What is ozone?
Ozone is an allotropic form of oxygen, located in the stratosphere, which protects the earth from excess ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
What is oxygen-ozone therapy?
It consists of the use of a concentration of oxygen and ozone applied to medicine that, without being toxic, helps the human organism. It is a technique that has been used for therapeutic purposes since the beginning of the 20th century.
Ozone therapy is widely spread in countries such as Germany, Switzerland or Italy, where thousands of patients with various pathologies have been treated. Dermatitis, arthropathies, peripheral diseases, venous insufficiency, hepatitis… Many diseases are treated with oxygen-ozone therapy but the oldest application is in the pathology of the locomotor system and in the treatment of herniated discs and osteoarthritis.
What is the rationale?
Ozone is a powerful oxidant; it induces the formation of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase.
For example, when ozone is injected into a herniated disc, it reduces the herniated material responsible for nerve root compression (the degradation of proteoglycans in the degenerated nucleus pulposus is accelerated, resulting in the resorption and reduction of the material).
In the cycle of nerve root inflammation that produces pain, there are chemical components whose increase or decrease influences the symptoms. In herniated discs, high levels of A2 phospholipase, responsible for the production of arachidonic acid, prostaglandins and cytokines, which cause inflammation and pain, have been demonstrated.
The application of ozone inhibits the synthesis of these actors and therefore allows the reduction of chronic pain and its inflammation.
Which diseases benefit from ozone therapy?
Most of the patients avoid conventional open surgery since ozone and stem cells solve the process without the need to go through the operating room.
In the spine:
- Cervical and lumbar pain
- Muscular contractures
- Herniated discs or osteoarthritis
- Disc protrusions and sciatica
- Pericervical muscle pain
- Sciatica pains
In the shoulder:
- Rotator cuff tendinosis
In the elbow:
- Epicondylitis
In the wrist and hand:
- Osteoarthritis
In the knee:
- Patellar chondropathy
- Cartilage lesions
In the ankle and foot:
- Tendinitis
- Neuromas