Yana Shapiro is a partner at a Philadelphia law firm with an exhausting travel schedule and two boys, ages 9 and 4. When she feels run-down from juggling everything and feels a cold coming on, she books an appointment for an intravenous infusion of water, vitamins and minerals.
鈥淎nything to avoid antibiotics or being out of commission,鈥 the 37-year-old said.
After getting a 100-milliliter drip of a liquid the clinic calls 聽pumped directly into her bloodstream via a needle in her arm, Shapiro said she feels like 鈥渁 new person.鈥 The infusion, which costs $179, takes less than a half-hour. While she waits, she can recline in one of the cushy seats, watch the 64-inch, flat-screen TV or dim the lights in the room.
鈥淚 take this time as 鈥榤e time鈥 鈥 to relax and kick back and close my eyes for a couple of minutes,鈥 she said.
But if you mostly eat your kale and quinoa, why would you need a boost of vitamins delivered straight to the vein? Skeptical physicians say you probably don鈥檛 need it. A healthy gut absorbs all the nutrients we need from food. And anyone well enough to drink fluid, they say, can get all the rehydration they need by mouth.
Still, clinics that market treatments of intravenous fluid to the stressed out and worried well can now be found nationwide.
Shapiro gets her infusions at in Philadelphia, but there are similar clinics in New York, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Santa Monica and Dallas, with names like or . The first wave of such companies billed their treatments as a remedy for excess alcohol and partying or too little sleep. You could get the treatment in a mobile van parked at a music festival, say, or in your hotel room.
Newer firms offer a menu of drips that claim to help , balance hormones, improve chronic medical conditions or simply give the skin a healthier glow.
Osteopathic medicine physician Jason Hartman, who launched RestoreIV with a partner out of his Philadelphia , said聽people want the experience he offers. Hartman鈥檚 specialty is using touch to diagnose and treat patients.
He sometimes helps people remedy a hangover, he said, but his business also includes people with more serious illnesses, including chronic fatigue and migraines. For those patients, he says, IV treatment supports healing. Other clients are generally healthy and want to stay that way.
The basic IV therapy cocktail includes vitamin C, zinc and B vitamins. If you have a headache, the doctor might add a little magnesium.
鈥淭hese are your natural pharmacy,鈥 Hartman said, 鈥渁nd in chronic diseases these things can be depleted [by] just a stressful lifestyle. And if they become deficient enough, it alters your internal pharmacology enough to possibly manifest as a symptom or disease.鈥
The promised benefits of this sort of intravenous treatment vary from company to company.
At the bottom of the website for , you鈥檒l find this warning:
鈥淭hese statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This service is intended only for healthy adults.鈥
Hartman said聽any intravenous infusion comes with a small risk of infection 鈥 or pain, bruising or bleeding if the needle misses the vein. Moreof an IV treatment can include a blood clot, or inflammation of the vein.
And people with certain medical conditions 鈥 some metabolic diseases, for example, or congestive heart failure 鈥 shouldn鈥檛 get these treatments, Hartman cautions. That鈥檚 why, he said, his clinic questions every client about their medical history before a treatment begins.
At RestoreIV, the treatments cost from $150 to $200, and there鈥檚 an initial $35 fee to consult with the doctor. The business doesn鈥檛 accept health insurance; patients pay Hartman鈥檚 office directly.
So, with the out-of-pocket expense, and only anecdotal evidence of benefit, why do people sign up for these sessions?
, a doctor of naturopathic medicine and health researcher at the Yale School of Medicine, said聽that if an IV infusion of this type makes people feel better, it鈥檚 probably because of the placebo effect. And the placebo effect can be powerful.
Several years ago, Ali and his colleagues tested a popular IV treatment called the聽 on a small group of people with fibromyalgia, a syndrome of muscle pain and fatigue that can be hard to ease. Half the 34 participants in his got Myers鈥 intravenous cocktail of vitamins and minerals in weekly treatments for eight weeks, and the other half got without vitamins.
鈥淭he interesting finding,鈥 Ali said, 鈥渨as that everyone got better.鈥 People in both groups reported less pain, and said they were better able to do the things they need to do every day.
The placebo phenomenon is more complicated than many people understand, Ali explains. Research has shown, for example, that injections, or other invasive procedures, can generate a than dummy pills do.
If, as in the case of his study, people feel a fairly innocuous treatment is helping them, and they haven鈥檛 been able to get relief in other ways, that may be a reason to use it, Ali said聽鈥 even if the 鈥渇ix鈥 is 100 percent placebo effect.
鈥淲hen your child falls down and scrapes their knee, you give them a kiss,鈥 he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 value in that, whether or not there鈥檚 clinical trial data showing that giving a kiss is better than doing nothing.鈥
Still, Ali said聽he can鈥檛 ethically recommend the intravenous vitamin treatments for healthy patients.
鈥淚f people are just using it to feel good or for an energy boost,鈥 he said, 鈥淚 would just say go exercise for 30 minutes and you鈥檒l get more out of that.鈥
This story is part of a partnership that includes , and Kaiser Health News.