IV Therapy vs IV Hydration, get to know all the differences and benefits so you make the best decisions when coming to our office!
IV Therapy has taken the healthcare industry by storm, providing numerous health boosts for patients from energy to nutrition. Many healthcare providers, including Integrated Wellness Bountiful, are offering IV therapy as a readily available treatment option.
IV stands for intravenous, referring to an injection through the vein. IVs work to feed the body, using a vein to deliver substantial fluids. Any vein can be used for IV treatment, as long as it’s prominent enough for the healthcare provider administering the IV. Common areas for IVs are in the elbow, wrist, hand, and sometimes the feet, forehead, or neck.
IV therapy can be distributed in two different ways: Injection and Infusion. IV injections are pretty self-explanatory when it comes to how they are given. A small needle, similar to the one used to draw blood, is inserted into the skin at a vein. A syringe is used to push fluid into the vein so it can flow throughout the whole body.
IV infusion uses a pump and gravity to pull the fluids into the body. Infusions are commonly used in hospitals as they deliver liquids over a period of time. The fluids drip safely from a bag of liquid and travel through a tube into a vein, which is why this type of IV administration is also called an IV drip.
How Do IV therapy Help?
Receiving an IV drip or injection is not usually routine for the average person. Most people only experience receiving an IV if they are hospitalized or getting intense lab work done. However, in this day and age IVs can become a recurring medical treatment for diseases, illness, and other conditions.
IV therapy is not recommended for long-term use, primarily due to the cost. However, IV therapy is highly beneficial for patients with either acute or chronic health conditions. Dr. Chris Frogley, Integrated Wellness’s Functional Medicine Director, states that IV therapy is, “well worth the expense.”
IV therapy works as a non-invasive and alternative treatment option for those wishing to improve their health. IV therapy’s main purpose is to promote healing and to help the body gain health at a quicker pace. Time responses from IV therapy depend on the patient and the condition they are being treated for.
Conditions Treated With iv therapy and iv hydration
There are many different kinds of health conditions that can be treated through IVs. It’s important to note that IV treatment is used to boost your overall healthiness and is not a cure-all treatment. However, patients who do IV therapy can see positive results in how their body responds to their condition.
Since IVs are connected directly to the bloodstream, they can be used as an alternative way to administer medications. Due to this, some patients have IV antibiotics rather than taking oral medications.
The most common condition treated through IV is dehydration. IV fluids flow into the bloodstream to rehydrate the body. This is one of the main purposes for an IV during a hospital visit so a patient doesn’t suffer from dehydration while admitted.
IV therapy does have other purposes for promoting health and wellness. IV is an effective management tool for certain chronic conditions, such as autoimmune deficiencies like Multiple Sclerosis. IVs can also help with inflammation, anti-aging, and regeneration.
Are IVs Safe?
Just like any other medical treatment, IV therapy does have a risk of side effects. However, most effects are minimal. Every person will respond to IV therapy differently, but common side effects are headaches, dizziness, nausea, muscle stiffness, or skin irritation at the injection site.
Medical professionals, like the Integrated Wellness Bountiful providers, understand how to properly administer IV therapy so any risks from IVs will be lowered. For example, all Integrated Wellness IV needles are sterilized before use to avoid the possibility of infection.
What’s The Difference Between iv therapy vs iv hydration?
All types of IV treatments have their specific set of benefits. The need of the patient determines which IV would be most ideal for them. Understanding the differences between IV treatments helps to optimize the benefits.
The two main IV treatments are Nutritional IV Therapy and IV Hydration. They each have a specific purpose and heals the body in certain ways.
What Is Nutritional IV Therapy?
Just like any other type of nutritional therapy, IVs can help patients attain a valuable food supply. Nutritional IV therapy has 100% bioavailability, where supplements only provide 60%.
Nutritional IV therapy bypasses any digestive issues within the gut because the body is able to directly absorb the nutrients. When a patient is lacking nourishment from their diet, IV therapy can help the body get back on track so the patient can live a healthier life.
