Ozone Therapy

Therapeutic use of ozone (O3) gas through various delivery methods for immune support, antimicrobial effects, and enhanced oxygen utilization

7 min read
C Evidence
Time to Benefit Acute effects immediately; cumulative benefits over weeks
Cost $50-500 per session (clinic); $300-2000 for home equipment

Bottom Line

Evidence-Based Take:

Ozone therapy exists in a gray zone - it has been used for over a century and has passionate advocates, but lacks the rigorous clinical trials that would establish it as mainstream medicine. The FDA has not approved ozone for medical use in the US.

What the Evidence Shows:

  • Antimicrobial properties: Well-established in lab settings
  • Wound healing: Some positive studies
  • Dental applications: Growing acceptance
  • Systemic benefits: Limited human trials, mostly case reports
  • Cancer treatment: No proven benefit, not recommended

Honest Assessment:

Ozone therapy may have legitimate applications, particularly for wound healing and dental procedures. The broader claims about systemic health benefits remain unproven. If you're interested, work with experienced practitioners and maintain realistic expectations. This is experimental territory.

Science

What is Ozone?

Ozone (O3) is a reactive form of oxygen with three atoms instead of two. It's unstable and quickly breaks down, releasing reactive oxygen species.

Proposed Mechanisms:

  • Oxidative preconditioning - Mild oxidative stress triggers antioxidant defenses (hormesis)
  • Antimicrobial action - Direct destruction of bacteria, viruses, fungi
  • Improved oxygen delivery - May enhance red blood cell flexibility
  • Immune modulation - Cytokine signaling effects
  • Mitochondrial stimulation - Enhanced cellular energy production

The Hormesis Concept:

Like exercise creates beneficial stress, controlled ozone exposure may trigger adaptive responses. This is the theoretical basis for systemic benefits.

Historical Use:

  • Used since 1800s for water purification
  • Medical use began in WWI for wound treatment
  • Popular in Germany, Cuba, Russia for decades
  • Remains alternative/integrative in US

Research Status:

  • Most research from Europe, Cuba, Russia
  • Limited high-quality RCTs
  • Promising for specific applications
  • Systemic benefits need more evidence

Supporting Studies

10 peer-reviewed studies

View all studies & compare research →

Practical Protocol

Delivery Methods (Simple to Advanced):

MethodDescriptionAccessEvidence
Ozonated waterDrinking ozone-infused waterHomeWeak
Ozonated oilTopical applicationHomeModerate (wounds)
Ear insufflationOzone into ear canalHomeWeak
Rectal insufflationOzone into colonHomeModerate
Ozone saunaSteam + ozone on skinClinic/HomeWeak
Major Autohemotherapy (MAH)Blood drawn, ozonated, returnedClinicModerate
EBOOExtracorporeal blood ozonationClinicLimited
IV ozoneDirect injectionClinicLimited

Home Protocol - Rectal Insufflation:

  1. Medical-grade ozone generator required
  2. Gamma concentration: 20-40 mcg/mL typical
  3. Volume: 100-200 mL
  4. Frequency: 2-3x per week
  5. Duration: 30-60 seconds insufflation
  6. Retain as long as comfortable

Clinic Protocol - Major Autohemotherapy (MAH):

  1. 50-200 mL blood drawn
  2. Mixed with ozone (20-70 mcg/mL)
  3. Blood reinfused via IV
  4. Session: 30-60 minutes
  5. Frequency: Weekly to monthly

Ozone Sauna:

  1. Sit in steam cabinet (head outside)
  2. Ozone pumped into cabinet
  3. Absorbed through skin pores
  4. Duration: 20-30 minutes
  5. Shower after to remove residue

Starting Point:

  • Consider ozonated water or oils first
  • Work up to insufflation if interested
  • Clinic treatments for serious protocols

Risks & Side Effects

CRITICAL SAFETY WARNING:

NEVER breathe ozone directly. Ozone is a lung irritant and can cause serious respiratory damage when inhaled.

