Oxygen Healing Therapies

by Nathaniel Altman

Pamela’s candida was out of control. After being treated unsuccessfully with diets, drugs and natural remedies for five years, she was unable to work and her doctors were ready to give up on her. Yet after only eight treatments of intravenous hydrogen peroxide therapy, she became symptom-free and was able to return to work by the following week.

Lily’s angina pains kept her confined to her home much of the day. Yet after a three-week course of ozone therapy, her symptoms disappeared and she was able to walk for blocks without discomfort.

Bill woke up with severe lower back pain. His doctor diagnosed a herniated disc, recommended surgery and wrote him a prescription for opiods. Bill wanted neither. After twelve injections of ozone and oxygen at the pain site, his chronic pain was completely relieved.

In an age when medical specialization, complex procedures and toxic drugs are often expensive and ineffective, health care consumers are interested in getting back to basics. We are looking for medical therapies that will naturally enhance our body’s own healing power. Finally, we are looking for therapies that will cause a minimum of negative side effects, will not cause addiction, nor will bring about financial ruin.

Most of us believe that such a therapy is nonexistent. However, there are a number of simple, natural substances whose clinical uses have been documented in medical literature since the 1920s, and have been proven effective in treating some of our most common serious diseases both here and abroad, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and joint disorders.

Intentionally overlooked by the mainstream medical profession, the government and the pharmaceutical industry, they are now being used by a rapidly-growing underground of health care consumers and a small number of physicians who are tired of the expensive, dangerous, invasive and often useless medical procedures used to treat these diseases today. The elements in question are hydrogen peroxide and ozone, used in a therapeutic approach known popularly as oxygen therapies and scientifically as oxidative therapies.

The philosophy behind oxygen therapies is a simple one. The accumulation of toxins in the body is normally burnt up by the process of oxidation, a process wherein a substance is changed chemically because of the effect of oxygen on it. Oxidation breaks the toxins down into carbon dioxide and water, and eliminates them from the body. However, if the oxygen system of the body is weak or deficient (whether through lack of exercise, environmental pollution, poor diet, smoking, or improper breathing), our bodies cannot eliminate them adequately and a toxic reaction can occur. In minor cases, a toxic buildup can lead to fatigue, while a wide range of diseases can result when poor oxygenation is chronic.

Although few of us have ever heard of them, oxidative therapies have been around for a long time. They have been used clinically by European physicians for over a century, and were first reported by Dr. T.H. Oliver in the British medical publication The Lancet in 1920. Since that time, they have been studied in major medical research centers throughout the world, including Baylor University, Yale University, The University of California (Los Angeles) and Harvard University in the United States, as well as in medical schools and laboratories in Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Canada, Japan, Cuba, Mexico and Brazil. One prominent researcher, Michael E. Shannon, MD, served as deputy Surgeon General of Canada. Today, between fifty and one hundred scientific articles are published each month about the chemical and biological effects of ozone and hydrogen peroxide.

How Do They Work?

Ozone, for example, is a type of superactive oxygen. When it reacts with body fluids like moisture in skin, mucous membranes or blood plasma, it generates a number of chemical messengers (such as antioxidants and polyunsaturated fatty acids) and produces hydrogen peroxide and reactive oxygen species or ROS. They, in turn, produce what is known as transient oxidative stress and longer-term reactions that strengthen the immune system and increase oxygen delivery to the body’s cells. When hydrogen peroxide or ozone break down into these various oxygen subspecies, they contact anaerobic viruses and microbes [i.e. viruses and microbes that have the ability to live without air], as well as diseased or deficient tissue cells. They oxidize these cells while leaving the healthy cells alone. Because oxidative therapies work to enhance the body’s immune system, the body is better able to heal itself.

What is Hydrogen Peroxide?

Hydrogen peroxide is involved in all of life’s vital processes, and must be present for the immune system to function properly. The cells in the body that fight infection (known as granulocytes) produce hydrogen peroxide as a first line of defense against invading organisms like parasites, viruses, bacteria and yeast. It is also required for the metabolism of protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. As a hormonal regulator, hydrogen peroxide is necessary for the body’s production of estrogen, progesterone and thyroxin; it also helps regulate blood sugar and the production of energy in cells. Hydrogen peroxide has long been known medically as a disinfectant, antiseptic and oxidizer, but has also been found to successfully treat a wide variety of human diseases with a minimum of harmful side effects.

