There have often been times when you are too busy to eat, and there have definitely been times when you are too busy to eat properly. But a new company offering nutrients and vitamins via IV wants to take care of that for you, and it looks like actor Ryan Phillippe is already on board.
According to this image published on Facebook, Phillippe and his girlfriend Paulina Slagter, a law student at Stanford, have gotten on board with VitaSquad, a "mobile service that uses intravenous nutritional therapy to deliver vitamins directly into the bloodstream," according to their website.
The company, which operates out of Miami, is one of many in the U.S. and Canada offering this service. Patients make appointments, which last 20 to 30 minutes, in order to get an infusion of a specific "medical cocktail" into their veins. The formulas offered include everything from "Vitaluv" (to "enhance your night with that special someone") to LiquidLife ("de-stressing your life to enhance your lifestyle"), and are composed of various minerals and vitamins meant to accomplish these tasks.
According to Shape magazine, however, there has not been sufficient evidence to show that these solutions can make a lick of difference to your health — and there are a few reasons why it could actually harm you. Putting in an IV outside of a healthcare facility, for example, can increase the risk of infection. And then there's also the fact that you're mainlining nutrients, instead of digesting them.
"Putting nutrients directly into the bloodstream bypasses [the body's digestive system], and in so doing, invites an array of potential dangers," writes Dr. David Katz on DrOz.com. "Digestion regulates the speed at which nutrients enter the blood – IV dosing eliminates that safeguard. IV’s always carry some, albeit small, risk of bruising, clotting, bleeding and infection, which eating, obviously, does not."
And while IV drips of nutrients are nothing new (they're used extensively to help those in hospital or with weakened immune systems due to disease), it's unlikely they're meant to be utilized to cure your hangovers, contrary to the message these companies are giving out. Might we recommend drinking lots of water instead?
Or follow us on Twitter
Also on HuffPost
