What is Ozone Therapy & Treatment?

Ozone therapy is a delivery system that can oxygenate our bodies effectively and efficiently, increasing our capacity to heal and recover from debilitating injuries.

Special tools are used to produce O3 and induce them into the body. This form of treatment benefits us by bolstering the immune system, stimulating white blood cells, and destroying fungi, bacteria, and viruses that cause infections and immune system deficiencies.

It also helps prevent certain cancers by counteracting cell mutations.

In order to fully dive into a discussion on this relatively new procedure, it is important to take note of the vital role that oxygen itself plays in running the systems and processes that enable growth and maintain life inside the body.

The Role of Oxygen

Oxygen is by far the most important molecule for life on the planet.

Just like many other life forms on Earth, our human bodies have evolved into an elegant but complex system to absorb and utilize oxygen as a source of energy.

As we breathe, oxygen fills our lungs and travels all over the body until it reaches every cell, triggering vital processes that enable us to perform daily tasks for survival, such as the oxidation of food or the release of heat.

Oxygen plays two main roles inside the body – it is both a signaling molecule and an oxidizer.

Oxygen as a Signaling Molecule

Our bodies are constantly reading signals from the outside world and trying to determine the appropriate responses.

Managing the multitude of cellular functions in the human body is extremely complex and relies on a wide range of components, several of which are small oxygen-based molecules that help the body read external stimuli and understand how to increase or decrease the delivery of oxygen to our cells.

In other words, oxygen molecules run the system that regulates how much we are breathing in.

In 2019, researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of this signaling molecule known as HIF-1 (hypoxia-inducible factor one). This molecule tells the body how to respond to the changes in oxygen and pressure that we are exposed to, both of which trigger very distinct reactions in our bodies.

Oxygen as an Oxidizer

In chemistry, the definition of an oxidizing agent is a substance with the ability to accept electrons. Oxygen is an example of one of these substances.

Oxidation refers to the loss of electrons or the increase in the oxidation state of an atom, ion, or of certain atoms in a molecule.

As the opposite, reduction refers to the gaining of electrons or the decrease in the oxidation state of an atom, ion, or of certain atoms in a molecule.

There are many chemical reactions within us that rely on our body’s ability to transfer electrons.

Just as a fire needs an ignition source to light fuel, the body uses oxygen as an oxidizing agent to burn fuel such as sugars (glucose molecules), fatty acids, or ketones. When this fuel mixes with oxygen, it triggers the chemical process of combustion, allowing our bodies to make energy.

This plays a critical role in Redox (reduction and oxidation), which is the balance of chemical reactions that help in modulating our metabolism, inflammation, fight infection, etc.

What Oxygen Does

Oxygen occurs naturally in our atmosphere as O2, where there are two molecules of oxygen bound together. The air we breathe is 21% oxygen, and these O2 molecules are absorbed into our bodies for various purposes. As Dr. Jason Sonners of HBOT USA explains, oxygen is used to:

Increase immune activation
Mobilize stem cells
Reduce cytokine storms and cytokine inflammation
Heal tissues
Stimulate growth factor
Stimulate brain-derived neurotrophic factor
Stimulate angiogenesis (increasing the rebuttal of microcirculation that allows gas exchange to occur in the first place)

Oxygen is used by every part of the human body to perform vital functions and heal and recover from injuries.

The simple act of breathing gives us all the oxygen our bodies can absorb naturally. Each time we inhale, we absorb a certain amount of oxygen that is just enough for that particular moment.

It’s very difficult for the body to absorb more than that, which is why it’s helpful to artificially increase our body’s oxygen absorption with various oxygen therapies.

Increasing the total oxygen absorption of our bodies increases all the existing benefits of oxygen absorption as well. An example of this is that absorbed oxygen has been proven effective to stimulate a lot of the growth and repair factors that our bodies need to fight and heal through infections.

What Is Ozone?

