MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) – If you’ve been partying since GameDay started Saturday morning on Beale and just finished watching the game, you might be looking to ease your hangover Sunday morning. Or maybe you just want a little vitamin boost to fend off a winter cold.
IV hydration drip bars promise to help with that. They’re all the rage on the east and west coast, now you can find them right here in the Mid-South. So who does it and why?
In the Mid-South, you can get IV therapy at clinics from downtown to Collierville. Local 24 News caught up with a group of men at Pro-Health Wellness Clinic in East Memphis. They were getting hydration drips in preparation for running a 10-mile obstacle race.
“You’re gonna need those things in your body and there is really no more efficient way than the IV to get them in,” said Cole Giovannetti, runner.
Giovannetti gets IV hydration before every serious race he does. Local clinics offer a variety of treatments from a basic vitamin blast to more complex mixtures, aimed at boosting your immune system, helping with migraines or hangovers.
Others treatment are geared towards anti-aging. You can customize IV bags.
The last time Giovannetti came here before a race he added in an anti-inflammatory and says it made a huge difference.
“I felt arguably superhuman. I felt so good, it was almost not real. I never stopped running the whole 50 miles and did a lot better than I thought I was going to do,” Giovannetti said.
“Imagine you are a wilted plant and you just poured water on it and it perks right up. That’s what it is,” said clinic owner Estes Folk.
Folk owns Pro Health Wellness Clinic. While his clinic offers more than IV hydration, he says the hydration therapy has really taken off.
“IV hydration got big on the west coast 5 or 10 years ago, and it’s slowly been percolating across the country and now it’s really hit Memphis.”
He says there are a couple basic groups of people who get IV therapy: exercisers or those who like to work hard or party hard.
“They are very busy, they work hard, they have children, they have an active social life, they are worn down, they are fatigued, they are exhausted,” said Folk.
He says the other main group of “drippers” – as they’re called – are people with medical issues who want relief from symptoms.
“The Myers cocktail is really popular amongst the fibromyalgia crowd. A lot of autoimmune disorders patients are familiar with that terminology,” said Folk. “For some people, it’s like an alternative for going to the emergency room even.”
IV hydration isn’t cheap. It can cost between $75 and a few hundred dollars, depending on what you get.
Hannah Osterndorf, a registered dietitian with St. Francis Hospital, is skeptical. She says you can save a lot of money by drinking plenty of fluids and eating properly.
“There’s no clinical or robust clinical evidence that really says that these are proven results. A lot of times, they say it’s really just a big placebo effect,” said Osterndorf.
As for Giovanetti, whether it was the IV drip or just his hard training and dedication, he placed 8th out of 2,500 people in the race and first for his age group. He’s planning to get another IV treatment right before his next big race.