IV Therapy or Oral Supplementation Therapy?

IV Therapy (Intravenous Therapy), is a medical technique that administers fluids, medications, and nutrients directly into a person’s vein. It is a form of therapy that does not include any oral implementations and bypasses the gut to deliver therapy directly to the body. Interestingly enough, although both forms of medication serve the same objective, to heal, IV therapy and oral supplements have quite a difference.  First of all, the most obvious difference is the way nutrients are delivered to the body. Oral medication and supplements are consumed in the form of liquids, tablets, and even capsules. IV therapy, though, consists of injections into the veins which enable the nutrients to go straight to our bloodstream. Using IV therapy creates a sense of ensuring that the nutrients are absorbed by the body appropriately, IV solutions ensure an almost 100% absorption rate while oral supplements have an absorption rate from 10% to 50% [1-2]. When it comes to choosing the form of therapy you’d like, it is important to understand that IV therapy and oral supplements have a lot of important differences. 

While some oral supplements can be absorbed by the body, certain oral supplements can completely pass through the body absorbing any nutrients, and some vitamins can disrupt the absorption process when taken together [3]. However, this is not something to be wary of when using IV therapy because this approach ensures that our bodies can absorb cent percent of the nutrients delivered to the body through an IV, no matter how big or small the dosage may be [4]. Also, when compared to IV therapy, the potential side effects of oral supplements are quite obvious. For example, since certain capsules are available in many different shapes and sizes, this increases the chances of irritating different parts of the digestive tract. Also, some oral supplements can end up upsetting our stomach entirely, specific vitamins can mess with acid reflux diseases, and there is a potential risk to the stomach lining [5].  

In direct contrast, IV therapy does not have the risk to aggravate their digestive system – instead, they get the needed nutrients with far more efficiency [6]. A large reason why physicians have increasingly recommended IV therapy to their patients is that the treatment “administers nutrients in an effective and timely manner; this is because the vitamins are absorbed immediately in the circulation system” [7]. Additionally, if a patient has swallowing problems, gastrointestinal dysfunction, or any other genuine barriers that would prevent them from meeting their normal needs through oral or enteral routes, then a physician usually switches from oral supplements to IV therapy [8]. Lastly, during surgery, having an IV in place allows providers to deliver emergency drugs quickly, safely, and efficiently when they need to [9]. 

This article is an accumulation of studies that support such a sentiment and none of the research was done without the references cited below.  

References: 

1. “IV Therapy Vs Oral Supplements: Which One Is Better? – Urgent Care Of Texas.” Urgent Care Texas, 2 December 2021, https://www.urgentcaretexas.com/iv-therapy-vs-oral-supplements/. Accessed 21 April 2022.
2. Hinkel, Phillip. “IV Therapy vs Oral Supplements.” Mobile IV Nurses, 25 January 2022, https://mobileivnurses.com/blog/iv-therapy-vs-oral-supplements/. Accessed 21 April 2022.
3. “Mixing Medications and Dietary Supplements Can Endanger Your Health.” US Food and Drug Administration, 27 October 2014, https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/mixing-medications-and-dietary-supplements-can-endanger-your-health. Accessed 21 April 2022.
4. “Oral or intravenous antibiotics? – PMC.” NCBI, 1 April 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7186270/. Accessed 21 April 2022.
5. Link, Rachael, and Aya Brackett. “6 Vitamins and Supplements for Acid Reflux.” Healthline, 10 February 2021, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamins-for-acid-reflux. Accessed 21 April 2022.
6. “Conditions Limiting the Use of IV Contrast – Department of Radiology – UW–Madison.” Department of Radiology, https://radiology.wisc.edu/documents/conditions-limiting-the-use-of-iv-contrast/. Accessed 21 April 2022.
7. “8.2 Intravenous Fluid Therapy – Clinical Procedures for Safer Patient Care.” BC Open Textbooks, https://opentextbc.ca/clinicalskills/chapter/intravenous-therapy-peripheral-and-central-venous-catheters/. Accessed 21 April 2022.
8. “Switch over from intravenous to oral therapy: A concise overview.” NCBI, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4008927/. Accessed 21 April 2022.
9. “Medical Error Reduction and Prevention.” PubMed, 4 January 2022, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29763131/. Accessed 21 April 2022.