IV Nutritional Therapy
Patients with chronic illnesses often have problems with malabsorption. IV nutritional therapy can greatly speed up the healing processes and, in some cases, is required because of inadequate oral absorption. Some of the IV therapies done in our office include:
- IV Vitamin C: (25 gm, 50 gm, 100 gm) High-dose vitamin C therapy is helpful in many conditions such as cancer, fibromyalgia, and other chronic illness. Vitamin C is also helpful in detoxification and for various infections, viral and bacterial.
- Myer’s Cocktail: This IV treatment is a combination of magnesium, calcium, vitamin C, and B vitamins. This IV is a helpful treatment for headaches, muscle pain, fatigue, asthma, and a variety of other conditions.
- IV Minerals: This IV is useful for patients with malabsorption, especially those who have had gastric bypass surgery. Mineral deficiency causes a variety of symptoms, including fatigue.
- IV Phosphatidylcholine: This treatment can clear fat-soluble toxins from the system as a benefit to brain and nerve cells and as part of a phospholipid exchange protocol aimed at treating neurotoxicity/fat-soluble toxins.
- IV Glutathione: This treatment is beneficial for detoxification, and improved antioxidant protection. Most often used as a follow-up to the phosphatidylcholine IV above (as part of the protocol,) it’s useful on its own also. Dr, David Perlmutter has used IV glutathione in the treatment of neurological problems such as Parkinson’s disease. (See Dr. Perlmutter’s website, drpermutter.com.) The University of Oregon is also using IV glutathione in its Parkinson’s protocol, as well. Autistic children frequently benefit from glutathione IVs.
- Chronic Disease Formula: This formula is similar to the Myer’s cocktail, but with more ingredients, especially trace minerals. This IV formula has proved useful for those patients who need more intensive nutritional support.
- Custom IV Formulas: The most common IVs we use are custom IV’s designed to treat your particular health problem. These IV’s use a combination of ingredients such as glutathione, methyl B12, NAC, magnesium, calcium, and B6.
- NAD IV: NAD is every cell in your body. The cells use NAD to produce energy. The NAD IV augments the body’s supply of NAD.
Insurance Coverage
As integrative medicine becomes more recognized (many medical schools now offer instruction in integrative medicine), we have seen insurance reimbursement improve. However, it’s difficult to predict whether insurance will cover an IV or not. Coverage often depends on the diagnosis. For example, insurance will often cover mineral IV’s used to treat the mineral deficiency that often develops several years after gastric bypass surgery.
To Learn more about IV Therapy or to schedule an appointment.
Contact NW Integrative Medicine at (509) 516-1208