How we’re finding our way in today’s obsessive workout culture.
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images
Lately, it feels like everywhere I look, some celebrity is talking about how much they “love an IV.” Harry Styles has said that vitamin-IV injections are a key part of his wellness routine while he’s on tour. Gwyneth Paltrow has been known to podcast while injecting “a bag of good old-fashioned vitamins.” A 2022 episode of The Kardashians featured Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber bonding about their “health journey” while hooked up to neon-yellow IVs, and the New York Times reported last year that luxury condo buildings in New York and L.A. are now offering at-home IV drips for residents. Initially marketed as a hangover cure, IV bags filled with vitamin cocktails have become a staple of wellness routines among the rich and famous.
I’m not really big on vitamins, which many doctors say are usually a waste of money. But whenever I hear a celebrity mention their recreational IV habit, I feel a pang of envy. So I was curious: If I could get an IV in my regular life would I feel superhuman? (Or at least really rich?)
A co-worker told me she gets a vitamin drip every other month to help with fatigue and dehydration, especially when she’s been traveling. “I literally feel like I can see more clearly afterward,” she said. I don’t travel between time zones all that often, but I do have a 2-year-old who insists on waking up before 6 a.m. most mornings, so my default state is not exactly refreshed. My colleague suggested I try Remedy Place in Soho, which bills itself as a “wellness social club,” where the vibe is more luxury spa than doctor’s office. For my first time, they offered to let me try their signature “Remedy Drip,” which, according to the website, includes “higher doses of vitamins C, B, and magnesium, along with calcium, taurine, lysine, zine, and glutathione to optimize energy and immune support.” The benefits supposedly include immunity, energy, mental clarity, and detoxification, and it costs $350.
While Remedy Place offers a variety of IV formulations, founder and CEO Jonathan Leary, who has a doctorate in chiropractic and alternative medicine, says the ideal is for a customer to first do their bloodwork to discover their nutrient deficiencies — a service Remedy offers for $1,059. Then their nurses can create a custom IV blend. (Alternatively, if “you don’t want to invest in the micronutrient panel,” you can just tell them how you’re feeling, Leary says.)
When I ask about the benefits of vitamin IVs, Leary tells me that you absorb more of the vitamins when they’re injected directly into your bloodstream than you would just taking oral supplements. Another obvious benefit, according to Leary, is hydration. “Most people are pretty dehydrated, because no one is consuming as much water as they need,” he says.
There have been some scary headlines about IVs gone wrong at unregulated med spas, and according to Dr. Jun Mao, chief of the integrative-medicine service at Memorial Sloan Kettering, there are some risks to the procedure, including puncturing a vein, allergic reactions, or infection. However, he says if it’s done “in a very clean facility” and administered by a health professional with medical training, the risk is relatively low. (He advises those with health issues or who are taking medication to talk to their doctor first.) After confirming that my IV would be administered by a registered nurse, I was required to sign a lengthy waiver, which I’ll admit did not make me feel especially reassured.
When I got to Remedy Place, the receptionist led me past the hyperbaric-oxygen chambers and “Remedy Rollers” to a curtained-off room with two brown suede daybeds. Before any injections could take place, I was sent a link on my phone to do a telehealth consult with a third-party nurse practitioner, who asked a few cursory questions about my medical history. I asked her if the IV I was about to get was safe. Unfortunately, the service was terrible, but it seemed like she was saying “yes.”
The nurse, Derek, was friendly and wearing hip black scrubs, and quickly put me at ease. Despite my better judgment, I felt a little giddy as he hooked me up to a bag of pale yellow liquid (according to Leary, the color comes from Vitamin B2). Derek said I might get a taste in my mouth similar to “a Flintstone vitamin,” and, once he said it, I did start to notice. Since the saline was room temperature, he said I might feel a little cold, and offered me a blanket.
Whatever effects I felt were subtle, but I can’t deny that the experience was strangely luxurious. Texting my friends mid-infusion, I did feel like a celebrity, even if my IV line made it annoying to move my arm. “You’re drinking it up, girl,” Derek said when he came back to check on me, making a slurping noise. “Your body is like, ‘Thank you so much for this gift.’”
While on-call IV services remain popular as a hangover treatment, Derek says the clientele they see at Remedy Place is more wellness oriented. “We get a lot of runners, a lot of athletes, because they’re dehydrated,” he says. They also see a lot of people coming in for jet lag. “People come in post-travel, because they’re fatigued. They went to Dubai, then London, then somewhere else … within a week, they’re up in the air for 48 hours,” he explains.
In describing the many purported benefits of IV-ing, Leary points out that, in the U.S., oral supplements are loosely regulated. “A lot of them on the market are just not the best,” he says, adding that “how things are marketed or what’s on the label isn’t always true.” When I ask what makes the vitamins in Remedy Place’s drips better, Leary tells me it’s because they’re more precise. “We’re really fine tuning and customizing to make sure you’re having this bespoke experience.” But when I asked Leary if he could confirm the dose of each vitamin I was receiving, he couldn’t tell me exactly what was in it.
Regardless, according to Pieter Cohen, a professor at Harvard Medical School who studies dietary supplements, “if you’re eating food in America, unless you have a very restricted diet or a serious health condition that makes it so you can’t absorb your food properly,” you probably don’t have a vitamin deficiency. “The idea that someone who’s a little tired needs extra vitamins just isn’t supported by science,” he says.
Dr. Mao is also skeptical of the benefits of IV hydration for otherwise healthy people. “Working with cancer patients who have a lot of nausea, vomiting, and can’t tolerate oral intake of fluid, IV fluid is very beneficial, and life-saving, even,” he says. While acknowledging that people do get dehydrated, particularly if they’re running long-distances or traveling, he says that for most people, drinking water is sufficient. “If you just drink some fluid, you’ll be replenished very soon.”
According to Dr. Mao, the main benefit of a vitamin IV is “a huge placebo effect.” This tracks with my experience. As I was getting my fluids, Derek told me that by the afternoon, or maybe the next day, I’d be feeling increased energy — not like a cup of coffee, but more like well-rested after a good night’s sleep. But I had to want to believe, he said. “If you sit there being like, I don’t feel anything, you’re not going to feel anything.”
Walking through Soho afterward, I did want to believe. It helped that it was a gorgeous spring day, and almost the weekend. When I looked up at the leaves on the trees, maybe they did look a little crisper and brighter. For all my skepticism, my IV still felt like a treat. At the very least, I enjoyed my hour respite from the outside world. I probably won’t do it again, and I definitely wouldn’t spend $350 on one. But I can see how you could get hooked on it, if money was no object.
Stay in touch.
Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice