Dr. Blair Cushing

07/22/2026

Infertility can feel extremely isolating, but statistically those who are impacted are far from alone. Functional Medicine has demonstrated great success with many patients to optimize their natural fertility - both as independent interventions AND in conjunction with assistive technologies like IVF.

If you are just preparing for pregnancy or have already been struggling to conceive, a Functional Medicine consult is a great way to evaluate your whole health.
Book now at https://drblaircushing.com

Nearly 54 million women aged 35–49 were affected by infertility in 2023, with numbers expected to climb to almost 80 million by 2036, according to a new analysis published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women’s Health.

Better access to fertility services via primary health care & reducing the costs associated with fertility care are needed to address the rising demand. Find out more ▶️ http://spkl.io/61877H9iD

👇 Figure: Global burden of disease for infertility among women of advanced reproductive age (35–49 years) in 204 countries and territories in 2023, including total prevalence, ASPR, absolute number of DALYs, age-standardised DALY rate, and EAPC.

07/03/2026

At the hospital last night, I was in the middle of evaluating an elderly patient when his daughter showed up and started taking over the visit - interrupting every time I asked him a question, even though he was totally capable of speaking for himself or it was something she really could not answer for him (e.g., is it painful when I touch here? How do you feel your breathing is now?) Worse yet, she came in with an RN badge on (as someone who does NOT work at our facility) and was asking questions deliberately using unnecessary medical terminology like some kind of flex. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Annoying because I'd already developed a good rapport with the patient in the 10 minutes or so together prior to her arrival, and this was language that I would never use with a patient because I care deeply about them fully understanding what is going on. 😮‍💨

The whole scenario really stuck with me and I was thinking about it while walking the perrito 🐶 this evening. Here was someone with the best of intentions, wanting her dad to get great care, but who really just interfered in ways that could have caused me to miss something when my attention went to "managing" the other person in the room instead of remaining fully focused on the patient. So as much as I loathe the idea of making videos of myself, this message felt important enough to share. ❤️

06/14/2026

Can confirm: I have seen more false positive results with Clear Blue tests than all other tests COMBINED. Including similar scenarios to those described in the article where a patient went so far as to show up for an abortion appointment in ANOTHER STATE to only find out she was not actually pregnant. 😮‍💨 Also, when a false positive home test is suspected, I always ask the patient if they know which brand they used because it's almost always Clear Blue. Vast majority of episodes where another brand was used had other confounding factors that could have caused the positive test.

It is precisely because of this that I advise my patients not to waste their money and use dollar store tests instead because they are actually the most similar to what we use in the majority of doctors offices!

HuffPost spoke with a dozen physicians and abortion care workers who are seeing "abnormally high" false positive pregnancy test results from Clearblue — leading some patients to travel hundreds of miles for care they don't need.

06/02/2026

When I see a primary diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in my Palliative Care practice, my heart immediately sinks for that patient because we know the outcome will rarely be good. Knowing we have a chance to make a meaningful difference in survival for these patients is something to celebrate! 🙌
AND... This is an advancement that resulted from 40 years of hard work by focused researchers. 🤓
It makes me that much more concerned for all the scientific breakthroughs we may never see come to fruition because of the short sighted policies that have taken a wrecking ball to our academic and research institutions over the past year and a half. Even as someone who promotes Functional Medicine and looks to treat chronic diseases through lifestyle first, it's important to point out that much of what we do IS translational research - bringing scientific findings into clinical practice earlier and for additional indications!
Scientific research improves all of our lives and we should truly consider this everyone's fight. ✊

The overall survival rate for people who got daraxonrasib was 13.2 months, nearly double the 6.7 months people survived on standard chemotherapy alone.

05/13/2026

PCOS was never just about the ovaries!
My patients already know we talk about addressing metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance as treatment priorities. BUT... it can be hard to accept that advice when you were previously given info that focused only on reproductive organs. 🤔

Changing the name to PMOS (polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome) moves us in the right direction by recognizing abnormalities on the o***y are a symptom, not the cause of what's really going on. And there's so much we can do to treat it beyond birth control!

Need help managing your PMOS? I'm here for you and have new patient visits open this week.
Book now at drblaircushing.com

05/07/2026

How did we allow primary care to devolve into doctors (and now their AI tools) just checking the boxes for insurance reimbursement and ignoring the actual patient in front of us?
I have Palliative Care patients who are likely to die soon from the widespread metastatic cancer we're running out of options to treat and their P*P notes are still referring for mammograms and colonoscopies with ZERO MENTION of the life limiting illness that has made all these metrics irrelevant.🤦🏻‍♀️

When I claim to offer "personalized care," I mean exactly that. By not being beholden to insurance companies I am free to focus on the individual in front of me and create treatment plans that make sense for YOU. The care you NEED, not a stack of questionnaires to make claims about "high quality care" when the patients still leave with none of their questions unanswered.

Come see me if you need a better primary care experience. You deserve better. ❤️

05/01/2026

¿Siente que sus visitas al médico no son útiles porque le dedican muy poco tiempo y ni siquiera hablan su idioma? Dra. Cushing es bilingüe y todas nuestras consultas se programan para durar al menos 30 minutos.

Respire hondo, cuéntenos su historia y reciba su consulta en el idioma que usted prefiera. 🙏
Estamos aceptando nuevos pacientes que tienen más que 12 años.
Haga su cita hoy: https://my.practicebetter.io/ #/695608715a6ec9e0ba976612/bookings?step=services

04/13/2026

How do others feel about AI receptionists? As a small business owner, I find there are sooo many services really pushing this. And as a solo practice with no staff, I get the apparent benefit of reducing "missed" calls from potential patients who will just move on rather than leaving a message and waiting for a call back.

But as a consumer, my experience with businesses using AI receptionists has thus far been terrible. Feels like an extra road block to getting the assistance I'm looking for and I have never even once had it help accomplish what I need.
What say you - does AI answering the phone feel positive or negative when you're interacting with a business?

04/08/2026

Can confirm - playing in the dirt is good for you 😁

Interestingly, we also have some pretty impressive research that one of the best things we can do for kids with significant environmental allergies is to get them exposed to animals. 🐑 🐖 🐮 Petting zoo works, even your regular 🐈+🐕 but the more dirt the better! 👩🏻‍🌾

Whether it’s microbes in the dirt or fresh air—or both—researchers do know this: Gardening is strong medicine.

Dig Deeper: Follow the link in our bio to learn more by reading How Backyard Gardens Can Help Ease Depression and Anxiety: https://www.bluezones.com/2025/06/digging-for-mental-health-how-backyard-gardens-can-help-ease-depression-and-anxiety/

03/20/2026

Question: As a patient, how do you REALLY feel about doctors using AI scribes to record and produce notes from your visit?
Anecdotally, I find most patients say "yes" when I ask if it's okay, but also *seem* uncomfortable with it. I actually deliberately stopped using it after a few weeks trial for this reason. (That and I was doing WAY too much editing, would rather just write my thoughts directly than edit some computer's garbage output.) Also, I believe most of my colleagues are NOT properly consenting folks, meaning many patients don't even realize it's happening.

Sooo... what say you??? AI all good in the exam room, or not so much? 🧐