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TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z

Dr. Z

Welcome to TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z—where we are redefining health and empowering change. Hosted by Dr. Z, creator of the T.R.U.E. Wellness Framework, this podcast is your gateway to unlocking true health and vitality.

Each episode explores the foundational components of TRUE Wellness, including personalized health protocols, connecting with your body, balancing hormones, managing stress, and cultivating emotional well-being and self-growth. Through thought-provoking interviews with leading experts, inspiring healing stories, and actionable insights, TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z uncovers new ideas and practical strategies to empower your journey toward a healthier, more vibrant life.

Whether diving deep into the root causes of dis-ease or discovering groundbreaking approaches to holistic living, this podcast invites you to rethink wellness and embrace lasting transformation.

Dr. Z, PhD, is a passionate advocate for holistic health and natural solutions. With expertise in functional medicine, nutrition, bioenergetics, and mindset transformation she holds a PhD in Natural Medicine, a MS in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, an MBA, and a BA in Psychology and Education. Dr. Z is the owner of South Bay Wellness (www.SouthBayWellness.com) and has been in practice for nearly two decades. She has helped countless individuals reclaim their health and embrace balanced, vibrant living. Her mission is to empower you to unlock your true potential and thrive.

If you’re ready to explore new perspectives, uncover hidden opportunities for growth, and thrive in every aspect of your life, tune in and join the conversation today.

Visit www.DrZTRUEWellness.com to learn more.

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S2 · E96
October 8 · 24 min
PERIMENOPAUSE: THE ROOT-CAUSE EXPLANATION NO ONE GAVE YOU
Perimenopause symptoms can start 8 to 10 years before your last period, while your cycles are still regular and your labs come back "fine." If you're in your 40s and something has clearly changed but nobody will name it, this is the root-cause explanation most women never get. Dr. Z walks through six of the most overlooked signs of perimenopause: sudden rage, anxiety that appeared out of nowhere, waking at 3am, brain fog, weight gain around the middle, and aching joints. Underneath all six sits the same pattern. Hormones lose their rhythm, and they land on a nervous system that may have been running in survival mode for years. What you'll learn: 1. Why progesterone often declines first, and how losing that calming "brake" can change how you react to everything. 2. How estrogen swings may contribute to perimenopause rage and first-time anxiety in your 40s. 3. Why so many women wake at 3am, and the role cortisol timing can play in disrupted sleep. 4. What perimenopause brain fog usually looks like, and why word-finding is often the first thing affected. 5. Why stubborn belly weight and joint pain that comes and goes can show up together, and why eating less and training harder sometimes backfires. This episode doesn't replace a conversation with your doctor about hormone therapy. It adds the nervous system half of the picture that usually gets skipped. FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E95
October 1 · 34 min
Why You're Exhausted, Foggy, Gaining Weight, and Nobody Can Tell You Why
You're exhausted in a way sleep doesn't fix. You've gained weight that won't come off. You lose your words mid-sentence, you snap at people you love, and your labs keep coming back fine. Those aren't separate problems. They're one thing showing up in seven different places, and it's why everything you've tried works for a few weeks and then stops. This is the full explanation of survival mode: what it is, what it does to cortisol, blood sugar, and your nervous system, and why your body is doing every bit of it to protect you. I walk through each symptom and show you the same root underneath it: Exhaustion that rest doesn't touch. The 3pm crash and the sugar craving you can't talk yourself out of. Being wide awake at 11pm after being tired all day. Weight your body won't let go of. Brain fog and losing your words. Snapping at people you love. And losing your desire for sex, which is the symptom women apologize for before they'll even mention it. Nothing here is a diagnosis, and nothing here replaces care from your own doctor. There's no supplement to buy and no meal plan at the end. This is an explanation of the mechanism, and what actually moves it. 📥 FREE GUIDE: 5 Signs Your Body Is Stuck in Survival Mode: https://go.southbaywellness.com/5signs FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E94
September 24 · 22 min
3 Signs Your Body Is Stuck in Survival Mode (And Why Rest Isn't Fixing It)
