About the Founder

Dr. Pittman has long been dedicated to the research-based integration of alternative, complementary and conventional treatments for achieving optimal health and maximizing the natural healing capabilities of the body. Born and raised in the small South Georgia town of Tifton, Dr. Pittman is a fourth-generation physician whose great grandfather was a circuit doctor, riding a horse from one small town to another, seeing patients in the late 1800’s. His grandfather graduated from the first class at Emory University School of Medicine and his father was a graduate of the Medical College of Georgia. Together they practiced medicine for over 75 years in Tifton. Dr. Pittman began his medical experience as a hospital volunteer at age 14, then as a nursing assistant at age 16, and continued working part time in the hospital setting almost continually until he graduated from medical school.

He received his B.S. in biology in 1980 and completed studies for a master’s degree in biochemistry and microbiology at the University of Georgia in 1982. He received his medical degree from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia in 1986 and attended the Pediatric Residency Program at NC Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Later, while serving as Emergency Department Director at hospitals in Rocky Mount and Southport, NC, he began exploring ways to combine conventional medicine with nutrition, botanicals, and other natural therapies as an integral part of clinical medical practice.

It was then that Dr. Pittman began exploring ways to incorporate nutrition and holistic therapies into clinical medical practice. He began attending conferences and training courses in nutritional and metabolic medicine. He also began working with integrative medical experts around the country, learning many things about healthcare that were not taught in school or residency. This intensive period of study culminated in the opening of the Carolina Center in 1994. From the beginning, Dr. Pittman’s vision for the Center was to bring multiple healing modalities together in order to help patients overcome chronic degenerative illnesses. He has since intensified his training, gaining certification in chelation therapy, mercury detoxification, and oxidative medicine. Treatment programs at the Carolina Center have developed at a pace commensurate with our evolving understanding of the diverse connections between nutritional biochemistry, physiology, toxicity, and chronic disease.

Since founding the Carolina Center in 1994, Dr. Pittman has further enhanced his understanding of integrative medicine through clinical training at the Autism Research Institute, the Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs, the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), and is a Certified Thermologist through the American Academy of Thermology. Dr. Pittman is certified in chelation therapy by the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology. He is an active member in the International College of Integrative Medicine and the North Carolina Integrative Medical Society, an organization that he co-founded in 2000. He has lectured frequently at the UNC School of Medicine’s Program on Integrative Medicine, has served as a member of the state’s Vector Disease Task Force and is a past president of the North Carolina Integrative Medicine Society. He is currently on the Membership Committee of ILADS. From the beginning, Dr. Pittman’s vision for the Center was to bring together multiple healing modalities in order to help patients overcome chronic degenerative illnesses and bolster their health and wellness.

Dr. Pittman is a classically trained pianist. He has studied piano since age 4. He double majored in music and pre-med in undergrad and graduate school, winning numerous piano competitions through his teens and in college. He continues to enjoy the piano, getting regular lessons from his college professor (and second mother), Dorothy Lewis Griffith, an award-winning and world-renowned pianist who continues to record and perform into her 90’s. In addition to the piano, he and his husband, Younger, split time between caring for their very enjoyable tract of isolated land in Cary, seeing patients in Wilmington where he enjoys spending time on the beach, and finally completely relaxing in the mountains at their second home in Linville, NC. An avid nature photographer, he enjoys historical travel and outdoor activities as well as cooking and spending time with his family, friends and their cat, Mojo.