Ozone therapy, a branch of Naturopathy, is being touted as an alternative medicine therapy to support diabetes treatment. Medical professionals at the Ozone Forum of India (OFI) have highlighted the therapeutic benefits of ozone therapy during treatment of type-2 diabetes.
When ozone therapy is administered, the body improves oxygen metabolism. Ozone has a positive impact on adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the primary carrier of energy in cells regulation, and the platelets so that blood circulation improves. Improved oxygen delivery to the tissues and improved circulation aids in reducing insulin resistance by correcting oxidative stress. So, for diabetes patients, it gives better sugar control and it also has better infection control. The therapy can reduce the risk of complications from diabetes, as it activates the antioxidant system affecting the level of glycemia.
Ozone therapy can be a holistic treatment for a multi-organ level cure for diabetes rather than only treating blood sugar levels, say some doctors. Diabetes has a multi-organ involvement, where one needs to work on from diet to exercise to how best to detox and oxygenate. A multi-organ level cure is the key towards improving diabetic complications and tissue damage and it improves general vascular occlusion also. Diabetes germinates into more diseases in itself from top to bottom leading to impacting eye, kidney, brain or even cardiovascular systems. So, ozone therapy with its many benefits is seen as something that can provide this multi-organ cure.
Diabetes prevalence is increasing rapidly in middle and high income countries in recent times. India stands second among countries with high diabetes prevalence.
Existing diabetes management practices are limited to controlling blood sugar only. In contrast, medical ozone therapies target the root cause of the problem, aiding patients in improving their mitochondrial functions and restoring their microbiome.
The forum says that almost 15 per cent of diabetes patients develop diabetic foot ulcer. With poor control of sugar, trivial trauma to the foot leads to cracking skin and development of ulcer. Nearly half of such patients undergo amputation. So, early detection of the diabetic foot ulcers is important. Ozone therapy, by increasing oxygenation, improves the blood circulation of the limb, and can reduce infection, swelling, and pain.
More than 2,400 doctors and over 50,000 patients have been treated by the OFI for tuberculosis, cancer, skin treatments, diabetic foot, etc.
What is Ozone Therapy?
Ozone gas is a form of oxygen. This colourless gas is made up of three oxygen atoms. On ground level, ozone is a harmful air pollutant. On inhalation, it produces lung and throat irritation, coughing, and worsened asthma symptoms. High exposure can lead to lung damage and can be fatal. However, some researchers believe that ozone can have therapeutic effects in medical contexts.
Ozone therapy refers to medical practices using ozone gas for treatment. In alternative medicine, practitioners of ozone therapy use gas or liquid forms of ozone to treat medical conditions and as a topical disinfectant. It is considered a therapy that can kill pathogens on contact including viruses, yeast, mould, and harmful bacteria. That it is a ‘natural treatment’ therapy adds to its attraction.
It is said to have been first used in 1814. In the first world war, it was experimented with to treat mustard gas burns and septic wounds. People have practised ozone therapy in medical contexts. However, its use is now controversial amid safety concerns.
Ways of Delivering Ozone into the Body
To use ozone as a medicine, people apply it to the skin, use ozonated water, blow the gas into the body, or use an ozone sauna, wherein a body part is bagged and exposed to ozone gas. Because ozone irritates the airways, it is important that the gas is not inhaled.
Some major ways of delivering the ozone into the body are as follows:
- Ozone blood dialysis is an advanced ozone treatment. It can detoxify 3.5 litres of blood in one session, to deep detox and blood cleanse for disease and addiction treatment.
- Intravenous Ozone Therapy is a way to slowly introduce the system to ozone through the intravenous mode.
- Auto-haemotherapy For some procedures, a practitioner will mix a person’s blood with ozone and re-inject it. This is a process known as auto-haemotherapy. Scientific studies, however, have not proven the safety of this procedure.
- Ozone Colonic Irrigation involves delivering ozone into the colon to kill harmful bacteria, parasites, mould/yeast infections, and virus. It draws toxins through blood, liver, and lymph back into the large intestine for better elimination.
