Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients

slate.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 145 posts

Re: IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients

#71

Post by masklinn »

breatheoften wrote: post #64

This is fascinating for me to read as a person who is rather convinced that trendiness tends to overwhelm reason in much of wellness practices. But I happened to try an elective iv clinic on Sunday — after a hard workout and long night the previous day — https://www.onusiv.com . I’ve never had an iv before — but the experience was genuinely awesome — muscle pain decreased, I felt lighter and energized, and my mood im…

The article isn't about IV being ineffective, rehydration IV are absolutely effective.

The article is about them being unnecessary unless absolutely humongous amounts of rehydration are necessary (emergency rehydration), "modern" oral rehydration is amply sufficient, cheaper, simpler, and less risky (ORS requires clean water but IV requires aseptic fluid and procedure and even then there's a risk of infection).

Re: IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients

#72

Post by pbhjpbhj »

radarsat1 wrote: post #59
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, interesting, anything i can read on this point? Aka citation please.

This seems to explain it.. http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/smal...

Hmm, that's going to need some study - particularly that the article says osmolarity allows for water to flow down the gradient, but then the final paragraph says that water can flow contrary to the gradient too.

Thanks for the link.

Re: IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients

#73

Post by J_Sherz »

amluto wrote: post #68

You can buy approved oral rehydration powder pretty cheaply [1]. I keep it around for backpacking trips and such. Also, I've heard, but have not verified, that coconut water is a decent approximation. I'm not sure if this is true, but it's certainly delicious.

Coconut water is marketed for hydration because it does have a relatively high electrolyte content, but it's mostly potassium with minimal sodium, so not as effective as an oral rehydration powder which has those specific ratios of electrolytes / sugar that maximize the speed of uptake/hydration.

Re: IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients

#74

Post by masklinn »

bluedino wrote: post #61
KaiserPro wrote: post #34

IV bags are there to get you out of the shit. In the UK its pretty rare to get an IV bag, unless you are a celebrity.

In Las Vegas there's a hangover bus that travels around that hooks you up to an IV and gives you medicine to recover in an hour

In some asian communities clinics provide "ringer" glucose IV. It definitely boosts you up, but you can also end up with life-threatening infections: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/21/nyregion/despite-warnings...

Re: IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients

#75

Post by amluto »

breatheoften wrote: post #64

This is fascinating for me to read as a person who is rather convinced that trendiness tends to overwhelm reason in much of wellness practices. But I happened to try an elective iv clinic on Sunday — after a hard workout and long night the previous day — https://www.onusiv.com . I’ve never had an iv before — but the experience was genuinely awesome — muscle pain decreased, I felt lighter and energized, and my mood im…

shudder

In Taiwan, it used to be a thing to get vitamin B shots all the time for no good reason. The placebo affect was probably involved. It turns out that the vitamins were almost certainly useless, but some 90% of the population got Hepatitis B. Guess who didn't sterilize everything properly?

I would stay the fuck away from quacks who want to inject magic solutions. At least the detox crowd just drinks that stuff.

Also, jeez, for the cost of one of those infusions, you can drink a lot of delicious, potassium-loaded fresh coconut water, even at restaurant prices.

Re: IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients

#76

Post by inetsee »

A neighbor of mine became dehydrated because of an infection (I think it was a kidney infection, but I'm not sure). She went to the emergency room and they pushed IV fluids, and I mean pushed. They hung a total of three bags, and at one point they were squeezing the bags to increase the flow of fluids. They over-hydrated her, and then they had to give her something to deal with the over-hydration. The over-hydration, or the medicine they gave her for that, affected her heart. She went into the hospital with a simple infection, and left needing expensive heart medication.

Re: IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients

#77

Post by J_Sherz »

nradov wrote: post #60
mabbo wrote: post #9

> You can also make good oral rehydration solutions yourself at home for pennies: Just take 32 ounces of water and add 6 teaspoons of sugar and a half-teaspoon of salt. > resist the temptation to drink at a normal rate... An ounce at a time every few minutes This should be something everyone learns. Many common headaches are just dehydration. When you've got a cold or flu, dehydration is common and makes you feel eve…

Would drinking oral rehydration solution mixed with vodka prevent the hangover from occurring in the first place?

The most effective time to consume oral rehydration solution would be after drinking. Alcohol is a diuretic causing you to lose more water than normal through urine, and eventually also electrolytes (although at first, your body will make an effort to retain them). So if you drink the ORS whilst still in diuresis, it won't have any negative effects, but you're more likely to urinate away the contents. After drinking, but before sleeping is anecdotally the optimal way to use ORS products for the hangover use case.

Re: IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients

#78

Post by dwyerm »

masklinn wrote: post #28
albertgoeswoof wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what does the sugar and salt do in this case? edit: it's in the article: > for rehydration, glucose is basically as important as sodium. The two compounds work together to pull water into shriveled cells that have been deprived of ample water.

IIRC it's mostly a factor for gut absorption: when gut cells absorb glucose, sodium is cotransported (goes along for the ride) and thus pass through the gut and into the bloodstream at a much greater rate, and the greater sodium gradient increases the rate of water absorption: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11193601 And the sodium also (and originally) serves to combat hyponatremia, as lost fluid generally bring…

It drove me a little bit crazy to hear a mom complaining about how she couldn't find sugar-free Pedialyte for her child. It is difficult to explain that to a person who has spent their whole adult life demonizing artificial colors, artificial flavors, and of course sugar.

Re: IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients

#79

Post by bluGill »

cloverich wrote: post #54
Tharkun wrote: post #51

I was sent to the ER a while ago. I spent several hours there, mostly waiting in between test results. After a while I got really thirsty. But they wouldn't let me drink until a doctor cleared me for drinking. This went on for several more hours, at which point I ended up dehydrated. They gave me an IV bag to rehydrate. The cynic in me suspects they routinely tell people they can't drink water simply so they can char…

In this case, if you needed a surgical intervention (or anything requiring sedation), its safer to be hydrated via IV fluids. Unfortunately ER's (and Hospital's in general) can move incredibly slow (often for no reason) and outside of emergencies are rarely good at any kind of prioritization. Add it all up and you get situations like yours :(

Actually there is a reason the ER moves slow for what looks like no reason: they need to always have free beds and time just in case a more serious emergency comes up. If you can wait it is better to not see you even though they could to ensure that if somebody comes in with a seconds count emergency they are able to take care of it in seconds.

Re: IV Bags May Not Be Necessary to Rehydrate Patients

#80

Post by J_Sherz »

masklinn wrote: post #71
breatheoften wrote: post #64

This is fascinating for me to read as a person who is rather convinced that trendiness tends to overwhelm reason in much of wellness practices. But I happened to try an elective iv clinic on Sunday — after a hard workout and long night the previous day — https://www.onusiv.com . I’ve never had an iv before — but the experience was genuinely awesome — muscle pain decreased, I felt lighter and energized, and my mood im…

The article isn't about IV being ineffective, rehydration IV are absolutely effective. The article is about them being un necessary unless absolutely humongous amounts of rehydration are necessary (emergency rehydration), "modern" oral rehydration is amply sufficient, cheaper, simpler, and less risky (ORS requires clean water but IV requires aseptic fluid and procedure and even then there's a risk of infection).

Perfect answer, relevant link for those that are interested: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC419333/
Post reply on HN