The latest celebrity health fad: getting hooked up to an intravenous line for a dose of vitamins and minerals that can supposedly boost energy and, when needed, cure hangovers.
Speculation that pop star Rihanna was partaking of the so-called 'party girl drip' arose after she recently tweeted a picture of herself getting an unexplained IV (which other reports called a flu treatment). Simon Cowell, Cindy Crawford and Madonna also have been reported to seek IV pick-me-ups, ABC News says.
And it's not just celebrities: ABC talked to a Los Angeles music executive who raved about her weekly 45-minute infusion: "Instead of feeling energized, you feel alive." Various news sources put the cost at $150 to $300 and say the drips typically contain vitamins B and C and minerals such as zinc, magnesium and chromium. And clinics and spas offering the drips have sprung up from London to Las Vegas (where you can get the treatment from a roving bus).
But before you roll up your own sleeve, you should know that mainstream doctors and nutrition experts doubt you will get anything more than a little hydration and a placebo -- a treatment that makes you feel better because you think it will. If you are unlucky, you might also pick up an infection.
The vitamins themselves probably are harmless -- though even that is not certain, given the ongoing scientific debate about whether it's smart for healthy people to take vitamin supplements, even the old-fashioned way (in a pill), says Miriam Pappo, chief of clinical nutrition at Montefiore Medical Center, New York. Vitamin treatments, including intravenous doses, do have legitimate uses for people with vitamin deficiencies and other conditions, she says.
But the idea that vitamins, in any form, instantly boost energy "doesn't make scientific sense," she says. "I don't know why anyone would want to spend on hour doing this."
Kim Painter, USA TODAY
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