General Risks:

  • Lung damage from inhalation (the main danger)
  • Herxheimer reaction (detox symptoms)
  • Air embolism risk with improper IV technique
  • Equipment malfunction risks

Method-Specific Risks:

MethodRisk LevelConcerns
Ozonated water/oilVery lowMinimal
Ear insufflationLowDon't overdo it
Rectal insufflationLow-ModerateCramping, discomfort
Ozone saunaLowHeat exposure
MAH/IVModerateRequires trained practitioner
EBOOModerate-HighComplex procedure

Contraindications:

  • G6PD deficiency (can cause hemolysis)
  • Hyperthyroidism (uncontrolled)
  • Pregnancy
  • Recent heart attack
  • Bleeding disorders
  • Active hemorrhage

Best Practices:

  • Use only medical-grade ozone generators
  • Never breathe ozone directly
  • Work with experienced practitioners for IV methods
  • Start with lower concentrations
  • Ensure adequate antioxidant status

Regulatory Status:

  • Not FDA approved for medical use in US
  • Legal for home use
  • Used medically in many other countries
  • Considered experimental/alternative

Risk Level: Low to moderate depending on method; requires proper equipment and knowledge

Who It's For

Most Likely to Benefit:

  • Those interested in alternative/integrative medicine
  • People with chronic infections
  • Wound healing support
  • Those seeking immune modulation
  • Biohackers exploring experimental protocols

Might Consider:

  • Athletes seeking recovery options
  • Those with Lyme disease or chronic illness (adjunct therapy)
  • Dental patients (ozone dentistry is growing)
  • People who've exhausted conventional options

Probably Skip If:

  • Seeking proven, mainstream treatments
  • Not comfortable with experimental therapies
  • Unable to access quality equipment or practitioners
  • Have contraindications listed above

Important:

Ozone therapy should complement, not replace, conventional medical care for serious conditions.

How to Track Results

What to Track:

  • Energy levels
  • Immune function (frequency of illness)
  • Wound healing speed
  • Any adverse reactions
  • Subjective wellbeing

Simple Log:

DateMethodConcentrationDurationResponse

Realistic Expectations:

  • Effects are often subtle
  • May take weeks to notice changes
  • Individual responses vary widely
  • Not a cure-all

Top Products

Home Ozone Generators:

Ozone Saunas:

  • HOCATT - Multi-modality chamber (clinic-grade)
  • Various steam cabinets adaptable for home use

Ozonated Oils:

What to Look For:

  • Medical-grade certification
  • Corona discharge technology (not UV)
  • Adjustable output
  • Quality materials (ozone-resistant)
  • Good customer support

Finding Practitioners:

  • American Academy of Ozonotherapy
  • International Scientific Committee of Ozone Therapy
  • Naturopathic doctors with ozone training

Cost Breakdown

Home Equipment:

ItemCost
Basic ozone generator$300-500
Medical-grade generator$1,000-3,000
Insufflation kit$50-150
Ozone sauna cabinet$500-2,000

Clinic Treatments:

TreatmentCost per Session
Ozone sauna$50-100
Rectal insufflation$50-150
Major Autohemotherapy$150-300
EBOO$500-1,500
10-Pass Ozone$800-2,000

Ongoing Costs:

  • Oxygen tanks (for home generators)
  • Replacement tubing and accessories
  • Practitioner visits

Cost-Effectiveness:

High upfront cost for home use. Clinic treatments add up quickly. Only worth exploring if you're committed to alternative medicine approaches.

Podcasts

Discussed in Podcasts

32 curated moments from top health podcasts. Click any timestamp to play.

Tesla's role in inventing ozone generators

Marc Seifer explains that Nikola Tesla patented an ozone generator in 1896 that became the basis for modern medical ozone devices, and that ozone was used to treat gangrene in World War I.

"in 1896, Tesla patented and invented the most efficient ozone generator of its day. And it's still the basis of the ozone generators today. And they were being used particularly like in World War I to treat gangrene and different diseases."

