Kumara Sidhartha, MD MPH

Internist, and Chair of Wellness Advisory Board, Emerald Physicians, Hyannis MA

co-founder of educational and research programs in his community:  “MedSPACE”, “ENDURE Cape Cod”, “Growing GRIT”

Kumara Sidhartha, MD MPH completed medical school in Salem, India at GMK Medical College, and residency training in Internal Medicine at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, an affiliate of Cornell University.  He also holds a Master of Public Health degree in Nutrition from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Certificate in Plant-based Nutrition from T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.  He is board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

In order to seek the most effective and least toxic treatment for challenging conditions such as cancer and autoimmune disease, Dr. Sidharta pursued biological medical training to become a diplomat of European Biological Medicine, a nutrition-centered natural therapeutic philosophy practiced at Paracelsus Klinik in Switzerland.  In his practice at Emerald Physicians, LLC, part of Cape Cod Healthcare, his patients benefit from his guidance in nutritional treatments to prevent and treat chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and arthritis.  He chairs the Wellness Advisory Board at Emerald Physicians, and has founded an evidence-based Continuing Medical Education program for staff there.

Dr. Sidharta’s interest in environmentally sound and ethical food production led him to study permaculture design through the Permaculture Institute.  He is the founder and president of the sustainability-promoting nonprofit Institute of Inter-connected Communities of India (IICC India), and co-founder in Cape Cod of the community youth program Growing GRIT, which includes nutrition components.  He has also worked in his Cape Cod communities to promote nutrition education and advocacy in low-income housing programs, workplace wellness programs and a yoga teacher training school.

Dr. Sidharta regularly speaks among the public and professional community, in person and through the media, on the subjects of nutrition, health and environmental sustainability….  both in the U.S. and in India.  In 2009, he received the Fragile Earth Award from Housing-for-All Corporation of Cape Cod, in recognition of his ongoing efforts to educate the public about plant-based food and its inter-connectedness to human and planetary health.