Does IV Vitamin Therapy Really Work?
Most of us have heard again and again throughout our lives the importance of keeping our vitamin stores high by maintaining a well-balanced diet and supplementing with store-bought vitamins when necessary, but there’s a new vitamin trend making the rounds—IV vitamin therapy.
What Is IV Vitamin Therapy?
“IV” is an abbreviation for “intravenous,” meaning that IV vitamin therapy consists of injecting a liquid solution of vitamins and minerals directly into the bloodstream. In the past, this is something we would have seen only in a hospital setting, but this exclusivity is no more.
Truthfully, the concept of IV vitamin drips isn’t a “trend” at all. Doctors have long been utilizing IVs to push vitamins as a treatment for particular conditions, and the wellness craze has only evolved beyond a hospital setting as more and more healthy individuals are utilizing IV vitamin therapy, too.
With celebrity endorsement has come a new wave of interest in the potential advantages of receiving vitamins intravenously, and now, anyone willing to pay for the treatment (which isn’t covered by medical insurance) can show up to an IV vitamin therapy clinic in order to fight colds, look younger, and even beat hangovers.
Does It Work?
Whether or not IV vitamin drips are beneficial for the general population is still debated among professionals, but NYU’s Dr. Albert Ahn states that it’s more advantageous to take a daily supplement rather than indulge in occasional IV therapy. For those who are already mostly hydrated with normal or close-to-normal vitamin stores, the majority of IV vitamin fluids are likely to be excreted throughout the day following a treatment, anyway.
While physicians say that there’s no need for generally healthy people to waste money and resources on IV vitamin cocktails, there are few risks associated with the practice.
However, patient populations do exist outside of the general public, who might greatly benefit from more accessible IV vitamin therapy. Let’s dive in and take a closer look.
IV Vitamin Therapy’s Potential Role as a Cancer Treatment
An increasing number of studies have demonstrated that cancer patients, for example, may see major improvements to their health and well-being as a result of IV vitamin therapy.
Vitamin C, in particular, has been researched extensively as a potential treatment option for those diagnosed with cancer. Given in high doses, some clinical trials have found that vitamin C is capable of improving the quality of life of cancer patients while diminishing harsh side effects associated with chemotherapy.
In other words, IV vitamin therapy is much more than an opportunity for a funky Instagram photo—it’s a hot medical topic that could change the way we think about fighting cancer with new and improved treatment regimens.
Chemo Boost
Time magazine famously publicized a study published in 2017 which detailed the ways in which IV vitamin C therapy might help chemotherapy to do its job better than if chemotherapy drugs were left to function on their own.
To put it simply, one physician stated, “The vitamin C stresses cancer cells that are already stressed. All we’re doing is tipping it over the edge so it makes radiation and chemo more effective.”
However, the studies examined in this article were small, and scientists are still learning more about the promising partnership between vitamin C and current cancer treatments.
Improved Quality of Life
Cancer patients are often substantially hindered by the devastating side effects of cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, but some studies have shown that cancer patients experience fewer side effects when using high-dose vitamin C in conjunction with other cancer treatments.
For example, researchers compared the effects of chemotherapy and chemotherapy coupled with IV vitamin C therapy in nearly thirty patients diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. Those who received vitamin C intravenously experienced fewer chemotherapy side effects than those who received chemotherapy alone.
Other trials examining patients with lung and brain cancer demonstrated a higher survival rate overall and fewer side effects in those who received IV vitamin C in addition to more standard cancer treatments.
Killing Cancer Cells
Amazingly, vitamin C has also been shown to be capable of killing cancer cells at high doses while causing no residual damage to healthy cells. This selective killing coincides with cancer cells sporting particular mutations, but scientists at the University of Iowa more broadly attribute vitamin C’s success as a cancer cell killer to a chemical present after vitamin C breakdown—hydrogen peroxide.
While healthy cells have mechanisms in place to rid themselves of hydrogen peroxide, which can severely damage and even kill cells, cancer cells are less capable of removing hydrogen peroxide and therefore more likely to succumb to its effects.
Ongoing Research
While not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration, IV vitamin C used as a treatment for cancer has shown great promise. Before vitamin C can be recommended on a broader scale for the treatment and prevention of cancer, we’ll need to continue analyzing the results of further research and gain a more thorough understanding of the role that vitamin C plays in fighting cancer.
In particular, many researchers are hoping to design and implement large-scale clinical trials in order to better create an accurate safety profile and evaluation of wider clinical use.
Are There Downsides to IV Vitamin Therapy?
Despite the numerous positives associated with IV vitamin therapy, there are some caveats to be aware of when considering high-dose vitamin C as a treatment for cancer. While high-dose vitamin C given intravenously has resulted in few concerning side effects, receiving vitamin C in high doses may be harmful to patients with certain risk factors such as kidney disease.
Some preliminary studies suggest that IV vitamin C may also react negatively to certain drugs, but these results are far from complete, and researchers do not yet understand the full implications of these drug interactions.
Final Recommendations
As always, we encourage anyone considering the use of IV vitamin therapy to speak with their healthcare providers about the pros and cons of IV vitamin therapy and whether or not high-dose vitamin C treatment might have a place in their current cancer treatment regimen.
As part of a holistic treatment plan for cancer, vitamin C most certainly has potential—only time and further research will tell whether or not this IV vitamin boost might become a more routine part of cancer treatment.