“Glutathione IV drips detox your body.”
Glutathione IV drips have not been shown to detox the body.
A glutathione drip is not a proven way to clear toxins from your body. The drips add needle and product risks without a proven benefit.
If a clinic offers you a glutathione drip to detox, you can say no.
Safety note: In 2019 the FDA warned compounders not to use a dietary-supplement-grade glutathione powder to make injections after reports of 7 patients with nausea, vomiting, light-headedness, chills and body aches, one with low blood pressure and trouble breathing; FDA tests found bacterial toxins up to five times the safe limit. The Philippines FDA has warned of serious reactions to glutathione injections, including severe skin reactions, kidney and thyroid problems, and infections from unsterile injections. Any IV drip can also cause severe infections from poorly sterilized equipment.
Talk to a healthcare professional if: you have kidney, thyroid or liver disease, or you are pregnant or breastfeeding, and are thinking about a glutathione drip; or you had fever, chills, a rash or trouble breathing after one.
No trial in people has tested whether glutathione drips remove toxins, and expert reviews find no data behind the detox claims sold with IV drips. Confidence is limited because the research on IV glutathione is small and mostly about skin lightening.
Glutathione IV drips have not been shown to detox the body. No study in people has tested them for removing toxins, and the claimed detox effect has no research behind it.
Glutathione is a small molecule the body uses inside cells to handle chemical stress. A 2025 study of 255 IV spa websites found that more than half (137) offered glutathione, and only 2 of all the websites cited any source for their health claims. A medical reference lists "eliminate toxins from the body" among the claims made for IV drips and says the few studies of these drips were small, lacked a placebo group, or found them no better than placebo. Outside wellness clinics, IV glutathione has only narrow approved uses in some countries, such as alcohol-related liver disease in India and reducing nerve damage from the cancer drug cisplatin in the Philippines. Most IV glutathione research in people is about lightening skin, and a 2018 review called that evidence a single, poorly designed study.
- Sivakumar A, Forman HP, Wang I, Lurie P, Ross JS. State Policies and Facility Practices of IV Hydration Spas in the US. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2025;185(12):1455-1461. DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.5028. PMID: 41051745. PMCID: PMC12501857
- US Food and Drug Administration. FDA highlights concerns with using dietary ingredient glutathione to compound sterile injectables. Human Drug Compounding. Content current as of 06/07/2019
- Sonthalia S, Jha AK, Lallas A, Jain G, Jakhar D. Glutathione for skin lightening: a regnant myth or evidence-based verity? Dermatology Practical & Conceptual. 2018;8(1):15-21. DOI: 10.5826/dpc.0801a04. PMID: 29445569. PMCID: PMC5808366
- Shane-McWhorter L. Intravenous Vitamin Therapy (Myers' Cocktail). Merck Manual Consumer Version. Last updated July 2025