NAD+ IV Therapy for Drug and Alcohol Detox

Drug detoxification is a crucial step to heal clients and fully recover from mental health issues and addiction. There are quite a few methods of detox that are commonly used, from quitting the substance cold-turkey to waiting for your body to slowly detoxify, to using medical intervention and Intravenous Drips.

Undergoing rehab and quitting drugs is never an easy process for an addict. Depending on the substance or substances of abuse and the severity of the addiction, improper methods of recovery may even lead to seizures, psychosis, and even death.

What is Drug Detox?

Before we jump into IV detox as a whole, we should clear up what drug detox is.

When someone wishes to recover from their addiction to alcohol or another substance, they will need to purge out all traces of that substance from their body before they can begin the rehabilitation process.^[1]

As long as traces of the substance are prevalent in the body, the body will likely experience many withdrawal symptoms. The withdrawal symptoms can range from hallucination to neuropathic pains, to even death, in very severe cases. These symptoms occur because the body is dependent on the drug after prolonged use. And this is also why quitting cold turkey, especially in the case of alcohol or benzodiazepines ^[2] is not recommended.

Therefore, we need some sort of intervention to help the detoxification process go relatively smoothly so the addicted individual can recover. Medical intervention, be it IV or supplemental, is ideal, especially for severe cases. There are natural methods and home-detox kits available as well, but we cannot account for their effectiveness.

What is IV Detox Therapy?

At holistic detox centers like The Holistic Sanctuary, IV detox therapy is the most effective type of medical intervention for drug detox. This is because the needed substances enter the bloodstream directly instead of being routed through the stomach.

IV detox therapy includes the introduction of antioxidants and other substances that will help flush out the residuals of the substance from the body. These substances may include minerals, amino acids, vitamins, oxygen, or coenzymes such as NAD+.

The goal of The Holistic Sanctuary is the off these substances is to replenish the body’s lost nutrients that will make it easier for the withdrawal to occur.

IV therapy is much more effective than oral supplements because 100% of the nutrients are absorbed into the body when administered directly into the bloodstream, whereas only 30% of nutrients are absorbed into the body when drugs are administered orally. Other than that, injecting substances directly into the bloodstream has a much quicker effect than orally taking them.

Because IV therapy is so effective, many places have decided to market IV therapy for more frivolous purposes, like anti-aging, energy boosts, or weight loss. The reason behind this is that taking a large dose of a vitamin such as vitamin A or vitamin C orally will likely make you sick. However, if you administer these substances intravenously, they will no longer have to pass the stomach barrier and you can see wonderful, almost miraculous effects immediately.

We do not condone the use of IV therapy for these purposes.

See also: Natural vs Medical Detox

Types of IV Detox Therapies

There are different types of IV detox therapy methods available, and they can be administered simultaneously or by themselves. These include:

NAD Therapy

NAD+ is a coenzyme that is naturally found in the human body and its main role is helping in energy production. It is also useful for healthy brain-functioning and DNA repair ^[3]. With consistent alcohol and drug abuse, the body’s natural store of NAD+ is depleted.

The NAD+ IV Therapy helps to restore that lost NAD+, which gives the individual an energy boost and diminishes their cravings for the substance they were dependent on.

Patients need daily drips for about a week to 10 days to complete the detox.

Amino-Acid Therapy

Drug addiction and medication use causes a neurotransmitter imbalance in the body. The addictive substance creates a false neurotransmitter balance within the body which needs more and more of the substance to be maintained. Once the user quits the drug, their body craves it for that balance.

Amino-acid therapy is required to restore the neurotransmitter balance, helping to lower their dependence and to recover.

Normally, around a week of daily IV administration is enough for complete relief.

Antioxidant Therapy

Antioxidants such as glutathione, a very powerful antioxidant, and Vitamin C are intravenously administered to be delivered to the brain so they can restore the brain’s cognitive activity and reverse any other effects that long-term drug abuse may have had on the brain.

Read also: FAQs on drug detox

What is the mechanism of NAD Therapy?

NAD+ has been used to treat alcohol and drug addiction since the 1960s^[4]. However, It has been reported that there is no substantial evidence supporting that NAD+ by itself has any effect on flushing out drug remnants. Also, the exact mechanism by which it works is largely unknown.

