WHY IV?
Have you ever heard someone say “IV therapy is totally unnecessary. Just take your vitamins orally!” Yes, we’ve heard it too. It would be nice to be able to get all the vitamins and micronutrients we need with oral supplementation, but the reality is- it’s just not always possible.
Three Reasons Why Oral Vitamins May Not Be Doing You Any Favors:
- FILLERS– Pills and tablets are often filled with other things besides the actual vitamin on the label in order to give the product color, shape, shelf life, etc. Sadly, these fillers (including titanium dioxide, hydrogenated oil, coloring: Red 40, Blue 2, Yellow 5, artificial flavors, lead, mercury and PCBs) often do more harm than good, introducing toxic compounds into your GI system that your body then has to process and detox out of your system. This puts undue stress on your liver and defeats the purpose of giving your body something to HELP promote optimal function. How do you know if your vitamins have unnecessary toxic fillers? Check those labels and remember to purchase your vitamins from credible, physician monitored sources! Sorry but no more vitamins from box chain stores, please!
- BIOAVAILABILITY– Bioavailability basically refers to how much a vitamin or other substance introduced into your body actually reaches the cell to have a biological effect. The label might say you’re taking 1,000 mg of Vitamin C but how much of that is really BIOAVAILABLE? Less than you think. When a vitamin is broken down in your GI tract before it has a chance to reach the cell, this reduces bioavailability. Let’s break that down: When you swallow your vitamins, that pill or tablet goes through first pass metabolism in the liver, in which the enzymes and digestive juices in your body break it down before it has a chance to reach the cell and have it’s intended biological effect. There are additional ways to get around this such as liposomal delivery (which we’ll get into in another post!), but the best way is to skip first pass metabolism all together and use intravenous delivery instead. Fluids, vitamins, minerals and electrolytes delivered intravenously (IV) skip the GI tract and are delivered DIRECTLY into the bloodstream, resulting in maximum absorption, aka maximum BIOAVAILABILITY. Maximum bioavailability= maximum benefit. At the end of the day, it’s all about what gets into the cell to promote health and healing.
- DOSING– Let’s talk about the dose. Doses listed on the bottles of supplements are often much lower than the required dose that would actually have a positive biological effect. For example, most generic Vitamin C supplements are sold in doses of 500 mg, or 1,000 mg when in reality, we know the average healthy person should be taking between 1,000 mg – 3,000 mg of Vitamin C, minimum, daily. NOW, combine that tiny dose with the information you just learned above about vitamins being broken down in the GI tract, and it is estimated that the average person typically absorbs only 20-30% of the dose listed on the bottle of a vitamin!! Read that again. We can try and get around this by using other forms of delivery like sublingual (dissolved in the mucous membrane in the mouth), liposomal (vitamins are protected by a bubble of liposomes as they move through your GI system), but in reality, no oral supplementation will be able to deliver as high doses as can be delivered with IV Therapy.
SUMMMARY
In summary, intravenous (IV) delivery is an excellent way to deliver fluids, vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes to the body. By bypassing the gastrointestinal (GI) tract entirely, IV delivery allows us to achieve exponentially higher levels of these essential vitamins inside the cells, leading to faster more significant clinical improvements and optimization of cellular function.
In summary, intravenous (IV) delivery is an excellent way to deliver fluids, vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes to the body. By bypassing the gastrointestinal (GI) tract entirely, IV delivery allows us to achieve exponentially higher levels of these essential vitamins inside the cells, leading to faster more significant clinical improvements and optimization of cellular function.
So does this mean oral supplementation is useless? Absolutely not!! Taking high quality, pharmaceutical grade (free of toxic fillers) vitamins, in the right dose, in the right oral delivery (ie, sublingual, powder, liposomal, etc.) can be a great way to maintain your levels if IV therapy is not an option or if you are looking for a less invasive, more cost effective solution.
Additionally we use oral supplementation to maintain higher blood levels after we’ve given an IV.
The bottom line is: If you are choosing to embark into the world of oral supplementation, please don’t waste your money on toxic, ineffective pills and reach out so we can get you on track with safe, effective, high quality solutions.
