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Can Ozone Therapy Be Harmful?

Disease and Condition: Common Medical Abbreviations and Terms
therapy ozone
Using medical ozone therapy treatment options may result in numerous negative side effects, such as the following.

Ozone therapy is a treatment that involves exposing the body to ozone gas. Ozone (O3) is a super-charged oxygen molecule, which is extremely reactive.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved ozone therapy to treat any medical condition. The FDA regards ozone therapy as quackery and has stated that there is no useful role for it in medicine. Its use on medical conditions may do more harm than good.

Ozone gas is unstable and requires extreme caution. You should never inhale pure ozone gas because it combines with hemoglobin in the blood and leaves no place for oxygen. This leads to hypoxia (decrease oxygen) and may lead to premature death.

Inhaling ozone may damage lung tissues and lead to these side effects:

Ozone worsens respiratory disorders, such as asthma, and reduces the ability to fight infections.

Other risks associated with the use of ozone treatments include:

What are the uses of ozone therapy?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has declared that ozone is a toxic gas and should not be used as a therapeutic modality for any treatment. However, medical ozone therapy has been used in clinical studies for certain conditions that include:

  • Some evidence suggests that ozone therapy used in patients with COVID-19 showed positive outcomes, but there have been no large-scale studies for the same.
  • Some reports have demonstrated that oxygen-ozone therapy reduces the size of herniated discs, which may have a role in musculoskeletal pains.
  • Ozone therapy administered in patients with severe cardiopulmonary diseases had varying degrees of success at improving their oxygen levels.
  • Ozone therapy is useful to kill the bacteria that cause dental caries and gum diseases though it can cause irreversible damage to the oral linings.
  • It may have a role in wound healing, killing bacteria that infect wounds, improving the outlook in gangrene cases, and boosting the immune system.
  • Medical ozone treatments have been used to treat chronic illnesses, including Lyme disease, autoimmune disease, and mold exposure.

The ozone therapy in the following conditions has proven to be ineffective and dangerous:

What are the different types of ozone therapy?

Using medical ozone treatments for certain conditions may include the following methods:

  • Autohemotherapy:
    • Autohemotherapy or self blood therapy is a procedure where some amount of blood is collected from your body and medical graded ozone gas is combined with the blood.
    • The two types of autohemotherapies are:
      1. Major autohemotherapy (MAH): Some amount of blood is collected in an intravenous bag and after combining it with ozone gas, the blood is administered back to the patient as an intravenous drip.
      2. Minor autohemotherapy: Very small amount of blood is collected from the vein, which is readily combined with ozone, and injected back instantly.
  • Prolozone:
    • Prolozone is administered as an injection directly into the damaged connective tissue. Ozone gas is claimed to promote healing and collagen production. This therapy is often combined with vitamins and minerals. 
    • Prolozone has analgesic effects and increases blood circulation, which may treat conditions such as:

Large-scale studies have proven that ozone does not help in these conditions.

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References
Image Source: Igor Alecsander / Getty Images

Gavazza A, Marchegiani A, Rossi G, et al. Ozone Therapy as a Possible Option in COVID-19 Management. Front Public Health. Published 2020 Aug 25. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2020.00417

Bonetti M, Zambello A, Leonardi M, Princiotta C. “Not just herniated disc” back pain: Outcome of oxygen-ozone treatment in selected applications. JO3T. 2020; 4(5). https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/JO3T/article/view/10811

Elvis AM, Ekta JS. Ozone therapy: A clinical review. J Nat Sci Biol Med. 2011;2(1):66-70. doi:10.4103/0976-9668.82319

Tiwari A, Avinash A, Katiyar S, Iyer AA, Jain S. Dental applications of ozone therapy: A review of literature. Saudi J Dent Res. 2017; 8 (1-2): 105-111. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352003516300260

LymeScience. Ozone Therapy for Lyme: A Dangerous Scam. https://lymescience.org/ozone-therapy/

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