Rowen and Robbins risk their lives to treat Ebola with ozone

Seifer recounts how Dr. Robert Rowan and Dr. Howard Robbins flew to Sierra Leone at their own expense to train medical personnel in ozone therapy for Ebola, donating $20,000 in equipment before being shut down by the WHO.

"They got Longevity Research, which is out of Canada, to supply free ozone equipment by $20,000 worth. They raised another $20,000 or $30,000 all on their own dime. They didn't make a cent on this thing. And they flew to West Africa and began to train medical personnel, ozone therapy, to kill the Ebola virus."

Five Ebola patients secretly cured with ozone therapy

After the WHO shut down ozone therapy in Sierra Leone, four doctors and one girlfriend who contracted Ebola were secretly treated with ozone and all five were cured, results that were published in peer-reviewed journals.

"all secretly got treated. They all got Ebola, secretly got treated with ozone therapy, and all five were cured. And this was then written up by Dr. Rowan and Dr. Robbins in several scientific publications because it was establishing that ozone therapy killed the Ebola virus"

Antibodies naturally manufacture ozone to fight pathogens

Marc Seifer explains that chemist Paul Wentworth of Scripps Institute discovered in 2001 that our own antibodies manufacture ozone as a natural defense against invading pathogens, making ozone therapy an enhancement of the body's existing immune mechanism.

"And it was because of all of that that I got involved with this guy at TESLA. And in nineteen eighty four I was invited to speak at a TESLA conference. I was working on my doctorate, trying to explain how his name disappeared from the history books, and another speaker, this was in Colorado Springs was doctor George Freebot. Doctor George Freebot was an ozone therapist. Now what was he doing at a Tesla conference? Right, Well, in eighteen ninety six, Tesla patented and invented an ozone generator, and I knew I knew nothing about it, and as I did my research, he began to sell ozone generators to the medical community. So your question is you know what is ozone therapy. The way I was introduced to it was through doctor George Freebot. He said that he was a medical doctor treating a man dying of cancer. His body riddled with tumors, and he said, as a last resort, I decided to give him ozone therapy. Now, what ozone therapy is, It's actually it's called ozone therapy. It's actually oxygen ozone therapy. It's ninety seven percent pure oxygen, three percent ozone, so it's just a tiny little bit of ozone. It's mostly pure oxygen, and it's injected into the bloodstream. And what Freebot said to us was that the tumors were shed, and he was this fella was cured. So when I wrote a Wizard, The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla, which was the first book that I produced on Tesla. I researched doctor George Freebot, and I found an article by sweet Ko and Lee published in Science in nineteen eighty which said that they had tested ozone. They found that it disrupted the production of tumors in human tumor cells. So I had some verification that there was some truth to this, and so I put that as an EndNote, and I told the little story about doctor George Freebot on page three twenty four or whatever in the book that was it nineteen ninety five Wizard came out, and that's it. Twenty five years go by, and COVID erupts, and it's, uh, you know, basically started in January. It's called COVID nineteen because it's actually nineteen twenty nineteen, but it really started in America, you know, the following month, in January twenty twenty. And I said, now, let me google this guy, George Freibachers, for the heck of it, and he cured cancer supposedly, And out pops a book called the Story of Ozone, edited by Saul Pressman from nineteen ninety five, with twelve authors, all of the medical doctors, including Deepak Chopra, who I knew through all of his writings, and they were all saying that ozone kills viruses. So I then got in touch with several ozone therapists and they said that they were killing the COVID virus. And so you're asking what is ozone therapy? What ozone therapy is. It's the injection into the bloodstream. There's two different ways of doing that of ninety seven percent pure oxygen's mostly oxygen and a tiny percent of ozone. And what that does is it enhances the immune system. The key to all of this is a man by the name of Paul Wentworth, who was a chemist from Script's Institute. And what Paul went Rough discovered in two thousand and one, which is twenty something years ago, was that our own antibodies manufacture ozone. And the reason our antibodies manufacture ozone. Ozone is a disinfectant. It's used in hospitals to disinfect rooms. It's used in Olympic swimming pools to disinfect swimming pools. Many people have ozone generators to just you know, disinfect their swimming pools, right and las vegas uses it disinfects smoke filled rooms. And that kind of thing. So it's the medical use of that process, and it's an enhancement of what the immune system is naturally doing on its own. Well, let me ask you this, and it may sound like a silly or dumb question, but I'm going to ask it anyway."

