Ozone therapy

Ozone therapy is an alternative medical treatment that introduces ozone or ozonides to the body. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibits all medical uses of ozone "in any medical condition for which there is no proof of safety and effectiveness", stating "ozone is a toxic gas with no known useful medical application in specific, adjunctive, or preventive therapy. In order for ozone to be effective as a germicide, it must be present in a concentration far greater than that which can be safely tolerated by man and animals." Ozone therapy has been sold as an unproven treatment for various illnesses, including cancer, a practice which has been characterized as "pure quackery". The therapy can cause serious adverse effects, including death. Ozone therapy consists of the introduction of ozone into the body via various methods, usually involving its mixture with various gases and liquids before injection, with potential routes including the vagina, rectum, intramuscular (in a muscle), subcutaneously (under the skin), or intravenously (directly into veins). Ozone can also be introduced via autohemotherapy, in which blood is drawn from the patient, exposed to ozone and re-injected into the patient. This therapy has been proposed as a primary or adjunct therapy for various diseases, including osteoarthritis, herniated disk, chronic wounds, hepatitis B and C, herpes zoster, HIV-AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's dementia, and Lyme disease, though supportive evidence for some of these applications is limited. The American Cancer Society warned in 2010 that evidence for the efficacy of ozone therapy against cancer is inconclusive, and the therapy may be dangerous. For treatment of HIV/AIDS, although ozone deactivates the viral particles outside the body, well-designed studies have shown there is no benefit for living patients.