In the higher levels of our atmosphere known as the stratosphere, O2 ends up absorbing some of the UV light from the sun, breaking the O2 into single oxygen molecules that then bind to other O2 molecules, creating O3 or Ozone.

This forms the layer of our atmosphere known as the Ozone layer. This layer protects most life on the planet from harmful UV rays.

As those O3 molecules drop down into the lower atmosphere, the unstable O3 very easily breaks back down into O2, essentially recycling itself.

This is why Ozone does not naturally occur at sea level.

Ozone Treatment

Ozone (O3) is still considered an oxygen molecule, just a different type of oxygen molecule that is much more volatile than typical O2.

O3 reacts much quicker to oxidation, meaning it accepts electrons much quicker compared to O2, which would need to go through a combustion process before being able to accept electrons.

So when you want to fight off infection or you want to upregulate mitochondrial function (when the oxidative effect of the oxygen is the critical component), O3 is the more ideal choice for therapeutic purposes.

Ozone does not naturally occur in the lower levels of the atmosphere, so in order to use it for therapy, we have to generate it with tools such as an oxygen generator or a 100% oxygen tank and put it through an ozone generator to create O3.

There are multiple ways to deliver O3:

Put it in a room, generating it through an air purifier, and breathing normally
IV Ozone Therapy where you Infuse your blood with ozone
Insufflation (ear insufflation, rectal insufflation, etc.)

It is important to note, however, that this same powerful oxidization can cause ozone to damage respiratory tissues in humans and animals, making ozone absorption toxic if not done in a controlled environment.

Uses of Ozone Therapy

Some of the most common applications of ozone therapy include subcutaneous injections (injections beneath the skin) to treat inflammation and pain in affected areas like joints and muscles.

It can also be injected intravenously via a saline solution and can be administered to treat certain circulation problems such as varicose veins.

Ozone therapy can also be administered in saunas with ozone vapor, or by using a localized tool to blow oxygen and ozone directly on the affected area.

This method is proven effective for treating skin issues such as acne, pimples, eczema, and herpes, and can even be used to erase scars.

Obesity and harmful habits such as smoking tobacco, excessive alcohol, and fast food consumption lead to the destruction of oxygen and toxin build-up in the body.

Ozone therapy, when combined with an appropriate diet and healthy habits, can help us to lose weight, detoxify our bodies, and even counteract obesity.

Which Treatment Is Best?

Oxygen therapy is currently not widely understood by the general public, and it is important to note that there are many ways to receive this treatment. Three of the more prominent treatments include:

- Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
  By using pressure and air with a higher percentage of O2, we can dissolve a greater degree of oxygen into the plasma in our blood, allowing our body to have a larger oxygen reserve to use for healing, regenerating, and recovering from all sorts of injuries and conditions.
- Ozone Treatment
  Using O3 releases extra oxygen in our body very rapidly, creating a strong oxidative effect that could shift Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) very quickly. This can help our body fight infection and improve some of our mitochondrial function. However, you can’t simply put on a mask as you would with O2, as there is only a limited amount of ozone the human body can take in before it becomes toxic.
- Exercise with Oxygen Therapy
  Breathing in pure oxygen through a mask during and after exercising, as well as focusing on proper breathing techniques can increase oxygen intake for patients recovering from debilitating injuries such as tissue damage and non-healing wounds.

Each type of treatment has a place in the entire model of oxygenation healthcare. While their methods, advantages, and disadvantages vary, the main premise of each is to deliver excess oxygen to the body in order to stimulate the healing process.

Ideally, a combination of different treatments will be recommended for therapy, depending on the needs of the patient.

For instance, we might want to start off the treatment by inducing the patient with O3 to increase oxidation levels, then supplement it with an extra dose of the more stable O2 via regular sessions in a hyperbaric chamber, then finish off with oxygen therapy exercises.

If you’re interested in alternative treatments surrounding oxygenation, feel free to contact us today.

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