5.5 million ozone treatments with only 4 deaths

Seifer cites a German study of 5.5 million ozone therapy treatments from 640 doctors over several decades that recorded only 4 deaths and 40 complaints, demonstrating the remarkable safety record of the therapy.

"I think had ozon therapy been accepted, as you're suggesting, you know someone this COVID go to CEOs on therapist. One of them. One of the doctors I'm working with, doctor Howard Robbins in New York. He has successfully treated a hundred COVID patients. Another other my cows, doctor Robert Rowan, has successfully treated over sixty COVID patients. But they're not allowed to announce this on their websites because the FTC and the FDA will soothe them. Now I think they would win in court. They don't want to go to court. The medical doctors, they can't be you know what it like to go to court. It takes years to deal with all this and they can't be bothered. So it's I'm telling him, living in the Twilight Zone. It's been a very strange thing. And I'm so thankful, Tony that that you are having me on this program because it's just simple stuff. Our own antibodies manufacture. This ozon therapy simply enhances what our antibodies are already doing. It's a simple that's it. That's is it. It's as simple as that. It's just it's it's so bizarre that there is resistance. I do feel that ten years from now, they're going to look back and they're gonna look at the idiots from twenty twenty and say, why didn't they? Oh, you know, everyone knows this now. I feel like it's like the you know, the the Kodak camera and the digital camera, Remember how you know, as we slowly got into digital and then all of a sudden, you gotta be a you have to be an idiot now having a regular camera. Well, I feel that ozone therapy will be like digital cameras at some point in the future, and I'm trying to rush that along. I'm trying to save lives. I mean, I think a million people. I don't know how many of those people would still be alive at the head an ozone therapist on board those ships. In the elderly community homes where the whole people, everybody died in these elderly living homes, they had no zone therapists there. It would have been a very different story. Let's say that somebody wanted to I mean, if the doctors can announce it without getting sued or backlash, how do even people find a doctor, like you said, there's hundreds, Well, you know, this country is a big country. How do people even find a doctor that's trained in it? And how did that doctor even get trained in it? If you know, schools and medical schools aren't you know, teaching this, So how do they how do they get trained? And then how do people even find them? Yeah, there were two doctors that I know that train. The three doctors that I know that train I was on therapists. One was doctor Shallenberger. He's in um Las Vegas. He's trained hundreds of doctors and he has a newsletter. I just got one today this last week and it lists about seventy five I was on therapists throughout the country, plus if you get online, you know, if you're in Colorado, for instance, a number of them hours California, they just google it. They can announce that they're ozone therapists. They just can't announce that they can dismember the COVID virus. Right. The doctor is doctor Robert Rowan, who's one of my co authors. He's a brilliant man in Santa Santa Rosa, California. There's a doctor in Ecuador. His name is Lance Evans, and he writes, I have the quote in the book I read online about doctor Rowan. He taught me online through video conferencing ozone therapy and I treated third or two patients, and it was my belief that the vast majority of them would have died had I not learned how to use ozone therapy learning from doctor Robert Rohan. Rowan has told me that he's trained five hundred doctors throughout the world, So there were medical doctors. But it's very simple that when I went for the for the sonogram, that gal who just gave me that little injection. That's pretty much what it is. It's just combining oxygen and in doing it in a careful way, and our medical community is doing a comparable thing every single day of the week, every time they inject that die in for someone getting a