Cranberry’ s Kimberly Maravich is all about total health. Author of“ 360 Health: Your Guide to Cancer Prevention, Healing Foods, & Total Body Wellness,” Maravich strives to bring awareness to the masses about healthy living and cancer prevention.
Maravich, 43, and her husband, Jim, live in Cranberry Township with their two boys, Nathan and Adam— ages 4 and 2 respectively.“ Our family really enjoys living in Cranberry Township,” she notes.“ We love the proximity to major interstates, shopping and recreation. My sons and I often frequent local parks and playgrounds. The municipality really cares for its outdoor spaces and makes them so welcoming.”
Maravich grew up in McCandless Township and attended North Allegheny High School, graduating with the class of 1993. She went on to Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English in 1997. After college, she went to nursing school through Sewickley Valley Hospital School of Nursing, and became a Registered Nurse in 2000. She also received a master’ s degree in teaching in 2002 through Chatham University.
“ My career paths have been varied,” explains Maravich. I worked as an RN at Sewickley Valley Hospital in the cardiac care unit. I later taught second grade in the Pine-Richland School District for 12 years. After the birth of my second son in 2015, I resigned to stay at home with my sons.”
Throughout nursing school and as a nurse, Maravich loved learning about how the body works and how nutrition can impact one’ s health. She decided to leave the“ sick care” environment of the hospital as her interests grew in studying prevention.“ I knew that hospital nursing wasn’ t for me,” she says.
Maravich began to write articles for a health and nutrition, user-generated website.“ This was a fun hobby for me and something I enjoyed doing while my sons napped or during some much-needed free time,” she explains.“ I was able to combine all of my talents— writing, health understanding and teaching.” Many of these articles began to be picked up by other websites and increased her audience, providing further incentive to keep writing.
Maravich wrote about nutrition and superfoods primarily because they were of interest to her. However, during her research, she discovered many of these foods were being studied in regard to cancer prevention. This began her research into“ anti-angiogenic foods.”
“ Angiogenesis is the abnormal blood vessel formation to tumors that occurs when a person develops cancer,” says Maravich.“ Anti-angiogenic foods can literally turn off blood flow to tumors and stop cancer progression or ward off cancer from occurring in the first place. In fact, the study of epigenetics tells us that 90 to 95 percent of cancers can be avoided. I found this fascinating and wanted to share this information.”
This became the impetus for her book, which was published last August. It starts by looking at cancer prevention from a nutritional stance, but the topic broadens to incorporate other elements of prevention. In addition, the book addresses beneficial supplements, environmental toxins and ways to detoxify the body, lifestyle practices that create robust immunity, cancer screenings, development of second cancers and how to avoid that, and prevention of other major diseases. There are also over 20 recipes incorporating anti-angiogenic and anticancer ingredients and a grocery list.
“ It’ s my hope that I can help others achieve optimal wellness and provide them with a set of tools and tips that will enable them to ward off disease,” says Maravich.“ This book is for everyone— those looking to prevent cancer and other diseases, those who’ ve already been diagnosed, and those interested in optimizing their health and wellness.”
Over the past few months, Maravich has been interviewed on a number of podcasts to help spread the word about cancer prevention. In the upcoming months, she will participate in“ Meet the Author” events at the Cranberry Public Library and Northland Library. In addition, Maravich has been working with the Healthy Living Director at the Rose E. Schneider YMCA in the hopes of developing a program to share with the community.
For more information, visit kimmaravich. com. Her book“ 360 Health: Your Guide to Cancer Prevention, Healing Foods, & Total Body Wellness” is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. ■
CRANBERRY ❘ SPRING 2018 17