Why the IV drip is popular with Rita Ora, Cara Delevingne and Rihanna

The vitamin-packed ‘party girl IV’ isn’t just for hangovers. Charlotte Edwardes drips it up
Popular treatment: Rita Ora tweeted a picture of herself hooked up to an IV drip last year (Picture: Twitter/Instagram/ritaora)
Twitter/Instagram/ritaora

Dr David Jack looks and sounds like James McAvoy’s character in the Last King of Scotland, which means it’s not unpleasant to open my front door to him on a miserable Saturday afternoon when I’m feeling like a pile of old tissues.

He’s arrived to give me a reviving IV drip at home, part of a service now offered by IV-Me, which — I imagine — is usually performed on comatose celebrities in five-star hotel rooms after battling a night of “partying”. (Dr Jack does not confirm this, naturally, but a brief search of the tabloids reveals Cara D, Rihanna and Rita Ora are all fans.)

Sadly I am not ailed by alcohol, but a common cold. Jack assures me the drip will help. “It’s a high dose of vitamin C, some B vitamins — so good for metabolism and boosting energy and red-blood cell levels — and very strong antioxidants, so has numerous health benefits.”

Oooh, his Edinburgh burr is reassuring. I allow him to strap me up and inject me and then I recline on a pile of cushions, ready to be flooded with vitamin-laden fluids from a pouch on a collapsible stand that he pulls out of his Gladstone bag.

While IV drips as an aid to recovery are not new (they were first developed in America in the Seventies and medical students have been bingeing on them since), this “at home” version is a first in London, copying similar services in New York and Los Angeles.

As the line drips, Jack chats. He qualified from Glasgow University in plastics and surgery and apparently the most requested treatments are lip fillers and Botox. The treatment appeals to a range of clients — not just hungover ones, but those who are dehydrated, rundown and exhausted, and even with long-term illness.

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Initially there’s a cold sensation in my hand and then a taste in my mouth not unlike something at the dentist. Over the course of 40 minutes I start to feel more, well, hydrated. More awake too. “Usually you have a big shift from your intravascular department to your intracellular department,” explains Jack. Then more simply: “It’s the equivalent of four litres of water, but you won’t need the loo more. If you’re dehydrated, a lot of it goes into the space between your cells and fills out your skin. Making it plumped.”

Who would argue with that?

Certainly I sleep like a baby and — pace the placebo effect — my cold lifts the following day.

Price: £469 for an infusion. IV-ME 52 Beauchamp Place, SW3 (020 7589 6309, iv-me.com)

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