crash, the brain fog, the reach for the next quick fix. Boost is the multivitamin you can actually feel: 2,500 mcg of methylated B12, a full multivitamin plus B-complex, electrolytes, and plant-based antioxidants including S-acetyl-L-glutathione. Clean, slow-release energy from one stick in water — no added sugar, no crash — so real food finally has a fair shot at steadying you out.

🎉 Right now: Buy 2, Get 1 Free — mix & match any Boost flavor, lowest-priced item free, plus free shipping. Offer ends July 31, 2026.

👉 Get Boost here: boost.mswnutrition.com

5 Key Takeaways
1. Not all processed food is the problem. Minimally processed foods like canned beans and frozen vegetables are fine. It's ultra-processed food — added sugar, refined seed oils, artificial flavors, preservatives, and emulsifiers, with a label you can't fully recognize — that drives the damage.
2. Your blood sugar stops swinging. Ultra-processed foods are engineered to digest fast, spiking glucose and insulin, then crashing you into hunger, fatigue, and irritability. Swap in whole food with protein, fiber, and healthy fat and your energy levels out — the roller coaster ends.
3. Your gut starts healing within days. Emulsifiers, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives thin the gut's mucus lining and reduce the diversity of beneficial bacteria. Add real fiber back and bloating drops, bowel movements normalize, and — because the gut is tied to immunity, mood, and energy — the benefits reach far beyond digestion.
4. Systemic inflammation comes down. Refined seed oils, added sugar, and additives fuel the chronic low-grade inflammation sitting underneath heart disease, insulin resistance, autoimmune conditions, joint pain, and even depression. Remove the trigger and people notice less joint stiffness, better skin, and improved mood.
5. Brain fog lifts and hunger hormones reset. Stable blood sugar and less neuroinflammation sharpen focus and calm anxiety, while leptin (fullness) and ghrelin (hunger) start working again. You feel full on less, cravings for sugar and salt fade, and — usually within a week or two — your appetite stops running your day.

Timestamps
00:00 START – Welcome and episode overview
00:35 – The 60% problem: how much of our diet is ultra-processed
01:05 – Processed vs. ultra-processed: what actually counts
01:45 – Change 1: Blood sugar evens out and the crash cycle ends
02:40 – Change 2: Your gut begins to heal
03:25 – How emulsifiers and additives disrupt the microbiome
04:05 – Change 3: Systemic inflammation comes down
04:45 – Change 4: Brain fog lifts
05:20 – Change 5: Hunger hormones reset (leptin and ghrelin)
06:10 – Why it's hard — and the two-week whole-food challenge

 

Resources
1. Ultra-processed foods now make up more than half of the calories Americans eat (CDC NCHS Data Brief No. 536, 2025)
2. Hall et al. — Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial (Cell Metabolism, 2019)
3. Chassaing et al. — Dietary emulsifiers impact the gut microbiota, promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome (Nature, 2015)
4. Randomized controlled-feeding study of the emulsifier carboxymethylcellulose: detrimental impacts on the gut microbiota (Gastroenterology, 2022)
5. Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Systemic Inflammatory Biomarkers: A Scoping Review (Nutrients, 2025)
6. Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: Three Large Prospective U.S. Cohort Studies (Diabetes Care, 2023)
7. Consumption of Ultra-Processed Food and Risk of Depression (2023)
8. Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses (BMJ, 2024)

 

Connect with Nurse Doza
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In this School of Doza episode, Nurse Doza shares his top 5 supplements for energy—the nutrients that fuel your body at the cellular level instead of masking fatigue with caffeine. He explains how B vitamins and folate drive methylation, mood, and neurotransmitters, why L-theanine steadies stress, how L-carnitine powers your mitochondria, and where adrenal and betaine support fit in. If you're tired, burned out, or foggy, here's how to build clean, all-day energy.

FEATURED PARTNER

Boost by MSW Nutrition is the "multivitamin you can feel"—one stick delivers 2,500 mcg of methylated B12, a full A/C/D/E/K and B-complex, electrolytes, and clean, slow-release energy (about a cup of coffee's worth, no crash, zero sugar). That's exactly the B-vitamin, methylation-supporting foundation Nurse Doza builds the energy stack on in this episode—the reason Boost is his go-to for clean daily energy.

👉 Get Boost (Buy 2, Get 1 Free): https://boost.mswnutrition.com
Mix & match any flavor—Mixed Berry, Citrus, or Caffeine Free—and your lowest-priced item is free. Free shipping over $150. Offer ends July 31, 2026.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Boost is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you're pregnant or nursing, or take prescription medication, talk with your provider before starting a new supplement.

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5 KEY TAKEAWAYS

You're not low on caffeine—you're likely depleted. Fatigue, burnout, and brain fog usually trace back to the raw materials your cells need to make energy, not to a caffeine deficit. Fix the inputs and the energy follows.
B vitamins and folate (B9) are the engine. B vitamins are essential cofactors that convert food into ATP, and folate drives methylation and the neurotransmitters behind mood and focus—which is why a methylated B-complex like Boost is the foundation of the stack.
L-theanine gives you calm, focused energy. It supports alpha brain-wave activity and helps buffer the stress response, taking the edge off without making you drowsy—clean energy instead of wired-and-tired.
L-carnitine fuels the mitochondria. It shuttles fatty acids into the mitochondria to be burned for energy, supporting endurance, recovery, and fighting the deep, cellular kind of fatigue.
Adrenal and betaine support round it out. Bovine adrenal support targets the "tired but wired" adrenal-fatigue pattern, while betaine (with SAMe) supports methylation, mood, and the serotonin/dopamine side of feeling energized.

RESOURCES

Based on peer-reviewed literature:

B vitamins, energy & fatigue – Narrative review of the biochemical and clinical evidence for vitamins and minerals in energy, fatigue, and cognition. Nutrients, 2020. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7019700/
Vitamin B12, fatigue & mood – Systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression of B12 supplementation on cognitive function, depressive symptoms, and fatigue. 2021. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8000524/
Folate, MTHFR & neurotransmitters – Review of L-methylfolate as adjunctive therapy in major depressive disorder and its role in monoamine (serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine) synthesis. Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. https://www.psychiatrist.com/pcc/a-review-of-l-methylfolate-as-adjunctive-therapy-in-the-treatment-of-major-depressive-disorder/
L-theanine & stress – Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of L-theanine supplementation on stress and cognition in healthy adults. Neurology and Therapy, 2024. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11263523/
L-carnitine & fatigue – Review of carnitine's role in mitochondrial energy metabolism and fatigue. Pharmaceuticals, 2023. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10516168/

🔗 Connect with Nurse Doza:

JOIN MY SCHOOL for FREE: https://community.schoolofdoza.com/c/start-here

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwcKyagDi468WscAOWM5VHA
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