Top doctors make official complaints about IV ‘hydration’ clinics offering vitamin drips

RIHANNA, Madonna and Natalie Imbruglia are fans. But Australia’s top doctors warn vitamin drips and IV hangover ‘cures’ do more harm than good.

New health trend slammed as ‘pure, crazy hype’

AUSTRALIA’S top doctors say IV “hydration clinics” offering intravenous drips and vitamin “cocktails” are a “total waste of time and money” and could cause unnecessary harm.

One expert also claims two Australian clinics could be breaking consumer law by misleading customers about the supposed health benefits of vitamin drips.

Vitamin and IV clinics claim these drips hydrate the body, get rid of hangovers and remove toxins while boosting immunity and improving your hair, skin and nails.

They’re popular with celebrities including Rihanna, Madonna and Natalie Imbruglia, who this week posted a photo of herself hooked up to a vitamin drip at the luxury Mayr detox clinic in Austria.

Clinics like the Mayr have operated overseas for years in popular party cities like Las Vegas and Ibiza, but they’ve only just come to Australia.

The Hangover Clinic opened in Sydney late last year and its 30-60 minute hangover “remedies” cost $95-$200.

The iv.me Hydration Clinic in Melbourne, which opened in September, offers intravenous vitamin drips and “booster shots”.

Its 30-minute vitamin C infusion costs $249 and claims to boost immunity, shorten a cold or flu, produce collagen, reduce wrinkles, stimulate hair and nail growth and fight viral illness. Its most expensive infusion, which claims to “recover, cleanse and detoxify”, costs $349.

The Australian Medical Association’s vice president Dr Stephen Parnis says vitamin drips are a “total waste of time and money” and are potentially harmful.

“The harm most commonly caused would be from the unnecessary injection of a cannula into someone’s vein,” Dr Parnis told news.com.au.

“They can cause clots, infections and can potentially damage adjacent structures like an artery or a nerve. But mostly this is just giving people vitamins they don’t need and you excrete most of them through urine anyway.”

Instead of vitamin drips, Dr Parnis recommends people spend that money on fresh fruit and vegetables.

“Ingesting the food through your gut, rather than trying to bypass that through the vein, is better,” he said.

Another leading doctor, associate professor Ken Harvey from Monash University, is so adamant these vitamin drips don’t work that he’s lodged an official complaint against the iv.me clinic to the Pharmacy Board of Australia.

Dr Harvey has also lodged a complaint against The Hangover Clinic with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Medical Board of Australia.

“Why on earth would you choose to have a needle stuck in your vein? It’s pure, crazy hype, stimulated by pictures of celebrities on social media,” he told news.com.au.

Dr Harvey labelled the health claims made by these clinics as “absolutely bizarre”.

“There is no good evidence that taking things like vitamin C orally or intravenously is going to do anything for your hangover, or improve your immune functionality or lead to better skin and nails,” he said.

The Hangover Clinic co-founder Max Petro has an IV administered. Picture: Dylan Robinson.

A spokeswoman for iv.me claims the use of intravenous vitamins for boosting immunity, energy and detoxification is “well documented” and has been used in hospitals “for decades”.

“At iv.me we have a seven-page registration and assessment prior to approving a treatment and we choose not to treat those who are deemed unsuitable,” she told news.com.au.

“All patients who are approved for treatment are scripted by the doctor and undergo their infusion in a medical clinic.”

She added: “Throughout the duration of the infusion, the clients heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and oxygen levels are monitored continuously.

“The client is under the direct care of a registered nurse at all times, and a supervising doctor is on site. iv.me hydration clinic choose to provide services only in a medical clinic setting.”

While the ACCC wouldn’t comment specifically on the claims made by iv.me or The Hangover Clinic, it has recently fined several health brands for making false or misleading advertising claims.

The ACCC took Nurofen and Homeopathy Plus to court last year and won.

“Truth in advertising and consumer issues in the health and medical sectors are priority areas for the ACCC, to ensure that consumers are given accurate information when making their purchasing decisions,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.

“Any representations which are difficult for a consumer to test will face greater scrutiny from the ACCC,” he said.

News.com.au has contacted The Hangover Clinic for comment.