You get your fair share of colds and low moods. Your healthcare provider recommends a diet rich in Vitamin C and to stay hydrated. But what if you could enjoy the benefits of both, possibly much faster than if you simply modified your diet or started taking oral supplements?!
What is IV Vitamin Therapy?
IV vitamin therapy is a different way of getting vitamins and nutrients into your body. While vitamins and minerals are generally consumed as part of your diet, it takes time for natural digestive processes to break foodstuffs down into energy and their useful components and distribute them throughout your body as needed. Since IV vitamins go straight into the bloodstream, the process works much faster than if you consumed your daily recommended portion of healthy fruits, vegetables, and water.
The Risk of IV Vitamin Therapy Overuse
Like other kinds of therapy, there are some risks with IV vitamin therapy to be aware of. It’s not unusual, for instance, to feel pain when the needle is inserted into a vein. There may also be some skin discoloration, bruising, and minor discomfort. This may be exacerbated by your overall health, medical history, and other factors. You should consult with your healthcare provider if you have concerns.
Is IV Vitamin Therapy Better Than Taking Oral Supplements?
Deciding whether IV vitamin therapy is more beneficial than taking oral supplements may be a matter of personal preference and your perception of which method offers faster results. By most accounts, vitamins and nutrients get into your bloodstream much faster when taken intravenously than if you simply consume healthy fruits and vegetables or oral supplements. Faster results can mean quicker relief when dehydrated, having headaches, or feeling down.
IV vitamin therapy is sometimes referred to as a Myers Cocktail after Baltimore, Maryland’s Dr. John Myers, MD, experimented with different vitamin concoctions in the late 1960s. It was perfected around 1970 and has been in use ever since.
When going through the whole IV vitamin therapy versus oral supplements debate, perhaps it’s more beneficial to understand what’s possible with each and decide for yourself before choosing either one. One of the reasons people choose IV vitamin therapy is to boost their immune system, with the thought being they can then fight off daily threats from colds and other minor infections better, so let’s start there.
IV vitamin therapy may strengthen your immune system because of the mixture of vitamins it delivers quickly without relying on digestion and biological processes to get things going. These include:
- Vitamin C. According to the Mayo Clinic, it’s needed to create blood vessels, muscle, cartilage, and bones and may help the body heal faster.
- Vitamin E is another antioxidant that may stave off infection and prevent cells from getting damaged. Some experts say that vitamin E may also promote heart health.
- Vitamin A promotes healthier and stronger vision, produces and stimulates white blood cells, and helps with cell growth and division.
- Some of the biggest benefits of vitamin D include helping our bodies absorb and retain phosphorus and calcium to build better bones and possibly lower cancer cell growth.
- Folate, which occurs naturally, and folic acid, its synthetic version. Both are needed to build red blood cells and keep other cells healthy and growing.
- Iron also helps the immune system. It’s vital for maintaining healthy blood and has other benefits, too.
- Selenium and zinc strengthen the immune system and create new cells in the immune system.
What about oral supplements? If used as directed and combined with a healthy diet and lifestyle, oral supplements can offer the same benefits you may realize from IV vitamin therapy. They can help ensure you get healthy amounts of essential nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, minerals, protein, vitamins, and water) and offer these benefits:
- Strengthen bones and reduce bone loss.
- May reduce the risk of certain congenital disabilities.
- Promote cardiovascular health.
- May slow down vision loss for people with age-related macular degeneration.
Like many health-related therapies, choosing between a healthy diet and lifestyle, IV vitamin therapy, or oral supplements presents certain difficulties. Which are you most comfortable with? Which provides the expected results? A plan of action should be formulated with the assistance of a medical professional who is aware of your medical history.