What is Ozone?

Ozone is an energized form of oxygen with extra electrons, and was originally used to disinfect wounds and infected surfaces. It was later found that these electrons have the ability to “blast” holes through the membranes of viruses, yeasts, bacteria and abnormal tissue cells and therefore killing them. Ozone was the focus of considerable research in Germany during the 1930s where it was successfully used to treat patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disorders, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and chronic bacterial diarrhea.

According to Frank Shallenberger, MD, America’s leading practitioner of oxygen therapies and Founder of the American Academy of Ozonotherapy, oxidative therapies affect the body in the following ways:

1. They stimulate the production of white blood cells, which are necessary to fight infection.
2. Ozone and hydrogen peroxide are anti-virucidal.
3. They increase oxygen and hemoglobin disassociation, thus increasing the delivery of oxygen from the blood to the cells.
4. Ozone and hydrogen peroxide are anti-neoplastic, which means that they inhibit the growth of new tissues like tumors.
5. They oxidize and degrade petrochemicals.
6. They increase red blood cell membrane distensibility, thus enhancing their flexibility and effectiveness.
7. Oxygen therapies increase the production of interferon and Tumor Necrosis Factor, which the body uses to fight infections and cancers.
8. They increase the efficiency of the anti-oxidant enzyme system, which scavenges excess free radicals in the body.
9. They accelerate the Citric Acid Cycle, which is the main cycle for the liberation of energy from sugars. This then stimulates basic metabolism. It also breaks down proteins, carbohydrates and fats to be used as energy.
10. Oxidative therapies increase tissue oxygenation, thus bringing about patient improvement.

How are These Therapies Administered?

The most common form of hydrogen peroxide therapy calls for small amounts of 30% reagent grade hydrogen peroxide added to purified water and administered as an intravenous drip. However, some individuals like to add a cup of 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide to a bathtub of warm water; the hydrogen peroxide reacts with the skin while the person soaks in the tub. Others drink a glass of water to which several drops of food or reagent grade hydrogen peroxide have been added. Although there have been reports of improved health with this method, physicians like Dr. Farr believe that taking hydrogen peroxide orally can have a corrosive effect on the stomach and small intestine and advise against using it.

The four primary ways to administer medical ozone include:

1. Autohemotherapy, which involves removing about one half pint of blood from the patient, adding ozone and oxygen to the blood, and infusing the blood back to the patient. It becomes, in essence, a type of “auto-vaccine.”
2. Rectal insufflation, in which ozone and oxygen is administered as an enema. The ozone/oxygen mixture first reacts with the large intestine and beneficial chemical reactions follow.
3. Ozone “bagging” which involves having an airtight bag placed around the area to be treated. A mixture of ozone and oxygen is pumped into the bag and reacts with the skin.
4. Ozone is also used externally in the form of ozonated olive or sunflower oil.

Some practitioners inject ozone and oxygen directly into a vein, but this method is illegal in Europe due to dangers of embolism. Its use has been strongly discouraged by leading practitioners like Dr. Shallenberger, and by the International Scientific Committee on Ozone Therapy, publisher of The Madrid Declaration on Ozone Therapy, a landmark document that has set the therapeutic standards for ozone and its medical applications.

Safe and Effective

Although ozone and hydrogen peroxide are highly toxic in their purified state, they have been found to be both safe and effective when diluted to therapeutic levels for medical use. When administered according to establish protocols, the chances of experiencing an adverse reaction to oxidative therapies is extremely small. For example, a German study evaluating the adverse side effects of over five million medically-administered ozone treatments found that the rate of adverse side effects was only 0.0007 per application. This figure is far lower than any other type of medical therapy.

It has been estimated that over fifteen million people (primarily in Germany, Russia and Cuba) have been given oxidative therapies over the past seventy years to treat over fifty different diseases. They include heart and blood vessel diseases, diseases of the lungs, infectious diseases, and immune-related disorders. In some cases, oxidative therapies are administered alone, while in others, they are used in addition to traditional medical procedures (such as surgery or chemotherapy) or as adjuncts to alternative health practices like megavitamin therapy, acupuncture or herbal medicine.