Nutritional IV Therapy is optimal for those with sensitive gut or digestion conditions because the food and nutrients the body needs can still be consumed, even if the gut isn’t functioning correctly. The body is able to take more vitamins than it could orally, which means the healing process is sped up and you could recover from nutritional issues in a timely manner.
Living with a shortage of nutrition can result in bodily complications, and issues with a patient’s health and wellness. The risks of poor nutrition can include tooth decay, heart disease, depression, and low energy levels. Nutritional IV therapy can act as a preventative measure of poor nutrition as the IV treatment assists the patient in living a nutritious life.
A number of things can go into a person not receiving the daily nutrients that they need. Mental health has a large impact on our nutritional lives and stress could affect the way our body functions. If you are suffering from enormous amounts of stress, the body will reflect that stress in the gut and struggle to digest food properly. Without proper digestion, people can be more prone to poor nutrition as the body does not obtain the nutrients they need.
Stress could also have an effect on nutrition through eating times. If a person is living a busy life or is full of stress, they could easily neglect their health. Something simple as forgetting a meal every now and then or not taking the time to cook a healthy plate could cause the body to suffer from poor nutrition.
Nutritional IV therapy helps the body to heal from nutritional issues by having nutrients feed directly into the bloodstream. IV therapy can help any type of patient whether they struggle with digesting food, have unhealthy eating patterns, or have other symptoms like lethargy or distress.
What Is IV For Hydration?
IV hydration is a more limited form of IV treatment because it has one focus. IV for hydration does exactly what the title suggests; this type of IV hydrates the body. IV hydration is the most common type of IV as it’s the one used in hospitals.
IV hydration is a more basic IV treatment that only consists of a bag of saline to hydrate the body. The IV fluids for IV hydration have one specific purpose and that is to recover from or avoid dehydration.
IV for hydration can help assist patients if they have issues with their gut because not being able to digest foods properly could lead to dangerous levels of dehydration. The natural source is always best, with drinking water and eating fruits and vegetables, but in some cases IV hydration is necessary for the person’s health.
Which Is The Better Option?
IV therapy is the best option for optimizing your health as the IV fluids are drawn up based on each individual patient. IV therapy is more than saline because vitamins and minerals are placed into the IV bag to provide the nutrients the patient is lacking. When comparing IV therapy to IV hydration, it comes down to well-rounded nutrition versus simple saline.
IV therapy works for each and every patient, focusing on the individual rather than just one of their symptoms. Which fluids are used during their IV drip—which vitamins and minerals are utilized during the therapy—are determined by the person’s current health status and what their body really needs to be at its best. Unlike IV for hydration—which is the same fluid for every patient—IV therapy is personalized for each and every dose.
In addition, IV therapy assists people in living their crazy, busy lives. Stress, sleep, and diet all affect our bodies and wellness, and they can all affect each other. Essentially, our bodies have the butterfly effect when it comes to our health; if one thing is off then everything could be off. Sleep affects our stress, diet affects our sleep, and stress affects our diet and sleep.
A common stereotype of IV therapy is that it’s only for the rich and celebrities, but that is not the case. IV therapy can help the “everyday person” so they can live the healthy life they want. News sources, like Good Morning America, have been noticing the influential benefits IV therapy has on our health.
If the body does not have what it needs, like nutrients, then people can find themselves struggling the have rest. IV therapy provides the elements, such as vitamins and minerals, that the body needs to relax. When the body is relaxed, the healing process can begin so the patient can get their life back on the road to health and wellness.
Conclusion
While IV therapy has a wide variety of benefits from gut nutrition to energy, IVs do not act as a replacement for healthy habits and lifestyles. IVs are to help patients get their health back on track while they are managing their lives, but IVs should not be relied on as a forever treatment.
Dr. Chris Frogley said, “IV therapy for long-term use isn’t the best.” He then went on to explain why IV therapy can help many people get back to healthy living because of IV therapy, “promoting healing and helping the body attain health more rapidly.”
Integrated Wellness Bountiful has eleven Nutritional IV Therapy cocktails we provide at our clinic to help our patients see the results they want in their lives. Our IV therapies promote many aspects of health and wellness, from recovery and relief to power and endurance. The IVs are customized with vitamins and minerals so your body can heal with immediate results.