Oxygen Remedies: Hot Air
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.”
Then there is “Vitamin O,” a bottled saline solution ($20 per bottle) that claims to contain 30,000 parts per million of oxygen. It is supposed to make oxygen available for absorption into the bloodstream where it can promote better health.
One of several problems with this claim is that the maximum solubility of oxygen in water (which is two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen) at room temperature is only 7,500 parts per million. Remember, too, the body does not absorb oxygen into the bloodstream through the intestines.
You’ve heard of ozone--that light blue layer of gas high above the Earth that protects us from too much ultraviolet light from the sun. Made up of oxygen molecules with an added atom of oxygen, ozone can be created when an electric spark is introduced in a chamber of pure oxygen. It is a powerful oxidizing agent because it generates “free radicals” when it decomposes. Free radicals destroy natural biological substances.
Probably as a result of that ability, ozone “air purifiers” became popular. They produce ozone and are advertised for use in homes where people are sensitive to indoor air pollution. But ozone is toxic. Too much of it irritates the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. Even low-level exposure may cause problems with lung capacity in healthy adults. Ozone is fine in the upper atmosphere, but at ground level it’s a harmful pollutant.
A few years ago the California Department of Health Services warned consumers about false claims concerning ozone devices used as air purifiers. Despite the potential dangers, ozone therapy sometimes is used to treat AIDS patients. Used in Europe, it is also recommended by some American doctors. So far, there is little, if any reliable evidence that the claims made for ozone therapy as an AIDS treatment are valid. Research is continuing in Italy, however.
Should you think about using any alternative oxygen or ozone therapies, particularly those using a liquid substance to be ingested, remember that oxygen is absorbed into our bodies through our lungs, not through the stomach or intestines. Breathing normally at sea level, one takes in air that includes 20% oxygen. For a normal person, that’s enough.
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Barrie R. Cassileth is chief of integrative medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Send questions by e-mail to drcassileth@aol.com.
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Beyond the Mainstream, which has been published monthly for the past two years, will no longer appear in Health.
