The Myers Cocktail IV Drip – What’s the Big Deal?
Dr Harpal Bains
MBBS DFSRH PGCAestMed (Dist)
February 4, 2022
Dr Harpal Bains
MBBS DFSRH PGCAestMed (Dist)
February 4, 2022
Myers Cocktail is named after the Baltimore doctor that invented it, Dr John Myers. It comprises of a cocktail of vitamins and minerals given intravenously. Historically, it was given to help treat various ailments. Today, it has an interesting reputation as the latest celebrity ‘trend’ with everyone from Simon Cowell, Rita Ora and Rihanna to Madonna, Cindy Crawford and even Cara Delevingne. The focus on it being a celebrity trend has done a few things:
The classic Myers is just the right mix of vitamins and minerals for overall wellness and maintenance. It comprises of a cocktail consisting of a variety of B and C vitamins, minerals like magnesium and occasionally trace minerals too.
So the million dollar question is…
My take is this. Assuming that the plate of food we eat today has the same nutrient content of the same plate of food, say 50-80 years ago, I’d say we probably don’t need it. In today’s term, someone who lives in the countryside (less pollutants, hence less oxidative damage to the body) and grows their own food or mostly eats organically (no chemicals or pesticides we hope), probably is fine and is able to extract nutrients from food efficiently. The nutrient that they are able to get is probably plentiful as well as balanced.
Fast forward to the rest of us living in the city, commuting for a living (stress+pollutants), eating quickly and cost-effectively (stress+low nutrient foods), having little downtime but a lot of work time (stress+++), little play and family time (stress++), travelling a lot (stress+pollutants), living the high life (nutrient depletion+stress) amongst any other variables you can think of.
There is a reason celebrities do it. They need to not fall sick and to be able to keep up with the demands of their gruelling schedule. They also happen to have access to people who are able to find shortcuts for them and they have the money to access these shortcuts. We don’t think twice or judge them for using fashion stylists as a shortcut to getting great style. IV drips are a shortcut of sorts for someone who is generally well. So does that make it wrong? For some yes, for others (myself included), not at all- life’s too short to be ill!
You might have noticed that I talk about stress a lot. We all suffer so much from it that it’s become part of our lives. But have you wondered biochemically what stress actually does in our bodies?
We are fight or flight kind of creatures. We thrive on it. But in this day and age, stress is constant and unrelenting. We have a continuous flow of stress hormones being released in our bodies. These hormones have to be made. The main building block for making hormones is cholesterol. With the whole low fat fad, the body is attacked yet again. We now have not as much building material. Cholesterol is then used to start the building work. Different types of workmen are required to do different things eg roofer, plumber, electrician. They can’t do each other’s jobs. They are the enablers- enabling different things to happen. Vitamins and minerals are the enablers in your body. Without them, a lot of chemical reactions cannot take place. We become depleted. Tired. Needing more and more sleep. Putting on more weight in the classical ‘stress’ fashion of fat face and belly with skinny limbs- then going to the gym for a high intensity workout that’s a stressor to the body- to try to lose that weight. And the cycle continues.
This is a very simplistic picture of what happens in our bodies but perhaps you get the idea. In a future blog on this subject, I will go into some research papers and medical uses of Myers.
In the meantime, have a think about the stressors in your life and how it’s affecting you. There’s so much that can be done and knowledge is king.