Tired all day, then wide awake the second you get into bed? That's not two problems. That's one — and it means your body is stuck in survival mode. Survival mode is a real physical state. Your nervous system has a gear for handling danger. It's built to switch on for a moment and then switch off. But when you've been carrying everything for years, your body stops treating that gear as an emergency setting and starts treating it as normal. It isn't malfunctioning — it's protecting you. It just hasn't been told it can stand down. In this episode I go deeper on the three signs from my short video: Tired and wired — you're exhausted and you can't switch off No buffer — small things set you off, and then you feel awful You can't be still — you finally get quiet time and you're up in ninety seconds For each one: what your body is protecting you from, and why the usual advice (sleep hygiene, "be more patient," "just relax") backfires. Then the simplest thing that actually helps your nervous system come out of it. This is not medical advice and it doesn't replace care from your own provider. It's one conversation about what's happening in your body and why. ▶️ Watch the short version first: https://youtu.be/R7szZ6g0j14 If this is the kind of thing you want more of, subscribe. I break down what's actually happening in your body, one video at a time. #survivalmode #nervoussystem #perimenopause FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E93
September 17 · 28 min
Why Your Body Won't Let Go of the Weight (And It's Not Willpower)
Day nine. She's standing in the kitchen at four in the afternoon, eating crackers out of the sleeve, and the sentence in her head isn't "I'm hungry." It's "what is wrong with me." She'd been perfect for nine days. That's the fourth diet this year. She's fifty-one. In this episode I want to explain what was actually happening in that kitchen — because it was not a failure of character, and it wasn't close to one. A body that doesn't believe conditions are safe holds on. That's not a malfunction. That's the job. And five things had been telling her body exactly that, for years: the restriction itself, an alarm that never switched off, sleep that wasn't restoring her, exercise stacked on top of an already-loaded system, and twenty years of evidence she'd handed it in good faith while trying to get healthy. Who this is for: women in their forties, fifties and sixties who have done every plan properly, lost it, watched it come back, and been told the problem is discipline. A note: nothing here is medical advice, and nothing here tells you to stop a plan you're on or change anything your doctor has advised. This is one conversation about mechanism. If this is the kind of thing you want more of, subscribe. New episode every week. FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E92
September 10 · 57 min
Stop Performing 'Fine': Breaking Automatic Habits and Leading an Authentic Life | Will Steel & Dr. Z
Dr. Z sits down with leadership coach and former RAF pilot Will Steel to unpack a claim that stops most people in their tracks: that we're not authentic at all — we're pretending, and pretending that we're not pretending, without ever realizing it. The conversation moves from the "I'm fine" performance so many high-achieving women live inside, to why willpower is the wrong tool for lasting change, to the real fix — building external structures (calendars, accountability, promises to yourself) strong enough that you can't talk yourself out of who you say you are. Will and Dr. Z dig into habit stacking, the self-sabotage that shows up right before a breakthrough, and the childhood decisions that quietly write the rules we live by as adults (including stories from both of their own lives). Will closes with the concept of Fitra — the pure, unforced essence of who you already are — and a single question worth sitting with: what do you really want? Will Steel is a former Royal Air Force pilot and recipient of the Leadership Trophy at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell. He went on to spend more than two decades as a senior leader inside a premier global personal-development organization, delivering transformational programs to tens of thousands of people — over 90,000, per his website — across 26 countries in 18 languages. Today Will is the CEO of Free to Lead and the author of the #1 international bestseller Free to Lead: Unleash Your Hidden Leadership Genius, which uses an ontological coaching approach to help clients uncover the hidden beliefs and automatic patterns that quietly run their lives. His coaching clients range from first-time managers to CEOs and global entrepreneurs, many of them across the Middle East. Will lives by the coast, where he surfs, walks his dog Bubbles on the beach, and keeps to a strength routine he's followed almost without fail for over two decades — proof, he says, of what's possible once you build the right structures around yourself. Will Steel Links Website: https://willsteel.com/ Free To Lead Book: https://willsteel.com/freetolead.php LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/will-steel-business-coach-high-performance-transformation Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/willsteelcoaching/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willsteelcoaching/ YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@willsteel Schedule a 15min Call (to see if and how I can help you): https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/booking/LOmkl6JnKkjSJJAt9Csm FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E91
