Despite numerous studies conducted over the years demonstrating the diverse potential of ozone in treating various illnesses, the use of ozone therapy as a therapeutic agent remains controversial.
That’s partly because ozone has an inherently unstable molecular structure, due to the nature of its mesomeric states.
Some scientists believe that these states might be risky, while others believe this volatile nature is what gives ozone the therapeutic effects revealed in various studies.
The results of those studies aren’t entirely reassuring the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), however.In 2019, the FDA went as far as to say, “Ozone is a toxic gas with no known useful medical application in specific, adjunctive, or preventive therapy.”
And yet, there is a significant body of research finding that ozone has several therapeutic applications. A detailed review published in Medical Gas Research in 2017 acknowledges the unstable nature of the gas but notes that “copious volumes of research have provided evidence that [ozone’s] dynamic resonance structures facilitate physiological interactions useful in treating a myriad of pathologies.”This is why, despite concerns, suspicions, and differing opinions, a multitude of ozone therapies have been explored with substantial benefits found in a wide range of short- and long-term health issues.
Despite the FDA’s blanket rejection of ozone treatments, the current regulations tolerate the use of ozone in situations in which it has proven its safety and effectiveness.
Therapeutic Uses
Some types of cancer and COVID-19 have been found to improve with ozone therapy, suggesting that ozone may be beneficial in reducing the risk or severity of these illnesses. Research has found that the therapy decreased inflammatory markers linked to COVID-19 severity and that it was associated with a significantly shorter time to clinical improvement.
Also, a May 2022 study published in the Journal of International Medicine looked at the apoptotic effect (the process of cell death) of ozone therapy on mitochondrial activity of highly metastatic breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 using in vitro approaches.
The study concluded that “ozone has been shown to suppress the growth of human cancer cells in culture, implying that cancer cells have a compromised defense system against ozone damage.”
The authors state, “In the current study, we demonstrated that ozone treatment could induce an anti-cancer effect on breast cancer cell lines.”
