A mobile IV works the way the things in the bag work. In most of our drips, the bag is mostly a liter of salt water, and that part has an effect you can measure. Whether a drip does anything for you depends on what else is in it, and on how short of fluid you are when it goes in.
What a drip does once it's in your vein
A drip puts fluid straight into a vein, so it bypasses digestion entirely, and most of that fluid doesn't stay in your blood. A 2021 review of IV fluids in the journal Cureus reports that about a quarter of an infusion of saline stays in the bloodstream. The other three quarters move out into the tissues around your cells.
The Hydration, the two Myers' drips, the Hangover IV and the Migraine Relief IV are each built on a 1,000 ml bag of normal saline or lactated Ringer's. From a liter of saline, that's roughly 250 ml in your blood and 750 ml in your tissues. The same review calls these two fluids the usual first choice for someone who is low on fluid. IV Fluids is a liter of fluid and nothing else, and NAD+ uses a 500 ml bag.
How long it stays in the blood depends on you. The review gives these fluids a half-life of 20 to 40 minutes in an awake adult, which can stretch to 80 minutes or more in someone who is dehydrated. A body that's short of water holds on to the liter. A body that isn't short moves it out of the blood sooner. That's the physiological reason a drip does the most for someone who is behind on fluid.
Why IV fluids make you feel better
Three things can be at work after a drip: the fluid, the medicine in two of our drips, and the visit itself. They're worth keeping apart, because only the first two come from the bag.
The first is the fluid. MedlinePlus lists the signs of mild to moderate dehydration as thirst, a dry or sticky mouth, headache, muscle cramps, dry and cool skin, darker urine and not urinating much. If those signs came from being short of fluid, putting fluid back is what treats them, whether you drink it or get it through a vein. That's the most solid reason a drip can make you feel better.
The second is medicine, in two of our drips. The Hangover IV and the Migraine Relief IV both contain Toradol (ketorolac), a pain reliever from the NSAID family. Both also contain Zofran (ondansetron), an anti-nausea medicine whose labeled use is preventing nausea and vomiting after surgery and chemotherapy. The Migraine Relief IV adds Benadryl (diphenhydramine), an antihistamine. These are prescription medications. Part of how those two drips feel comes from them, not from the fluid or the vitamins. IV Fluids, the Hydration, the Myers' Cocktail IV and the Mega Myers contain none of them.
The third is the visit. A drip means a needle, a clinician who came to you, and 35 to 45 minutes of rest while the bag runs. How a treatment is given changes how people feel, apart from what's in it. The clearest measure of that comes from migraine research: a 2000 analysis in the Journal of Neurology pooled the placebo groups of 22 migraine drug trials. Two hours after treatment, 32.4 percent of people given a placebo injection under the skin had no or mild headache. Among people given a placebo pill, it was 25.7 percent. Neither contained a drug.
Those trials used injections, not IV drips, so their numbers don't carry over to a drip. The pattern is still worth knowing. Some of the lift after a drip may come from the needle and the hour of care, so feeling better afterward doesn't prove that every ingredient in the bag did something.
Are IV drips worth it?
Whether a drip is worth it depends on which part of the bag you need: the fluid, the vitamins or the medicine. It helps to read our drips by what does the work, and their names tell you what people book them for.
- Fluid on its own: IV Fluids, a liter of fluid and nothing else. 35 minutes, $150.
- Fluid with vitamins and minerals: the Hydration adds vitamin C, B-complex and B12 ($199). The two Myers' drips add glutathione, zinc and magnesium to those, at $225 for the Myers' Cocktail IV and $299 for the Mega Myers. Each takes 45 minutes.
- Fluid with prescription medicine: the Hangover IV combines Toradol and Zofran with magnesium, vitamin C, B-complex and B12 ($250). The Migraine Relief IV pairs magnesium and B-complex with Toradol, Zofran and Benadryl ($275). Each takes 45 minutes.
If fluid is what you need, every one of these drips delivers a liter of it, and IV Fluids gives you only that. The vitamins are the part with the least behind them. Cleveland Clinic's March 2026 article on IV vitamin therapy separates treating a diagnosed deficiency, which is medical care, from drips booked as self-care, where it finds limited scientific evidence of a direct wellness benefit.
The two medicine drips are a different purchase. They make sense when pain or nausea is the problem and the medicines in them are ones you can take.
What a drip won't do
For mild dehydration, a drip won't do much that drinking wouldn't. MedlinePlus advises sipping water, or drinking water or a sports drink, and describes IV fluid, given in a hospital, for more severe dehydration. If you're able to drink and hold it down, a drip mostly buys you speed and comfort. That's a real limit on what we sell.
Nor is a drip shown to raise energy or strengthen immunity in someone who isn't short of anything.
A drip also doesn't diagnose anything. If a headache, nausea or tiredness keeps coming back, booking another drip won't tell you why.
Who shouldn't book a drip
Two groups of people shouldn't book a drip without telling us first: people told to limit how much they drink, and, for two of our drips, people who shouldn't take an NSAID. Both follow from what's in the bag.
If a doctor has told you to limit how much you drink, a drip works against that advice. It's a liter of fluid in under an hour. MedlinePlus explains that people with heart failure are told to limit fluids because fluid builds up in the body. Cleveland Clinic advises people with heart disease, high blood pressure or kidney disease to avoid IV vitamin therapy.
The second group is about the medicine in the Hangover IV and the Migraine Relief IV. Both contain Toradol, and the MedlinePlus page for ketorolac names these as conditions to raise before using it:
- heart disease or high blood pressure
- bleeding or clotting problems, or stomach ulcers or bleeding
- kidney or liver disease
- taking a blood thinner
- an allergy to aspirin or other NSAIDs
The same page says not to use ketorolac from 20 weeks of pregnancy unless your doctor tells you to, or while breastfeeding.
If either group describes you, tell us when you book.
Is it worth having the drip come to you?
Having a drip come to you is worth paying for when getting out is the hard part. You can't keep drinks down, you're stuck in a hotel room, or it's the middle of the night and the alternative is waiting for morning. It's harder to justify when water and a few hours of rest would do the job.
Someone from our team of licensed nurses and REMTs travels to you at home or at your hotel, at any hour. We usually get to you 45 to 60 minutes after booking. It can take up to 90 minutes when the city is busiest: weekend mornings, holidays and the weeks of big conventions. Any visit from 8 PM to 7 AM carries a $99 fee on top of the drip, which puts IV Fluids at 3 AM at $249.
If you're leaning toward a drip, it helps to know how a mobile IV visit works from booking to the end of the visit, and how long a drip lasts once it's in. When you've decided, the full IV menu lists every drip with its price and its own page, and you can book from there.
Practical questions about a drip
Sources and References
- Tinawi M. New Trends in the Utilization of Intravenous Fluids. Cureus, 2021.
- de Craen AJ, Tijssen JG, de Gans J, Kleijnen J. Placebo effect in the acute treatment of migraine: subcutaneous placebos are better than oral placebos. Journal of Neurology, 2000.
- MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Dehydration. Reviewed July 1, 2025.
- MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Ketorolac Injection. Last revised March 15, 2021.
- MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Ondansetron Injection. Last revised September 15, 2026.
- MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Diphenhydramine Injection. Last revised February 15, 2026.
- MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Heart failure: fluids and diuretics. Reviewed July 14, 2024.
- Cleveland Clinic. IV Vitamin Therapy: Does It Work? March 9, 2026.
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Report Sets Dietary Intake Levels for Water, Salt, and Potassium To Maintain Health and Reduce Chronic Disease Risk. February 11, 2004.