September 3 · 48 min
The Breathwork Study That Beat Medication for Anxiety | Andrew Keaveney & Dr. Z
Ever been told to "just breathe and relax" when you're running on empty and it didn't work? In this episode of TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z, Dr. Danielle Zanzarov sits down with breathwork and meditation teacher Andrew Keaveney (Art of Living Foundation) to unpack why meditation feels so hard at first, how breathwork physically shifts your nervous system out of "go mode," and why rest not more hustle is the missing piece for burned-out, high-achieving women. Andrew spent 4 years living in an ashram in India and has spent the last 17 years teaching breathwork and meditation even though he couldn't meditate himself while chairing the Buddhist club at Stanford. He's helped launch a retreat center in North Carolina and made a documentary following people using breathwork in addiction recovery. In this conversation, he leads a live guided breathing exercise and walks through the research on how breathwork affects gene expression, cortisol, anxiety recovery, and impulse control. In this episode: 1. Why meditation feels like opening Pandora's box before it feels peaceful 2. How to stop "compartmentalizing your happiness" for later 3. A live guided breathwork practice you can follow along with 4. What the research says about breathwork, stress hormones, and the nervous system 5. How breathwork gave people struggling with addiction back their sense of choice 6. 3 practical steps to start a daily practice, even with 10 minutes Follow Andrew Keaveney: Instagram @andrew.keaveney and Substack | Art of Living USA: Instagram @artoflivingusa or artofliving.org FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E90
August 27 · 45 min
Hormones or Airway? The Sleep Mistake Women Miss
Stress. Hormones. Perimenopause. Anxiety. Thyroid. For a lot of women, those five labels are really one missed diagnosis — sleep apnea — screened by a test built around how it shows up in men. In this episode, Dr. Z sits down with dental sleep medicine expert Dr. Layne Martin to talk about the eight hours nobody's been looking at: the airway you breathe through while you sleep, and what it's quietly doing to your energy, hormones, brain, and long-term health. If you're doing all the "right" things — clean eating, workouts, cold plunges, meditation — but still wake up exhausted, this is the foundational piece most people skip. What you'll learn in this episode: 1. Why women's sleep apnea hides behind labels like perimenopause, anxiety, and thyroid — and why a standard sleep test can miss it entirely. 2. What your teeth reveal about your nervous system: why nighttime clenching and grinding is often a fight-or-flight (sympathetic overdrive) signal of an airway problem, not just a "get a night guard" issue. 3. The sleep–brain connection: how breathing at night drives the brain's overnight "cleaning" (the glymphatic system), and how poor airway shows up as brain fog in adults and developmental issues in kids. 4. Why how you sleep matters as much as how long: how back-sleeping collapses the airway, and how positional therapy became the Open Air Pillow. 5. Nose vs. mouth breathing: the role of nitric oxide, why mouth taping can backfire, and where a simple oral appliance fits alongside — not instead of — CPAP. About Dr. Layne Martin Dr. Layne Martin is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine and a specialist in orthodontics and craniofacial orthopedics, focused on airway health, snoring, and sleep-related breathing disorders in both children and adults. A former restorative dentist on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, he sold his practice at 42 to retrain around the root cause he'd been missing for years: the airway. Today he treats sleep-disordered breathing, teaches other dentists to screen for it, and helped develop an FDA-cleared oral appliance for mild to moderate sleep apnea. His research into why oral appliances and CPAP so often fall short pointed to one overlooked factor — sleep position — which became the Open Air Pillow, designed to support healthier sleep posture and make existing treatments work better. As co-founder of two sleep-health companies, his mission isn't just adding years to life — it's helping people live healthier, sharper, and more fully. References mentioned: • Open Air Pillow — positional therapy pillow: https://www.openairpillow.com/ • FDA-cleared oral appliance (Airvata) — www.airVata.com and patients can find a provider there too! You can contact their support at Support@airvata.com. • Contact Dr. Martin: LMARTIN@airvata.com • Sonu Sense / Sonu headband (nasal patency, third-party tool referenced in-episode) FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E89
