Intravenous vitamin (IV) nutritional therapy is a method of delivering a safe and healthy dose of natural vitamins and minerals directly into the circulatory system. For an infusion, vitamins are added to a solution containing the same salt concentration as the blood to aid absorption. Immediately available for cellular absorption IV therapy bypasses the digestive tract to deliver doses that may not be tolerated with oral supplementation.

A renewed interest in intravenous nutrition among clinicians and researchers is leading to an increase in the usage of IV vitamin therapy among physicians and certified healthcare practitioners such as Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners (ARNP) and Registered Nurses with a Bachelor of Science degree (RN-BSN) in Nursing, such as Doreen DeStefano, owner of Integrated Skin Care and Root Causes Holistic Health and Medicine, in Fort Myers.

“Nutritional medicine pioneer Linus Pauling proposed IV vitamin C for treatment of cancer and reported improvement in symptoms as well as prolongation of life. Although his safe and effective approach to nutrient repletion has been underutilized largely because of a lack of controlled trials, I believe that this is due to a general lack of nutrition education in conventional medical training, which is mainly centered on pharmaceuticals,” says DeStefano, who notes that preclinical studies and trials of intravenous vitamin C have been conducted on respiratory distress syndrome, cancer and fatigue as recently as 2016.

A large percentage of Americans are deficient in many important nutrients, including individuals that avoid fast food and eat relatively well. “Industrialized agriculture has increased food yields at the cost of nutrient loss from the soil. As a result our produce and grains contain fewer nutrients. Additionally, the use of antibiotics, hormones and commercialized livestock feed has also decreased the quality of our food supply. Eating nutrient-deficient foods is contributing to chronic lifestyle-related diseases,” says DeStefano, who has recently morphed her skincare business into what offers her the opportunity to apply more of her knowledge and experience as a RN-BSN.

“Although I am also a licensed esthetician, I noticed that I was working more with clients from a functional, anti-aging medicine perspective intended to address the root cause of health challenges and that the IV therapy and naturopathic approaches were having a significant impact on the health of clients. It seemed natural to expand the name of the business to reflect that.

Integrated Skin Care and Root Causes Holistic Health and Medicine is located at 12734 Kenwood Lane, Ste. 84, in Fort Myers. For more information, call 239-425-2900.