IV hydration spas are everywhere. I first encountered one in Las Vegas, which seemed fitting for the city—and the circumstances patrons may have endured the night prior. However, what once felt like a novelty now appears embedded in the wellness landscape. A recent JAMA article titled “IV hydration spas are gaining popularity, but are they safe?”[1] crystallized a growing concern: IV treatments have quietly migrated from medical settings to nearly every street corner, marketed as routine self-care. For a few hundred dollars, IV therapies claim to rehydrate, boost immunity, improve nutrient absorption, enhance energy, flush toxins, and speed athletic recovery. Boutique spas offering vitamin IV infusions appear to have emerged around 2008,[2] gaining momentum in 2012 when celebrity endorsements—most notably a photo of Rihanna receiving a so-called “party-girl drip”—helped make the trend mainstream.[3] Today, IV drips are marketed as offering customized, high-dose vitamin therapy tailored to “individual needs.”

Are IV hydration spas safe? Who is ensuring they are?

These businesses appear to operate in a grey zone, under a patchwork of regulatory bodies. For example, medical health professionals such as physicians, nurses, and naturopaths have provincial colleges with standards of care. Drugs and IV products must be authorized by Health Canada. Yet many medical spas function in practice like compounding pharmacies, often without the oversight, quality controls, or reporting requirements expected in traditional health care settings. This raises legitimate concerns about dosing errors, vitamin toxicity, medication interactions, and contamination.[4]

A similar regulatory ambiguity exists in the United States. While commercially manufactured IV fluids are regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), hydration spas frequently use compounded versions of approved products, allowing them to operate outside of standard FDA oversight by classifying themselves as independent compounding entities.[1]

Common additives to “hydration therapy” include magnesium, glutathione, nicotinamide, adenine dinucleotide, and high-dose vitamins, as well as active pharmaceuticals like ketorolac, ondansetron, and, increasingly, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists.[1]

Is there a proven benefit?

Even if IV hydration spas could be shown to operate safely, a fundamental question remains: Is there a proven benefit? The promise of IV hydration spas is rooted in the perceived health benefits of vitamin supplementation, long promoted as a pathway to enhanced wellness and longevity. In Canada, about 40% of adults report using multivitamins.[5] However, high-quality evidence increasingly challenges the assumption that more vitamins translates to better health.

Research published in JAMA in 2024 found that vitamins do not help people live longer.[6] The study followed 390 124 generally healthy adults for up to 27 years, examining multivitamin use and mortality outcomes.[6] The investigators carefully adjusted for potential confounders, including physical activity, alcohol intake, and diet quality, to mitigate the healthy-user effect. Vitamin use was more common among college-educated women with a lower body mass index and healthier diet. Over the follow-up period, approximately 42% of participants died, most commonly from cancer, cardiovascular disease, or cerebrovascular disease.

The findings were striking. Daily multivitamin use was not associated with reduced mortality. In fact, regular use was associated with a 4% higher mortality risk. The accompanying commentary appropriately emphasized nuance.[7] The authors cautioned that these data did not capture benefits unrelated to longevity—for example, beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, and zinc for age-related macular degeneration; multivitamins for slowing cognitive decline or post–bariatric surgery supplementation; or supplementation to prevent frank deficiencies like scurvy (vitamin C) and beriberi (thiamine). Yet beyond some clearly defined indications, the authors concluded that there is little health rationale for the use of multivitamin supplements in otherwise healthy individuals. As they noted, micronutrients are most healthfully obtained from food.[7]

Against this backdrop, IV hydration spas seem difficult to justify as a meaningful health intervention. They offer costly, invasive treatments with unproven benefits, variable oversight, and potential for harm, wrapped in the language of wellness.

What do you think? Are IV hydration spas the latest tool in our collective quest for vitality and longevity? Or are they simply a more expensive way to produce urine?
—Caitlin Dunne, MD, FRCSC

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References

1.    Schweitzer K. IV hydration spas are gaining popularity, but are they safe? JAMA 2025;334:1609-1610. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2025.18832.

2.    Rutledge S. The history of IV therapy. Fresh Treatments. Accessed 28 January 2026. https://freshtreatments.com.au/the-history-of-iv-therapy/.

3.    ABC News. Vitamin drip infusions gain favor in Hollywood. 4 June 2012. Accessed 28 January 2026. https://abcnews.go.com/US/vitamin-drip-infusions-gain-favor-hollywood/story?id=16496052.

4.    Pelley L. Can IV cocktails cure hangovers or boost immunity? CBC News. Updated 2 November 2025. Accessed 28 January 2026. www.cbc.ca/news/health/iv-drip-therapy-regulations-9.6955383.

5.    Guo X, Willows N, Kuhle S, et al. Use of vitamin and mineral supplements among Canadian adults. Can J Public Health 2009;100:357-360. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03405270.

6.    Loftfield E, O’Connell CP, Abnet CC, et al. Multivitamin use and mortality risk in 3 prospective US cohorts. JAMA Netw Open 2024;7:e2418729. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.18729.

7.    Barnard ND, Kahleova H, Becker R. The limited value of multivitamin supplements. JAMA Netw Open 2024;7:e2418965. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.18965.