Benefits of Ozone Therapy
The benefits of the therapy include the following:
- Ozone therapy inactivates bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, and yeast in the body and the air. It is known to kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a superbug that is resilient to antibiotics.
- It helps because of ozone’s anti-inflammatory properties.
- It is used for treating heart problems (through antioxidant effects of ozone therapy).
- It can reduce pain, and so it is used in cancer treatment to alleviate side effects. Cancer cells cannot grow in an environment that lacks oxygen. They do not have enzymes to protect them from being oxidised. This makes all unhealthy cells, including cancers, defenceless to ozone.
- It stimulates the immune system by increasing the production of cytokine like gamma interferon, interleukin-2, colony stimulating factor, and TNF-alpha.
- It improves circulation by cleaning the arteries and veins, and repairing skin and tissue.
- Ozone can help tackle chronic conditions in the body.
- The therapy can be used to purify blood and the lymph and increase the amount of oxygen that is delivered to the cells by red blood cells (RBCs).
- Ozone detoxifies your body.
- It improves brain function and memory.
- Ozone therapy helps flush out infected cells.
- It normalises production of hormone and enzymes.
- It helps nails and hair grow longer and stronger, making the skin glow and giving more physical energy.
- Ozone reduces acidity in the body which is the cause of gout and which damages blood vessels.
- Medical ozone contains large excess of energy which it used to kill HIV, viruses, bacteria, and germs on contact.
Concerns
There have been safety concerns related to use of ozone for therapeutic reasons. Ozone gas is toxic to humans. There has been little research into the safety of ozone therapy. There is not enough evidence to conclude that it is effective or safe for medical use (for HIV or other infectious diseases, heart disease, cancers, skin conditions, or a range of other conditions). For this reason, official organisations do not currently support its use.
In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned against using ozone therapy. It has said that ozone is a toxic gas which has no known useful application in supportive or preventive medicine.
According to reports, although ozone has shown success against the virus that causes HIV outside the body, no research to date has shown its safety or effectiveness in humans.
Some research suggests that ozone therapy can fight disease, including cancer, by modulating the immune system response and reversing oxygen deficits in the body. However, Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Cancer (CAM Cancer) states that there have been no randomised controlled trials in people with cancer. There have been very few human trials of ozone therapy for any condition in general.
Regarding its use as a disinfectant, for ozone to be effective as a germicide, it must be present in a concentration far greater than that which can be safely tolerated by humans and animals.
Ozone therapy has had adverse effects in the past. Cases have been reported where direct infusion of ozone intravenously resulted in pulmonary embolism and death. As per a 2005 report, ozone therapy has resulted in air embolism, blood-borne infections, and bilateral visual field loss.
Researchers are currently exploring the effects of ozone therapy on the human body to identify any potential therapeutic benefits.
The Link with Mercury Toxicity Often, after ozone therapy, patients experience many adverse reactions, including depression, inability to concentrate, inability to focus the eyes, increased brain fog, headaches, or body pain, and can have suicidal or panic attacks. These are typical, often reported, reactions to glutathione IVs in people which results in mercury toxicity.
Glutathione (GSH), a potent antioxidant, is often prescribed as an IV during ozone treatments. It contains single thiols (carbon bonded sulfhydryl groups), and is therefore able to go into a weak bond with mercury, causing mercury poisoning or toxicity. When introduced intravenously, glutathione mobilises mercury from deep inside tissues. But the glutathione does not bond to the mercury strongly enough since it has only one thiol group. Plus, the body metabolises glutathione, so soon the GSH blood levels start to go down. The mercury then becomes detached and accumulates in places with a lot of sulphur, like the brain, adrenals, or nerves. Corrosive to the skin, eyes, and gastrointestinal tract, it can cause a range of problems specially affecting the nervous, digestive and immune systems, lungs, and kidneys.
Oral glutathione administration is preferable to IV glutathione administration as there are fewer reports of adverse reactions in the former, which is immediately broken down in the digestive tract.