Oral vitamins are limited by the gastrointestinal barrier, absorption variability and the liver's first-pass metabolism. Intravenous delivery bypasses all of this, achieving plasma concentrations that oral supplementation cannot produce, in minutes rather than hours.
Why intravenous beats oral
The bioavailability advantage of IV over oral delivery is not marginal, it is fundamental. Oral vitamin C at high doses achieves plasma concentrations limited by intestinal saturation and renal clearance; the ceiling is approximately 220 µmol/L regardless of dose. Intravenous vitamin C achieves plasma concentrations of 15,000+ µmol/L, concentrations at which specific anti-cancer, anti-viral and antioxidant effects become active that simply cannot be achieved via oral administration.
This is not a special case for vitamin C. The same principle applies across the spectrum of IV-delivered nutrients: the therapeutic dose achieves therapeutic plasma concentrations immediately, without the unpredictability of individual GI absorption, without the degradation that occurs in the digestive process, and without the gastrointestinal side effects that limit oral high-dose supplementation.
The Myers Cocktail: the original IV wellness protocol
The Myers Cocktail was developed by Baltimore physician John Myers in the 1970s and remains the most widely used IV formulation globally. It combines B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12), high-dose vitamin C, magnesium and calcium in a balanced saline solution. The protocol was validated for clinical use by Dr Alan Gaby, whose 1984 paper in the Journal of Nutritional Medicine documented its efficacy for fibromyalgia, fatigue, migraine, upper respiratory infections and asthma.
The Myers Cocktail addresses the consequences of modern lifestyle, nutritional depletion from inadequate dietary variety, chronic stress (which depletes B vitamins and magnesium), alcohol consumption (which depletes B12 and folate), and the general nutritional deficits that accumulate through illness, pregnancy or periods of high physiological demand.
Specialised protocols
Immunity drip: High-dose vitamin C (25–50g), zinc, selenium and B vitamins, concentrations that produce direct antiviral effects, stimulate natural killer cell activity and support adaptive immune function. Used for acute illness prevention and recovery, particularly in clients with chronically compromised immune function.
Radiance (glutathione) drip: Glutathione is the body's master antioxidant, ubiquitous in every cell, critical for liver detoxification, and increasingly recognised for its skin-brightening properties. Oral glutathione is poorly absorbed (largely broken down in the GI tract before absorption); IV glutathione achieves therapeutic intracellular concentrations and produces the systemic antioxidant effect that oral supplementation attempts but rarely achieves.
Energy and performance drip: L-carnitine (essential for mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation and ATP production), CoQ10 (mitochondrial enzyme critical for the electron transport chain), B-complex and amino acids, formulated for athletic recovery, burnout and the restoration of mitochondrial energy output capacity.
NAD+: cellular energy, DNA repair and longevity
Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD+) is a co-enzyme present in every cell in the body, essential for the electron transport chain (cellular energy production), DNA repair mechanisms, and the activation of sirtuins, the proteins most associated with longevity, stress resistance and healthy cellular ageing. NAD+ declines by approximately 50% between the ages of 40 and 60, contributing to the reduced cellular energy, poorer DNA repair capacity and sirtuin inactivation associated with ageing.
IV NAD+ infusion delivers the co-enzyme directly to the bloodstream, bypassing the metabolic conversion steps required by oral precursors (NMN, NR) and achieving immediate cellular restoration. The clinical applications of NAD+ infusion are expanding rapidly: from addiction medicine (where high-dose NAD+ was first used clinically for detoxification from alcohol and opioids) to neurodegenerative disease research, sports performance and anti-ageing medicine.
Clients receiving NAD+ infusions consistently describe improvements in cognitive clarity, energy levels, mood and recovery capacity in the days following treatment. The infusion must be administered slowly (2–4 hours for a 500mg dose) to avoid flushing, nausea and chest tightness, but these side effects are dose-rate dependent and resolve immediately on slowing the infusion.
The blood testing advantage: IV protocols are most precisely targeted when preceded by comprehensive blood testing. Identifying specific deficiencies, low vitamin D, low B12, elevated homocysteine, depleted magnesium, allows the infusion formulation to address your actual biochemical status rather than a generic protocol. Blood testing is available at Aesthetics Medispa.
Treatments that work. Results you can see.
Every treatment at Aesthetics Medispa begins with a consultation, understanding your skin, your health and your goals.