sonogram. Yeah, it's it's it's fascinating. And I want to kind of talk about, you know, we most recent as we all know, we went through the COVID virus pandemic. And I'm curious about doctor robbins Um trip to South Africa during the Ebola virus um did he use that ozone therapy there and did he have any luck with it or did they see a lot of people get healed or did he get backlash from even the local governments there. It's a very interesting story. It's chapter one in the book. Doctor Robert Rohan had met doctor Robbins in Koala, Lampour. I don't know about ten or twelve years ago. They can good friends. One's on the East Coast, Robins is in New York, and Rowand is in California. An Ebola erupted in West Africa, Sierra Leone. Actually it's in northern Northwest Africa. And Rowan, who's just a brilliant scientist written a number of articles, calls up Robins and says, Howard, I'm going to fly out to Sierra Leone and work with the people to deal with the Ebola outbreak. And I'd like you to come with me, And Robin says he had your friggin mons. And Rowan says, I'm going anyway. So hands up the phone. Robin says to himself, I know I was on therapy kills viruses. I'm not gonna let him get over credit. He calls him right back and says, Okay, I'll go with you. So they get a company that produces those own machines too, to donate twenty thousand dollars worth of machines, and they raised another thirty thousand dollars. They didn't take a dime from this, and they flew out on their own dime to West Africa and treated the president of Sierra Leone and worked with the medical community. Now they were getting resistance from the head of the health department. Yeah, I was wondering if that's going to happen. Yeah, So they were there for a week. Now, Ebola has a sixty percent death rate, six out of every Wobola died. COVID has maybe a two out of every hundred death rate, So Ebola is thirty times more powerful. So we lost a million people in list three years to COVID. If it had been if it had spread like thirty million. Yeah, So they didn't know. No one knew how how easily or difficult it could spread. It's not like AIDS, but in the sense that you need much more direct contact with ebola. It doesn't spread so easily through the air. So thank thank Heavens, thank God. If it believing God, thank the Lord that it didn't that ebola did not spread like COVID, because I had it spread like COVID, we would have literally seen the end of civilization that was on the line. And that's why they flew out there. So they were there for a week. They treated a hundred medical doctors and nurses, and they were now the doctors and nurses were now going to go out into the community and start to treat people that were dying of ebola, and the World Health Organization shut them down. So if you if you do this, we will remove all our funding. They were giving them millions of dollars for caskets and there are other medical equipment, and so they shut it down. And so what happened was the medical doctors knew that it worked. Four medical doctors got ebola, and the girlfriend of another medical doctor got bola, and they secretly got ozone therapy and all five of them were cured. And this was all verified, and so they published the results that the five that got treated were cured. One medical doctor who wanted to get treated, they refused to let him get treated and he died of ebola. Another one felt that he could be treated in a different type of process. They actually flew into the United States, which to me just seems totally insane, and he died I think in Utah or something some states like that. How could you bring that virus you know here? But I think that doctor Rohan and doctor Robbins, I think they deserved the Nobel Prize. I think that they risked their lives to go out to West Africa to fight this disease. They were hoping that in this small community of you know, Sierra Leone, that they could prove that indeed ozone therapy kills viruses. And the reason that it kills viruses it's called the lipid envelope. All viruses have an outer skin, lipid on both the outer skin. What ozone does is it causes a tiny little tear in the outer skin. A virus is unable to self repair. If I scratch my arm, we'll done that."

