The Relationship between Ozone and Human Blood in the Course of a Well-Controlled, Mild, and Transitory Oxidative Eustress (original) (raw)
Related papers
Current Drug Therapy, 2009
After a long initial stage obscured by empirism and misconceptions, oxygen-ozonetherapy has now become a scientific discipline where the reactions between ozone and human blood are within the realm of orthodox biochemistry, physiology and pharmacology. Most of the basic mechanisms of action have been clarified and ozone can be considered a pro-drug, which almost instantaneously reacts with antioxidants and unsaturated fatty acids. These reactions generate the actual ozone messengers represented by either hydrogen peroxide as a fast acting compound or a variety of lipid oxidation products as late effectors. While ozone is totally consumed, micromolar amounts of these messengers are able to enhance the delivery of oxygen via erythrocyte activation, the immune system by a bland leukocyte stimulation and most of the remaining body cells by up-regulating the antioxidant system. The hazard of ozone toxicity has been dispelled by using the gas only within a dose range perfectly calibrated against the potent blood antioxidant capability. Ozonetherapy can be very useful in patients with chronic vascular disorders and ischemic problems and should be extensively used by official medicine. An extraordinary facet of ozone is its medical application versatility, as represented by several administration routes, and the minimal cost of this drug.
A physicochemical investigation on the effects of ozone on blood
International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 2007
Ozonation of either human whole blood or saline-washed erythrocytes causes considerable damage to the latter and this result has opened a controversy. With the benefit of hindsight, it appears logical that once erythrocytes are deprived of the potent antioxidants of plasma, they become very sensitive to the oxidant effects of ozone. The aim of the present work was to perform a physical-chemical evaluation of some critical parameters able to clarify this issue. We have ascertained that when whole blood is exposed to the appropriate ozone doses used in human therapy, no damage ensues while saline-washed erythrocytes undergo conspicuous haemolysis. The dogma that ozone is always toxic is incorrect because its reactivity below the concentration of 80 g/mL can be controlled by the plasmatic antioxidant system.
The ozone paradox: Ozone is a strong oxidant as well as a medical drug
Medicinal Research Reviews, 2009
After five decades characterized by empiricism and several pitfalls, some of the basic mechanisms of action of ozone in pulmonary toxicology and in medicine have been clarified. The present knowledge allows to understand the prolonged inhalation of ozone can be very deleterious first for the lungs and successively for the whole organism. On the other hand, a small ozone dose well calibrated against the potent antioxidant capacity of blood can trigger several useful biochemical mechanisms and reactivate the antioxidant system. In detail, firstly ex vivo and second during the infusion of ozonated blood into the donor, the ozone therapy approach involves blood cells and the endothelium, which by transferring the ozone messengers to billions of cells will generate a therapeutic effect. Thus, in spite of a common prejudice, single ozone doses can be therapeutically used in selected human diseases without any toxicity or side effects. Moreover, the versatility and amplitude of beneficial effect of ozone applications have become evident in orthopedics, cutaneous, and mucosal infections as well as in dentistry.
Ozone acting on human blood yields a hormetic dose-response relationship
Journal of Translational Medicine, 2011
The aim of this paper is to analyze why ozone can be medically useful when it dissolves in blood or in other biological fluids. In reviewing a number of clinical studies performed in Peripheral Arterial Diseases (PAD) during the last decades, it has been possible to confirm the long-held view that the inverted U-shaped curve, typical of the hormesis concept, is suitable to represent the therapeutic activity exerted by the so-called ozonated autohemotherapy. The quantitative and qualitative aspects of human blood ozonation have been also critically reviewed in regard to the biological, therapeutic and safety of ozone. It is hoped that this gas, although toxic for the pulmonary system during prolonged inhalation, will be soon recognized as a useful agent in oxidative-stress related diseases, joining other medical gases recently thought to be of therapeutic importance. Finally, the elucidation of the mechanisms of action of ozone as well as the obtained results in PAD may encourage clinical scientists to evaluate ozone therapy in vascular diseases in comparison to the current therapies.
Oxygen-ozone therapy: paradoxical stimulation of ozone
Ozone therapy, 2016
After several years of scientific research and accurate clinical practice, the oxygen-ozone therapy continues to represent a method full of prospects and new opportunities. On this basis we present an updated review on basic mechanisms through which the ozone acts. Ozone, a molecule notable for its heterodoxy and atypicalness, has been regarded with suspicious for a long time since it was a possible generator of free radicals and correlated pathologies, but it is important distinguishing between the oxidative damage from free radicals, characterized by irreversible chemical modifications of the molecular target, and the physiological effects from free radicals (redox signaling), characterized on the other hand, by reversible chemical and selective alterations, which are potentially suitable to become an active part in the various metabolic regulation mechanisms, with positive effects on several pathologies.
The use of ozone became a normal practice after the initial studies by Dr. H. H. Wolff (1979) in Germany. Today, in this Nation, is used by over 12.000 physicians but only after Bocci's study it is used very proficiently either in chronic inflammatory diseases or in orthopedics. It has been shown to be very effective and absolutely atoxic when used in dosages which induce only a well-tolerated oxidative stress either for autohaemotherapy or in orthopedics. It will be described what ozone is, how it can be proficiently used, what are its messengers, what will be their effects and what are the therapeutic effect.