Companies tapping into IV market
Overstressed athletes and party animals ‘grinding it out’ offered a boost from a mobile service
Intravenous drips, once dedicated to sick patients in hospitals, are being marketed as a way to recover quickly after a gruelling race or even a rough day at a rock festival.
“We’re focusing on people who have been through some sort of acute stress, whether it’s through physical exertions like a triathlon or marathon or an illness,” says Adam Davidson, founder of three-monthold Mainline Sports and Wellness. He is also an emergency room physician at Lion’s Gate Hospital.
“We’re not claiming to have a miraculous benefit for people who are otherwise doing just fine.”
Mainline — based on the slang for a principal vein in the arm or the act of injecting drugs there — has a specially equipped van with IV supplies and employs either a medical doctor or registered nurse to administer fluids, electrolytes, vitamins and minerals into a client’s bloodstream. No prescription medications are used, Davidson said. Cost is between $100 and $150. “When everybody is grinding it out and working to extremes, people aren’t recovering with diet and sleep and rest like they probably should be, so we’re offering an alternative because people want it,” he says. “If you’re healthy, eating well and getting a lot of rest, you don’t need IV therapy.”
The company is the second in Metro Vancouver to offer a mobile IV service. The IV Wellness Boutique in Yaletown launched its mobile service in April after rising demand from workers on film sets, in gyms and corporate offices, said its founder, naturopathic doctor Heidi Rootes.
Naturopathic clinics promoting IV vitamin drips for health often suggest the therapy can do more than any double-blind, placebo-controlled study — the highest standard for scientific evidence — has ever supported. IV Wellness’s website says its service can boost immunity to illness, give more energy, reduce stress, anxiety and depression and even help someone lose weight.
“There hasn’t been any long-term study done, unfortunately,” says Rootes. "That’s what our profession is working toward, gathering more information. The studies take time and money.
“When I say it’s effective, that’s coming from 10 years of experience. My evidence has been in the health outcomes of my patients. When supported properly and people are using vitamin therapy for appropriate means, I’m seeing incredible changes. I’m able to get patients to a level of health a lot quicker than when I wasn’t using it.”
But she draws the line at administering an IV in a party setting or at a music festival because it’s impossible to tell what else a client has in their bloodstream. That said, IV Wellness offers a hangover cure as does Mainline Sports and Wellness.
“If you’ve gone to Pemberton Music Festival and you’ve been out in the sun all day having too much to drink, not hydrating enough and you wake up the next morning not feeling very good, we can get you back on your feet,” says Davidson. “You’ve gone through an acute stress. It’s not the healthiest compared to someone who’s gone through an Iron Man (competition). But if you’re willing to pay for it, we can make you feel better.”
Both medical doctors and naturopathic doctors are regulated by their professional colleges. There are no rules against offering IVs outside of a hospital and the practice would only be examined after a complaint.
“While overall I think it’s incredibly safe and it’s done all the time, people do need to be aware that it is invasive and there are small risks associated with it,” says Davidson. “The reality is — for better or worse — people feel better faster.
“I’m not a snake-oil salesman in terms of what we’re claiming we can do for people. I have been careful to not advertise any of those very unproven benefits.”