How to Blind People with Science over Vitamin Infusion Therapy

Roll up, roll up, ladies and gentlemen and gender unspecified people!
Do you have a gastric stomach, a cardiac heart, or a bone in your leg? Do you feel all anyhow, under the weather, suffer from brain fog, or galloping hypochondriasis? With your hectic lifestyle, are you no longer at the top of your game?

Then, to paraphrase the blandishments of Effect Doctors (see below) you might benefit from undergoing an Elite Well Person Comprehensive Enhanced Blood Profile! These individual bespoke tests, curated by experienced medical professionals, are designed to help you get to the root of your problems so you can take proactive action to optimise your health with intravenous vitamin therapy and intramuscular vitamin boosters. Scientific research has shown that these can help to strengthen your immune system and improve overall wellness and wellbeing!

Do You Feel TATT?
Medical writing and speech are riddled with standard and non-standard abbreviations. Examples of the former are CNS (Central Nervous System) and ED (Erectile Dysfunction). In the latter category, we have DNA (Did Not Arrive) which might be written in the notes of a patient who failed to attend for an appointment; NAD (No Abnormality Demonstrated), although when I was at medical school, one wag pointed out that in regard to a test it might mean Not Actually Done; and if you’ll pardon the expression, in reference to a treatment which didn’t work, NBG or No Bloody Good; and finally, we come to TATT, which is taken to mean Tired All The Time.

One doesn’t have to work very long in general practice before encountering patients who say, indeed, ‘Oh doctor, I feel tired all the time,’ and for concision in note writing this complaint may be recorded in the abbreviated form indicated above.

To sort this out requires sympathetic and judicious history-taking, and to do this effectively the doctor needs knowledge and experience. Such a symptom may be an indication of a medical disorder, for example, anaemia, an under-active thyroid gland, or diabetes. It may also be due to a psychological problem such as depression, or as the result of excessive alcohol intake, or the side effect of a prescribed medicine. Also, a physical examination would normally be carried out as part of the assessment which may reveal important information indicating that further tests are needed. On the other hand, taking the patient’s history and physical examination into account, a skilled doctor may decide that the patient only needs reassurance.

However, in these days of the cash-strapped NHS and doctors going on strike, it’s not surprising if patients, particularly the well heeled, turn to one of the increasing number of private clinics offering ‘tests’.

For example, the upper case-challenged organisation styling itself ‘medichecks’, for £79 offers a do-it-yourself ‘Tiredness and Fatigue (what’s the difference?) Blood Test’ to check for ‘low levels of vitamin D, iron deficiency, and a thyroid condition.’ This could be useful as far as it goes, but what are you supposed to do if all the results come back as normal and you’re still TATT?

On the other hand, Effect Doctors, for a mere £350, offer their ‘Tiredness and Fatigue (what’s the difference?) Profile’ which ‘includes a full range of blood test biomarkers,’ as follows: ‘Full Blood Count, Kidney Health, Nutritional Health, Thyroid Health, Bone Health, Infection & Inflammation, Iron Status, Diabetes Health’. Is there anything they’ve left out?

Again, what if you undergo the complete Profile, all the results are reported as normal, and you’re still tired, or if you’re not tired, you’re still fatigued? Then you might fall for Effect Doctors’ sales pitch for intravenous (IV) vitamin therapy and other injections which are claimed, without evidence, ‘can help with tiredness or fatigue.’ These include the following (paraphrased with emphasis added):

  • A mix of vitamins and minerals, including magnesium, calcium, vitamin C, and B vitamins, which can help to boost energy levels and reduce fatigue
  • An IV infusion of glutathione can help to reduce oxidative stress, which may contribute to fatigue
  • A vitamin B12 IV drip can help to increase energy levels and combat fatigue

Note how they cover their backs over these claims that the treatments only ‘can help’. But if you’ve gone the trouble of submitting to having a needle stuck in your arm to draw blood and have spent a not inconsiderable amount of money on this and subsequent ‘treatment’, you’ll likely feel much better! It’s called the placebo effect.

What about the evidence?
If one approaches the purveyors of vitamin infusions and asks them to provide evidence for their claimed benefits, if they deign to reply at all, it will probably be of the following kind:

  • A list of references to articles in scholarly journals and textbooks setting out how vitamins are essential for normal metabolism and health, but this doesn’t mean that if you have more that the minimum required it will do you any extra good.
  • Claims that vitamins given in unphysiological doses by the intravenous route, because this bypasses the stomach and intestines and passage through the liver, have superior beneficial effects compared with taking them by mouth. How is flooding the body with abnormally large doses of these substances better than absorbing them from food, as humans have been evolved to do over millions of years?
  • Endorsements from celebrities, which seems to mean people famous for being famous, of the wonderful benefits they’ve experienced from vitamin IV therapy and related treatments. What do they know about these matters?
  • References to opinion pieces, animal experiments of unknown relevance to humans, and preliminary studies in humans indicating possible benefit but which require further study before reliable conclusions can be drawn.

In other words, such ‘evidence’ proves nothing and appears to be merely an attempt to blind people with science in order to lighten their wallets.

Text © Gabriel Symonds

Picture credit: Jane Trang Doan on Pexels

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