Ozone Therapy - Uses

Uses

Some alternative medicine practitioners use ozone for a variety of conditions including dental conditions, cancer treatments, and AIDS. Its use is controversial in the United States but more accepted in Germany, Cuba, and Russia.

Ozone can disinfect surfaces and water if it is administered for at least two hours at a concentration of 1200 parts per million. It has been proposed as a treatment for AIDS and though it does deactivate the viral particles outside the body, there is no evidence of benefits to living patients.

Summarizing the substantial and growing body of study results showing deleterious health effects of breathing ozone, in 1976, and reiterated in 2006, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reflects the scientific consensus that ozone is a toxic gas which has, as yet, no demonstrated safe medical application in specific, adjunctive, or preventive therapy. One possible reason, noted by the FDA, is that in order for ozone to be effective as a germicide, it must be present in a concentration far greater than can be safely tolerated by man or other animals.

It is also noted that cinema projectionists who were exposed to excessive levels of ozone as a byproduct of the carbon arc lamps used in the projectors developed what was known as "Projectionists Lung". Ozone caused a deteriation of the lower lung membranes.

Though used as a treatment for cancer by some physicians, the American Cancer Society has advised cancer patients against using ozone therapy. Other industry opinion leaders in the UK and Australia as recently as 2001 also suggest that knowledge regarding the potential benefit and harm of ozone in cancer patients is insufficient. Therefore they do not recommend it as an alternative form of treatment for cancer patients.

Ozone has been suggested for use in dentistry, but the existing evidence does not support its use.