One Therapy, Many Applications

Because they work primarily to enhance the body’s immune response, oxygen therapies offer a tremendous range of medical applications. According to The Madrid Declaration on Ozone Therapy (June 2015), the following conditions or diseases have been treated successfully with ozone therapy, either alone or in combination with other therapies. Many of these problems can respond to hydrogen peroxide as well.

They include spinal diseases, including herniated disc and spondylolysis; orthopedic diseases and localized osteoarthritis; painful disorders of musculoskeletal soft tissue; gonoarthrosis; pathologies of the tendons (including tennis elbow and jumper’s knee); carpal tunnel syndrome; diabetes, diabetic foot and diabetic-related ulcers; chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia; Ménière’s disease; advanced ischemic diseases and lower limb arterial ischemia; age-related macular degeneration; dental cavities, particularly in children; ostromyelitis; pleural emphysema; abscesses with fistula, infected wounds, bedsores, ulcers and burns; acute and chronic infectious diseases, including hepatitis, HIV-AIDS, herpes, papilloma virus infections, nail fungus, candida, giardia and athlete’s foot. Oxygen therapies have also been prescribed to help treat cancer-related fatigue (to be integrated with conventional cancer treatment) and asthma. Individual researchers have also found these therapies to be effective in treating cancer, hepatitis, Alzheimer’s disease, emphysema and Parkinson’s disease. Therapeutic ozone and hydrogen peroxide have also become increasingly popular among dentists and veterinarians.

Unknown, Ignored and Forgotten

Despite the fact that oxygen therapies have been proven in clinical trials (and in regular medical practice) to be safe and effective in Europe, Australia, East Asia, India and Cuba, very few people have heard about them in Canada and the United States. Although an estimated 15,000 European practitioners legally use oxidative therapies in their practices, the number of physicians using these therapies in North America is small, due in part to the fact that information about ozone and hydrogen peroxide is not provided in medical schools. The medical establishment does not advocate the use of oxygen therapies and often discourages or prevents licensed physicians from using them. In the United States, physicians have been threatened with having their licenses revoked if they administer hydrogen peroxide or ozone. Clinics have been closed down and practitioners have been threatened with jail.

A major reason for this lack of interest in oxidative therapies is that ozone and hydrogen peroxide are non-patentable substances that are inexpensive to manufacture and utilize. There are no financial incentives to incorporate them into traditional medical practice. Oxygen therapies pose a real threat to the continued dominance of the medical establishment: the pharmaceutical industry, medical centers and physicians who are accustomed to providing expensive drugs, surgery and other complex medical procedures and long hospital stays.

By 2017 the North American pharmaceutical industry was a $500-billion business, and it spent over $178 million on lobbyists to influence members of Congress during recent year. With an average net profit margin of 18.1 percent, Big Pharma is among the most profitable sectors of all industry groups.

And what about the media? According to a February 2015 article in The Washington Post, America’s ten largest drug companies spent $98.3 billion on sales and marketing, especially on television and magazine advertisements and direct marketing to physicians. This is why you are not likely to hear about the benefits of oxygen therapies from your doctor or in the mainstream media, which relies heavily on drug advertising.

Because United States government agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are influenced by the pharmaceutical industry and the medical lobby, objective investigation and development of effective protocols for oxidative therapies have been difficult to undertake.

A Viable Alternative

Despite the challenges, oxygen therapies like hydrogen peroxide and ozone hold great promise in treating both minor health problems and some of the most devastating diseases confronting humanity today, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic pain. Together, they form the “cutting edge” of a new healing paradigm, involving safe, effective, natural, non-addictive and less costly forms of medical therapy.

© 2017 by Nathaniel Altman

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Author Bio:

Nathaniel Altman is the author over fifteen books on diet and health, including The New Oxygen Prescription, which was published in June by Healing Arts Press. [Trade paper, 512 pages, $24.95. ISBN-13: 978-1-62055-607-8. It is also available as an e-book]. His website is OxygenPrescription.com.