The rise of the popularity of drip bars has seen many practitioners consider including IV Nutrient Therapy in their practices. Of course, there are a number of things to take into account when one wants to start offering IV nutrients as part of your practice. It is not a fad item where patients can walk in from the street, choose a drip from the menu and walk out 30 minutes later.
Before we jump into some of the options of drips available to us, let us look at some reasons we would want to go the IV route rather than oral or transdermal.
IV Nutrient Therapy is a viable option when one has a problem with absorption. It ensures that nutrients are delivered directly to the blood stream and that they are not impacted by gastric acid. Components such as glutathione are not readily absorbed and the IV route is in such a case a good option.
Ten indications for IV Nutrient Therapy
- Malabsorption syndromes
- Chemotherapy
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Detoxification
- Cancer therapies
- Gastric bypass patients
- Peri-operatively
- Macular degeneration
- Chelation therapies
- Anti-aging
What are some ethical considerations?
In South Africa, IV Nutrient Therapy is treated as Schedule 4 medication. To that end, it limits the application thereof to only medical doctors who are allowed to script S4 medication as their scope of practice. As part of the training that the Golding Institute offers, we also look at the approach of IV Nutrient Therapy wherein integrative medicine would approach the patient as a unique individual and as such their scripts would reflect that. Rather than “ordering from a menu”, the patient needs to be assessed and their protocol written with their specific needs and biochemical individuality in mind.
Patients need to have consulted with their medical practitioner and proper testing should be done prior to the therapy.
A medical doctor has to be on site at all times that the therapy is happening.
The therapy has to be administered by a person who has putting up IV lines as part of their current scope of practice
Listen to our podcast on IV Nutrient Therapy
Informed Consent
Because of the fact that integrative medicine oftentimes uses products “off-label”, it is imperative that they sign an informed consent document prior to commencement of their consultation. This is true for IV Nutrient Therapy patients as well. Make sure that your informed consent is set up properly to give you and your patient maximum protection and peace of mind.
Emergency trolley
Make sure that you have a fully stocked emergency trolley available at all times that patients are receiving IV Nutrient Therapy.
I always say that it is better to have the equipment and never use it than to have to explain to HPCSA why you didn’t have something when needed.
Sourcing material
Many people ask about the suppliers of various IV nutrients. What is important here is that you build a personal relationship with whichever company you decide to partner with. Most of the nutrients are manufactured in compounding pharmacies with some compounders focusing more on development of new products than others. South Africa does not have many of these and it is suggested that one chooses the best products from different companies, as each have their strengths.
Importing supplies is also an option, although not always viable because of the risk one takes with not having proper checks and accountability in place. Yes, it is easy to order a box of “skin lightening” drips, but what assurances does one have of the ingredients, safety and quality of the content?
IV Nutrient Therapy Training
If you are interested in introducing IV Nutrient Therapy in your practice, we have put together two courses for you. The first is an introduction to the ethical use of IV Nutrient Therapy which has been accredited 2 Ethics points. The second is the practical course on the use of IV Nutrient Therapy. This course has sufficiently been set up to help you introduce IV nutrients into your practice and covers basics such as equipment up to difference combinations of nutrients for desired outcomes.
