Intravenous vs Oral Delivery
Many people ask what the benefit of Intravenous administration of nutrients when compared to oral administration – it all boils down to absorption. Intravenous administration of nutrients bypasses the digestive system and metabolism by the liver which is called “the first pass effect”.
The first pass effect is a result of substances that must first be absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract, travel to the liver to be metabolized, and then reach circulation to make it to the targeted tissue. Many substances are metabolized quite heavily with minimal amounts actually reaching their target. Some supplements will not even make it to the first pass effect because they are not efficiently broken down and absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract and end up in the stool. Furthermore, intravenous therapy creates "tissue saturation", which is the ability to get the nutrients directly where we want them, in the circulation, where they reach body tissues at high doses, without loss.
If you look at the administration of oral versus IV therapies in the hospital setting you will better understand what we have achieved with nutritional supplementation in a non-hospital setting. When patients are faced with aggressive infections they are admitted for IV antibiotics and taken off of oral medications based on the absorption and tissue saturation. The same is said for other medications in situations that demand critical approaches. Intravenous Therapies offer the quickest option for nutrient repletion. When deficient in vitamins or minerals, it can take as much as 6 months to replete these stores when using oral delivery methods where as IV can correct deficiencies in 1 month.
These are some examples of the waste that can be anticipated with oral supplementation.
- Approximately 90% of the glutamine consumed in the human diet is used by the cells that line the intestinal tract as a source of energy and only 10% reaches the circulation.
- Did you know that only roughly 30 to 40% of the magnesium taken orally is absorbed
- Highest serum dose achieved after oral administration of vitamin C is 9.2 mg/dL. IV administration of 50 g/day of vitamin C resulted in a mean peak plasma level of 80 mg/dL.
Pharmacological Effects of Nutrients
- Various nutrients may exert pharmacological effects only in concentrations achieved through IV administration
- IV administration of nutrients achieves serum concentrations much higher than those achieved by oral administration
- Antiviral effect of Vitamin C demonstrated at a concentration of greater than 15 mg/dL is only l achieved through IV therapy.
