Difference Maker: VIVIAN AMEGASHIE’s new book, ‘ACNE: THE FACIAL DIABETES’ has an engrossing plot from start to finish, it’s a must read

VIVIAN AMEGASHIE is a lady of great style and confidence. Her consultancy hotline is a big-blue-breakthrough, once you get to her – no matter the skin problem you have (from a lingering death to sudden one). She is RIOVIAN SKIN CARE chief who doubles as the author of ‘ACNE The Facial Diabetes’. An avid globetrotter whose passion for reading grew when she had multiple health crises. Her love for daily research and listening to audio books, including podcast and YouTube videos, has opened her up to so many ideas. “One great thing about technology is it gets people connected no matter how far, so with technology it’s still easy to be in touch with my family and friends since most of my work is done online, ninety percent of my clients I have has never seen me in person but with most, we have the perfect relationship.” She told us during this interesting interview.

 Thank you for agreeing to talk with us, let’s start by asking how has the #LockDown, stay-at-home exercise treated you? 

I will say quiet well, I got to spend more time with my family because the kids are mostly in school during school days and on weekends I work at the spa more so we don’t spend so much time together.

As a certified Nutritionist, what should people be taking in (as in food), in times like this, with context and view on Africa and Africans?

Let’s go back to our Ancestral tribe! We ate more meat! The immune system is made from protein, let’s get our protein in.

Let’s talk about Riovian Skincare International, how this dream get here? 

Skincare started with my skin. Sometimes the bad times brings you to the good time without even realizing. I had so much acne and I was determined to help myself, I could eat anything when I was younger, without having any skin or health consequences, growing up in my mid-20s, acne started from nowhere! This is what brought me here today! My very own skin.

Nutrition and Total Wellness in this part of our world is one Herculean task; how can a lame man take this exercise serious?

Like I said earlier, Eat more like our ancestors! Focus on Ancestral diet and let carbs take the least part of our plate.

Your early days stated with your passion for movies or entertainment alike, how did the sudden switch into your current passion now. 

Sometimes life chooses where we go, I think I enjoy what I do way better now, helping people, not just people with skin concerns but people with weight and other health concerns. I feel a lot of people don’t know that what we eat today will be us tomorrow and in 10 years, everything you eat becomes a part of you! It becomes a part of your flesh bones, brains and everything you’re made of. I will say if you love yourself you will put what’s right in your body.

Riovian cares about the skins of humans; do you think that some people deliberately harm their skins?

No! Even animals don’t! Sometimes we use things on our skin that we see others using be it harsh or mild, I remember some years back, my friend recommended epiderm (steroids) for my acne because she’s used it on her baby entire skin and she said whenever she stopped her baby nappy rash came back, you can imagine for how many years she’s used this. I went to purchase it, I didn’t know the effect of steroids and I didn’t even know what steroids did over a long period of time. I made mention of this because people aren’t biochemist to know what ingredients are, so most people use things innocently, and you know some of the problem with using these steroids long term isn’t just with your endocrine system but with your skin, It will make you more susceptible to sunburn and darkening on specific areas of the skin. This is just an example of how innocent we all are till we have an experience.

What piece of advice would you give to those who cause damage, knowingly or unknowingly to their skins?

You wear your skin forever on this earth; you can change your cloth tomorrow when it’s dirty but not your skin! I will say seek professional advice, if you’re not comfortable, and the last thing to do is buy a skincare product that’s too good to be true! If you love something you will beautify and polish it, melanin is beautiful, if you’ve pigmentation, please stay away from anything that promise you quick results.

As an Author, at what point did you feel that they people needed to know, read and tap into your knowledge.

Yemi, ninety percent of people I come across if not ninety nine don’t even know that nutrition and all forms of acne are related! I mean directly related. I felt the best way to get the news out there was in a book, sometimes I get overwhelmed with questions and the best way to answer people is just showing them in a book.

‘ACNE THE FACIAL DIABETES’, you said ‘ it is a guide on nutrition and total wellness; It’s taking you on a journey of discovery on why you have Acne and other Skin concerns – can you please expatiate on this 

I had to distill my journey to the simplest form. And the reviews so far from client are that, “OMG, this is just what I am going through.” You will never understand something until you go through it, hardly. I summarized some key points on how to improve nutrition and general care not just of the skin but your overall well-being.

Aside the Kindle version on Amazon, how soon would people get a hardcopy to read?

I really had plans to put out the hard copy even before the kindle version, but with life we can’t predict tomorrow, so when this pandemic happened I said let me get it out there through kindle, I know through electronics books reaches the world, the most important books that impacted knowledge on me weren’t hard covers books because my access to them were limited at the time I wanted them the most.

From you consulting for different people, have you come across more cases that you think you need to research more and give the world more books

Yes Yemi, growing up, I barely heard anyone my age having fibroids or early menopause, but now teenagers will miss their periods for several months and have fibroids in their 20s – shouldn’t that make us panic? I feel if care isn’t taken the next generation health will be in big trouble. I am on my next book and I will have a lot in there.

Why do we tend to have more Doctors to Nutritionist in this part of our world?

Because everyone thinks they are sick when they don’t feel well! Everyone thinks a quick pill solves it all, so when there’s demand you will get supply.

For budding Nutritionist coming up, what are the three things he or she must have as guiding principles?

1. The body is connected
2. Speak to your clients on what our ancestors ate more of
3. Staying active is for everyone not just kids

With Coronavirus as the talk of town, what would you do if a patient is brought to you to save his or her life?

I will first tell the person to self-isolate if symptoms aren’t life threatening, and start taking a lot of warm fluids like, bone broth, warm ginger tea and doing a warm steamy shower or the old style (cover with hot water and inhale vapors). Yemi, I know a lot of people will disagree on this but to be honest, people more susceptible to any viral infection are mostly people with underlying health concerns like high blood pressure and diabetes, check the statistics online. So let’s start improving on nutrition now because our immunity is built on protein.

About the Book:

‘ACNE THE FACIAL DIABETES’ is a guide on nutrition and total wellness; it’s taking you on a journey of discovery on why you have Acne and other Skin concerns. The core of this brilliance describes the importance of determining the cause of the many skin conditions in our society and why simply treating the symptoms will not provide the desired results. An eye-opener.

You can order your Kindle version on Amazon via:- https://www.amazon.com/ACNE-facial-DIABETES-journey-Amegashie-ebook/dp/B086YZZ3WH/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=vivian+amegashie&qid=1586611291&sr=8-1

For consultancy, further enquiries, please ☎: +233 26 398 2442 and follow her on @riovianskin