Fluid & Electrolyte Infusion

Your body is roughly 60 percent water, and losing even a small amount can affect how you feel. In a controlled study of 25 healthy young women, mild dehydration of about 1.4 percent of body mass worsened mood, lowered concentration and caused headaches, although most measures of cognitive performance were unaffected (Armstrong LE et al., Journal of Nutrition, 2012). For most people, mild dehydration is corrected simply by drinking.

IV fluids are a medical treatment. They are useful when your physician confirms dehydration and you cannot drink enough to correct it: after a stomach illness with vomiting or diarrhoea, after heat exposure or prolonged exertion, or during an illness that leaves you unable to keep fluids down. In those situations, one litre of isotonic fluid (sodium chloride or Ringer's lactate), with electrolytes adjusted to your needs, restores fluid directly into the bloodstream.

We do not offer this infusion as a routine pick-me-up. Before any infusion, a physician checks your symptoms and blood pressure and, where needed, blood tests for electrolytes and kidney function. If an oral rehydration solution will do the job, that is what we recommend, because it works, costs less and avoids a needle.

The infusion takes about 30 minutes and is given by a trained nurse under physician oversight, using medical-grade fluids from licensed pharmaceutical suppliers. Book a consultation with our physician to decide whether you need IV fluids or whether drinking is enough.