Intravenous Vitamin C for Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue…. and Hangovers?

We Take IV Therapy Very Seriously

I just read in the New York Times that IV vitamin therapy is the new in thing to do to recover from hangovers. Apparently, there are now companies that provide home IV’s by nurses to help you get over a night of heavy partying, so you are in better shape the next day. Health spas are also advertising intravenous vitamins for stronger immune systems and also they claim it leaves your skin more radiant than a facial.

…hmm.

At Mitchell Medical Group, we take intravenous vitamin therapy quite seriously. It’s an important medical treatment to bring pain relief and energy to our patients suffering from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

What is IV Vitamin Therapy?

Intravenous vitamin therapy dates back 30 years or so, when a Johns Hopkins physician, Dr. Myers, came up with a combination vitamin protocol to help his patients. The “Myers cocktail” is a combination of vitamin C, several B vitamins and magnesium to provide a patient’s metabolism with extra vitamins to help cellular and immune function.

Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, the leader in Fibro and Fatigue physician publications, has recommended for appropriate patients to follow his S.H.I.N.E protocol (Sleep, Hormone, Infection control, Nutrition, and Exercise) and utilize intravenous vitamin therapy to help recover more quickly from their debilitating symptoms.

At Mitchell Medical Group, we carefully evaluate the patient to make sure they appear to have a diagnosis from which they can benefit from vitamin therapy. We check blood vitamin levels before we even start to administer any vitamins, whether intravenous or just by injection. We have been doing IV vitamin therapy for over 20 years this way and have helped thousands of patients.

Interestingly, the most famous case that I can remember in the past was the late Norman Cousins, the editor of the Saturday Evening Post. He had at the time, a debilitating autoimmune disease that left him bedbound. He received intravenous vitamin C and, in his book, Anatomy of an Illness he wrote on how it helped him recover.

Why Intravenous Methods?

Why does IV vitamin therapy work better than just oral vitamins? The problem with oral vitamin absorption. Researchers have reported that only approximately 30% of oral vitamins are absorbed and available to the body. One of the best examples of this is magnesium.

Many patients are now aware of the benefits of magnesium for pain relief but when we do blood work to check the red blood cell magnesium in many patients we find they are still deficient. High dose magnesium which can be achieved with injections or intravenously, helps to block the glutamate receptor in the brain that is associated with pain. This is why we find IV or IM magnesium treatment so beneficial to fibromyalgia patients. Magnesium also helps to relax the muscles which can be in spasm from pain.

I don’t want to forget to mention the B vitamins as well. In our treatments, we give a mixture of the key B vitamins to help with energy and the nervous system. I am finding more and more patients that have relatively low B vitamins. It’s concerning, because it may reflect that our food sources have less of the B vitamins than they once did. I also am careful to warn my vegetarian patients that it is quite easy to become Vitamin B12 deficient if you don’t eat any animal protein. It’s not that I’m recommending they change their dietary lifestyle, but I do strongly recommend oral B vitamin replacement and supplemental B12 injections as well.

In Summary…

Intravenous vitamin therapy can be a very safe and beneficial treatment to help fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue and some autoimmune conditions. The key is careful medical supervision before starting. Honestly, although it would probably be very profitable I can’t see myself setting up an office on a college campus with the shingle: ” The Hangover Clinic”. Still, I’m sure a few student’s grades might improve if they recovered faster from their busy weekends.

– Dr. Dean Mitchell
Mitchell Medical Group, NYC