The Pursuit of Wellness: IV Hydration

When you go to the emergency room, a nurse hooks up an IV that injects an electrolyte solution—vitamins, nutrients, medications—into your bloodstream for your body to rapidly and fully absorb.  A decade ago, Atrium Health ER doctor Jonathan Leake and acute care nurse practitioner Keith Parris wondered: Could people recover the same way from hangovers, workouts, jet lag, illnesses, and other afflictions in a spa-like setting instead of the ER?

Leake and Parris opened Hydrate Medical, Charlotte’s first IV hydration therapy clinic, on East Boulevard in Dilworth in 2014. Clients can boost their energy with selections from a menu of IVs—each mixed with vitamins, minerals, and supplements and priced between $99 and $189—like the Hydrate Hangover, the Hydrate Wellness/Immune Booster, Hydrate Athlete, and the Myers Cocktail. The clinic’s registered nurses can create personalized concoctions as well.

A visit to Hydrate Medical on East Blvd.

Today, Hydrate Medical has seven clinics—three in the Charlotte area, plus locations in Fort Mill, Cary, Raleigh, and Asheville—and its client base has more than tripled since 2021. “In recent decades, more people have realized the importance of wellness and going to the gym and mental health and, ‘Oh, you have to do this and eat right.’ And then COVID—oh my Lord—it only increased all that more,” says Dustin Metz, Hydrate Medical’s communications specialist. “Now, you can go to the gym and then stop by a Hydrate Medical Clinic to continue caring for your health and wellness.”