What we do know, however, is that NAD+ functions in a redox (oxidation-reduction) reaction within the body, and that is somehow linked to it helping with drug detox.

Another thing we know is success stories. NAD+ has been successful in drug detoxification for many years now and recently we have discovered that combined with amino-acid IV therapy, the effects of this IV detox are exponentially better.

Here is what NAD+ therapy claims to achieve, though:

• Detoxifies and flushes out the remnants of the drug in the user’s body
• Helps to control cravings, especially for alcohol and opioids
• Helps to cope with painful withdrawal effects
• Allows the user to be more energetic

Even though these claims are mostly true, keep in mind that NAD+ therapy is not a miraculous cure for drug withdrawal. At the end of the day, the user will need to be rehabilitated as per their wishes.

Benefits of Undergoing NAD+ Therapy

Following are the benefits that NAD IV therapy can have, other than helping with a drug detox:

• Improves mood
• Increases energy
• Promotes weight loss and increases base metabolism
• Has an anti-aging effect
• Helps to focus
• Reduces fatigue
• Repairs DNA
• Helps with mental health problems like depression, anxiety, and even PTSD

Is it Really That Effective?

Again, NAD IV therapy is often talked about as a miracle cure, but anyone who knows medicine understands that there is no such thing. Yes, NAD therapy can have all of these benefits and even more but NAD is not a miracle substance. Your body produces it daily and it helps you to function every day.

So, if you believe that going for NAD+ therapy to an IV Bar or a holistic center will help you with your addiction on its own, you are probably mistaken. In fact, if anyone out there is marketing NAD+ IV therapy as a one-stop solution for everything then you should avoid them.

NAD therapy, like any other medicinal therapy, should only be administered by a trained doctor or a professional nurse who knows what they are doing.

In addition to this, NAD therapy combined with amino-acid therapy and possibly other anti-oxidants can help with the withdrawal symptoms and cravings even more.

Keep in mind that detoxifying your body alone will not help you recover from your addiction. This is only the first stop. You will need talk therapy by medical professionals along with lifestyle changes to completely stop the addiction cycle. Depending on the severity of the addiction, you will probably also need to check into a Holistic rehab center (in-patient or out-patient) to further help you change your lifestyle.

What Drugs Require Detox Therapy?

All drugs of abuse, when used consistently and without caution, are addictive. These include alcohol, benzodiazepines, cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin, and all other opioids, and even marijuana. Yes, in unhealthy doses even marijuana can be addictive, and quitting can cause withdrawal symptoms.

All of these drugs cause withdrawal symptoms if you try to quit if you are addicted. Nicotine withdrawal also has unpleasant effects but they are not severe enough to warrant IV therapy.

NAD+ IV therapy is most useful for alcohol and Benzodiazepine addiction. Other addictive drugs can be flushed out using different IV therapies or even with the help of supplements.

Why Can’t We Opt for Something Less Powerful than IV Therapy?

There are many other types of drug detoxes that people make use of. These include the use of detox kits and even detox methods at home. We cannot vouch for either of the two methods since they may not always work. And if you quit cold-turkey at home, the withdrawal symptoms may be too severe for you to handle at home.

You can opt for a medicated detox that is done with the help of orally administered drugs. Some commonly used detox drugs include Naltrexone, Disulfiram, and methadone. These drugs have side-effects of their own and must be administered with the help of medical professionals so they can guide you properly.

References

1. Preedy VR, editor. Neuropathology of drug addictions and substance misuse volume 1: foundations of understanding, tobacco, alcohol, cannabinoids, and opioids. Academic Press; 2016 Mar 7.
2. Allen J, Montalto M, Lovejoy J, Weber W. Detoxification in naturopathic medicine: a survey. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2011 Dec 1;17(12):1175-80.
3. Rajman L, Chwalek K, Sinclair DA. Therapeutic potential of NAD-boosting molecules: the in vivo evidence. Cell metabolism. 2018 Mar 6;27(3):529-47.
4. Braidy N, Berg J, Clement J, Khorshidi F, Poljak A, Jayasena T, Grant R, Sachdev P. Role of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and related precursors as therapeutic targets for age-related degenerative diseases: rationale, biochemistry, pharmacokinetics, and outcomes. Antioxidants & redox signaling. 2019 Jan 10;30(2):251-94.