Does anyone have personal experience with this therapy? My friend, who is a doctor, told me last night it can be used to re-grow cartilage in my knee. I think the process is the oxigenation of my own blood and subsequent injection of this into my knee area.
I call BS, but I am always skeptical of anything that claims to cure both HIV/AIDS and cancer. A quick google of “ozone therapy” shows claims that it also treats sciatica, tumors, diabetes, eczema, acne, chronic fatigue, back pain and all blood borne diseases.
The idea behind ozone therapy is that increasing the amount of oxygen in your blood will (depending on who you ask) detoxify your body, activate better healing elements, stimulate your immune system or a dozen different things.
Ozone therapy is not supported by the US Food and Drug Administration, and neither the Journal of the American Medical Association or the World Health Organization has published any research reporting benefits of it. While it seems to be used sometimes in Europe many organizations put it in the category of “alternative medicine” and it isn’t covered by most insurance companies.
For me the major red flags are:
-It claims to cure dozens of different things, which vary depending on where you look, including HIV/AIDS and cancer.
-According to web sites there are dozens of different ways to perform ozone therapy from IVs, injections, inhalation, to sitting in a sauna.
-Several places say it isn’t well known or supported by most people because the FDA and “Big Pharmacy” are trying to keep it a secret.
-It can cost a lot. One site says $1500 a session, with a full treatment being 9 sessions. I better have a serious issue with a proven (not anecdotal) track record before I consider dropping over $13k on a treatment.
I say skip it. If your friend pushes, check if your insurance covers it, check the price, ask for contacts and references, and if you are still interested go for or. The power of the mind has made cured many people with the placebo affect.
I hope I haven’t been too harsh or callous, but there are too many cases of people being played by others who create false hope with fake “miraculous cures.”
If you’re basically healthy, your blood is already very nearly saturated (>95% of maximum) with oxygen; applying ozone (or anything else) won’t result in a significant increase in saturation.
Moreover, ozone has numerous negative health effects. It’s unstable, and as soon as it reverts back to one diatomic oxygen molecule (O2) and one single oxygen atom, that singlet is just itching to oxidize things, including things like DNA and cell membranes.
Basically, there are lots of known bad effects, and no reliably documented good effects.
Lots of Quackwatch.org articles on ozone here; browse them at your leisure.