A needle and a process for what ails you
INDIALANTIC – At the new Radiantly Healthy Vitamin Infusion Drip Lounge in Indialantic a couple months ago, Mark Petrillo was looking for help with a nagging cold.
His wife, Lisa, had read about IV vitamin infusions. After learning that Radiantly Healthy had opened in Indialantic, she convinced him to check it out and see if it might make him feel better.
Petrillo, a skeptic when it comes to trendy medical procedures, wasn’t sure what to expect when he received what’s called the “Myers’ cocktail,” the name for an intravenous nutrient mixture named for its inventor, Dr. John Myers of Baltimore. The concoction typically contains magnesium, calcium, various B vitamins and vitamin C that is claimed to be beneficial for a broad range of conditions.
Initially, Petrillo didn’t feel much different, but several hours later he experienced a rush of energy.
“It was wonderful to feel human again — better than human actually,” Petrillo said. “I honestly felt great.”
Welcome to the growing world of intravenous vitamin infusion, a painless process of getting vitamins more directly and quickly into your body vs., say, taking a capsule and a glass of water and absorbing the nutrients through your digestive system. Most people think of IVs as a way to get medicine and foods in a hospital setting.
Every so often you also hear of athletes getting dehydrated during a big game and heading to the locker room for IV fluids.
A photographer’s take on a vitamin IV
Radiantly Healthy Vitamin Infusion Drip Lounge celebrated its grand opening last month at 150 5th Ave. by owners Lorin Carpenter and Dr. Rebecca Hunton. Carpenter has worked in the beauty, plastic surgery and integrative medical fields for 17 years. In 2010 she opened her own consulting firm, Centricity Consulting, and made the transition to business consultant.
Hunton is a member of the Institute of Functional Medicine and an Advanced Fellow with the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. Hunton has been offering IV therapy to her patients for more than a decade with what she calls “remarkable results.”
Hunton formulates all the proprietary mixtures used by RH-VI Drip Lounge focusing on “potency, efficacy and safety.”
“We thought the timing was right to bring this concept to Brevard. People are searching for ways to be proactive and better their health,” Carpenter said. “We knew our current patients would be receptive, but we have been taken aback by the overwhelming positive response that we have received in the past two months from the community at large.”
At Radiantly Healthy the infusion drips deliver vitamins, minerals and amino acids directly to the bloodstream for maximum absorption in what Carpenter and Hunton call an “upscale, tranquil environment.”
They also said the IV therapy can be used for prevention of illness, optimal health and athletic performance, or as part of a treatment protocol for disease.
Cost of the Myers’ cocktail is $135. The price for injections and other procedures start at $65.
“I think the cost is worth it,” said Lisa Petrillo, who has had three proecudres. “Especially if you are feeling like you might be coming down with a cold, you are trying to recover from a cold, or you have digestive issues, such as leaky gut, that inhibits your body from absorbing orally taken vitamins/nutrients.
“Because the IV goes straight into your blood stream, your body absorbs the nutrients easier/more efficiently than from supplements.”
Like any new treatment, IV treatments have their detractors — mainly that it’s a process that bypasses the digestive track and modifies what the body does quite naturally and has been doing so since mankind walked upright and hunted and gathered food.
Even Mark Petrillo, who gives the procedure positive reviews, would like to see more studies on the science behind it.
“Elevate,” a Canadian-based health magazine, recently explored the growing trend of IV therapy and said: “IV drip therapy is like super-charging your system and delivering a shock of healthy vitamins and nutrients for healing.”
In that Jan. 23 article Chris Chapeau, owner of Reviv, a Toronto-based IV therapy business in Toronto, is quoted as saying, “There’s a very good reason why hospitals will almost always hook you up to an IV: It’s the fastest, most effective way possible to deliver nutrients.”
Contact Price at 321-242-3658 or wprice@floridatoday.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @Fla2dayBiz.
Radiantly Healthy Vitamin Infusion Drip Lounge (RHVI Drip Lounge)
Address: 150 5th Ave., Indialantic
Owners: Lorin Carpenter and Dr. Rebecca Hunton
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays
Contact: (321) 243-1859; info@rh-md.com
On the Web: www.rh-md.com/vitamin-therapy