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Hydration Room in Newport Beach provides cures for multiple woes, from headaches to hangovers

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Migraines. Jet lag. Fitness recovery. Hangovers.

They’re all conditions Newport Beach anesthesiologists Elizabeth Bales and Brett Florie are equipped to remedy at the Hydration Room, a wellness clinic concentrating on intravenous therapy that the two specialists founded four months ago in Newport Beach.

Give them an hour and $100 or so, and they will promise a quick cure.

Over the last few years, intravenous vitamin therapy has become increasingly offered in spas, clinics and doctors’ offices. The service is to help otherwise healthy people suffering from the flu, battling a migraine, exhausted with jet lag or reeling from post-party nausea.

Bales and Florie, who met 10 years ago during their residency training at USC, knew the list of ailments too well after they’d take care of classmates who were fighting delayed alcohol-induced headaches.

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The two then thought about treatments for a number of other conditions, from anxiety and sleep disorders to a simple lack of energy.

“We realized in talking to people that their only real option was to go to the ER, and we wanted to offer an alternative,” Bales said.

Each client meets with a licensed medical professional who reviews the client’s medical history and designs a customized IV or injection treatment. Once set up with an IV, patients are seated in a lounge, where they can sip water or tea, flip through magazines, watch Netflix or browse the Internet with complimentary WiFi.

It’s a comfortable setting that has patients feeling refreshed and rejuvenated in about 60 minutes.

Hydration Therapy, whose clientele ranges from attorneys and finance and real estate executives to personal trainers and professional MMA fighters, serves patients who come every two days to two weeks. If an individual cannot make it into the office, mobile service is available upon request.

Of the dozen IV Therapy options, Bales and Florie said, a popular choice among patients is the cold and flu remedy ($160) which includes one liter of electrolyte fluid, fever reducer, zinc and antioxidants. The shot, they said, is equivalent to drinking a day’s worth of fluids in under 30 minutes.

The Jet Lag Revival is particularly chosen by business professionals departing from or arriving to John Wayne Airport, the anesthesiologists said. The combination is a mix of electrolyte fluid, anti-inflammatory medication, pain reliever, vitamin D3, B12 and other vitamins for $165.

And then there’s that remedy for those whose head is pounding after a night of over-indulgence. The Hangover Detox ($130) is an IV fluid bag containing thiamine and folic acid for mental recovery and an oral herb called milk thistle to rejuvenate the liver and accelerate the detoxification process.

Florie spoke about a University of Notre Dame athlete who came in seeking a cure for the common symptoms of jet lag. If the athlete didn’t hydrate quickly, he’d lose a day’s worth of practice.

It’s a process, he said, that’s quick and painless.

The beginnings of the treatment originate back about 30 years ago. John Myers, a Johns Hopkins University physician, created the colloquially named Myers’ cocktail, which was an intravenous nutrient mixture containing magnesium, calcium, various B vitamins and vitamin C that served as an alternative treatment for a broad range of conditions.

Today, its proponents include a celebrity roster, from Madonna and Cindy Crawford to Rihanna, who tweeted a picture of an IV needle rooted in her forearm.

But the treatment is not just for the famous.

“All the people who come are busy and can’t afford to be sick,” Bales said. “They need a fast solution. When people come here, they are surprised at how simple it is and how alert they quickly become.”

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If You Go

What: The Hydration Room

When: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday

Where: 404 Westminster Ave., Ste. 4, Newport Beach

Information: (949) 650-0866 or thehydrationroom.com

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