What is Ozone?
Ozone is a colorless gas made up of three atoms of oxygen (O3), as opposed to oxygen which is made up of two atoms of oxygen (O2). Ozone therapy refers to the process of administering ozone gas into your body to treat a disease or wound. You can read more about ozone and its overall benefits in an earlier blog.
History of Ozone Therapy
Ozone was used during World War I to treat infected wounds; At that time, no antibiotics were available. In addition to ozone’s ability to heal wounds, it was also found to have favorable hemodynamic and anti-inflammatory properties for soldiers. However, ozone was discovered before World War I by a Dutch Physicist, Martin Van Marum. Nicholas Tesla is credited with developing the first ozonator (a device to convert oxygen into ozone). Obviously smart individuals discovered, transformed and used ozone not because it was toxic, but because it was therapeutic.
Important point: Breathing ozone is toxic to the lungs because the lungs lack the antioxidants to convert ozone back to oxygen. Ozone is a way for tissues and cells to take up oxygen that might not otherwise be taken up. Think of ozone as super boost of oxygen to the body. A body with extra oxygen will heal better, feel better, and may even look better.
Has Gwyneth Paltrow, Editor of Goop, used Ozone Therapy? 
Yes, on a podcast with Will Cole, called The Art of Well Being, Gwyneth admitted to using rectal ozone. In fact, she states that ozone therapy has been helpful, although seemingly weird. Of course, this revelation went viral and received criticism from the mainstream medical community.
Can Ozone Therapy be Used for Wounds?
Wound-associated infections are a significant and rising health concern throughout the world owing to the aging population, prevalence of diabetes, and obesity. In addition, the rapid increase of life-threatening antibiotic-resistant infections has resulted in challenging wound complications with limited choices of effective therapeutics. Thus it seems, we are looking at older forms of therapies that antibiotics took the place of. Ozone therapy is being revisited as a possible intervention with chronic wounds.
According to research from 2018 Trusted Source, when ozone comes into contact with body fluids, the resulting reactions form more proteins and red blood cells; thereby increasing the oxygen supply in your body. As you can imagine, a better oxygenated body will feel more energetic and may be able to better fend off bacteria, viruses, mold, fungus and other toxicities.
Ozone therapy has been found to be helpful in healing difficult or chronic wounds. The affected area will be placed in a tightly sealed bag and then the ozone is inflated into the bag. This method is completely safe with no side effects.
A recent review of the literature looked at 12 articles and included 1055 participants with wounds of various origin from diabetes to diseases of the arteries and veins. The results were favorable with prior non-healing wound completely closing, regardless of the types of medications used to treat the wound, with the addition of ozone. In addition, the need to amputate was reduced compared to standard control groups.
In Conclusion, ozone therapy has been around for more than two-hundred years and was used since World War I in the United States. Antibiotics were considered to be a superior means of treating infections, and ozone was then viewed as archaic. However, with the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, ozone therapy is being revisited as an effective means of treating chronic non-healing wounds.
At Arizona Foot and Wound Care by Nurses, we believe in using ozone therapy early to treat all wounds to potentially accelerate healing and to prevent infection. Book a treatment today and experience better healing wound.