August 13 · 23 min
"It Sounds Like Anxiety" — 5 Labels in 6 Years
She went in because her heart was racing at 3am and she was too exhausted to get out of the car after work. Fourteen minutes later she left with a prescription and a word. The word was anxiety. She believed it for six years. In this episode I walk through five labels women get handed — anxiety, depression, insomnia, health anxiety, and the last one that isn't a diagnosis at all: "this is just where you are right now." For each one: what believing it cost her, and the question nobody in that appointment asked. Because there's something all five have in common, and it took six years to see it. This is a follow-up to "I've Tried Everything" — that episode was about being told nothing is wrong. This one is about being told the wrong thing, which in some ways is worse. Being told nothing's wrong leaves the question open. A name closes it. Who this is for: women whose lab results keep coming back normal, who've been told it's stress, hormones, anxiety, perimenopause or "just your age," and who know something is still not right. An important note. Nothing in this episode says mental health diagnoses aren't real, and nothing here is medical advice. Anxiety and depression are real, treatment helps enormously for many people, and nobody should change or stop a medication because of a podcast. The argument is narrower than that: a label can be accurate and still not be the whole answer. You're allowed to accept treatment and keep the question open. If this is the kind of thing you want more of, subscribe. New episode every week. FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E88
August 13 · 24 min
I've Tried Everything — Why Nothing Has Worked Yet
She said it flat, like a weather report: "I did every diet you could possibly think of. And it would all come back." Twelve diets. A hundred miles a week on a bike. Six years of specialists and a folder of results that all came back the same way: everything's fine. This episode walks through the five things she tried, in order — diets, exercise, medical testing, supplements, and finally sitting up at 11pm doing her own research because nobody else would. And with each one, the thing nobody ever told her: what that attempt actually proved. Because five failed attempts aren't five failures. They're five results. Nobody had ever read them back to her. If you've got your own version of that folder, this one's for you. A note on what this episode is not: there's no protocol here and nothing to buy. It's also not medical advice, and it's not a reason to stop working with your doctor. It's one conversation about why the things you've already tried didn't work. Tell me your line. Not the whole ten years — one sentence. The thing you said to a provider that got waved off. The number that was inside the range while you were sitting there barely functioning. Leave it in the comments. You don't have to use your name. I read them, and the ones I hear most often become the next episode. FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E87
July 27 · 1 hr 4 min
Why Probiotics Fail: The Gut-Brain Truth About Anxiety, Bloating & Burnout
Your gut isn't just influencing your mood, your stress, and your sleep. According to today's guest, it's running the show. On this episode of TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z, Dr. Z sits down with nutritional scientist Dr. Oscar Coetzee, who holds master's degrees in both psychology and nutrition plus a PhD and a doctorate in clinical nutrition, for a clear, genuinely eye-opening conversation about the gut-brain connection. If you've eaten clean, taken the probiotic everyone swears by, and still felt bloated, wired, and exhausted, this episode explains why. Dr. Oscar walks through why most standard gut advice quietly fails, why not all probiotics are created equal, what "leaky gut" actually means, and why the microbiome may be the missing foundation underneath anxiety, low mood, and chronic disease. What you'll learn: 1. Why your mood problem might actually be a nutrient problem. 2. The difference between transient and engrafting probiotics, and why it changes everything. 3. What "leaky gut" really means, in plain language. 4. The three types of stress, and why eustress burns you out just like distress. 5. Why fiber, color, and real food do what no single pill can. Strains discussed in this episode (for education, not as a protocol): Akkermansia muciniphila, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Roseburia intestinalis, Bifidobacterium adolescentis, and Bifidobacterium longum. Start here with your gut health journey: https://www.designsforhealth.com/u/daniellezanzarov/checkout FREE RESOURCE FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E86
