Where conventional primary care runs out of time.
Functional-medicine workup for the conditions that need more than fifteen minutes. Hormonal, metabolic, mood, sleep, energy — the patterns that show up across systems.
Perimenopause
The 34 symptoms standard care dismissesMenopause
Estradiol, progesterone, testosteroneBrain fog
Thyroid, methylation, micronutrientsWeight management
Insulin, leptin, GLP-1 protocolsDepression
Treatable underlying causes firstAnxiety
Hormones, thyroid, inflammationMost concerns fit inside the membership.
A free 30-minute consultation is the best way to know if MBM is the right fit.
Free 30-min consultation →When “you’re fine” doesn’t feel fine.
Root-cause work, inside primary care.Perimenopause. Brain fog. Weight that won’t move. Depression that hasn’t responded to anything. Most of what brings people here arrived as a single symptom and turned out to be a multi-system story. Inside a concierge primary care practice with hour-long visits and an A4M-trained functional medicine workup, the diagnostic depth changes. So does the protocol. So does the outcome.
How we approach conditions here. A typical primary care visit runs fifteen minutes — long enough to write a prescription, not long enough to find out why the symptom is there. Our visits are sixty, and the workup looks at the hormonal, metabolic, inflammatory, nutritional, and sleep contributors at once. The condition gets named by how the physiology actually behaves — not by what fits a fifteen-minute slot.
What we treat as a focus area.
Six conditions where the workup depth is the differentiator.Most everything else gets treated inside the ongoing primary care relationship — the pages below exist where the clinical scope is large enough to warrant one, and where the patient-language search volume is heavy enough that we’d rather meet you in your own words than in ours.
Perimenopause
The 34 symptoms — hot flashes, brain fog, joint pain, weight gain, insomnia, mood, libido, the rest — are not three separate problems. Hormone replacement therapy, the workup that actually informs it, and the time to do both right.
Learn more →For women postmenopausal or transitioningMenopause
What changes after the last period — bone density, cardiovascular risk, libido, sleep, cognition. The WHI study was misread for twenty years. Modern hormone replacement therapy, with the workup beneath it, looks nothing like what your mother was offered.
Learn more →For everyone, but especially women in their 40sBrain fog
Inflammation, hormones, sleep architecture, blood sugar. Often perimenopause-driven for women in midlife; often metabolic for everyone else. The reassurance is that “I can’t think anymore” is testable, not destiny.
Learn more →For weight that won’t move at midlifeWeight management
Almost always metabolic and hormonal, not just caloric. Insulin resistance, sex hormones, thyroid, cortisol, sleep architecture — all testable. GLP-1 weight loss therapy is sometimes part of the answer, but not before the workup.
Learn more →Root-cause first, medication second, ketamine thirdDepression
We’re not anti-medication. We’re anti-skipping the workup. Hormones, thyroid, inflammation, B12, insulin resistance — most depression we see has something findable underneath. When labs are clean and SSRI trials fail, ketamine therapy is the next step.
Learn more →Hormonal, inflammatory, or generalized — they’re not the sameAnxiety
Hormonal anxiety, post-stimulant anxiety, inflammatory anxiety, and true generalized anxiety all look identical in the room — and respond to wildly different protocols. We test what’s drivable before we treat what’s named.
Learn more →“They were the first doctor in years who looked at the whole picture instead of pointing to one number on a lab.”
The conditions that don’t fit on a chart.
Still the work. Just not categorized.Not everything that brings people here has a tidy diagnosis. The phrases below are real things real patients have said in the first visit — and what they usually turn out to be, once you actually run the workup.
“I don’t feel like myself anymore.”
Usually multi-system: hormones, thyroid, sleep architecture, inflammation. For women in their 40s, this is often perimenopause hiding in plain sight. The workup names what’s actually moving.
“My labs are ‘normal’ but I don’t feel normal.”
The reference range trap. “Normal range” often means “95% of an aging population” — not “optimal for someone trying to live well at 70.” We work toward optimal, not toward not-yet-disease.
“Energy that doesn’t come back, no matter what I do.”
Mitochondrial, hormonal, micronutrient, or all three. Low B12, low ferritin, suboptimal thyroid, low testosterone — these get missed in “normal range” panels. We optimize, not just normalize.
“Sleep that doesn’t actually fix anything.”
Sleep architecture matters more than sleep hours. Untreated apnea, low progesterone, low testosterone, suboptimal melatonin timing — all testable. We investigate, not just dose.
“My doctors keep telling me I’m fine.”
You may be fine by the metrics they’re measuring. The metrics that predict healthspan — ApoB, Lp(a), fasting insulin, free testosterone, full hormone panel — are usually not the ones a fifteen-minute visit captures.
“I’m pretty sure something’s off with my hormones.”
Self-diagnosis is usually correct here. The full panel — for women: estradiol, progesterone, FSH, LH, thyroid, free T; for men: free T, total T, SHBG, LH, FSH, estradiol — confirms or reframes within one visit.
Practiced in a building that’s older than the prescription pad.
Mt. Baker Medical is housed in Sycamore Square — the 1890 Mason Block — on the National Register of Historic Places (#77001363), in Bellingham’s Fairhaven Historic District. The setting is intentional. Medicine practiced over an hour, in a room older than the modern healthcare system, signals what the practice is about: time, depth, and the patience to do the workup properly.
Easy to find. Two blocks from the Fairhaven waterfront. Patients from Whatcom County, Skagit County, San Juan Islands, and the lower mainland of British Columbia.
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360) 498-7529
A doctor who actually listens.
A doctor who connects the dots.
Symptoms aren’t separate problems.
Name it together.
Thirty minutes, no exam, no charge. If you’re carrying something that doesn’t have a tidy diagnosis yet — or one that does but hasn’t responded to anything — the free consultation is the right place to start. A conversation with Dr. Scribner about what’s actually happening.
Book free consultation →Or call (360) 498-7529 · 1200 Harris Ave Suite 308, Bellingham WA 98225