Is Ozone Therapy the Same as Oxygen Therapy?
Ozone therapy and oxygen therapy are entirely different things and should never be conflated. While most oxygen therapy involves inhaling directly from an oxygen source, this is not an appropriate route of administration for ozone therapy. Directly breathing in ozone gas can be harmful to your lungs — or irritating at the very least — and should never be attempted.
Although ozone is made up of oxygen molecules, ozone and oxygen are two distinct gases and their therapeutic applications are likewise different. There may be some overlap due to the fact that improved oxygenation by any means can result in improved mood, energy, and overall sense of wellness, but that is where the similarities end.
Your First Ozone Treatment: What to Expect
Ozone therapy can look very different from patient to patient. We already looked at how many different possible routes of administration there are above, from easy-to-apply topical oils to medical procedures similar to blood transfusions. An oil massage is obviously a much quicker and simpler treatment than having your blood drawn, ozonated, and replaced in a licensed medical facility, and there is a whole spectrum of other ozone treatment options between those two extremes.
You will want to speak to a trusted health care provider to come up with a personal plan for ozone therapy that will meet your goals and lead to your desired outcomes, whether you’re using it for wound treatment, general self-care, or as part of an addiction recovery regimen.
Common questions like “how often should I do ozone therapy?” and “how long does ozone treatment take?” unfortunately cannot be answered in a sentence or two. The answers will represent a deeply personal choice made in partnership with a trusted care provider and will therefore look different in every situation.
If you and your doctor decide on intramuscular injection-based ozone treatment, for example, you might expect the process to be comparable to getting vaccinated.
Can Ozone Therapy Be Harmful?
Because ozone therapy and some of its emergent uses are still a matter of continued research and testing, we also may not know all of ozone’s potential side effects. While it is a gas that occurs naturally in our own atmosphere, it needs to be handled and administered with great care and respect just like any other medicinal supplement.
Here’s what we do know about the possible downsides to ozone therapy:
Lung Damage
People with existing respiratory conditions should be particularly cautious around ozone. Breathing the gas directly can cause irritation to the lungs or even damage to the lung tissue itself. Ozone therapy is not the same as oxygen therapy and should never involve deliberately and directly inhaling ozone gas.
It’s worth noting here that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has come out against products containing ozone due to its categorization as an air pollutant. Extreme ozone irritation has been known to lead to a pneumonia-like fluid buildup in the lungs.
Instability
Ozone — O3 — contains an odd number of atoms, making it unstable. While ozone is not technically flammable, due to the fact that it is, itself, made of oxygen, high concentrations of ozone can be explosive in their own right. Patients and medical professionals using ozone for therapeutic purposes should do so with all possible caution and due diligence.
Dangers of IV Use
Any drug taken intravenously has its own inherent risks, such as the formation of tiny air bubbles that can lead to fatal disruption of the cardiovascular system. Use all necessary precautions when taking intravenous ozone or any other injection-based treatment.
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