- WHAT IS OZONE?

WHAT IS OZONE?

The therapeutic use of ozone has an excellent safety record and no toxic effects have been observed from clinical use. The use of ozone as a healing adjunct is well established and is being vigorously pursued by many scientists and clinicians. The benefits are predictable and without side effects. As technology advances, undoubtedly new techniques will enlarge the scope of the effective use of this versatile modality. What is ozone? Ozone is a highly energetic form of normal (diatomic) atmospheric oxygen (O²), consisting of three oxygen atoms (O³)(i.e. triatomic oxygen),. Thus, the molecules of these two forms are different in structure. There is a cycle of oxygen just as there is a cycle of water.

Oxygen is released in photosynthesis by land plants and ocean phytoplankton (mostly diatoms), and rises up in the atmosphere about 25-30 miles, where it is energized by a part of the ultraviolet spectrum of energy from the sun, producing ozone. Ozone is heavier than air and begins to descend. It immediately attaches itself to airborne particles if it contacts them, oxidizing them, cleaning the air. If it encounters water vapour, it can attach itself to it, forming hydrogen peroxide. Rain and snow both contain hydrogen peroxide naturally. That is why plants grow better from rainwater than from irrigation. At ground level, ozone attaches itself to all pollutants, oxidizing them and cleaning the air. It has been incorrectly blamed for smog.

Ozone is present in smog only transiently at around 25 parts per hundred million. Carbon monoxide is present in smog at about 3000 parts per hundred million, and hydrocarbons at about 100 parts per hundred million. Smog is produced by the photoelectric effect of the sun's rays acting on carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere, which are the end products when hydrocarbons are burned. Ozone cannot be produced in the internal combustion engine because the hydrocarbon fuel quenches the spark gap.

The ozone that exists in the atmosphere is produced by nature and it is attracted to pollutants because of opposite charge -- it attempts to oxidize them and clean the air. The problem is one of too little ozone to complete the job, not too much. Ozone is also created near the ground by lightning. The fresh smell in the air after a thunderstorm is ozone. The amount of ozone created in an average thunderstorm is about three times the safe limit according to US EPA regulations. Hydrogen Peroxide: Hydrogen peroxide, the partner to ozone, is also called oxygen water, since it is water with an extra oxygen atoms. It is found in rain and snow; the water at Lourdes; in fresh fruit and vegetables; and in clostrum, the first milk that a mother produces, where it provides a defense against infection until the baby's own immune system develops and is able to produce its own hydrogen peroxide. In the body's immune defense, hydrogen peroxide is released by T-cells to destroy invading bacteria, viruses and fungi.

Blood platelets release hydrogen peroxide on encountering particulates in blood. Hydrogen peroxide is formed in the body by microbodies called peroxisomes, which combine water with oxygen, if sufficient oxygen is available. Diseased Cells: What distinguishes diseased cells from healthy ones? All cells derive their energy from glucose, but healthy cells burn glucose in oxygen by oxidation, while unhealthy cells ferment glucose anaerobically, producing large amounts of lactic acid. Fermentation produces only 1/6 the energy of oxidation, so cancer cells are perpetually starving for energy, and consequently have huge appetites for sugar. This wasteful metabolism becomes self-sustaining and dominant unless the oxygen level is sharply increased. Healthy cells, which have sufficient oxygen and nutrients, manufacture an enzyme coating around them that protects them for invasion.

These enzymes are catalase, reductase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase. So long as a cell maintains this enzyme coating around itself, it is safe from invasion by viruses, and ozone cannot harm it. Oxygen-starved cells are unable to produce enough enzymes to fortify their cell wall and are thus more vulnerable to invasion by the always-present viruses. Disease microbes have no enzyme coating. When ozone is introduced into the area, it attacks microbes without a coating and diseased cells with deficient cell wall enzymes. It oxidizes them, allowing them to be cleared from the body.