July 23 · 1 hr 7 min
How to Love Someone Who Is Gone | The Heart of Grief with Thomas Attig
Everyone knows the five stages of grief. The man who has spent fifty years studying grief says they were never about grieving at all. Dr. Z sits down with Thomas Attig, PhD — applied philosopher, co-founder of the world’s first PhD program in applied philosophy, and one of the most decorated voices in grief studies. His new Oxford University Press collection, Seeking Wisdom in Death’s Shadows, distills a lifetime of listening to mourners, caregivers, and counselors. Together they trace what loss actually does to a life — and why grieving is something we actively do, not something that simply happens to us. In this conversation: 1. Where the “five stages” really came from — and why thousands of student essays about real loss never mentioned a single one. 2. The difference between grief reactions and grief responses, and why that distinction changes how you heal. 3. A simple thought experiment that proves you already know how to love someone in their absence. 4. Why healing means reweaving the web of your life rather than returning to who you were. 5. Sorrow-friendly practices — conversation, journaling, ritual, time in nature — for anyone who feels stuck. Resources • Seeking Wisdom in Death’s Shadows by Thomas Attig (Oxford University Press) — 30% off with promo code AUFLY30: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/seeking-wisdom-in-deaths-shadows-9780197776094?promocode=aufly30 • Tom’s website: griefsheart.com • Free 21-Day Nervous System Calibration with Dr. Z: https://go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E85
July 16 · 1 hr 2 min
Why You Eat When You're Not Hungry: Ending Emotional Eating with Tricia Nelson
You can know exactly what to eat and still find yourself standing at the pantry at 9 PM. That is not a willpower problem, and treating it like one is why the cycle keeps repeating. Emotional eating, food noise, and the diet-binge cycle are the focus of this conversation between Dr. Z and Tricia Nelson, an emotional eating expert who lost 50 pounds by identifying and healing the root causes of her own eating patterns. Tricia has spent 30 years researching the hidden drivers of the addictive personality, is the author of the bestselling Heal Your Hunger, and hosts the podcast Confessions of a Binge Eater. Together they trace the line between an eating problem and a living problem, and what changes when you get curious about why you eat instead of obsessing over what you eat. What you will take from this conversation: 1. How to tell physical hunger from emotional hunger, and why that distinction is the first step out of the cycle. 2. What “food noise” actually signals, and why quieting it starts with your emotional state rather than your plate. 3. The PEP Test: the three roles food plays when a feeling needs somewhere to go — painkiller, escape, and punishment. 4. Why diets reliably fail emotional eaters, and what a long-term approach looks like instead. 5. Where support, community, and spirituality fit when willpower has already been tried. Disclaimer: Tricia’s framework reflects her personal recovery and three decades of client work; it is shared here as education, not medical or mental health treatment. Dr. Z holds a PhD in natural medicine. Resources • Take Tricia’s free quiz — Are you an emotional eater, a food addict, or somewhere in between? https://www.healyourhunger.com/are-you-an-emotional-eater-or-food-addict/ • Tricia’s book: Heal Your Hunger: 7 Simple Steps to End Emotional Eating Now • Tricia’s podcast: Confessions of a Binge Eater — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/confessions-of-a-binge-eater/id1858632856 • Connect with Tricia: Website: https://healyourhunger.com Instagram @tricianelson_ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tricia.g.nelson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/triciagreaves/ FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E84
July 9 · 1 hr 2 min
She Died, Met God & Came Back to Change How You Heal | Rev. HoniB Borden
