What are the benefits of ozone therapy? Is there any research on what conditions it could help?

In our post on the safety of ozone therapy, we briefly touched on some of its studied benefits. Here we want to expand on those further.

How Ozone Works in the Body

Chemically, ozone is comprised of three oxygen atoms (O3): two doubly bonded to each other, and one with a single bond. The oxygen with a single bond is highly unstable and quickly breaks off, reacting with other substances. While it sounds counterintuitive, ozone's benefits owe partly to the fact that it causes brief oxidative stress in our bodies when the third oxygen breaks off. 

While the oxidative aspect of ozone might sound scary, this is how its magic happens. This also explains why it's effective for so many seemingly unrelated diseases. The brief oxidative stress caused when ozone is absorbed into the body or makes contact with a tissue causes a cascade of antioxidant and detoxifying enzymes to be released from our cells, which quickly neutralizes the oxidation and kickstarts healing (1). Ozone's oxidative nature is also responsible for its potent antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties.

The reactive nature of ozone makes it more absorbent in the body, as well as more soluble in fluids than pure oxygen, or O2 (2). This allows ozone to efficiently increase tissue oxygenation by improving mitochondrial respiration (3). Additionally, this also has the effect of activating the Krebs cycle to stimulate ATP production (1).

In short, ozone does what few other medicines can: it targets the root cause of dysfunction. By stimulating the reactions in our cells that are behind energy production, ozone has one of the broadest scopes of action of any therapy—allowing it to benefit almost every disease category.

What Diseases Does Ozone Help With?

Now that you understand how ozone works in the body, what does the scientific literature say about it?

Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune (AI) conditions are one of the fastest-rising classes of disease worldwide and in the United States. The more than 80 currently known AI diseases combined affect at least 24 million people in the US, and that number is projected to rise (4). Treatment options are somewhat limited and are often expensive. 

Ozone therapy hasn't broken into mainstream treatments for any autoimmune condition in the United States (yet), but it's showing promise both as an alternative and adjunct therapy for a multitude of AI diseases, with few to no side effects.

So far it has shown benefits for several AI conditions such as multiple sclerosis, for which it decreased inflammation and regulated the immune response (5, 6); decreased inflammation and joint damage in rheumatoid arthritis in rats (7); improved physical symptoms and depression in fibromyalgia patients (8); reduced the recurrence rate of interstitial cystitis flares in patients who didn't respond to conventional therapy (9); halted the progression of vitiligo in 80% of patients treated (10); decreased oxidative stress and up-regulated thyroid function in Hashimoto's patients (11); and decreased inflammatory markers, improved symptoms, and increased epithelial cell regeneration in ulcerative colitis patients (12, 13, 14). 

Cancer

While most of the positive research on ozone therapy and cancer has been done in vitro, meaning in a test tube, the bit of research that we do have on animals or humans has also been promising. Results vary based on the concentration of ozone used as well as the type of cancer, but researchers have proposed that prolonged ozone therapy could lead to less aggressive tumors by restoring normoxia (normal oxygen metabolism) to tumor tissue (15).

Ozone therapy has produced exciting outcomes in animals and humans like tumor regression, decreased metastases, and significant increases in survival by stimulating apoptosis in cancer cell walls while preserving healthy cells (16). Additionally, ozone may increase the susceptibility of cancer cells to chemotherapy drugs, allowing a lesser dose to be used (17).

One of the biggest downsides to conventional cancer treatment is the toxic side effects, which ozone therapy may be able to alleviate, as well. In different studies on rats, ozone therapy effectively protected both the kidneys and liver from methotrexate toxicity (18, 19), a common chemotherapeutic agent, while alleviating side effects in humans such as pain and neuropathy (20). 

Cardiovascular Issues

Cardiovascular issues remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, despite scientific advances. Because of its anti-inflammatory and mitochondrial-enhancing properties, ozone therapy could present a breakthrough in this disease class. Not only has ozone therapy improved experimental arrhythmias in rats (21), but in other animal models it has prevented experimental atherosclerosis lesions (22) and protected both the lungs and brain from oxygen deprivation (23, 24). In humans, ozone therapy has decreased blood cholesterol and improved antioxidant status in heart attack patients (25), as well as decreased chronic oxidative stress (26)—something orthodox treatments are not able to do.

Infectious Diseases and Microbes

Ozone's strong oxidative properties make it highly antibacterial, -fungal, and -viral. Combined with its anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating properties, it's perfect as an alternative or combination treatment for infections. Ozone is often used as an air and surface disinfecting agent, but it also has been shown to kill the bacteria responsible for cavities, as well as halt their progression (27). Even low doses of ozone have proven to interfere with cell viability in both gram-negative and -positive bacteria (28), and the therapy could be a potential game-changer for sepsis (29).

One of the most exciting applications of ozone therapy is in both acute and chronic viral infections. While it's been known for years that ozone therapy leads to improved outcomes with viral infections such as HIV (30), HPV (31, 32), and herpesviruses (33), in recent years, in recent years small studies have pointed to its efficacy in COVID-19 patients in regards to viral clearance, tissue oxygenation, blood flow, immune cell activity, decreased inflammation, symptom resolution, and fatigue relief in long haul syndrome without side effects (34, 35, 36, 37, 38). 

Neurological Disorders 

So far we've seen how ozone therapy can benefit the body with a wide array of conditions, and neurological issues are no different. Current research suggests that ozone may be able to slow aging and neurodegeneration through its anti-inflammatory and pro-autophagy effects (39). It is also believed to have positive impacts on the progression of Alzheimer's Disease (40), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in mice (41), peripheral neuropathy (42), and learning and memory deficits due to sleep deprivation (43). 

Skin Issues and Pain Relief

These are two of the most widely studied applications of ozone therapy. Systemic ozone therapy is indicated for almost every pain condition from disk herniation  and spinal pain (44), to post-herpetic neuralgia, low back pain, degenerative conditions, and more (45). 

Topically, ozonated oil has been shown to improve wound healing, diabetic foot ulcers, burns, acne, skin infections, ulcers, herpes lesions, scarring, dermatitis, aging, and psoriasis (46, 47, 48).

A Magic Bullet? 

While it may seem like ozone is too good to be true, it's hard to overstate its relevance and necessity for the pressing global health issues we face. Even in the absence of a disease state, ozone's ability to counteract oxidative stress through preconditioning (49)—a phenomenon where the body is strengthened against future stress through a minor, controlled stressor—could benefit almost everyone, given the sheer number of oxidative stressors we encounter daily. 

As always, this is informational only, and nothing in this post is intended to suggest that ozone therapy is a suitable substitute for conventional medical treatments, or that it will treat or cure any health condition. Always consult your trusted medical practitioner before beginning any new diet, supplement, or therapy, especially if pregnant, breastfeeding, or if you have a known medical condition. Please review our post on the safety of ozone to see some conditions that may be contraindicated for certain methods of ozone therapy.