What is IV Therapy?
How IV Therapy Can Treat Flu Symptoms
December 8, 2020
IVs themselves have been around for a long time. The first recorded use of intravenous technology occurred in Britain in 1883, after doctors used IVs to assist patients during a cholera epidemic. The technology became commonplace by the early 1900s, and IVs have been common practice in hospitals and clinics ever since.
And now in the 21st century, IVs are evolving once again; IV therapy is one of the newest innovations in health care, delivering fast and effective results for a variety of health conditions. If you don’t know much about IV therapy, you probably have many questions, such as “What is IV therapy?” or “What is an IV?” Don’t worry: Mobile IV Nurses is here to explain everything there is to know about IV therapy.
When an experienced medical professional administers IV therapy, it can provide tremendous benefits. Understanding what this therapy is all about, how it works, and what it’s used for will help you find the right course of treatment to give you incredible results. Let’s discuss what IV therapy is and how it can help you achieve optimum health.
What Is IV Therapy?
IV therapy is short for intravenous therapy. With this treatment, you receive fluids through a drip IV infusion, similar to what you’d receive in a hospital setting. IV treatments yield quicker results than oral consumption, because the infusion delivers the fluids directly to the bloodstream.
Typically, you’ll find IVs used in hospitals for chemotherapy, blood transfusions, and a variety of other reasons. But at providers like ours, Mobile IV Nurses, you’ll find IV treatments for a different group of patients — people who need IV therapy to target dehydration, illness, chronic conditions, and overall health and wellness. We accomplish this with the use of vitamin-infused solutions, which offer intense concentrations of vitamins the body can absorb quickly and use to support your health.
How Does An IV Work?
If you’re interested in pursuing IV therapy, you will want to find a company staffed with highly trained employees with medical experience, such as registered nurses and paramedics. They may be overseen by a medical director, usually a physician, who ensures all employees have the highest level of training and knowledge about IV therapy.
You may make an appointment to get your IV at a clinic. However, companies that bring IV therapy to you offer an even higher level of service and convenience. Relax in the comfort of your home while they administer the IV or schedule it at your office during your lunch break.
Mobile IV Nurses can bring top-quality IV vitamin infusions directly to your home, office, or hotel, so you can reap the benefits of hydration therapy in the comfort of your own space. Here’s how a standard IV appointment works:
- Before the infusion begins, the nurse or paramedic will ask you detailed questions about your medical history. They’ll discuss your current health status and symptoms and do a brief exam.
- Our team of registered nurses will sit you down in a comfortable position and sanitize a section of your arm. This will be the insertion point where a needle gently enters the skin and connects to a vein.
- The needle is hooked up to the drip line that connects to the IV bag. While the fluids flow down the drip line, you can read, watch TV, listen to music, or just relax. Your IV provider will monitor you to make sure everything goes smoothly.
- When treatment is over, the IV provider will remove the needle and place a bandage over the insertion site on your arm.
That’s it! You can rest and recuperate if you’re ill or go on with the rest of your day if you received a wellness IV. Make sure to follow any instructions from your IV provider in either case, so you can reap the greatest benefit from your IV treatment.
What Is IV Therapy Used For?
There are many instances in which IV therapy can help you feel better. This is because IV infusions target dehydration and low vitamin levels in your body — two things that can contribute to a variety of health issues and uncomfortable symptoms.
In a general sense, IV rehydration therapy can rehydrate you and elevate your energy level, so you feel rejuvenated after the treatment. But IV therapy can also help you improve your health when you’re struggling with specific conditions, including the following:
- Cold or flu
- Dehydration
- Hangovers
- Altitude or morning sickness
- Nausea
- Vitamin deficiency
- Stress
- Fatigue
- Chronic health conditions, such as migraines
- Hormone imbalances
Some people don’t use IV therapy to treat a particular concern. Instead, they incorporate it into their overall wellness plan. In these cases, they use regular IVs to help maintain optimum mood, sleep, and hydration levels. What’s more, some athletes or very active people use IVs before or after an event to either prepare or recover from intense physical exertion. Some people use IV therapy to get the vitamins and minerals necessary to promote healthier skin and a more youthful appearance.