What if the endless healing journey — the next protocol, the next program, the next thing to fix — was never the point? In 2012, Rev. HoniB Borden's heart stopped. She says she crossed fully into the afterlife, met the presence of God and Yeshua, and was sent back three days later with one message: stop healing, and start remembering who you already are. It's one of the most extraordinary conversations we've ever had on TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z — and whether or not you share her faith, what she reveals about your body, your nervous system, and the difference between your feelings and your truth will stay with you long after you hit pause. Rev. HoniB is a Johns Hopkins–trained clinician, a 20-year meditation teacher, and the founder of Washington D.C.'s first holistic wellness medi spa — who walked away from all of it to answer a calling she never asked for. In this episode, she and Dr. Z reconnect two decades after first meeting, and go somewhere most wellness conversations never dare to. In this episode: What she experienced when her heart stopped — and the message she was sent back with Why "stop healing, start remembering" might be the shift you've been missing How to treat your body as a temple instead of a problem to solve Why your feelings are not the same as your truth (and how women get this backwards) The role of the nervous system, coherence, and why biohacking alone won't sustain you The Four Living Declarations — her free gift for grounding yourself in seconds of stress CONNECT WITH REV. HONIB BORDEN Website: https://www.AscensionAlchemists.com Free gift — The Four Living Declarations™ (sign up for the newsletter on the homepage) Podcast: Ascension Alchemists™ — on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music & more Book: The Day I Became A Superhero: A Story About the True Power Within Instagram: @revhoniborden | @ascensionalchemists Facebook: @revhoniborden | @ascensionalchemists YouTube: @revhoniborden | @ascensionalchemists Booking: Info@AscensionAlchemists.com FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E83
July 2 · 51 min
Why Your Unresolved Arguments Are Keeping Your Nervous System Stuck — With Conflict Resolution Coach Rod Jeter & Dr. Z
The fight that won't close isn't behind you — it's inside you. Every unresolved argument stays in the body as a low-grade stressor. It shows up as 3 AM wake-ups, tight chest, and exhaustion with no clear source. In this conversation, Dr. Danielle Zanzarov, PhD, sits with conflict resolution coach Rod Jeter — creator of YBAngry — to talk about what unfinished conflict actually costs the nervous system, and how his structured game helps couples resolve decades of disagreements in under an hour. What this episode covers: 1. Why every unfinished argument registers as a stressor your nervous system is still running. 2. How the YBAngry game removes emotional charge from the most loaded conversations. 3. The specific steps that finally make people feel heard — sometimes after 30 or 40 years. 4. Why most people are worse communicators than they think, and what the game does differently. 5. Rod's three free tips to stop arguing, available now at ybangry.com. About | Roderick "Rod" Jeter — Conflict Resolution Coach & Creator of YBAngry After traditional counseling failed, Rod created YBAngry (pronounced "Why Be Angry") — the relationship game where all you have to do to win is play. He designed YBAngry to help couples stay together, one issue at a time. Rod's game approach helps couples overcome seemingly insurmountable disagreements that have lasted decades, in just minutes. No fuss. No drama. Resources mentioned: Order the YBAngry Game: https://ybangry.com/?ref=DANIELLE-753B YBAngry Website: https://ybangry.com/ 3 Free Tips to Stop Arguing: Visit ybangry.com and scroll to the '3 free tips' link — enter your first name and email to receive a short video. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrrodjeter/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrrodjeter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mrrodjeter FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E82
June 25 · 32 min
The Real Reason You Wake Up at 3 AM (It's Not Insomnia)
Why do you wake up at 3 AM every night and struggle to fall back asleep? It's not insomnia the way you've been told — and it's not a character flaw. Your body is doing something specific in the early morning hours, on a clock. If you fall asleep fine but snap awake at 3 or 4 AM with a racing mind — the to-do list, the worry, the thing you said years ago — this episode is for you. Dr. Z walks through what's actually happening: the early-morning cortisol rise, the overnight blood sugar dip, and a nervous system stuck in "survival mode" that reads all of it as a threat and pulls you wide awake at the lightest stage of sleep. You'll learn why melatonin, blackout curtains, and "just relax" haven't worked, what your 3 AM wake-up is really signaling, and the daytime and evening shifts that actually lower the alarm — so your body stops treating a normal night like an emergency. This isn't about forcing sleep. It's about helping a dysregulated nervous system feel safe enough to keep it. FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E81
June 18 · 33 min
Why 80% of Menopausal Women Get Dismissed (And It's Not Their Fault)
