Ozone therapy is an alternative medical treatment whose main objective is to activate the antioxidant system by reducing free radicals in the body (toxic substances), as well as improving metabolism.
“It’s a therapy that has been used for some time. It is not new, it was used for the first time in World War I, only as an antiseptic”, said the expert in Traumatology and Orthopedics, Lilia Evelyn Acevedo Rojas, in Mexico City.
In an interview with Notimex, she mentioned that ozone activates the antioxidant system and thereby improves the immune system and circulation through the production of nitrous oxide.
“It is a substance that favors the tone of the blood vessels and allows a better flow, improves the affinity of the red blood cells for oxygen,” said the specialist.
She indicated that although the body has its own antioxidant cleaning system, when free radicals or oxidizing substances exceed the normal limit, inflammatory, fatigue and low oxygenation begin to appear.
“All these normal cycles serve our body to manage its antioxidant systems, but if a person does not eat well, does not sleep well, does not exercise his cleaning system, it is deteriorating, and that is the principle of ozone,” she said.
She explained that many times the antioxidant system is blocked by free radicals overload and when a free radical is reached, which are the ozone – active ozone – the antioxidant system is stimulated. “It’s like it wakes you up” and ozone works as an antioxidant being an oxidizer.
There are therapeutic amounts in which it works as an antioxidant, antiseptic, bactericidal or anti-inflammatory, but in high portions is an oxidant.
She clarified that in high doses, as when in pollution, ozone can irritate respiratory tract and be harmful, because it is a contaminant, but “we occupy it in microdose” and when used in medically high amounts, works as a bactericide.
So the problem with the environment is that it is not pure ozone. The medicinal is in an oxygen tank that passes through a machine and leaves a syringe. “The machine connects to the oxygen tank and there the ozone is produced,” she said.
The specialist pointed out that there are three ways of administering ozone: infiltration; Via the blood and esthetics, of which the first gas is applied directly in the inflamed areas and its effect is similar to that of a steroid but without the side effect.
When done under this method, clarified, generally has the anti-inflammatory response and thus also decreases pain, so it works as a painkiller without properly being.
She emphasized that the efficacy is greater by the blood route, since it is extracted blood that combines with ozone and an anticoagulant to avoid the formation thrombosis or some other complication circulatory.
Lilia Evelyn Acevedo explained that the main uses of ozone in orthopedics and traumatology are at the level of spine, joints, knees, ankles, shoulders and tendons.
In general terms, it can be said that ozone is an anti-inflammatory, analgesic, immunomodulatory, improves tissue oxygenation in general in all tissues such as brain, kidney and heart, as a result of the decrease in free radical concentration, she said.
