DALLAS -- Heart rate. Blood Pressure. Body Temperature.
After reading those words, you may think we're talking about an annual check-up. But you're wrong.
We're talking about hydration therapy. Voluntary IV drips used as a quick hangover cure.
“It’s going straight to the bloodstream,” said Jordan Cobb, co-owner of iVitamin in Austin.
Likely coming to a storefront near you, you can buy a cocktail of vitamins—have them injected into your body—all in about 40 minutes.
“So those people who have been up all night and have had a lot to drink and are going to feel a major difference,” said Cobb whose background is in medical sales.
IV's are becoming more popular in the aftermath of boozy binges.
The hydration therapy concept is alarming to some emergency room doctors like Glenn Hardesty.
“I worry a lot about what they're infusing,” said Hardesty, an ER physician at Texas Health Arlington. “There are vitamins that can be toxic at certain levels."
The concern isn’t putting a damper on business.
Demand has created concierge services..that's right they bring the IV's to you!
There’s Hangover Heaven in Las Vegas; The Hangover Club in New York; even Hangover Houston that pays for your Uber.
“We probably see about 10 to 20 people a day,” said Cobb.
Flushing people with fluids for hangovers is only part of the story. At iVitamin on Austin’s busy South Congress corridor, the average age of people getting vitamin-infused saline drips for overall wellness is early 40's.
Kinan Beck, a 43-year-old triathlete, gets drips after a race and between tough workouts.
“I've got a 60-mile bike ride tomorrow. I just ran today so I'm already pretty dehydrated because of the humidity. It just kind of puts me back to an equal state," he said,
In the time it would take Cox, 52, to get a pedicure, she chooses to relax and rehydrate. “You might think, oh my God, why would you even fathom getting an IV put in? I immediately saw an improvement in my skin,” said Cox.
WFAA reporter, Sonia Azad followed nurse practitioner Rochelle Dela Paz-Connor on a busy Friday morning at her work, an urgent care clinic.
Administering IV's for hydration is her side job.
“Pretty much it's like an everyday medical practice,” said Paz-Connor.
Under the direction of an off-site medical director, Paz-Connor collects medical history, checks vitals, then gets to mixing.
“We have to go by all the medical guidelines for IV administration; we have to go by all pharmacy guidelines,” Paz-Connor said.
A pharmacist designed the secret blends that appear on iVitamin’s IV Menu.
“We’ve got an immunity drip called iRenew, so if you're coming down with a cold it's going to have extra vitamin C,” explained Cobb. “We also have iRecover which is going to get people back on track after a night of going out late and probably having a little bit too much to drink.”
The cost of each drip varies between $150 to $260.
Dr. Hardesty’s greatest reservation is that IV's are administered too fast.
“You have to be very careful with how much fluid you give patients and the rate at which you give patients fluid depending on the scenario,” said Hardesty.
So, sure—if you’re hurting a drip may help. But the bottom line – know what vitamins are in the bag and that the person giving you the IV is either a doctor or a nurse, which may be more than you can focus on the morning after.