It is with pride and admiration that I share the story of GLOW Health and its dynamic founder, Adanna Monde. We met while I was living in Ikoyi, Lagos and we were neighbours in Osborne Estate Phase 1. When I discovered I had high cholesterol, she took me in and designed a diet and exercise regime to bring it under control. Her methods worked and today my cholesterol is under control. She is passionate about health and has brought her wealth of knowledge and experience back to Nigeria from her adopted home in the USA to help Nigerians embrace healthy lifestyles. I urge you all to study her approach and support GLOW Health and this incredible health entrepreneur.
GLOW Health is a Nigeria-based holistic wellness company, offering services centred around integrative medicine, nutrition and dietetics, preventive health, and public health, to promote health and wellbeing. These include dietary management and consultations, corporate wellness initiatives, weight management, intravenous nutrition therapy, medic training, preventive health screenings, full body composition assessments, and sports nutrition. The company is led by founder and CEO, Adanna Monde, an American Registered Nurse, certified Nutritionist, and Public Health professional with over a decade of experience in community health and gastrointestinal/nutritional disorders in the US and UK.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Adanna notes that GLOW Health had to make several changes in order to survive. These changes were supported by decisions made by the CEO at the end of 2019 to revamp the business. Before 2020, corporate bodies organising corporate wellness initiatives were the company’s major clients, and often also brought in new individual clients. It also provided nutrition and wellness services, helping clients create healthy meal plans, but with such services, clients could lose motivation, and meal plans could be reused. Adanna realised that the business model was not sustainable, as it was too reliant on new clients and on occasional corporate events, and that it needed something that would sell itself and create regular clientele who were also health conscious.
After extensive research, she settled on integrating intravenous nutrition therapy (IVNT), a nutritional therapy created by Dr John Myers that he found to improve his patients’ quality of life, and serve as a complement for patients on long-term medications. IVNT is an intravenous administration of amino acids, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and serves as a parallel to GLOW Health’s services in nutrition and preventive health.
To prepare to offer these new services, Adanna completed trainings on intravenous nutrition therapy in the UK and USA in early 2020, as well as sourcing consumables and establishing professional relationships and partnerships with pharmacies in Germany, returning in early March 2020, just shortly before mandatory lockdowns were enforced worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. IVNT has now become GLOW Health’s number one service. Interests in wellness and supplementation peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic, as people are now more engaged in taking active steps to promote their health. Some are curious about intravenous nutrition therapy and appreciate having a safe and competent place to try it, as there is extensive consultation to ensure clients are suitable candidates for the therapies they are interested in.
With oral supplements, less than 30% of nutrients are absorbed, but intravenous infusions guarantee 90 – 100% absorption, making IVNT the most effective method for absorption and increasing its effects in the body. GLOW Health’s IVNT is a bespoke infusion of 100% natural supplements created by teams of nutritionists, doctors, pharmacist, and nurses, tailored to clients’ specific needs and based on health history and goals. The company has created an IVNT menu to address 18 wellness goals, from immunity, to sports performance, anti-aging, heart health, gut health and more. Target clients are often those with disposable income who can incorporate IVNT into their wellness and lifestyle budget, as it is received every 4 – 6 weeks.
The inclusion of the IVNT menu, and its popularity, especially with the help of focused social media marketing, has allowed the company to survive and even expand despite the pandemic. Its office in Lagos, Nigeria was renovated in November 2020 to accommodate more clients, as there was a daily average of 10 -12 people coming in per day, compared to only about 1-2 clients a day prior to the pandemic.
The company did not have any corporate client during the pandemic, as businesses were not willing to spend money on wellness events, but it has once again started to take on corporate clients. With most businesses pivoting to virtual work and with a “Zoom lifestyle” becoming our new normal, Adanna notes that there is a new set of stress-related concerns that many employers now must consider in order to ensure their employees are healthy.
If you are in Lagos, Nigeria, you can book an appointment for IVNT or any other service with GLOW Health via their Instagram here.
About Parminder Vir OBE
In a professional career spanning 40 years, Parminder Vir OBE has dedicated her life to telling untold stories, resourcing the skills and imagination of under-served communities. She is an expert on African entrepreneurship, an award-winning film and television producer and advocate for arts and culture. She currently serves as the Chair of Ongoza, Kenya, and an Advisory Board member of Dalberg Media. She served as the CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation where she designed and implemented a holistic entrepreneurship programme, impacting over 10,000 African entrepreneurs across 54 African countries from 2014–2019. She continues to advocate for entrepreneurship as the best path for the social and economic development of Africa.
