NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly talks with Erika Edwards, health reporter for NBC News, about the risks that unregulated intravenous treatments at med spas are posing to patients.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Maybe you had a little too much fun on New Year’s Eve. Or maybe you’ve got health goals for this new year. Either way, so-called med spas offer products they say can help, especially IV drips for hydration boosted with vitamins, even injections they claim will help burn fat. Well, evidence that IV therapy is helpful for healthy people is anecdotal at best, and there are no federal regulations for med spas. So as the industry has grown, so too have warnings about the risks. Health reporter Erika Edwards has been investigating this for NBC News. She’s with me now. Hi there.
ERIKA EDWARDS: Hi.
KELLY: I want to understand what kind of clinics we’re talking about here. You report this is a $15 billion industry, so it sounds like they’re everywhere, very easy to find.
EDWARDS: Yeah, these med spas, or sometimes they’re called IV hydration clinics, just as you said, you know, they offer vitamin shots to boost your energy, IVs to replenish fluids, improve the appearance of skin. Sometimes there are those brick-and-mortar med spas you can visit, but sometimes they advertise their services on social media. And some are actually mobile med spas. That is, they come to you. They go to the client’s home or business.
KELLY: And I – the whole name is throwing me, I guess, because you hear med spa and you think – medical, this is legit. Like, this person giving me an IV must have the right authority and training. Is that part of the appeal for people?
EDWARDS: Yeah, I think so. And to be fair, I mean, many med spas are operating safely with properly trained, licensed workers and are following basic sanitation and safety guidelines. But the industry has grown so fast that oversight is really lacking. There are no federal standards for med…
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