After SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2003 and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) in 2012 a novel coronavirus COVID19 has shaken the stability of the health system yet again.
Due to its longer incubation period and higher contagiousness the outbreak got the title of the global pandemic with world cases counting millions nowadays. Despite a serious public health threat we are seeing a surprising antagonism: the choice between public health and local economies. The same mercantilist and conservative approach holds true for the search of the cure, with pharmaceuticals pouring billions into the development of vaccines while completely ignoring readily available immunity-boosting solutions like ozone therapy or vitamin D.
In this article I would like to point out the benefits of ozone therapy, ways of getting this treatment and illustrate case studies proving the valuable effects on human health.
Recently, the Journal of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology published an article very shocking. At the conclusion, the authors, Robert Jay Rowen, MD and Howard Robins, DPM, states:
Many viruses require reduced sulfhydryl groups for cell fusion and entry. Corona viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 are rich in cysteine, which residues must be intact for viral activity. Sulfhydryl groups are vulnerable to oxidation. Ozone therapy, a very inexpensive and safe modality may safely exploit this critical vulnerability in viruses like SARS-CoV-2.(…) Ozone therapy could be easily deployed worldwide, even in very poor countries. With few conventional treatments for viral pneumonia, this epidemic could provide impetus to study ozone therapy under the auspices of an institution’s review board in treating, with ozone therapy, seriously ill patients, who might otherwise expire. Milder cases could also be treated to study the ability of ozone therapy to slow or halt clinical deterioration. Such study could bring ozone therapy to the forefront of all-around infectious disease management. [i]
But what is Ozone and how do you get it? A single atom of oxygen is deficient in electrons. This is why this atom is very unstable and cannot exist in nature by itself. However, two atoms of oxygen can join together to share electrons creating a very stable molecule named as O2. This is the oxygen that we breathe. In some cases, however, when molecules of O2 are subjected to electricity or UV light they split apart again, and, in 2-3% of cases three atoms of oxygen unite to become O3, known as ozone. Ozone is an unstable molecule, which leads to a serious mitochondria stimulation if found in your body. Ozone regenerates your cells ten times better than O2. Ozone is the most powerful oxidant found in nature. Ozone therapy (OT) consists of the use of the 1-5% ozone in 95-99% oxygen as a gas. This mixture is called “medical ozone”.[ii]
Dr Shallenberger highlighted some benefits of the OT: (1) increases the delivery of oxygen to the cells; (2) increases oxygen utilization; (3) stimulates cytokines function; (4) increases nitric oxide production; (5) increases hemoxygenase-1 (HO-1); (6) stimulates detoxification; (7) stimulates antioxidant enzymes; (8) ozone is directly toxic to all microbes, bacteria, fungi, yeast, viruses, protozoa.[iii]
Due to the abovementioned benefits zone therapy is being used to treat cancer, autoimmune disease, acute and chronic infections, Lyme disease, parasitic infections, macular degeneration (age-related), MRSA, acute and chronic ulcers, candidiasis, HIV, slipped disc, chronic fatigue syndrome, dentistry, fibromyalgia. The treatment and the prevention may be given directly to the tissue, intravenously or intramuscularly.
Apart from having beneficial effect on numerous health conditions, ozone has yet another enormously important application due to its antibacterial qualities. Let us, firstly, consider these data: (1) 2.5 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation, i.e more than 35% of the world’s population; (2) unsafe drinking water, inaccessibility of water for hygiene, and lack of access to sanitation together contribute to about 88% of deaths from diarrheal diseases; 801,000 children younger than 5 years of age perish from diarrhoea each year, in the vast majority in developing countries; 11% of the 7.6 million deaths of children (2,200) under the age of five are dying every day as a result of diarrheal diseases; in countries without a good sanitation infrastructure, about 250 million people are infected every year by waterborne pathogens, with about 10 million deaths. And so on, so forth… this tragic list is interminable. According to the Emeritus professor Velio Bocci:
Ozone is possibly an even more potent drinking water disinfectant able to inactivate several human pathogens, e.g. as many as 63 different bacteria (Salmonella, Shigella, Vibrio, Campylobacter jejuni, Yersinia enterocolitica, Legionella, etc.), some 15 viruses (polio-, echo-, Coxsackie viruses, etc.), some 25 fungi and mould spores (Aspergillus, Penicillium, Trichoderma, etc.), several yeast varieties, and up to 13 fungal pathogens (Alternaria, Monilinia, Rhizopus, etc.).[iv]
Dr Velio Bocci has spent all his career researching the benefits of ozone therapy and has published about 480 publications and monographs, the last two are in English: Oxygen ozone therapy (2002), and Ozone. A new medical drug (2005).