More than 80% of women in perimenopause and menopause never get adequate care — and the most common explanation for that number is almost entirely wrong. The story we tell is that these women didn't advocate for themselves. That they stayed quiet, put everyone else first, didn't make the appointment. Dr. Z has sat across from thousands of these women over nearly 20 years in practice. Most of them did go. They made the appointment. They sat in the chair and said the hard thing out loud. They just got sent home with nothing. In this episode, Dr. Z, PhD — functional medicine and nervous system regulation practitioner at South Bay Wellness — walks through what's actually behind the data, why the conventional system is structurally unable to see what perimenopause looks like on labs, and what it costs a woman psychologically when she's told everything is normal when her body is clearly saying otherwise. In this episode: 1. Where the 80% figure actually comes from — including findings from a 2025 Mayo Clinic study on midlife women and menopause symptom treatment gaps, and what the lead researcher said about the current state of care. 2. Why women who did seek help still appear in the data as women who never sought care — and what that gap reveals about how the system counts what it misses. 3. What conventional labs are built to detect and why perimenopause falls structurally outside the range of what standard diagnostic panels can see. 4. The psychological cost of medical dismissal — why being told 'everything looks normal' doesn't just leave women without answers; it trains them to disbelieve their own internal signals. 5. What body-led care actually looks like: treating symptoms as signals worth reading, not malfunctions to silence or performance metrics to optimize. FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E80
June 11 · 28 min
Why You Keep Quitting Your Health Goals (It's Not What You Think) | Dr. Z
Most people have tried to change something about their health and watched it quietly fall apart by day nine — or day two. Not from a dramatic failure. Just a slow fade. The common conclusion? You don't have enough discipline. You're not motivated enough. Something's wrong with you. Dr. Z is here to correct the record. In this episode, Dr. Z breaks down the actual mechanism behind follow-through — and it has nothing to do with willpower. Using the most boring example possible (brushing your teeth), she unpacks why the habits that stick are the ones you've stopped deciding about, and exactly how to apply that same logic to the health goals that keep falling apart. What You Will Learn From This Episode: 1. Why willpower is a terrible foundation for any health plan — and what the research actually says about self-control fatigue 2. The daily decision trap: how turning your commitment into a recurring vote is a guaranteed path to quitting 3. Why "I'll do it when I feel motivated" is functionally a plan to fail 4. The five practical steps to make a new health habit automatic — starting embarrassingly small 5. The single most important rule when you miss a day (and you will miss a day) If you've ever started a wellness program with real momentum and watched it dissolve into nothing — this episode is about what actually happened, and what to do instead. FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E79
May 21 · 40 min
Foundayo™, Ozempic, and the Question No One Is Asking
Foundayo just got FDA approval. Which means a lot of women who never thought about a GLP-1 medication — because the needle was a hard no — are now thinking about one. The conversation in midlife wellness changed overnight. In this solo episode, Dr. Z is not here to tell you whether to take a GLP-1. She's here to give you what she has not seen anyone else give you: a clinical, body-led framework for how to think about this decision before you make it. Not after. What you'll discover in this episode: Why the shift from injectable GLP-1s to an oral pill is changing who considers them, and why convenience is not a framework. What these medications actually do in the body, what they cannot do, and why a quieter appetite is not the same thing as a healed system. The numbers no one is putting in the marketing — including how much weight returns within a year of stopping, and what portion of what you lost was muscle. Why midlife weight gain is rarely just about weight, and what a body-led conversation about it actually sounds like. The five questions Dr. Z wants every woman to sit with before she makes a decision about a GLP-1 — so that whatever she decides, she decides it clearly. Download The GLP-1 Conversation — Dr. Z's full briefing on the research, the lawsuits, what these medications do in the body, and what your body already knows how to do on its own: https://go.southbaywellness.com/glp FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E78
May 14 · 40 min
Why Your Body Won't Heal (Even When You're Doing Everything Right)