Ozone destroys viruses by puncturing the lipid envelope

Seifer explains the mechanism by which ozone kills viruses: it creates a tiny tear in the lipid envelope surrounding the virus, and since viruses cannot self-repair, this puncture is fatal to the pathogen.

"You get you get a little a scab and the body can heal itself. A virus can't. So if you tear that we're toking microscopic thing. You put a little tiny tear in that virus, it will die. That's what ozone is doing. It it's function. It's puncturing, uh, the lipid envelope, that's its achilles heel. So they established and they published two articles in peer reviewed you know, science journals that they were successful in treating and disabling the Ebola virus um. This was in twenty fourteen. Wom so, you know, that's it's an incredible story and I see them as heroes."

Skeptical MD converted after patient's tumor disappeared

Dr. Akbar Khan, initially dismissive of ozone therapy, became a believer after a prostate cancer patient returned from ozone treatment abroad with imaging showing the tumor completely gone. He then trained with leading ozone practitioners.

"Ozone, actually, I believed ozone to be literally quackery. I had heard of it many times. Naturopathic doctors had told me about it. They had raved about it. And I just thought, oh, no, like, what is this? This is nonsense, right?"

Ozone therapy accelerates wound healing dramatically

Dr. Khan describes using ozonated oil for wound healing, noting that cuts heal in 24 hours with ozone versus three days without, due to ozone's ability to release stem cells and accelerate repair.

"So for me personally, I use the ozonated oil every time I have a cut or scrape. I put the oil on there and literally the pain from the injury is gone in about 10 minutes and it's healed overnight. Like it's scabbed over and it's closed and it's impervious to water essentially in 24 hours. And if I don't use the oil, the same type of wound in my case would take about three days to heal. So it is really quite a potent treatment. And as I say, it does speed up healing and repair in the body."

Graves disease remission with ozone and vitamin D

Dr. Khan describes a Graves disease patient in his early 40s whose endocrinologist said he would need medication for at least two years. After 10-pass ozone blood treatments combined with high-dose vitamin D, his thyroid went into complete remission.

"his thyroid, overactive thyroid is in remission now, completely in remission, and he's gone off his prescription drugs. So he no longer needs thyroid blocking medication and his thyroid, all his parameters are in the normal range. And essentially all he did was ozone therapy and vitamin D."

Ozone reversed Dave Asprey's toxic mold poisoning

Dave Asprey credits medical ozone therapy with reversing his toxic mold poisoning over 15 years ago, and explains he uses ozone before antibiotics for any infection, calling it a broad spectrum treatment used since World War I.

"using ozone medically is what reversed the toxic mold poisoning that I had going back more than 15 years. And I did it at home and I've shown hundreds of people how to do it."

How ozone disables viruses through the cysteine on-off switch

Dr. Rowen explains the biochemistry of how ozone disables viruses like Ebola by oxidizing the cysteine amino acid on the viral surface, using the analogy of chopping off fingers so the virus can no longer open the cell's cookie jar.

"Cysteine is a sulfur-bearing amino acid, and the research said on Ebola and on CMV that the cysteine has to be reduced to be active. If it's oxidized, it's inactive."

Ozone improves oxygen delivery and mitochondrial function

Dr. Rowen details how ozone increases 2,3-DPG in red blood cells to improve oxygen unloading, enhances red cell membrane flexibility, increases nitric oxide production, and boosts mitochondrial oxygen consumption for greater energy production.

"It is oxygen. It is getting oxygen to the cells. Bottom line in everything, no oxygen, no ATP, no energy."

Who to Follow

Key Advocates:

  • Dr. Robert Rowen - "Father of medical ozone" in the US, extensive clinical experience
  • Dr. Frank Shallenberger - Pioneered ozone protocols, wrote medical textbooks
  • Dave Asprey - Featured on Bulletproof podcast, personal experience
  • Ben Greenfield - Covers ozone in biohacking content

Medical Perspective:

  • Mainstream medicine: Generally skeptical, cites lack of RCTs
  • Integrative medicine: More accepting, used alongside conventional care
  • European medical community: More established, used in hospitals in some countries

Historical Context:

  • Used medically for over 100 years
  • Nikola Tesla patented ozone generator in 1896
  • Fell out of favor with rise of pharmaceuticals
  • Continued use in alternative medicine

What People Say

Why People Try It:

  • Frustration with conventional treatments
  • Interest in alternative approaches
  • Anecdotal success stories
  • Historical precedent

The Reality:

Ozone therapy has passionate advocates and some promising research, but it remains experimental. The lack of large-scale clinical trials makes it hard to separate genuine benefits from placebo effects. Approach with curiosity but also skepticism.

Who Uses It:

  • Integrative medicine patients
  • Biohackers
  • Those with chronic conditions
  • Wellness enthusiasts

Synergies & Conflicts

Recovery Stack:

Immune Support Stack:

Detox Stack:

Biohacking Stack (Dave Asprey style):

Featured in Guides

Last updated: 2026-01-11