I’ve worked in China for over a year now, and many people, both local Chinese and foreigners, have told me that they’ve gotten an IV drip in hospital for such routine things as the flu, or even common colds! And furthermore, the vast majority of them testify to the immediate potency of the drip; within a day, they are usually completely cured.
Why isn’t this done in America? Is there a serious negative side effect to using the drip? Someone told me it messes with your immune system; is that true?
The thing about China is that they are all mad about antibiotics. Also, a doctor’s perceived skill depends largely on 1) how quickly he can rattle off a diagnosis and 2) how quickly he can dispel the patients symptoms, so Chinese doctors tend to pull out the big guns in situations where western doctors would just tell their patients to go home and rest. IV use in China is also much more widespread and routine; I remember, as a wee lass, being in the hospital every month or so with one sticking out of my arm for common cold-induced fevers. This was 10-15 years ago. My mother says it’s got much worse since I’ve been away. I don’t know about negative effects but I’m guessing there are. Even if there aren’t, their price would probably be high enough for western doctors to write them off as unnecessary.
Probably because, in large part, it doesn’t work. I wouldn’t be suprised if most are just a saline drip, and rely on te lacebo effect combined with the fact that most colds and fevers are gone in a few days anyway. So you get an IV, two days later you’re better, and you claim it was thre IV that did it, when odds are it did almost nothing (I’m sure there’s something to be said for being well hydrated, but not much.)
Maybe a few of them have antibiotics, because sometimes it is a bacterial infection, or a patient might be so insistent on getting them the docter feels it’s easier to give it to them than to tell them the difference between a virus and bacteria.
And if most of them ARE actually getting antibiotics, then I have a serious beef with those doctors. They are helping to create super bacteria more and more resistant to antibiotics. I don’t want to go back to the days where pneumonia is a death sentence.
Then I believe you have a serious beef with these doctors. I’ve asked a few of the people I know, and they mention penicillin and another --cilin named drug (antibiotics, if I’m not mistaken). It’s ridiculously common, and it does seem to work extremely fast (and I trust at least some of these people’s testimonials). Is the IV drip pathway a lot faster than antibiotic pills?
If so, then in cases where western doctors would use antibiotics, why not use the drip? The price here is pretty cheap; about 50 RMB a day (which is less than US$7.00).
Is it a shock to your immune system to use drips instead of pills?
(btw, I fully agree with you that they are overmedicating with antibiotics here, but I’m just curious about the IV drip method of intake)
IVs are inherently more invasive than taking pills, sterility and purity of the fluids being infused must be assured far more than with pills, same for the antibiotics which are given IV rather than orally. IV lines can become infected, leave a route for other infections to enter the body, it’s possible to overload people with fluids if they’re given too fast, and frankly, unless one has significant dehydration and is unable to take liquids by mouth, or a life-threatening condition such as blood infection or severe asthma attacks, giving meds or fluids by IV just isn’t necessary.
So, in brief it’s not needful to give IVs for the vast majority of ailments, and when you do give things by IV, you introduce a number of risks that aren’t present in giving treatment orally.
When I was in China, I managed to catch an infection. At first I thought it was a pretty common cold, and that I’d get over it in a few days. Days turned to weeks, and I even tried buying my own antibiotics over the counter (which you can by the way) but those didn’t help, and I still had the same symptoms.
Finally I went to the hospital, had a prescription rattled off in a few minutes, and went off to get an IV drip. After one day, I felt a lot better, and after two days I was feeling fine again. I went a third day just to make sure, but after that I had recovered, so I would have to say that “gua shui” is a pretty effective method of treating routine infections. Oh yeah, you know what you are getting in the IV drip because you end up buying the drugs yourself from the pharmacy and giving it to the nurses, and you can watch them prepare your solution too if you don’t trust them!
Very common practice in Taiwan and Hong Kong 25 years ago and now spread to China. Feeling low or a bit sick? Go get a glucose drip. It’s not anti biotics.
IAMADoctor, but if you’re feeling a little under the weather getting hydrated with glucose probably makes you feel better right away for a little bit.
Anti biotics are far to common and prescribed for probably not necessary reasons, but the drips are glucose
You could achieve the same thing by downing a Coke or eating a candy bar, just maybe not quite as fast. The lift you get from glucose is merely a sugar rush.
I’ll skip the warning about diabetes and obesity here, given that the exact same warning applies to junk food for the exact same reasons. The IV drip just cuts out the middeman, so to speak.
So the concensus here appears to be that IV drip use is not really bad, even for common colds and such, as long as everything is sterilized and they don’t screw up?
Next time I have a cold, I should accept their recommendation of the drip (they almost always offer the drip during trips to the clinic)?
I’m glad to read confirmation of my suspicions. Every SINGLE freakin’ time I am admitted to the hospital (and most of the time I’m in the E/R) the first thing they do is “start a drip” and I’ve suspected it was mostly unnecessary. I hate them for two reasons - firstly, I am a veinless wonder (last E/R trip they put in in my FOOT for chrissakes) and secondly, I have impaired kidney function and I’ve actually had my stay extended until I finally peed all that extra, unnecessary fluid out.
I have no beef when it’s one of the conditions you mentioned - but at least half the time there’s no valid reason for a saline drip and many reasons NOT to have that tube in my vein.
Not really bad, but not as good as the alternative. Unlike pills, you are creating a possible pathway for infection and damaging cells that don’t really like to be damaged.
There’s nothing they could drip into you that would help a common cold in the slightest. The best they could do is saline, which does nothing, and the worst they could do is antibiotics, which could end up giving you a nasty multiple-resistant strain of something.