Walk toward the tail end of the hall and you’ll find a uplit, neon room. The white curtained walls glow azure as ambient music videos play from the 65-inch TV. Take a seat atop the sheepskin throw on the plush white couch, or ease onto the frosted leather recliner. This is place of luxury, fun, and consumption.
While almost identical to the VIP room at a sought-after nightclub, it’s actually the IV room – intravenous, as in intravenous vitamin drip therapy. Whole Life Balance with Drip IV Therapy is commanding the Westside fitness and wellness craze and offering something different with a hint of exclusivity.
The resemblance to the club scene is not coincidence. Founder and Certified Nutritional Practitioner Shane Griffin took his years as Toronto’s hottest nightclubs owner and funneled it into his new boutique yoga wellness center. What’s different this time is, instead of the drugs and booze that fueled his previous lifestyle, Griffin is now sober and approaches life from a holistic purview.
Today, his top shelf merchandise is an intravenous blend of vitamins and minerals. Fridays are your best bet for a walk-in appointment.
Leaning on the naturopathic program developed by his partner, Dr. Stacey Kupperman, Griffin has branded Whole Life Balance’s signature cocktail, the Vitadrip (or #vitadrip).
“She’s procured her own creations and ingredients that are actually therapeutic,” he said.
The Vitadrip is a saline bag filled with concentrated vitamins, nutrients, minerals, and amino acids; no drugs, no medications, just natural stuff your body needs and wants. The intravenous method is just a different delivery source.
“It’s going straight to the blood stream so that way you don’t lose any of the nutritional value through the digestive track and also are able to get higher doses than if you did orally,” Dr. Kupperman explains during her preliminary assessment.
First, she educates you on what intravenous vitamin therapy is and its advantages. She takes a routine blood sample to provide a “baseline” factoring out anemia, kidney, or liver problems, and to test the G6PD to make sure you can process higher levels of vitamin C so in the future, she knows it’s safe.
There are a few side effects you need to be aware of, like the obvious: fear of needles. Another is potential bruising or irritation of the vein. Others include tasting the vitamins and having a warm sensation in the stomach (“that’s the magnesium flush”). Are you afraid of needles? Are you taking any supplements or drugs? Are you allergic to shellfish?
With that, she takes your blood pressure, inserts a catheter (no needle, plus flexibility). She draws your blood and switches out the line in one swift move. Within minutes you’re receiving a blend of 12 to 15 different amino acids: vitamin C, B-complex assortment, folic acid, minerals, zinc, calcium selenium, magnesium, chromium, and others.
It takes about 15 to 30 minutes for the Vitadrip bag to empty, depending on the size of the vein, the angle of it, and your body’s need to the solution. After, you stand up feeling lighter and strangely energized, maybe even a bit euphoric. But the real effect begins the next day, when your body has had time to metabolize the vitamins.
You might have heard of the IV drip “hangover cure,” popularized in Las Vegas and the Myers’ Cocktail, as another means to rehydrating your body after a night of drinking. But Dr. Kupperman recommends using the drip IV therapy the day before as a way of curbing the downside of excess.
“I find that people feel the effects the next day when the nutrients have the chance to get absorbed into the cells and they start fueling all the different metabolic functions,” she said. “So next day most people forget they had one and they have this great day.”
Her approach to preventative medicine extends beyond a bender. People can get an IV drip before running a marathon or before a red carpet event. For that special day full of photos, Dr. Kupperman would put glutathione in the solution for a vitalizing “glow.”
“Glutathione is really good for antioxidants and liver detox but also it has a skin brightening effect,” she said, and it’s best absorbed through IV.
Whether you want the Beauty Drip, full of vitamins B and E for healthy hair, skin, and nails; or the Skinny Drip, full of Glutathione or amino acids to rejuvenate muscles and proteins, Whole Life Balance can reach every faculty and body need.
Lastly, perhaps the most important medicinal role, Whole Life Balance’s drip IV therapy can play in your immune system. If you plan on traveling a lot or it’s flu season, a super wellness formula in your Immunity Drip can boost your immune system through higher dosages than an oral vitamin.
Through Griffin’s nutritional protocol software, Whole Life Balance can also design an individualized vitamin drip tailored to your body’s top 10 imbalances based off a 45-minute questionnaire. From there, Griffin and his team of CNPs and coaches handpick a personalized protocol of foods that support your homeostasis, lifestyle changes, and supplement support (where the drip IV therapy comes in).
In case needles aren’t your thing, the nutritional center doubles as a spa with small class Pilates, yoga, aerial yoga, and personal training. Other services include nutritional consulting, massage therapy, fascial stretching, and acupuncture.
Whole Life Balance is designed to treat the person, not the symptoms.
“When you come here, we’re going to have different modalities that are going to speak to specific issues with people,” Griffin said. “In here we’re like a one-stop shop for everything.”
Whole Life Balance with Drip IV Therapy is located at 507 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 101, in Santa Monica. For more information call 888.540.5714 or visit wholelifebalance.com.
