Trendy, celeb-loved IV drip treatments could be dangerous, deadly

Health

By Adriana Diaz

You need-le to hear this.

Intravenous, or IV drip treatments to boost wellness and cure hangovers — favored by celebs like Chrissy Teigen, Lorde and Miley Cyrus — have skyrocketed in popularity during the last decade.

But now, infectious disease experts and ER doctors are warning of an increase in severe infections and other injuries connected to the trendy treatments.

The restorative infusions release cocktails of vitamins, minerals, electrolytes and antioxidants such as selenium, vitamin C and B-complex directly into patients’ veins, which many claim provide an almost immediate boost.

When administered properly, the treatments “help flush out toxic metabolites and serve as a vehicle through which to deliver medications and antioxidants that alleviate symptoms associated with hangovers and help reduce damaging free radicals,” Dr. Johnny Parvani, REVIV founder & chief medical officer, told The Post.

In response to incredible demand, IV bars have opened around the country, IV companies make house calls, with some even setting up shop inside luxury apartment buildings.

But as accessibility to the treatments has increased, so has the number of patients reporting adverse reactions.

Dr. Richina Bicette-McCain, an emergency medicine physician at Baylor College of Medicine, reported that she’s treated a growing number of patients experiencing bad reactions after undergoing these kinds of treatments at med spas or hydration clinics.

In response to the increase in bad reactions, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning last month about unregulated fat-dissolving injections and improper injection techniques.

“One of the most common complications that we see is infection, usually at the site of the IV placement,” Bicette-McCain told NBC News.

Unfortunately, Bea Amma, 26, can speak from experience. The fitness influencer was infected with an aggressive bacterium called Mycobacterium abscessus in 2021 after spending $800 on IV infusions at a luxury spa in Los Angeles.

Amma paid to receive dozens of shots of vitamins B1 and C mixed with “fast dissolving” deoxycholic acid, injected in each arm, her back and stomach, which soon became covered with festering and painful skin lesions.

“I had all these welts on my skin,” Amma told Kennedy News. “They just started popping up in the places it had been injected … My entire body started eating itself alive.”

“My body had lost the fight. I remember just being in so much pain that I thought I was going to die that night. I couldn’t fight anymore.”

Doctors believe she contracted the infection as a result of the deoxycholic acid being injected improperly.

The bacterium is often connected to cosmetic procedures that involve injections if the equipment is not sterilized properly, said Dr. Claire Brown, an infectious disease expert at UCLA, told NBC News.

“Everything about my life has changed because of this,” Amma, who’s still recovering three years later, told NBC News. “Who knows if I’ll ever be cured?”

The owner of the spa where Amma went did not respond to NBC News’s request for comment and the Los Angeles County Public Health Department’s investigation into her case was “inconclusive.”

An unsafe experience at a med spa is also suspected to have forever changed the lives of Jenifer Cleveland’s family and friends.

The 47-year-old woman received an IV infusion at The Luxe Medspa in Wortham, Texas on July 10 when she said she was struggling to breathe and felt her chest tightening, according to attorneys for The Luxe Medspa.

She then passed out and was rushed to the hospital where she was reported dead, the Texas Medical Board reported. Doctors said she suffered a cardiac arrest.

Although the autopsy could not determine whether or not the IV therapy caused Cleveland’s death, the Texas Medical Board suspended the spa medical director’s license for a failure “to properly supervise an unlicensed individual performing intravenous treatments” that resulted in death.

Cleveland’s family is calling for increased regulations and oversight for med spas along with experts in the field.

Alex Thiersch, the chief executive of the American Med Spa Association, explained that there are currently no federal health regulations or national standard procedures for med spas, with each state left to set their own rules.

“There is a bit of an underbelly to this industry, where you’ve got folks who should not be doing the treatment that they’re doing,” Thiersch said to NBC News noting that some states “don’t have the resources or time” to guarantee each med spa is doing everything properly.

“This is a very safe industry,” Thiersch said. “But what’s missing is that baseline level of consistency across all states.”