Medical IV therapy is administered by a trained healthcare professional in a hospital, medical clinic, or home. Your healthcare team (which may include doctors, nurses, nutritionists, and pharmacists) will collaborate to prescribe the cocktail of IV nutrition therapy at doses suited to your needs. Then, your healthcare provider will attach the IV bag to your catheter, a thin, flexible tube inserted into a vein using a needle that delivers IV fluids to your bloodstream. It typically takes 10 to 12 hours for the contents of the bag to fully enter your body.
Meanwhile, medical spas, integrative medicine physicians’ offices, and drip bars (wellness clinics that provide IV nutrition therapy on-site or deliver infusions to homes, offices, or hotel rooms) may offer nonmedical IV nutrition therapy. It’s often administered by a nurse or physician’s assistant. But there’s no guarantee that you’ll get a licensed medical professional, because there isn’t federal oversight on who prescribes, prepares, and administers the solution for nonmedical IV therapy.
A reputable clinic has medical oversight from a physician or a nurse practitioner. Your vitals will be checked, and you’ll be asked to complete a health screening or questionnaire before you receive IV therapy, says Steve Rallis, a doctor of chiropractic medicine, doctor of naturopathy, and the chief medical officer for the DRIPBaR Canada. Then, the IV is administered by a nurse.
The nutrient solution will be made according to your needs, Rallis says. You’ll receive a steady supply of the solution through the IV while you sit, with sessions lasting approximately 20 to 60 minutes. You should be monitored during the session, and your vitals should be rechecked once the injection is completed, Rallis says.
Many IV drip companies recommend coming once every two weeks, though this depends on the person and their reasons for going in the first place, Rallis says. Expect to go more than once. “If it’s for fatigue, as an example, you’re unlikely to see the benefit until you’ve done around six to eight IVs,” Rallis says.
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