Energy healing, emotional blocks, and nervous system release — what if the reason nothing is working isn't a strategy problem? What if you are not stuck — you are just blocked? In this conversation, Dr. Z sits down with Stu Weintraub — shamanic and Reiki energy healer, TEDx speaker, founder of Waves of Love Wellness, and the creator of the Center for Child-Safe Divorce. Stu's work lives at the exact intersection of everything True Wellness explores: the body, the nervous system, emotional patterns, relationships, and the deeper question of what it actually means to live from the heart. His message is simple and profound: you are not broken. You are not stuck. You are blocked. And when those blocks are cleared — everything else the functional medicine, the supplements, the strategies — can finally work. This is one of those episodes that meets you exactly where you are. WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER • Why unresolved emotion — grief, resentment, fear, heartbreak — can block physical healing even when you are doing everything else right • What energy healing actually is, why the body is an electrical being, and how emotional splinters get embedded in the system over years of unprocessed experience • Why self-love cannot be the starting point — and what has to come first before it can take root • The hidden cost of identity collapse: what happens to high achievers when the title, the role, and the relationship are suddenly gone • Why disconnection — from source, from each other, from the earth — is the root of most modern suffering, and what Stu's Waves of Love method does to restore it ABOUT STU WEINTRAUB STU WEINTRAUB is a shamanic / master reiki energy healer, social impact entrepreneur and TEDx speaker. In addition to being a “Warrior Peace-Advocate for Kids Caught in the Crossfire, Stu is the Founder of Waves of Love Wellness, The Center for Child-Safe Divorce and Waves of Love, International. His mission is to help people live, love and lead from their hearts. FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.
S2 · E77
May 7 · 1 hr
Done Pretending: How to Reclaim Your Identity in Midlife | Susan Houston & Dr. Z
Limiting beliefs, midlife reinvention, self-sabotage, and inherited fears — what if the voice telling you to stay small was never even yours to begin with? In this episode of TRUE Wellness with Dr. Z, Dr. Z sits down with Susan Houston — TEDx speaker, podcast host of Done Pretending, and the woman who walked away from a 19-year career to finally stop living under someone else's ceiling. Susan's work focuses on one of the most invisible forms of self-sabotage women experience: the secondhand beliefs, inherited judgments, and borrowed fears absorbed from parents, partners, and authority figures — mistaken for personal truth and carried for decades. The perfectionism that started with a B+ on a third-grade report card. The identity swallowed by years of people-pleasing and caregiving. The inner critic that says you are too old, too much, or not ready — that belief was never yours to carry.This episode is for every woman in midlife, perimenopause, or menopause who feels that quiet inner nudge saying there is more — and has not yet given herself permission to go after it. What You'll Discover: 1. What secondhand beliefs are — and how to tell the difference between an inherited limiting belief and an actual personal truth 2. Why the most dangerous inner critic is the one that sounds exactly like your own voice — and how to trace it back to its real source 3. How women in midlife are uniquely positioned to break free from self-imposed ceilings, reclaim their identity, and stop outsourcing their self-worth 4. Susan Houston's Four Truths framework for women who are done pretending — and what each truth reveals about where you actually are in your reinvention 5. Why fear is not a stop sign — it is often the clearest signal that you are walking directly toward your real purpose Connect with Susan Houston: Done Pretending Podcast — available on all major platformsMasterclass + 60-Day Cohort: thesusanhouston.com FREE GIFT: The 21-Day Nervous System Calibration is designed to help you begin shifting out of survival mode and back into a state of regulation. 👉 go.thisisdrz.com/nervoussystem Schedule a FREE discovery call with Dr. Z and our team: https://go.southbaywellness.com/schedule-call Thanks for listening to T.R.U.E. Wellness with Dr .Z, follow us on social media for more wellness inspiration. Watch the full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisIsDrZ Instagram: ThisIsDrZ Facebook: ThisIsDrZ YouTube: @ThisIsDrZ LinkedIn: ThisIsDrZ TikTok: @ThisIsDrZ Website: www.SouthBayWellness.com The information in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Dr. Z and her guests share perspectives and suggestions, not diagnoses or treatment. Always consult your own qualified provider.

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