A friend once joked that people will do anything to be healthy except eat right and exercise, and ain’t that the truth? Quick fixes in attempts to try to “hurry health” have become routine—according to a Gallup Survey, half of Americans take vitamins capsules daily. And now there’s even a faster and more effective option—that
Just last week, another friend SnapChat’ted his vitamin IV therapy session as he geared up for last weekend’s Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. Then, I read a piece in W Magazine about The Standard Hotel in New York City unveiling an IV drip spa. And recently, I got word about a vitamin IV therapy chain right here in Orange County. Are the days of popping a Centrum tablet in the morning beginning to see an end?
The Hydration Room is Orange County’s first spa-clinic specializing in IV and injection therapies that combat hangovers, jet lag, moodiness, the flu, the common cold, migraines, and sluggishness. According to Dr. Brett Florie (co-founder of The Hydration Room and a board certified anesthesiologist with an osteopathic and allopathic medicinal background), clientele
The Hydration Room has many IV and injection therapy options: at 27 on the “menu,” and each therapy option ranges from $75-$230. While The Hydration Room is currently not taking insurance, some clients have kept their receipts and have gotten a percentage of the cost reimbursed by their insurance companies #thanksobama.
There are already locations in Newport and Laguna Beach, but their newest spot (in Huntington Beach) is the first inside an LA Fitness—and a new one, at that. Upon arriving, guests are taken to a white-walled room that looks more like a spa except for the IV bag holders positioned next to the lounge chairs and staff dressed in scrubs. After signing a few forms, you’re then escorted to a secluded room where a nurse begins to administer an IV after she finds the best vein to insert it in while you pump a rubber ball with your hand.
If you’re anything like my squirmish self, it’s at this moment when you realize that you’re about to get a frickin’ needle injected into your arm and the most grotesque scenes in Requiem For A Dream start flashing through your mind. Get the feels out of the way: the well-trained nurses seem accustomed to panicky folks such as 
The rest of the therapy session is a half hour of straight chillin’ as you drink a cold beverage and sit in comfortable lounge chair topped with decorative pillows while watching TV. My personal choice of entertainment for this IV session? Seinfeld.
“What do ya want?” Dr. Florie casually asks me and I begin to feel like I’m ordering à la carte off a restaurant menu. I tell him that I’ve been sleep deprived and in need of an energy boost. He then steps to a back room and begins mixing up my vitamin cocktail with vitamins B-12, C, D, zinc, and glutathione. A few minutes later, Dr. Florie emerges with an IV bag filled with an orange liquid. He hangs it on the IV holder by my seat and connects the IV to the cannula on my arm. The liquid travels into my vein and within a few minutes, a taste of chalky multivitamin tablet rushes onto my taste buds. Dr. Florie says the taste is proof of how quickly the body absorbs the vitamins in the IV.
Thirty minutes and a few Kramer door busters later, my IV bag is empty. The nurse unhooks me and I dart for the closest restroom. All the hydrating properties of the IV bag seem to have worked because I lost count of how many times I had to use the ladies room right after my session. Aside from the constant , ahem, flow, a sore arm and a sleepy body (even though my IV concoction was specialized for energy) were the most immediate effects. The nurse said my body may ask for sleep after my therapy because of its deprivation of it—hmmm. After working late into the night I woke up the next morning feeling energized yet with a headache—not sure if it was just my turn in life to get a headache or if the IV had anything to do with it. As of now, my review of my first IV therapy is inconclusive.
Since opening its doors in 2014, The Hydration Room has served about 4,800 patients and is expected to grow even more as vitamin IV and injection therapy emerges as the latest unconventional wellness trend to pop up in your Instagram and SnapChat feed. Happy injecting!
The Hydration Room’s Huntington Beach location is at 19330 Goldenwest St. Huntington Beach, (714) 655-1589. For more info visit thehydrationroom.com.
