As a young Manhattan internist Richard Ash, MD, was looking for a natural but effective way to deal with his inflammatory arthritis. “I wanted off of the steroids,” he says. That’s how he discovered the use of intravenous micronutrient therapy (IVMT), or vitamin drips, as a holistic way to strengthen the body’s defenses and help it recover from stress.
“In people with chronic illness, vitamin levels are depleted,” says Ash, who has been administering IV vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants to patients for three decades, while others have lately begun to catch on. “Getting those levels replenished via injection is an efficient way of speeding up repair mechanisms, stabilizing cortisol levels and strengthening the immune system.”
Though not a replacement for food—doctors who use IVMT suggest that patients who practice intermittent fasting schedule vitamin drips on “eating days”—vitamins injected directly into the bloodstream promote nutrient absorption by bypassing your digestive system. “They say you can get all the nutrients from the food you eat, but it’s not what you eat; it’s what you absorb and assimilate,” says Ash, who uses vitamin drips to treat migraines, chronic fatigue, infections, Lyme disease, allergies and depression, among other conditions, and to promote faster post-surgery healing.
“It’s how food should make you feel, but rarely does,” he explains.
The Ash Center
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