Ozone Therapy – A Review

A reader forwarded me a link to: “Ozone therapy is an effective therapy in chronic fatigue syndrome:result of an Italian study in 65 patient” My initial take was that I was not surprised — why? Ozone kills some bacteria… but we need to dig deeper. Note: both Ozone and Hydrogen peroxide have one abnormal Oxygen atom that easily reacts. Hydrogen peroxide does wonders for killing bacteria on wounds.
First this study
What was done: “therapeutic shock of ozone autohemotherapy”
What was the result: “> 50% improvement in symptoms”

• No one went into remission.
• “symptoms” is way too subjective
• “The practice of autohemotherapy carries significant risks without any health benefit. Patients have died. Plus, autohemotherapy has been an illegal practice in Germany since 1984, but you will find naturopaths advertising ozone therapy as “commonly used in Europe.” [www.naturopathicdiaries.com] – a very good read on legality in the US.

On PubMed

• A lot of studies on it’s use for dental caries.
• A lot of studies on it’s use for wounds and skins issues.

There are some 70 articles on ozone autohemotherapy many of them are from China.

• ” The results of this study demonstrated that ozone autohemotherapy combined with pharmacological therapy was superior to isolated pharmacological therapy in patients with
  postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) and was an effective and safe way to relieve PHN “. [2018]
• Myocardial Infarction after Ozone Therapy: Is Ozone Therapy Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde? [2015]
• Ozone therapy induced sinus arrest in a hypertensive patient with chronic kidney disease: A case report [2017].
• Cerebrovascular pattern improved by ozone autohemotherapy: an entropy-based study on multiple sclerosis patients[2017].
• Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging following major ozonated autohemotherapy for treatment of acute cerebral infarction [2016].
• Ozone autohemotherapy induces long-term cerebral metabolic changes in multiple sclerosis patients. [2014]
• Major ozonated autohemotherapy promotes the recovery of upper limb motor function in patients with acute cerebral infarction. [2013]

Bottom Line
I would recommend a pass on this approach for three reasons:

• No studies suggesting remission, just symptom improvement (whatever that means — especially given the placebo risk)
• Real significant risks of adverse effects
• Those offering it are likely violating laws or naive in understanding the full picture.

” Ozone as a medical therapy has been used in many medical conditions; unfortunately, however, like every other therapy, ozone therapy has side effects. The literature concerning ozone therapy supports possible strong vasoconstrictor and prothrombotic effects of ozone therapy, further supporting our suggestion that ozone can lead to acute coronary syndromes in human beings. In conclusion, to our knowledge, our case report reveals a possible complication of ozone therapy that has never been reported before. We think that this article will raise the awareness of the possibility of thrombotic complications after ozonated autohemotherapy. ” [2015]