While Alberta’s flu season is nearly over, it has been a particularly difficult one in the province, but some people say that a unique therapy might be the ticket to a flu-free life.

84 people have died in Alberta from the flu this year and 30 of those have been in Calgary

Naturopath Dr. Amanda Milliquet says that something called IV therapy contains everything needed to kill the flu virus and immunize your body.

“Viral infections are just very difficult to treat with antibiotics because antibiotics treat bacteria so if you have a viral infection, there’s not a lot conventionally that we have for you. Intravenous Vitamin C specifically acts as an anti-viral when we administer it this way. Oral Vitamin C does not do the same thing. So from that perspective, we can kill viruses.”

One her patients, Chelsey Fricker, says that the IV therapy does a lot more than fight the flu.

“I find my energy goes from, especially when I’ve had a really busy week or really hectic or whatever, I just find that my energy goes from not ideal to I’m back to 100 percent.”

She’s undergone the procedure about five times, starting with a treatment for a migraine.

“I had a migraine. I just had this lingering headache and it was not going away so I tried one of these and it just fixed it immediately. I find it really relieving.”

Fricker says that she hasn’t gotten the flu at all this season.

“I don’t think I have. I had a bit of a sore throat a couple of weeks ago but it wasn’t anything that I had to call in sick for work or anything like that. I got one of these pretty soon after.”

Dr. Milliquet says that by adding nutrients intravenously, patients experience a much more direct effect.

“When we do that, we are able to achieve a much higher level of plasma nutrients, something that’s not possible through oral supplementation. It basically just gets your cells functioning at a higher level.

She says that it’s very popular in the United States and there have even been some high rollers that have come in for the vitamin drips that usually take about half an hour and cost $100 to $200.

“We have pretty high level athletes, NHL players, CrossFit athletes, executives, so a lot of really stressed people are coming in and getting these IVs.”

Dr. James Dickinson, a professor of Family Medicine at the U of C, says that there is no evidence the IV therapy works against the flu.

“It does great things for the people selling the vitamins and doing the IVs but it’s potentially dangerous if these people are not people who are qualified in intravenous injections. Unfortunately, what the body does with excess amount of vitamins is to pee them right back out again unfortunately.”

Dickinson says that it would be fantastic if the treatment did work, but it’s not true.

“It would be wonderful. We all want something that’s going to work but unfortunately this one isn’t it.”

He says that the jump in flu severity had a lot to do with the different strains that the shot protected against and the strains that actually showed up in the southern Alberta region.

“It’s been a bad year particularly the first part. We sort of predicted that because we knew the southern hemisphere had a bad year. We’d hoped that because last year had similar strain, so there was some carryover but clearly there wasn’t,” Dickinson says. “That’s the nature of the flu virus it keeps on changing and we’re constantly chasing it trying to catch up.”

Despite those findings, Fricker says the vitamins do work for her and encourages anyone who is stressed and needs relief to try it out.

“I say give it a try for sure. There’s a couple different ones you can get. There’s an anti-stress, there’s an immune boost. I’ve just got the Myers because I find that’s the one that works best for me. They’re awesome, I love them.”

(With files from Brenna Rose)