Adding Nutritional Services to Your Clinic

Dr Arun Ghosh utilises IVNT and vitamin injections

I have been offering intramuscular (IM) vitamin injections in my practice for at least 10 years and intravenous nutrient therapy (IVNT) for more than five. It’s always been part of our medical approach to look at people’s vitamins and mineral levels, but this nutritional therapy has really evolved into its own area of our practice. IM injections, or vitamin shots, such as vitamin B12 or vitamin D, are high-concentration vitamins and offer a slow release into the blood. IVNT usually involves several different types of vitamins, minerals or amino acids at larger doses which are infused directly into the blood, so is a faster way to deliver the nutrients at a better absorption rate.

We should be eating a balanced diet and getting all the vitamins and minerals we need from it, but the reality is that many of us are nutritionally poor. While I do always advise my patients to follow a healthy diet, I have found IVNT is helpful for our aesthetic patients. This is because these people are really aware of when their skin is behaving poorly due to things like alcohol, stress, or changes in diet from perhaps exploring vegetarianism or veganism. Also, from a medical point of view, we are seeing more patients come in after gastric surgery and are deficient in certain nutrients, which is when IVNT can help.

We often combine nutritional therapy with aesthetic procedures to help enhance the results. For example, we will use IVNT with platelet-rich plasma treatments to boost the blood’s nutrients. When we take the blood and put it back into the skin the added nutrients can really further enhance the overall skin tone. I have found that IVNT following treatments like chemical peels can also help with recovery time, as the skin is better hydrated, which can further better the results. In surgical patients, a multivitamin drip can be performed as soon as straight after discharge and may help with recovery from things like grogginess and tiredness from anaesthetic and post-surgical recovery.

My advice to those looking at integrating nutritional therapy into their practice is to start small. Begin with IM injections first, perhaps B12 and vitamin D, and then grow with increased demand. Seek training from a respected company that can provide you with ongoing support and buy your vitamins through a reputable pharmacy – you need to use really good pharmaceutical-grade products.

Know what the treatment involves – there is more regulation in this area than people think. It’s good practice to be associated with bodies such as the Association of Intravenous Micro-nutrition and Supplementation (AIMs). This is so that practice in IVNT is standardised and practitioners get support in the event of any issues, share information, and keep abreast with regular updates and training. Ideally, I personally believe you should be CQC registered, although it’s not compulsory if you are using IVNT for ‘general wellness’ and just sticking to vitamins, minerals and amino acids. This becomes compulsory if you are using intravenous nutritional drug therapy. In regard to marketing, be careful not to make false claims.1-3 These are wellness drips to improve patients’ wellbeing and enhance aesthetic results, which won’t have medical outcomes – you don’t want to oversell it! One useful approach for IVNT treatments is to do vitamin drip days, where people can come in and sit together and have tailored drips. Of course, we have stopped this due to COVID-19, but it really capitalises your time and space while making it more of a social experience for patients, so I think it will be useful for many clinics once things return back to normal.

There are a few interesting developments on the horizon such as the use of peptides or hormones and vitamins all together in shots, which, in my opinion, will be the next big thing. People are also looking at transdermal applications for those who don’t like needles. This is very much an evolving area in aesthetics so watch this space!