Kerry Graff, MD

Licensed to see all patients in: NY

“I encourage patients to eat as whole food, plant-based as they are willing able, without making themselves and the people they love nuts, because nuts won’t be sustainable!”

Overview: Dr. Kerry Graff is board certified in both family practice and lifestyle medicine.  She has practiced in primary care settings for over 26 years in the finger lakes area of upstate New York.  After practicing a hybrid of primary care and lifestyle medicine for the past ten years, she is thrilled to join Love.life Telehealth to now devote 100% of her time to practicing lifestyle medicine!  She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (cum laude) and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Shadyside Family Practice Residency program.  She obtained her certificate in Plant Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell in 2014 and was one of the first 204 physicians to become board certified in Lifestyle Medicine in 2017, the first year this board certification was available.  She spent the first half of her career treating patients how she was initially trained, with pills and procedures, and has devoted the second half of her career to helping patients reverse chronic disease with lifestyle changes instead!

Training Institutions:

1986-1990-Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.  B.A., neurobiology.   Summa cum laude

1990-1994-University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  M.D.  Cum laude.  James A. Ferrante, MD Prize for Family Medicine.  Jeffrey Alan Gray Memorial Prize for Compassion and Humanism

1994-1997-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Shadyside Family Practice residency program, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Clinical Expertise: Dr. Graff loves working with patients with all kinds of lifestyle-related diseases, including obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.   A particular area that she enjoys and has a lot of experience with is the autoimmune digestive diseases ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.  These can be particularly challenging to treat because gut inflammation makes it difficult for patients to initially tolerate all the fiber in the whole plant foods that will help heal the underlying problem. She uses several techniques to work around this problem and she would be thrilled to share them with you!

My Philosophy: While increasing consumption of whole plants typically has the greatest impact to improve health, having good stress management skills, getting adequate sleep, and having positive motivators are absolutely critical to your ability to make sustainable lifestyle changes.  I use a comprehensive and collaborative approach, tailored to your particular medical conditions and life situation, to optimize your chances for success.  I encourage patients to eat as whole food, plant-based as they are willing and able but without making themselves and the people they love nuts, because nuts won’t be sustainable!

Interests: When not practicing lifestyle medicine with patients, Dr. Graff is practicing it personally.  You are likely to find her at the farmer’s market or in the produce department at Wegmans and then cooking up some fabulous plant-based food, walking her ridiculously adorable dog, Bailey, enjoying live music with friends in a small local venue, out hiking or cross-country skiing (depending on the season), or swing dancing.  She also plays the piano and cello and is a bit of a bibliophile.  (Her parents were both middle school English teachers.)

Languages: English