IV Drip Verdicts 2026: Hangover, Myers, Glutathione, NAD+

Somewhere on Reddit right now, someone is typing the question this page exists to answer: is this stuff bullshit? It is the most common question people ask about IV therapy, and the least likely to get a straight answer, because nearly everyone publishing about specific drips is selling them.

So here are the verdicts, drip by drip, sourced to neutral institutions rather than clinic menus. The honest headline is that the answer differs by drip and by person, which is exactly what the marketing and the blanket dismissals both miss. This is general information, not medical advice, and before any first infusion you should be screened by a clinician, especially if anything in our guide to who should not get IV therapy applies to you.

A note on prices: the ranges below reflect published Canadian clinic menus of the kind we track in our price index, and they vary by city and clinic.

Simple hydration

What it is. A bag of saline or lactated Ringer's, sometimes with electrolytes. The plainest thing on any menu, typically 100 to 200 dollars.

Verdict: it does what it says, and you rarely need it. Fluids delivered to a vein rehydrate you, full stop. The catch, as the University of Rochester Medical Center puts it, is that for most people ordinary drinking works as well: water, electrolyte beverages, broth. The genuine use case is someone who cannot keep fluids down, which is a medical situation. If you can drink, the main thing an IV adds is speed and a chair.

Hangover drips

What it is. Fluids plus B vitamins, sometimes anti-nausea or anti-inflammatory medication, usually 150 to 300 dollars.

Verdict: helps the dehydration part, not the hangover itself. Rochester's assessment is representative of the neutral literature: rehydration is real, but a drip does not remove the toxic byproducts of alcohol metabolism that cause most of the misery. Their expert's answer to whether hangover IVs work was, verbatim, maybe. The anti-nausea medication, where included, is doing real work, and it is also a prescription drug, which is a good moment to ask who prescribed it for you. For a deeper look, we cover this in our hangover verdict piece.

The Myers' cocktail

What it is. The original wellness drip: magnesium, calcium, B vitamins and vitamin C, typically 150 to 250 dollars. There is no standard recipe, which is itself worth knowing.

Verdict: unproven for any condition, per Poison Control. The US National Capital Poison Center's review is blunt: the Myers' cocktail has not been proven to effectively treat any medical condition. The trial evidence is mixed and small, with one study finding no difference from placebo. They also note real, if usually minor, adverse effects, and that the ingredients can interact with prescription medications. If a clinic presents Myers' as established therapy for fatigue, fibromyalgia or anything else, that is ahead of the evidence.

Immune drips and high-dose vitamin C

What it is. Vitamin C at gram doses with zinc and B vitamins, marketed for immunity, usually 150 to 300 dollars.

Verdict: your immune system does not work like a fuel tank. For a well-nourished person, extra vitamin C above what the body can use is excreted rather than banked, a point covered in detail in our IV versus oral guide with the NIH figures. Canada's health technology agency found the evidence base for wellness infusions thin overall. One specific caution is well documented: at high doses, vitamin C has caused hemolysis in people with G6PD deficiency, most of whom did not know they had it. Asking a clinic what they do about G6PD before a high-dose vitamin C drip is a fair question, and their answer tells you something about the clinic.

Glutathione, including the skin-brightening pitch

What it is. An antioxidant given as a push or add-on, 80 to 200 dollars, marketed in two ways: as a general antioxidant boost, and specifically for skin brightening or whitening.

Verdict: the antioxidant pitch is unproven; the skin pitch has a regulatory record. On skin lightening, the US FDA has warned directly that no injectable drug is approved for skin whitening anywhere in its jurisdiction, and that such products are unapproved drugs with potential for real harm. Closer to home, the product itself has been the failure point: in 2020 Fraser Health alerted the public to endotoxic reactions after glutathione injections in BC naturopath offices, and in 2021 Health Canada ordered a recall of contaminated, unauthorized injectables that had been supplied to clinics in three provinces. If you are considering glutathione anyway, the question that matters most is where the vial comes from.

NAD+

What it is. The most expensive thing on most menus, 250 to 1,000 dollars or more, in multi-hour sessions.

Verdict: the most oversold drip in the category. The longevity claims run far ahead of human evidence, the sessions are long and frequently uncomfortable, and community accounts of bad experiences cluster around NAD+ more than any other drip. Meanwhile oral alternatives cost a small fraction as much. We keep a full, separate guide with the dosing tiers, the evidence picture and Canadian pricing: NAD+ IV therapy in Canada.

The pattern across all of them

Three things repeat, and they are worth more than any single verdict.

First, the fluid is usually the honest part. Much of what people feel after a drip is a litre of fluids and an hour of rest, both real, neither requiring the vitamins.

Second, the evidence gap is widest exactly where the price is highest. Hydration, the cheapest item, is the best supported. NAD+, the most expensive, is the least.

Third, none of the verdicts above matter if the basics are wrong. A well-evidenced drip from an unverifiable provider is a worse bet than a mediocre one from a clinic that answers questions plainly. That is why we verify who prescribes and administers at clinics on this platform, and why every drip decision should start with whether anything on the do-not-drip list applies to you.

Frequently asked questions

Do IV vitamin drips actually work?

It depends what you mean by work. The fluids reliably rehydrate you. Beyond that, neutral reviews have not found convincing evidence that wellness infusions deliver their marketed benefits for well-nourished people: Poison Control says the Myers' cocktail is unproven for any condition, and Canada's health technology agency found the category's evidence base thin. Where infusions clearly work is when a diagnosis calls for them, such as iron deficiency or B12 deficiency.

Which IV drip is most worth it?

By evidence per dollar, plain hydration for someone who genuinely cannot rehydrate by drinking, and medically indicated infusions like iron for diagnosed deficiency. By the same measure, NAD+ is the hardest to justify: the highest price on the menu attached to the least established benefit.

Are hangover IVs worth the money?

They treat the dehydration component quickly, which is real but achievable by drinking fluids for most people. They do not remove the alcohol byproducts that cause most hangover symptoms. Whether a faster fix to one component is worth 150 to 300 dollars is a personal call, made more honestly with that framing than with the word cure.

Is glutathione IV safe for skin whitening?

No injectable drug is approved for skin whitening by the US FDA, which has warned that these are unapproved products with potential for serious harm, and Canada has had documented contamination incidents involving injectable glutathione supplied to clinics. Anyone considering it should at minimum ask where the product is compounded and check the provider on a public register.

Why do I feel great right after a drip if the evidence is weak?

A litre of fluids, an hour of rest, and the expectation of feeling better are each individually capable of making you feel better, and a drip delivers all three at once. The feeling is real. The open question in the research is whether the vitamins are what caused it.

General information only, not medical advice. Verdicts summarize the linked neutral sources, and evidence can change. Price ranges reflect published Canadian clinic menus and vary. Whether any infusion makes sense for you is a decision for you and a qualified clinician who knows your history. Last reviewed August 2026.