Claims and advertisements touting oxygen and ozone therapies seem to be everywhere. On the Internet and in magazines, these alternative treatments are promoted with such names as hyper-oxygenation, bio-oxidative therapy, oxymedicine and ozone therapy.
Those who promote these therapies do so on the unfounded assumption that all disease, even disease as serious and complex as cancer, is caused by a lack of oxygen in body tissue. Their "remedies" claim to increase oxygen in tissues and thus improve the body's ability to deter or fight disease. Not only are such therapies groundless and a waste of money, some of them are potentially harmful.
Oxygen does have its legitimate uses, of course. Patients with emphysema or those who have had surgery typically use tubes placed under the nostrils to deliver oxygen to the lungs, and hyperbaric oxygen treatments can be given in pressure chambers. But you should be wary of others.
Ozone therapy, for example, is presented on at least one Web site as an effective treatment for cancer, arthritis, immune deficiencies, infections, fibromyalgia and other ailments. And ionized water is touted as a way to provide the body with extra oxygen and energy. If we were like fish and had gills, maybe we could separate oxygen from liquids. We can't.
Some newspaper ads promote "stabilized oxygen molecules in a liquid solution of sodium chloride and distilled water," said to make pure oxygen available for absorption directly into the bloodstream, bypassing the lungs. It is said to effectively treat problems, from fatigue to illnesses. But, again, we can't bypass the lungs.
Hydrogen peroxide for years has been promoted as a cure for everything from asthma to warts to hemorrhoids. One advertisement claims that it improves the body's use of oxygen by adding several drops of "food grade" hydrogen peroxide (read: marketed by health food companies) to water. It is recommended also as an additive to baths, for use as an enema, and, off the really deep end, by injection, all to cure various ailments. Such treatments make no contribution to the body's oxygen needs. We can get oxygen into our bodies by one route: the lungs.
Ever hear of "clustered water"? It sells for about $35 a bottle and is advertised as having six-sided H20 molecules that can pass through cell walls to enhance the work of enzymes and nutrients in the body. Even though the manufacturing process is patented, there is no scientific proof of its benefit. Chemists, biochemists and physiologists tend to call this concept "crackpot chemistry" and "pseudoscience."
