Boutique IV hydration used by some to energize
Experts: More research needed into treatment created by Hopkins doctor
Ken Macon kicked his feet up on a recliner with a fur blanket in his Northeast Baltimore home as a doctor inserted a small needle into his arm.
Macon had felt sluggish in the days leading up to his weeklong South African safari trip, so he called Dr. Christopher Kircher for a house visit. Kircher, the owner of Bmore Hydrated, injected a cocktail of vitamins into a clear IV bag, creating a yellow mixture intended to boost Macon’s energy.
“I feel energized just sitting here,” said Macon, 35, from his recliner on a January afternoon.
He took a half-hour break from cleaning and packing for his trip to receive a $230 infusion of magnesium, calcium, vitamin C, glutathione and B-complex, a combination of eight B vitamins said to improve energy and enhance skin and hair.
IV hydration therapy, also known as IV micronutrient therapy, is growing in popularity in Baltimore and nationwide — more than 70 years after a doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital invented it. The boutique treatment, which is not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or typically covered by insurance, has become trendy in alternative health. While often dismissed as a celebrity-fueled fad, some people use it to get easier access to treatment.
Dr. John Myers, a Johns Hopkins internist, created the Myers’ cocktail in 1952. It consists of vitamin C, magnesium, calcium and B vitamins. He used the infusion for patients with chronic fatigue, asthma, fibromyalgia, migraines and other ailments. The Myers’ cocktail, mixed with the occasional anti-nausea or anti-inflammatory drug, is among the most popular infusions for clients.
Now, storefront and mobile “drip bars” are popping up everywhere from farmers markets to wellness centers. The infusions, costing from $100 to more than $300, are used casually by those who say they cure hangovers, help with weight loss, combat aging and strengthen immunity. Others who suffer from chronic pain or digestive issues get infusions to escape the wait at a doctor’s office or emergency room for IV fluids.
At least 10 IV hydration businesses are open in the Baltimore region,
including a national franchise. Drip Hydration, a mobile service, offers a variety IV infusion therapies, including one with ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic some use to treat depression, anxiety, PTSD and addiction.
Doctors such as Kircher and Dr. George Ho, owner of Baltimore-based Thrive Solutions, also make IV house calls. Their businesses have exploded since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, they said, in part because people are avoiding hospitals and doctor’s offices that could be crowded with contagious patients.
Although intravenous therapy with nutrients like iron or magnesium has been a standard of medical care for decades, more clinical research is needed to examine the effectiveness of infusions for vitality and energy, said Dr. Christopher D’Adamo, director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Studies have been inconclusive that IV hydration optimizes health or improves chronic medical conditions, but some trials are ongoing.
D’Adamo is advising on a Massachusetts study at a functional medicine clinic. The study is tracking new methods of micronutrient therapy on a variety of different conditions, including “wellness” and measures of overall physical and mental health.
Ho, an emergency room physician at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, said he started his company as a solution to keep dehydrated patients out of the ER.
Skipping the emergency room is also what motivated Erin Smith of Glen Burnie to call Thrive Solutions in December 2020. Smith, 39, has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare genetic connective-tissue disorder that can make it difficult to absorb nutrients from food.
Smith rolled up the sleeve of her shirt on a January morning as a nurse inserted an IV into her vein and missed, sending beads of blood down Smith’s arm. A second try was successful.
“Once the initial needle stick is done, it’s so painless,” Smith said. “It’s in the privacy of my own location. I’m in my chair with my clothing on. I don’t have to wear a ratty hospital gown and freeze my a-- off in an emergency room that I had to wait nine hours for to see a doctor.”
She lacked the energy to get out of bed for months after contracting a serious upper respiratory infection.
Smith’s body doesn’t create an enzyme needed to digest a B vitamin, she said, but she can absorb the nutrient by IV. She
started getting weekly infusions for more than a month as she slowly recovered from the virus. Now, she gets the Myers’ cocktail monthly if she’s dehydrated, having digestion problems or simply in need of “an extra boost,” Smith said.
Ho said his repeat clients return because the hydration therapy makes them feel better.
“I would say they work,” Ho said. “Our
clients tend to enjoy the treatment. They feel refreshed, energized, better hydrated. And they keep coming back.”
Past clinical studies have focused on the Myers’ cocktails and chronic medical problems, such as fatigue caused by fibromyalgia, a pain disorder. A 2009 pilot fibromyalgia study with a small sample size found no statistically significant difference between IV micronutrient therapy and placebo.
Other trials are examining high-dose IV vitamin C, an antioxidant, in reducing the side effects of cancer and chemotherapy.
A 2021 research paper by a medical student and a dietitian nutritionist with a doctorate in food science at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine concluded that IV micronutrient therapy outside a hospital setting “is an expensive and overhyped alternative to oral intake of nutrients and fluids.”
Frequent infusions could cause “critical nutrient imbalances, negative interactions with medications and/or increased risk of infection,” the paper continued.
Ho and Kircher said the nutrients they use in infusions are water-soluble, so the body passes any excess vitamins.
Companies that make dietary supplements are responsible for ensuring they are safe; the FDA does not approve them. In Maryland, the Board of Physicians that licenses and regulates physician’s licensees does not have jurisdiction over medical practices, spas, facilities or hospitals, and does not regulate their procedures, said Chase Cook, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Health.
The FDA, however, issued a warning in 2021 that some IV hydration clinics, medical spas and mobile IV infusion services in the country are preparing products in unsanitary conditions. A 50-year-old California woman was hospitalized in February 2021 for suspected septic shock with multi-organ failure after receiving an IV-vitamin infusion in her home, according to the FDA.
Overall, IV nutrient therapy appears to be safe but shouldn’t be a substitute for eating a nutrient-dense diet, getting a good night of sleep, managing stress and staying hydrated, D’Adamo said.
“But there’s a lot of people who do those things and still don’t feel well. So they’re often the ones that will turn to the idea” of infusions, he said.
More research is needed before health insurance would cover such a treatment, he added.
For Smith, the $150 infusions are a way for her to manage her care without the frustrating process of fighting with insurance for approval.
Hungover partyers who desire IV infusions shouldn’t be cast out, she said, especially if growing competition lowers the price for others who need it.
“Seldom do I get control of anything,” Smith said as the last of the yellow fluid dripped from her IV bag.
She knows the infusions are working when her stomach growls, signaling the arrival of an often-fleeting appetite.
“In an hour and a half,” she said, “I feel like a whole new human.”