Home » Nutritional IV Therapy
Without a doubt most of our nutrients should come from food. For many years I resisted the lure of IV Nutritional Therapy for this very reason. The more I did functional medicine and the more I learned about the importance of optimal levels of the various vitamins and minerals I realized that there is a place for nutritional IVs. Sometimes we prescribe supplements and order micronutrient tests and the labs come back and it is apparent that either it is not enough or the absorption of those nutrients is just not happening. It was then that I opened up to the idea that intravenous administration may be the catalyst needed to help the person move closer to their health goals.
In the setting of gut irritation or increased intestinal permeability or leaky gut. Sometimes we see that when a person is struggling with healing their leaky gut as a result of food sensitivities or imbalances of the gut bacteria or even medications, there are certain nutrients that are needed to help heal. It can be a circular situation where the nutrients are needed to heal but because of the gut issue those nutrients are unable to adequately be absorbed. It is typically after I have been working with someone for a period of time that we both come to this conclusion and that is when we consider nutritional IV therapy.
The other setting that sometimes we consider using nutritional IV therapy is to help speed up the process. I think it is known and I would certainly agree that functional medicine is not instant gratification medicine. It often takes time and persistence on both my part and the part of my patient. In my experience thus far with nutritional IV therapy, it is a way to get a running start and sometimes make some rapid headway on nutrient deficiencies that affect the biological systems we are trying to balance such as the immune system or the energy metabolism and detoxification systems in the body.
At Sparkle, all of our IV patients will have had a medical evaluation. Often this is not a first step intervention but something we may use depending on the health goals overtime. We typically have labs done before and periodically to monitor. This is not going to a medical spa and picking from an IV infusion menu. Dr. Mercuro prescribes the IV therapy as one part of a comprehensive treatment plan. The prescription is very intentional with the end goals in mind. We curate our infusion solutions and choose those with good safety data and with no preservatives when possible.
Vitamin C when administered orally sometimes is well tolerated but often higher doses (over 1 gram) are not tolerated well from a digestive standpoint for this reason IV vitamin C can be beneficial. When given IV, Vitamin C can be used at lower doses for general immune and anti-oxidative support with 100% absorption. When used for this purpose, it is often given in combination with other nutrients such as in the Myer’s cocktail mentioned below. Sometimes IV vitamin C is given at high doses and in that circumstance it is often being used for the oxidative effects to fight infection or to help augment cancer care. In that circumstance, it is important that vitamin C be administered by itself and not with the other vitamins as in the Myer’s cocktail.
Myer’s Cocktail is a combination of nutrients that contains Vitamin C, Magnesium, Calcium and B Vitamins typically. It’s use originated and is named for Dr John Myers MD who utilized IV vitamins and minerals to treat chronic problems such as fatigue, depression and palpitations. These days it is used for a variety of conditions including asthma, migraines, fatigue and fibromyalgia, allergies, and muscle spasms and even hangovers. It is often used to help with athletic performance as well.
Glutathione is a major anti-oxidant in the body that is protective. Medical chronic conditions have been shown to be associated with low glutathione levels. Glutathione is also considered one of the most important detoxifying nutrients in the body. It can be used orally in a liposomal form but again the issue of absorption is problematic and can vary. We use it to augment detoxification and it is often given in combination with Myer’s cocktail. There are studies in support of the use of glutathione for fatty liver.
Intravenous iron is utilized in cases where oral is either not tolerated or absorbed well. Typically it would be used if low iron, or ferritin has been demonstrated or there is iron deficiency anemia.
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