This therapy based on the administration of oxygen (O2) or ozone (O3) is becoming increasingly consolidated. The ozone layer found in the atmosphere protects all living beings from ultraviolet rays, which are harmful to health. This gas is formed from electrical discharges in the atmosphere. For medical purposes, this gas is obtained from an oxygen cylinder and a generator that produces an electrical discharge and transforms the oxygen into ozone.
Cuba is one of the countries where ozone treatments have been most developed, along with Russia, Italy and Germany (cradle of ozone therapy). According to Carme Llagostera, an expert on the subject, this type of procedure began to be applied in Germany in World War II, when one of the soldier doctors realized that the application of ozone to war wounds was effective in avoiding amputations. , due to its properties as an antiseptic, although its use has not spread until later.
Ozone has different biological properties, including releasing more oxygen inside cells when it comes into contact with blood, red blood cells or red blood cells, at which time they capture more oxygen.
This is what happens in the case of great autohemotherapy, which consists of extracting between 150 and 350 cubic centimeters (cc) of blood from a person, placing it in a bag, introducing ozone and reinjecting the ozonated blood again. In short, it is an autotransfusion that achieves a greater release of oxygen in the body.
Due to these properties, it is being considered to apply it for preventive purposes in influenza A: ozone therapy could be applied as prevention due to its antiviral capacity, to prepare the weakened organism, since if ozone is applied and the immune system is balanced, it will is less vulnerable to infection.
For their part, there are experts who think that it would be useful against the H1N1 virus to help eliminate it or reduce its viral load. Regarding its antiviral properties, it stands out that countries like Italy use it to disinfect water from fungi and other pathogenic germs, instead of chlorine.
Ozone therapy is increasingly based on more scientific studies and, furthermore, although they are still limited to the field of research, there are devices that measure oxidative stress thanks to which it can be detected that ozone has been valid in a treatment. Among the application modalities of ozone therapy are intranal or rectal, intravaginal (to treat vaginal fungal infections), large autohemotherapy and small autohemotherapy (autotransfusion with only 20-25 cc. of ozone, which is injected via intramuscular), intramuscular or subcutaneous injections, bag gassing and ozonated water. In the latter case it can be used to wash wounds or ingested in order to treat gastric ulcers caused by "Helicobacter pylori".
The duration of the sessions varies significantly, depending on the way in which the treatment is applied, so that the sessions of great autohemotherapy last a quarter of an hour and those of intrarectal therapy, one minute.
The indications for this treatment are increasingly numerous and are carried out by doctors of different specialties. One of the uses that has made it popular has been cosmetic use as rejuvenation therapy, although, in reality, any ozone therapy treatment for any disease improves the appearance of the skin. A portion of the trauma community also uses ozone to treat herniated discs, although not everyone supports this method.
Another use of the most recent, still experimental, is its peritoneal application, something that has so far been tested in animal models (mice and rabbits), and could be useful as an aid to conventional treatments to treat tumors in the colon, rectum or different locations in the abdomen.
In osteoarthritis, ozone therapy seeks to reduce pain, inflammation, gain flexibility and stop the degenerative process.
Other applications, protagonists of the debate tables on this topic held recently, have studies to be very useful in the future due to their role in diseases such as dementia, AIDS and osteoarthritis. In patients with AIDS, ozone therapy is applied in the form of extensive autohemotherapy and rectally, due to its properties as an antigermicide (to help reduce the viral load of the virus so that it is weaker) and also to improve the immune system (and prevent the immunosuppressed patient from contracting opportunistic infections).
On the other hand, in osteoarthritis the main objective is to reduce pain, inflammation and gain flexibility, as well as stop the degenerative process and help the patient reduce the doses of anti-inflammatories and even dispense with them. In this case, ozone therapy is administered directly to the diseased joint, in doses of 10 cc. After the initial sessions, which are more frequent, it is applied as maintenance therapy.
Contraindications and side effects
As with any treatment, there are certain cases in which this therapy is contraindicated, such as fauvism, a deficiency of the enzyme glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase, due to which people who suffer from it have hemolysis (decomposition of red blood cells) and anemia, and are not fit to undergo therapy.
In some cases, such as hyperthyroidism, it had been contraindicated. However, as it has been applied, it has been observed that, in both hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, as long as these endocrine diseases are well regulated with medication, ozone therapy would not be contraindicated, but rather would favor balance. In pregnancy, ozone therapy applied through injections to treat a hernia would also not be indicated, due to the danger it would have of injuring certain nerves and increasing the risk of miscarriage. Although other modalities would be applicable during pregnancy.
Ozone therapy and dementia
Another of the novel applications of ozone therapy, still being studied, is the treatment of dementia, a problem that increasingly affects more of the population, with great impact on a cognitive level. The idea is to apply it in the form of autohemotherapy to improve the quality of life of affected people. Ozone therapy would be applied through the blood, since in dementia the vascularization is affected and oxygen does not reach the brain with sufficient consistency.
Vascularization worsens as we age: blood vessels close and the amount of blood that accesses the brain decreases. When applying ozone, although the amount of blood that would reach the brain would be the same (due to the structural deterioration of the vessels), the oxygen saturation would be higher.
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