Whether you want to use IV treatments for a specific illness or simply to enhance your health and wellness, it’s important to find the right cocktail of vitamins and minerals for your needs. When you schedule your appointment with Mobile IV Nurses, talk with our team to make sure it’s the best fit for your particular circumstances.
What Are The Vitamins And Minerals You Can Get Through IV Therapy?
Customization is one of the most cutting-edge features of IV therapy. You can choose a simple hydration IV with solutions such as 0.9% Sodium Chloride (normal saline) or Lactated Ringer’s. From there, you have many options to tailor the therapy to your needs. This is another reason why you will want to work with an experienced medical professional, who can discuss your fluid options with you and help you settle on the right blend for your IV.
You can add one or more vitamins and minerals to your IV solution. These supplements include:
- B Complex
- Methylcobalamin (Vitamin B12)
- Glutathione
- Magnesium
- Zinc
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin D
- Taurine
The popular Myers’ Cocktail, often used to lessen fatigue and boost energy, contains B Complex, B12, glutathione, magnesium, zinc, and vitamin C.
In some cases, it may help to add medication to your IV. Medication in your infusion drips straight into the bloodstream, which leads to fast relief from your worst symptoms. Mobile IV Nurses has several mediation options available in our IVs, including:
- Toradol (ketorolac)
- Zofran (ondansetron)
- Benadryl (diphenhydramine)
- Pepcid (famotidine)
- Reglan (metoclopramide)
Mobile IV Nurses is at the forefront of IV therapy because it offers all the above add-ons, as well as NAD+. Produced naturally by the body, NAD+ fuels our cells so we feel invigorated. As we age, however, our NAD+ levels decrease, and an infusion of this potent coenzyme can help recharge and re-energize you.
What Are The Benefits Of IV Therapy?
There are many reasons people seek out IV therapy, and an important one is that treatment provides noticeable wellness benefits. It helps to know the pros and cons to really understand what IV therapy is all about.
PROS AND CONS OF IV THERAPY
Pros
- Intravenous therapy offers rapid relief as vitamins and minerals are absorbed in the bloodstream.
- The procedure itself is relatively quick and pain-free, and there’s no downtime for recuperation.
- IV bags are versatile and can address many different health issues. Use them to recover more quickly from illness or schedule regular IV infusions to maintain a vibrant sense of well-being.
- The symptoms of dehydration are reduced with an IV’s sterile saline solution providing high-quality rehydration.
- The best IV providers work with you to develop an individualized treatment plan that features specific combinations of vitamins, minerals, medications, and supplements. You are unique, and your IV therapy should be, too.
Cons
- While companies such as Mobile IV Nurses strive to make drip IVs affordable, overall costs may be more than an over-the-counter treatment (especially since IV therapy typically isn’t approved by insurance). However, IV therapy provides greater effectiveness than standard drugstore medication, and timely treatment could save you more healthcare costs if your condition progresses and worsens without the intervention of IV therapy.
- Certain ingredients may trigger side effects in people. That’s why it’s important to get treatment from a medical professional who can take precautions to avoid any potential reactions to an IV drip.
How Long Does IV Therapy Take?
Mobile IV Nurses knows that your time is very valuable — just as valuable as your health. We all want to be as healthy as possible, but that doesn’t mean we want to spend time driving to a clinic and spending hours getting an IV infusion. This is yet another attractive feature of IV therapy: Typically, an appointment lasts only 45 to 60 minutes!
Best of all, providers like Mobile IV Nurses will bring IV treatments to you! This saves you time and allows you to rehydrate comfortably in your own space.
How Quickly Will You Feel The Effects Of The IV Drip?
