IV Vitamin Treatments – An injection of Truth

What is IV Vitamin Therapy? 

IV Vitamin Therapy is exactly what it says on the bag, no more, and no less. You take some vitamins, or in some cases minerals and amino acids as well, you measure the doses, mix them in a solution of saline, which is essentially sterile water and sodium chloride, and hook it up to a vein, usually in the arm or hand, where it enters the bloodstream directly.

But why would you bother going to the trouble when you could just pop a multi-vitamin with your breakfast? And what’s the point of taking extra vitamins at all?  Well let’s break it down.

Many people in today’s modern world are actually missing some of the essential nutrients required for normal functions in the body. This generally due to a poor diet, or the poor quality of food consumed by many, with plenty of low quality and poor-nutrient-dense food making up a high portion of the ‘average’ diet in countries like Ireland, UK and America. Even foods traditionally rich in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, like many fruits and vegetables, are providing less and less nutritional value due to accelerated and modified growth and production processes in many parts of the world. This is important, because the human body needs external sources of these nutrients, we cannot make many of these compounds ourselves and so we rely on food as the main source. So the point of supplementing with vitamins is simply to make sure that your body has enough to cope with the demands of living and performing.

Organic fruits and vegetables can provide an excellent source of vitamins and minerals. 

Note the key word here: Supplementing.

Ideally you would get all of your nutrients from food, but as mentioned, this can be difficult. So when supplementing with anything you should always make the best effort to establish a healthy lifestyle first, and supplement second simply as a helping hand, not as a main source.

So, we know now WHY supplementing vitamins is sometimes helpful, but why not just pop a multi-vitamin tablet?

In general terms anything you ingest, or eat, will not reach its intended target (the cell) in one piece, or even in the same quantities you took it in. As things pass through the digestive system, many of the nutrients are destroyed by the stomach acid, neutralised by other components, lost through something like leaky gut or poor gut health, or excreted by the body before reaching the desired spot. A rough estimate is that around 20-30% of the nutrients (vitamins and minerals) you ingest will reach the cell for absorption. Also, many of the ingredients used in today’s multi-vitamin pills are not in their bioavailable form, meaning that while these synthesised vitamins might be almost identical to their naturally occurring form, they cannot be absorbed or used for purpose by the body.

The absorption can increase to about 60% when you consider something like intramuscular injections, such as your typical B12 or B-Complex shot. However this can take slightly longer to take effect as it is absorbed through the tissue.

When you introduce a nutrient directly into the bloodstream, through IV treatment, you can in theory achieve up to 100% absorption of the nutrient into the cell. So when comparing IV Therapy to something like a multivitamin, the key consideration is how much of the stuff is in fact getting to where it is needed.

On top of this, using IV Therapy allows you to tailor specific ingredients and quantities for your own requirements, something which is difficult to do with other forms of supplementation. .