IV Vitamin and Mineral Therapy

   Intravenous administration of nutrition and medications is nothing new in standard medicine. Doctors know that the fastest and most reliable way to deliver a desired substance to cells, tissues and organs is to put it directly into a small vein. Sugar, electrolytes, antibiotics and other drugs, vitamins and minerals can reach desired levels in the blood much faster when delivered intravenously as compared to orally. The benefit of nutritional substances depends solely upon the degree to which they reach the cells and tissues in need. The use of intravenous administration is known in medicine to be the most reliable delivery system.

 

The Benefits of Intravenous Nutrition & Its Scientific Basis

   The old adage, “you are what you eat,” is wrong. More accurately, “you are what you absorb and the consequences of what you do not.” If you have been taking a laundry list of vitamins, minerals, herbs, homeopathic remedies, enzymes and eating a particular diet for a while, and still have persistent symptoms, then it may have occurred to you that you may not be absorbing all of those wonderful nutrients. Intravenous nutrition bypasses the digestive tract and delivers the nutrients directly into the blood stream for more direct access to the organs and tissues in need.

   Supplements taken orally may not raise blood levels high enough to affect more serious illness and symptoms for a number of important and well-proven reasons:

   1. There is a physiologic limit of all oral nutrients. For example, only 35% of oral calcium is absorbed by mouth – regardless of the form of calcium consumed. Beta-carotene has approximately a 25% oral limit; the more one takes orally, the less is absorbed. Only 25% of oral Vitamin C is absorbed – regardless of how much you eat or take by vitamin supplement. 

   2. Deficiencies of stomach acid (hydrochloric acid and pepsin) and pancreatic enzymes (amylases, lipases, proteases) may inhibit the absorption of a variety of nutrients. For example, most minerals (i.e. iron, zinc and calcium) depend upon adequate levels of stomach acid. Deficiency of pancreatic enzymes can inhibit the proper assimilation and absorption of proteins (by not breaking them down into their constituent amino acids and peptides), fats and carbohydrates. As we age, stomach acid levels decline progressively. The average 50-year-old person has little or no stomach acid left due to the destruction of the stomach’s parietal cells that produce hydrochloric acid.

   3. Auto-immune conditions such as multiple sclerosis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and digestive conditions such as ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, food allergies, yeast overgrowth and leaky gut syndrome may either reduce one’s absorption of nutrients or increase one’s needs beyond what diet and oral supplements alone provide. Since Hepatitis C is often accompanied by an autoimmune component and/or digestive disturbances, it is fair to assume that many people with HCV are not maximally absorbing nutrients orally.

   4. You may have intolerance taking nutritional supplements by mouth. Upon taking them they get “stuck” in your throat; they are regurgitated later; they give you heart burn; you get diarrhea, gas, bloating. Vitamin pills may appear in your stool proving their occasional non-absorbability.

   5. The quality and absorbability of oral supplements vary widely based on the manufacturing process, raw materials used, and formulations. Many tablets (not all) are compressed so hard during manufacturing that they cannot be broken down by our digestive tract. Some manufacturers apply extremely high pressure to tablets to extend shelf life. Capsules and liquid supplements tend to be better absorbed, however, just because a nutrient is chelated (a certain form of nutrient complexing) or in a liquid form, does not guarantee superior absorption.

 

   Dr. Lentine offers IV nutritional therapy for a variety of conditions including “well-patient” preventive therapy.