Sanctuary Functional Medicine

04/22/2026

Hope and Hesitation for Exposome Awareness
Far more people are recognizing the toxic soup that we are swimming in daily, but could this Exposome Moonshot project be hope for the future, or should we hesitate in the face of hype? Apparently....
Read here:

Far more people are recognizing the toxic soup that we are swimming in daily, but could this Exposome Moonshot project be hope for the future, or should we hesitate in the face of hype? Apparently someone in the science world caught wind of the problems we are facing and decided to gather government...

04/21/2026

04/21/2026

Inflammation Drivers for OCD Explaining PANS and PANDAS
For millennia, man has asked what makes us do what we do, reaching a multitude of answers, some on target and some not. Ultimately, we are driven both by physical and spiritual factors. This particular study....
Read here:

For millennia, man has asked what makes us do what we do, reaching a multitude of answers, some on target and some not. Ultimately, we are driven both by physical and spiritual factors. This particular study indicates that inflammation is one of the physical factors contributing to compulsions. Side...

04/20/2026

Want to naturally support detox and reduce oxidative stress?
Try Sulforaphane! 🥦
This powerful phytonutrient is found in cruciferous veggies and herbs and spices, but most concentrated in broccoli sprouts, even up to 100x more!
Now that's what I call a superfood!

04/20/2026

Let's say welcome to Dr. Cynthia Reed the latest addition to the growing clinical team at Sanctuary Functional Medicine. You can schedule now for her May and June new patient appointments in Direct Primary Care. Stayed tuned for more.


https://calendly.com/d/cvvz-wx5-tpv/complimentary-60-min-intro-call-with-sanctuary?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=Sanctuary%20Functional%20Medicine

04/18/2026

Not at Sanctuary... we work for you!

Bettina Reed once sat with a prior authorization request for a medication on the Walmart four-dollar list. Let that sink in.

She has spent 33 years in medicine watching the space between provider and patient get filled with people who have never been in an exam room. Copays, referrals, prior auths, pharmacy benefit managers. Layer after layer between you and the person you trained to help.

Her response? She refused to stop a patient's Zoloft when a pharmacy director told her a technicality meant she couldn't send in the script. "I'm doing it anyway because I'm the one caring for this patient."

She says the fix starts with us reclaiming that confidence and reminding patients we are on their team, not the system's.

What is the most absurd prior auth you have ever had to fight?

Episode is in the comments.

04/18/2026

Why we require our patients to treat lifestyle not their weight scale...

Patients are calling your office asking how much you charge for tirzepatide. Not whether it is right for them. Just how much it costs.

That is where we are now. And it should concern every physician paying attention.

Shiv K. Goel, an internal medicine and functional medicine physician, explains what the commercials and med spa pitches skip: pharmacovigilance data showing Wegovy carrying nearly five times higher reporting odds for ischemic optic neuropathy compared to Ozempic. Plus the nausea, the rebound weight gain, and the patients losing muscle mass chasing 10 pounds they never needed to lose.

His rule: no GLP-1 prescription without a full plan. Slow titration, protein targets, resistance training, hormone optimization, and red flag education before anyone increases a dose.

Are you seeing more patients who want the prescription but not the process?

Episode is in the comments.

04/18/2026

Another great reason to stay out of the system. Stop feeding the insurance beast. Keep it between you and your provider at SFM!

The original ACA subsidy was 180 dollars on a 300 dollar premium. It is now 3,500 dollars on a premium that has been inflated to match. That is roughly ten times the rate at which employer plan premiums have climbed.

The subsidies did not lower your patients' costs. The subsidies raised them.

Paula Muto, vascular surgeon and founder of UBERDOC, explains how this actually happened on the ground. States that expanded Medicaid went to hospitals and cut deals to reimburse at rates well above commercial, not at Medicaid rates. The old Medicaid floor became the new commercial ceiling. Every employer plan in those markets got pulled upward with it. And because the federal subsidy formula scales with premium, the total spend kept climbing automatically.

Now look at where it actually went. Not to your office overhead. Not to primary care. Not to breast cancer reimbursement, which she says is now so low most physicians can no longer afford to treat those patients. A significant portion of these healthcare subsidy dollars has been routed to housing, food, childcare, and administrative middlemen. In Massachusetts, Medicaid stopped paying physicians for four consecutive months in 2024. Four months. While the subsidy line item on the federal ledger was at an all-time high.

This is the part every physician I know has been screaming about in the workroom and nobody outside medicine seems to hear: the money is there. It is just not reaching the people who take care of patients.

Paula is now serving on one of the new frontline physician advisory committees in Washington, and her pitch is simple. Fund the patient directly. Give them a health savings account they actually own. Keep catastrophic insurance for the hospital admission and the hit-by-a-truck moment. Let the other 90 million annual outpatient visits happen without three middlemen, two prior authorizations, and a data breach.

If you are an independent physician watching your Medicare Advantage networks collapse and your panel shrink, send this to the colleague who told you last month they were thinking about dropping commercial insurance entirely. They are not crazy. The math is finally catching up to what you have been feeling.

Listen to the full conversation on The Podcast by KevinMD. Link in the comments.

For physicians reading this: what percentage of your Medicaid patients still have a functioning specialist network in your region right now?

04/18/2026

Here is another view of April 8th's Facebook session discussing how we put Sanctuary programs to work in restoring your health.

To find out how we can do that for you sooner rather than later, click below:

https://calendly.com/d/cvvz-wx5-tpv/complimentary-60-min-intro-call-with-sanctuary

04/18/2026

Let's say welcome to Dr. Cynthia Reed the latest addition to the growing clinical team at Sanctuary Functional Medicine. You can schedule now for her May and June new patient appointments in Direct Primary Care. Stayed tuned for more.



https://calendly.com/d/cvvz-wx5-tpv/complimentary-60-min-intro-call-with-sanctuary

04/18/2026

10 of 19 Moldy Realities You Need to Know - Sometimes, Your Symptoms are More Than Just Mold by Dr. Eric Potter MD IFMCP. Stay tuned for more in the series on Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Blessings . (session 9 has audio issues in case you are looking for it) sanctuaryfunctionalmedicine.com

04/17/2026

Could your adrenal cortisol explain why your otherwise great health lifestyle is leaving you flat or wired?

Let us check your adrenal and hormone health for red flags to answer your question...

Sanctuaryfunctionalmedicine.com.