According to Dr Bocci, “in addition to the disinfection of drinking water, the use of ozone can also improve its taste. However, the most amusing discovery of Dr Bocci is his claim that ozone therapy can fight infections which have become resistant to any known antibiotics. As he concludes, “this is a complex story, partly due to the extensive use of antibiotics in animal food and the improper use in patients”. Even without a vaccine, we are not powerless. Why cannot we use ozone therapy?
Dr Bocci, Dr Rowen, Dr Robins and Dr Shallenberger are not the only physicians who know benefits and defend the large application of the ozone therapy. Making rapid research on the web about OT we can figure out these results: On Google Scholar there are nearly 113,000 results of scientific articles; On PubMed.gov there are 3588 results of scientific articles. Even on Amazon.com, there are 47 books. Are there articles related directly to COVID-19? We find out 14 articles just on Google Scholar.
There are at least 18 investigational drugs – including the most famous Chloroquine, Hidroxichloroquine and Ivermectin – to combat the SARS-CoV-2. The general researchers’ preoccupation is the disastrous side-effects of these remedies. In order to safely overcome the current health crisis we need a safe, inexpensive and efficient drug. If any single one of these requirements is not met, problem will stay unsolved. The colossal advantage of ozone therapy is its safety and very accessible even in remote places. As explained by Dr Rowen and Dr Robin:
The treatment requires an ozone generator, medical-grade compressed oxygen, a syringe (and a butterfly needle for DIY method). The generator can be run off a car battery in remote areas. Ozone therapy is exceptionally safe, with a reported complication rate of only 0.7 per 100,000 treatments. Most side effects were found to be due to improper administration.[v]
Having read all the advantages of using ozone it is still mildly unclear why the therapy is so little known. There several possible explanations, neither of which, however, justifies a complete inaction and disinterest of medical professionals in trying this inexpensive and efficient solution. Accoridng to Dr Bocci despite his numerous trials to convince medical establishment to try ozone therapy, the ruling dogma in the USA is that “ozone is a toxic gas and should not be used in medicine”. Beyond these barriers exposed by Professor Bocci, there are some others. According to Dr Rowen and Dr Robin:
Ozone’s challenge is that it does not bring profit to justify private research to advance it towards regulatory agency “approval”, a process requiring tens of millions of USD. Hence, few in the medical field are aware of it, and fewer will consider “unapproved” therapy even to save lives. It suffers from the “tomato effect” because many of its achievements are regarded as impossible to believe. Virtually all use is in private offices, where most practitioners have no access to an institutional review board, now a requirement to gain acceptance of research for publication. Hence, the advancement of ozone therapy into mainstream medicine languishes, and most patients, with no alternatives to conventional therapies, suffer.
If these problems listed above had not exist, it is possible that thousands of people could have been saved from various diseases, potentially even COVID-19.
Italy and Spain reported high death rates from coronavirus and in both countries medical authorities have shown to be more adventurous with trying unconventional treatments. In Italy, the Italian Scientific Society of Ozone Therapy (SIOOT) reported that 15 hospitals have started using Major Autohemotherapy (MAH) ozone treatments on patients with Coronavirus infections. In Spain, a polyclinic in Ibiza has authorized the use of ozone therapy on COVID-19 patients and so far “the results have been spectacular” according to Dr Alberto Hernández, Assistant Physician for Anaesthesia and Resuscitation. Nevertheless, the majority of states recognize the benefits of ozone treatment painfully slow.
Ozone therapy is just one of dozens of highly efficient but overlooked treatments which are easily accessible for general public. The problem of low monetization of such treatments does lead to the situation when we have to wait years and spend thousands for a half baked solution when we could have used a reliable treatment if we had the reliable information at the right time.
The problem of ignoring “alternative” treatments can jeopardize the future proposed by transhumanists. If the techno-scientific developments are always limited by an economic rationale or the lack of openness to the new ideas, our quest of building a more progressive and advanced society will always be inachievable. The transhumanist movement needs to put this debate in the spotlight. If we cannot disseminate a new safe, inexpensive and efficient auxiliary treatment to help us fight against this pandemic, how are we expected to believe that someday all people will have access to an antiaging treatment?
We cannot always condition our prosperity, development, and wellbeing to economic profit. Ozone therapy is not a solution to all our worries. However, we do not have to solve them all at once. As they say, – Rome wasn’t built in a day. But eventually it has been built. Just as we will solve the current crisis. One step at a time.
[i] ROWEN; ROBINS, p. 2-3, 2020.
[ii] SHALLENBERGER, p. 13. 2017.
[iii] SHALLENBERGER, p. 26-27, 2017.
[iv] BOCCI, 2005.
[v] ROWEN; ROBINS, p. 2-3,2020.
