![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/7c6ea5ccb966147e35a0298d77e6a5dfce-iv-vitamins-fitness-week.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
feel the burn<\/a><\/p>\n \n How we\u2019re finding our way in today\u2019s obsessive workout culture.\n <\/p>\n \n Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images\n <\/p>\n Lately, it feels like everywhere I look, some celebrity is talking about how much they \u201clove an IV.\u201d Harry Styles has said<\/a> that vitamin-IV injections<\/a> are a key part of his wellness routine while he\u2019s on tour. Gwyneth Paltrow has been known to podcast<\/a> while injecting \u201ca bag of good old-fashioned vitamins.\u201d A 2022 episode of The Kardashians featured Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber bonding about their \u201chealth journey\u201d while hooked up<\/a> to neon-yellow IVs, and the New York Times reported<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not really big on vitamins, which many doctors say are usually a waste of money<\/a>. 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?)<\/p>\n A co-worker told me she gets a vitamin drip every other month to help with fatigue and dehydration, especially when she\u2019s been traveling. \u201cI literally feel like I can see more clearly afterward,\u201d she said. I don\u2019t 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 \u201cwellness social club,\u201d where the vibe is more luxury spa than doctor\u2019s office. For my first time, they offered to let me try their signature \u201cRemedy Drip<\/a>,\u201d which, according to the website, includes \u201chigher doses of vitamins C, B, and magnesium, along with calcium, taurine, lysine, zine, and glutathione to optimize energy and immune support.\u201d The benefits supposedly include immunity, energy, mental clarity, and detoxification, and it costs $350.<\/p>\n While Remedy Place offers a variety of IV formulations<\/a>, 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 \u2014\u00a0a service Remedy offers for $1,059<\/a>. Then their nurses can create a custom IV blend. (Alternatively, if \u201cyou don\u2019t want to invest in the micronutrient panel,\u201d you can just tell them how you\u2019re feeling, Leary says.)<\/p>\n When I ask about the benefits of vitamin IVs, Leary tells me that you absorb more of the vitamins when they\u2019re injected directly into your bloodstream than you would just taking oral supplements. Another obvious benefit, according to Leary, is hydration. \u201cMost people are pretty dehydrated, because no one is consuming as much water as they need,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n There have been some scary headlines<\/a> 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\u2019s done \u201cin a very clean facility\u201d 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\u2019ll admit did not make me feel especially reassured.<\/p>\n When I got to Remedy Place, the receptionist led me past the hyperbaric-oxygen chambers<\/a> and \u201cRemedy Rollers<\/a>\u201d 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 \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201ca Flintstone vitamin,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Whatever effects I felt were subtle, but I can\u2019t 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. \u201cYou\u2019re drinking it up, girl,\u201d Derek said when he came back to check on me, making a slurping noise. \u201cYour body is like, \u2018Thank you so much for this gift.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n While on-call IV services remain popular as a hangover treatment, Derek says the clientele they see at Remedy Place is more wellness oriented. \u201cWe get a lot of runners, a lot of athletes, because they\u2019re dehydrated,\u201d he says. They also see a lot of people coming in for jet lag. \u201cPeople come in post-travel, because they\u2019re fatigued. They went to Dubai, then London, then somewhere else \u2026 within a week, they\u2019re up in the air for 48 hours,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n In describing the many purported benefits of IV-ing, Leary points out that, in the U.S., oral supplements are loosely regulated. \u201cA lot of them on the market are just not the best,\u201d he says, adding that \u201chow things are marketed or what\u2019s on the label isn\u2019t always true.\u201d When I ask what makes the vitamins in Remedy Place\u2019s drips better, Leary tells me it\u2019s because they\u2019re more precise. \u201cWe\u2019re really fine tuning and customizing to make sure you\u2019re having this bespoke experience.\u201d But when I asked Leary if he could confirm the dose of each vitamin I was receiving, he couldn\u2019t tell me exactly what was in it.<\/p>\n Regardless, according to Pieter Cohen, a professor at Harvard Medical School who studies dietary supplements, \u201cif you\u2019re eating food in America, unless you have a very restricted diet or a serious health condition that makes it so you can\u2019t absorb your food properly,\u201d you probably don\u2019t have a vitamin deficiency. \u201cThe idea that someone who\u2019s a little tired needs extra vitamins just isn\u2019t supported by science,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Dr. Mao is also skeptical of the benefits of IV hydration for otherwise healthy people. \u201cWorking with cancer patients who have a lot of nausea, vomiting, and can\u2019t tolerate oral intake of fluid, IV fluid is very beneficial, and life-saving, even,\u201d he says. While acknowledging that people do get dehydrated, particularly if they\u2019re running long-distances or traveling, he says that for most people, drinking water is sufficient. \u201cIf you just drink some fluid, you\u2019ll be replenished very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Dr. Mao, the main benefit of a vitamin IV is \u201ca huge placebo effect.\u201d This tracks with my experience. As I was getting my fluids, Derek told me that by the afternoon, or maybe the next day, I\u2019d be feeling increased energy \u2014\u00a0not like a cup of coffee, but more like well-rested after a good night\u2019s sleep. But I had to want to believe, he said. \u201cIf you sit there being like, I don\u2019t feel anything, you\u2019re not going to feel anything.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019t do it again, and I definitely wouldn\u2019t spend $350 on one. But I can see how you could get hooked on it, if money was no object.<\/p>\n Stay in touch.<\/p>\n Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n