People Are Hooking Themselves Up to Vitamin IV Drips to Cure Hangovers and Colds
With a new diet or wellness hack cropping up on a weekly basis, the world of health fads never sleeps. Propelled by celebrity endorsements and anecdotal praise, everything from oxygen bars to placenta pills have all enjoyed some time in the limelight. But one of the latest crazes to hit the health scene is IV vitamin drip therapy.
IV vitamin therapy, also known as vitamin IV drip and IV vitamin drip therapy, involves hooking up to an IV bag to receive a vitamins and minerals. Clinics offering these treatments are popping up across the country, as people are seeking this therapy in hopes of fighting off illness, obtaining more radiant skin, beating a hangover, or other purported benefits.
But whether these claims have any merit is a matter of debate. We spoke with two doctors to learn more about who might benefit from IV vitamin therapy-and how-plus whether there are any drawbacks or risks to having it.
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Does IV vitamin therapy work?
IV vitamin clinics often make a number of claims about the benefits of these therapies, suggesting that they might help with hair or skin health, boost immunity, or cure a hangover. But for the most part, experts say the evidence to support these claims are scant.
“I do not know of any convincing evidence that, for example, an IV drip of zinc, B12, C, and magnesium will cure colds and flu,” says Sidney C. Ontai, MD, a family medicine doctor and program director at Texas A&M University’s DeTar Family Medicine Residency.
On the other hand, Albert Ahn, MD, an internal medicine physician and clinical instructor of medicine at NYU Langone Health, says that IV vitamin drips might provide two clear-cut benefits. For one, IV vitamin therapy ensures that vitamins and minerals are absorbed faster than they would be via oral consumption or supplementation.
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“Some people may prefer that quick fix,” Dr. Ahn says. "Will it boost your stores quicker? Yes it will. But to sustain those stores, you’ll still need to continue to take it in. You’re better off probably taking an oral supplement on a daily basis.”
Additionally, IV therapy may offer some benefit by boosting hydration levels. “It does improve your hydration, and that will, for most people, make you feel better-whether you have a cold or fighting an infection, or you’re a little hungover or feeling a little under the weather,” Dr. Ahn says.
But Dr. Ahn also notes that you can reap the same benefits by simply drinking more fluids. And if a healthy, properly hydrated person shows up for IV vitamin therapy, odds are good they’ll just excrete any fluids that their body doesn’t need.
“If you don’t absolutely need these drips, [you] might just be passing it out throughout the day,” Dr. Ahn says. It’s possible that someone might feel better for a short while after IV vitamin therapy, but for the most part, Dr. Ahn says any benefits to the average healthy person can likely be chalked up to the placebo effect.
Who could benefit from IV vitamin therapy?
IV vitamin therapy may provide significant benefits to people who are struggling with health conditions that make it challenging for their bodies to retain or process nutrients. Delivering nutrients via IV ensures that vitamins and minerals enter directly into the bloodstream (thereby bypassing the gut), which can speed up the replacement of nutrients.
Because of this, doctors routinely prescribe IV vitamin therapy for a number of medical conditions, says Dr. Ontai. For example, he might prescribe IV thiamine for someone going through alcohol withdrawal, IV B12 for renal dialysis patients, or IV multivitamins for people with health conditions that make it challenging for their bodies to tolerate or absorb food in the stomach or intestines.
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“With certain conditions, the absorption [via IV] may be quicker,” Dr. Ahn explains. For example, people with chronic or severe anemia may find that upping their iron intake via oral supplementation leads to an upset stomach or other side effects. In contrast, taking iron via IV may replete stores faster and without provoking stomach issues.
But for the most part, Dr. Ontai and Dr. Ahn agree that a relatively healthy person doesn’t require IV vitamin therapy.
“For your average, healthy, young patient, it’s probably not a necessity,” Dr. Ahn says. “If they have good gut health and healthy habits and a decent diet, [they] should be able to get most of these [nutrients] through food and a normal diet.”
What are the potential drawbacks of IV vitamin therapy?
While the IV vitamin therapy isn't necessary for healthy people, the good news is that people seeking these treatments are, for the most part, unlikely to do themselves any harm.
“If it makes them feel better, there’s not a whole lot of downside,” Dr. Ahn says. That said, intravenous treatment always carries some potential drawbacks. “Anytime you introduce something intravenously, there are risks,” Dr. Ahn says. For example, people might experience bleeding or bruising at the injection site, and infection is a possibility.
For this reason, Dr. Ahn stresses that you vet any clinic prior to seeking treatment. “Make sure you’re going to a place that is well-certified and well-staffed and that does everything appropriately,” he says. “You want to make sure everything’s completely sterile because you’re introducing something into the body that could potentially cause problems.”
Beyond that, the biggest risk most people will incur is wasting their time and money. Most IV vitamin therapy treatments cost upwards $200, and they're not covered by your health insurance. “For most of the extraneous supplements that you take in, what you don’t use is excreted,” Dr. Ahn explains. “Same thing if you get it via IV. Anything that is extraneous or extra, you’re just going to end up getting rid of it.”
What’s more, relying on IV vitamin therapy as a primary source of vitamins and minerals may become inconvenient. “These don’t last for long periods of time necessarily,” Dr. Ahn says, and maintaining weekly appointments are time consuming and expensive.
The bottom line: You don't need to waste your money on IV vitamin therapy if you're healthy
Unless you're suffering from a serious medical issue or seeing a real difference because of IV vitamin therapy, you're better off obtaining vitamins and minerals through food and perhaps oral supplementation.
“In general, oral administration is adequate and generally safer and more practical for most vitamin deficiencies,” Dr. Ontai explains. “There are very few vitamins that you’re not able to get through food,” Dr. Ahn says. “In most cases, I can’t think of minerals or vitamins, where you can’t absorb them and would have to get it through the IV.”
The average, healthy person is likely to find that obtaining vitamins and minerals via their diet will be a lot easier, cheaper, and probably with less potential risks overall. So eat your vitamins, don't inject them!
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