There’s no set answer for this, as the duration of an IV’s effects depends on the individual patient. In some cases, especially those where patients are in desperate need of help, symptom relief may occur right away. For others, the IV will take effect over the course of a few days. The fast-acting capabilities of IV therapy are an advantage over oral medications, such as liquids, tablets, or pills, because they need to pass through the digestive system first, lessening their absorbency and potency.
The length of time that IV fluids stay in the body is also determined on a case-by-case basis. Once a patient’s body has metabolized the fluids and their ingredients, they are excreted from the body. Some people choose to get regular IV treatments to reap their benefits routinely, depending on the type of treatment and the reasons for getting an IV.
Where Can You Get An IV?
It used to be that intravenous therapy was the domain of medical facilities, such as hospital emergency rooms (ERs), doctor’s offices, and urgent care clinics. However, the recent growth in popularity means IV therapy is now available at many private clinics and facilities like med spas and IV lounges. And with mobile IV service, treatment conveniently comes to the location that works best for you, whether that’s at home or the office. We’ll even bring our IV therapy services to your hotel, offering IV drip parties to help your group rejuvenate and recover after a night of celebration.
But with so many IV therapy providers out there, you need to do your homework. Make sure you only book IV therapy with a company who:
- Uses top-notch medical ingredients in its IV bags
- Takes a personalized approach to IV therapy, giving you the opportunity to tailor your treatment plan to best suit your needs
- Staffs its team with experienced medical professionals
- Takes the time to answer all your questions before booking treatment
- Thoroughly reviews your health history and current symptoms for safe and effective patient care
Mobile IV Nurses offers qualified, compassionate IV therapy services designed to give you the best possible results. All our IVs are made with medical-grade ingredients, we offer a variety of pricing and packages (including plenty of add-ins you can use to customize your treatment), and we’ll always work with you to give you the best experience possible.
Book An Appointment For IV Therapy With Mobile IV Nurses
Mobile IV Nurses offers you the best in IV therapy: highly skilled medical professionals, superior IV products, fast and convenient service, and affordable pricing packages. We have teams of registered nurses ready to help patients in all the areas we serve, so you’re sure to find one close to you for quick, responsive IV treatment when you need it.
Contact Mobile IV Nurses today to learn more about us and our treatments, or to book online and experience IV therapy for yourself.
FAQs
IV therapy serves several purposes. When a person becomes dehydrated, IV hydration therapy is the fastest, most effective way to restore fluids in the body. It could take an hour or more after drinking a liter of water for the body to process it into the bloodstream. With IV hydration therapy, the fluid goes directly into the bloodstream.
Various types of medication are also delivered more efficiently via IV therapy.
IV therapy is also used in patients suffering from malnutrition, during surgery, and in emergency situations.
During IV therapy, the patient receives the infusion via a needle injected into a vein. A small tube is attached to the needle and connected to an IV bag containing the patient’s fluids, vitamins, or medications.
During the infusion, the patient can read, watch TV, make phone calls, eat to drink, and even use the bathroom.
IV therapy consists of either drip or push types. They differ by treatment duration and the amount of fluid.
What is IV drip therapy? This is the type of IV therapy in which a plastic catheter is inserted into the vein via a needle. After the catheter is inserted, the needle is removed and only the plastic catheter remains to complete the infusion process. IV drip therapy usually lasts between 45 and 60 minutes. Between 250-1000 ml of fluids are typically injected per session. During IV drip therapy, the patient may relax or work, always cognizant of the IV drip.
In IV push therapy, fluids are administered slowly inserted into the vein via a previously inserted catheter. IV push therapy lasts between 15 and 20 minutes, and only between 30-60 ml of fluid is pressed into the vein. IV push therapy requires specialist supervision.
IV treatment benefits the body in a variety of ways. Because they restore fluids and they help people dealing with any type of dehydration, including that resulting from hangovers, nausea, or overexertion. For many conditions, IV treatment offers rapid relief.
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