Ozone Treatment for HIV

The Human Immune Deficiency Virus is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS, an infectious disease that occurs when the immune system is weakened to a point where opportunistic infections such as pneumonia can be deadly to a person. HIV is spread through bodily fluids such as semen, blood, vaginal secretions and breast milk during sexual contact, the sharing of needles or breastfeeding. There is currently no cure for HIV and AIDS, but there are a number of treatments that target certain parts of the virus, including the protein protease, to stop it from spreading.

Potential

• While drug cocktails that attack different sites of virus development are often used to treat HIV and AIDS, there are alternative treatments to consider, such as ozone therapy. Although these practices have not been tested by the Food and Drug Administration, they have tested on people and animals and have been used on people with HIV and AIDS. A number of practitioners of alternative medicine, such as President of the American Naturopathic Association Dr. George A. Freibott, are advocates of the treatment. Other groups, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, argue that exposure to ozone can be harmful to people's respiratory health.

Definition

• Ozone therapy involves getting rid of potentially harmful microbes and waste products from the body by inundating it with oxygen. According to Ed McCabe in the article "What is Ozone Therapy," the body's cells are able to protect themselves from excess oxygen because they have produced antioxidant coatings that protect them. The oxygen that enters the body is supposed to be harmful to diseases caused by bacteria, fungi and viruses because they are anaerobic, meaning they live without oxygen. This means excess ozone is harmful to them; when viruses are exposed to excess ozone over long periods of times, they are expected to be killed.

Treatments

• A number of oxygen therapies are available for HIV and AIDS, which provide cells with oxygen throughout different areas of the body, including the arms, colon, vaginal cavity and ear cavities. During these treatments, blood is often taken out of the body, filled with oxygen and put back into the body. During extracorpeal recirculatory autohemo perfusion, for example, blood is taken out of the arm, filled with oxygen and pumped back into the body. Other therapies, however, give the body O3, or a form of oxygen with extra electrons, in more direct ways. In one, O3 in a gas form is injected into people. There is also a form of ozone-charged drinking water for patients that has to be imbibed while oxygen is still in the glass.

Alternatives

• While most of the treatments offered by physicians practicing alternative medicine involve putting oxygen directly into the body, some allow patients to get exposed to O3 through saunas. This method, however, involves inducing fever in the body because it increases body temperatures. The purpose of this treatment is to increase the number of white blood cells in the body, so it is better able to fight off infections and to help the body sweat out pollutants and wastes in the body. During this therapy, oxygen is absorbed into the body through pores in the skin. This procedure is often considered the most effective and painless type of ozone therapy.

Considerations

• Getting this type of treatment can be difficult for those who live in certain states in the U.S. and in other countries because oxygen therapy is only legal in certain areas. States such as Alaska, Georgia, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina and Oklahoma have passed legislation that allows people to seek alternative HIV treatments such as ozone therapy. It is also recognized as a viable treatment in countries such as Germany, Italy, France, Japan, Brazil, Mexico and in four Canadian provinces.

Theories/Speculation

• Ozone therapy has a long history that started in the mid-1800s. Analyses have been conducted worldwide since the 1880s to look at the safety and effectiveness of ozone therapy. Ozone therapy was first discovered in 1840 by German scientist C.F. Schonbein. The treatment first referenced as a type of cure in 1885 in a paper by the Florida Medical Association. It was written by physicians such as Dr. Charles J. Kenworthy. One of the most recent analyses was published by Gerard V. Sunnen, the founder of Ozonics International, LLC, in Ozone in Medicine in 1994 called "Possible Mechanisms of Viral Inactivation by Ozone." It discussed how therapies such as autohemotherapy are useful in treating HIV and AIDS because of how oxygen is damaging to virus particles.