Tick Boot Camp Podcast
Dr. Raphael “Tito” Balbino was featured on the Tick Boot Camp Podcast:
- Coming soon…
Functional Medicine, Lyme Disease & Complex Chronic Illness
Dr. Raphael “Tito” Balbino, MD, is a board-certified physician who brings together training in Family Medicine and Geriatrics with a holistic, functional medicine approach to Lyme disease, complex chronic illness, systemic inflammation, and healthy aging.
At Mandarin Wellness Center in Jacksonville, Florida, Dr. Balbino works with patients through longer, highly personalized appointments designed to look beyond individual symptoms and explore the broader factors that may be contributing to illness.
His path into functional and integrative medicine was not a straight one. Dr. Balbino began his career firmly rooted in conventional medicine before personal experiences, continued study, mentorship, and exposure to complex chronic illness changed the way he thought about health and healing.
From Brazil to a Career in Medicine
Dr. Balbino was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and lived there until age 12, when his family moved to the United States.
His interest in medicine developed after taking a Human Anatomy and Physiology course in college. Fascinated by the human body, he decided to pursue medical school—a journey that would ultimately require approximately 14 years of education and clinical training.
Dr. Balbino attended the University of Illinois College of Medicine and initially explored several areas of medicine before gravitating toward primary care and, eventually, geriatrics.
He completed his Family Medicine residency at Duke University and subsequently pursued additional training in Geriatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
That combination gave him a broad foundation for looking at the whole patient rather than a single organ system or diagnosis.
Why Dr. Balbino Moved Toward Functional Medicine
One of the most important influences on Dr. Balbino’s evolution as a physician came from outside his formal medical education.
His wife experienced a collection of seemingly disconnected health problems, including symptoms such as fatigue and brain fog. Despite Dr. Balbino’s extensive conventional medical training, he found that what he had learned did not adequately explain everything she was experiencing.
Her own search for answers eventually introduced the family to concepts commonly discussed within functional medicine, including nutrition, gastrointestinal health, hormones, environmental exposures, lifestyle, and the interconnected nature of different systems within the body.
Initially skeptical, Dr. Balbino began studying these subjects himself.
What started as curiosity gradually changed the way he practiced medicine.
He became increasingly interested in asking a larger question:
Instead of only treating a symptom, what factors are contributing to the patient’s overall state of health?
That shift eventually became central to his medical philosophy.
Discovering Lyme Disease and Associated Disorders
Another major turning point came in 2021, when Dr. Balbino was introduced to Dr. Shirley Hartman.
As Dr. Hartman prepared to step away from full-time practice, she and Dr. Balbino developed a relationship that included extensive conversations about medicine, patient care, and holistic approaches to complex illness.
Dr. Balbino asked Dr. Hartman to recommend some of the books and resources that had most influenced her clinical work.
It was through this process that he began exploring Lyme disease and associated disorders far beyond what he had encountered during his conventional medical education.
For Dr. Balbino, Lyme disease also reinforced an idea that had increasingly shaped his approach to medicine: the body cannot always be understood as a collection of isolated systems.
Because Lyme disease and complex chronic illnesses may involve symptoms affecting multiple areas of the body, he believes patients often benefit from a broader, whole-person evaluation.
Dr. Balbino’s Approach to Lyme Disease and Chronic Illness
Patients with Lyme disease and other complex illnesses frequently describe symptoms that cross multiple systems—neurological, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, immune, hormonal, cardiovascular, and more.
That complexity can make these patients challenging to evaluate within a traditional short medical appointment.
Mandarin Wellness Center is structured differently.
New-patient consultations may range from approximately one to four hours depending on complexity, while standard follow-up visits are generally scheduled for an hour.
The additional time allows Dr. Balbino to review a patient’s history, discuss concerns in detail, evaluate previous testing and treatments, and develop an individualized plan.
Rather than assuming that every patient with similar symptoms needs the same protocol, his approach emphasizes the individual circumstances surrounding each person’s illness.
Functional and Integrative Medicine at Mandarin Wellness Center
Dr. Balbino’s practice incorporates conventional medical knowledge alongside functional and integrative strategies.
Depending on the individual patient, the practice may explore areas such as:
- Lyme disease and associated disorders
- Complex chronic illness
- Chronic and systemic inflammation
- Nutrition and metabolic health
- Gastrointestinal health
- Environmental and lifestyle factors
- Healthy aging
- Immune function
- Nutritional and laboratory assessment
- Individualized supportive therapies
Mandarin Wellness Center also offers a variety of in-office therapies, including IV nutrient therapy, high-dose IV vitamin C, IV glutathione, IV ozone therapy, infrared sauna, frequency-specific microcurrent, therapeutic phlebotomy, and TruDOSE Platelet IV Therapy.
The appropriateness of any therapy depends on the individual patient, their medical history, and the physician’s clinical assessment.
TruDOSE Platelet IV Therapy
One of the regenerative therapies available through Mandarin Wellness Center is TruDOSE Platelet IV Therapy.
The process uses a patient’s own blood. A calculated amount is drawn, the platelets are concentrated, and a specific concentration is then administered back to the patient intravenously.
Platelets are widely known for their role in clotting, but they also contain signaling molecules and growth factors involved in inflammatory responses and tissue repair.
TruDOSE is marketed as a method of providing a more standardized, patient-specific concentration of platelets than traditional platelet-rich plasma approaches.
The therapy is promoted for systemic inflammation and chronic health conditions; however, claims regarding its effectiveness for particular chronic diseases, including Lyme disease, should be distinguished from established clinical evidence. Patients considering regenerative or platelet-based therapies should discuss the potential benefits, limitations, risks, and available evidence with a qualified healthcare professional.
A Physician Focused on Time, Listening, and Individualized Care
An important part of Dr. Balbino’s philosophy is something increasingly difficult to provide in modern healthcare: time.
Complex chronic illness rarely fits neatly into a 15-minute appointment.
Patients may arrive with years of symptoms, numerous specialists, extensive laboratory testing, multiple diagnoses, treatment failures, medication histories, and symptoms affecting seemingly unrelated parts of the body.
Dr. Balbino’s longer appointment model is intended to provide enough time to understand that larger story.
His approach reflects the evolution of his own career—from conventional medical training in Family Medicine and Geriatrics to a broader exploration of functional medicine, Lyme disease, inflammation, nutrition, and whole-person care.
Work With Dr. Tito Balbino
Dr. Balbino sees patients through Mandarin Wellness Center in Jacksonville, Florida, where he provides personalized functional and holistic medical care for patients with a variety of health concerns, including complex chronic conditions.
Patients interested in learning more about Dr. Balbino, his medical philosophy, available services, or becoming a patient can visit:
Mandarin Wellness Center – Dr. Tito Balbino, MD
Mandarin Wellness Center
Jacksonville, Florida
Learn More About Lyme Disease
Education can be an important part of navigating Lyme disease, especially when symptoms are complex or persistent.
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