High Dose vs. Low Dose Ozone Therapy for Animals

Every type of medicine has a dose. Why? Because too much could be harmful, and too little could be ineffective. Ozone therapy is no exception.

Just as important as the dosing amounts and volumes is the procedure by which any medical treatment is administered. If the proper procedure isn’t followed, side effects and complications could result just as with any other medical treatment.

Most treatments only have one way to administer it. Ozone therapy, however, is much more diverse in that it can be administered in more than 14 different ways. In fact, there are at least six different ways to administer ozone systemically and at least eight ways to administer ozone locally. Each and every one of these ozone administration methods has its own dose and protocol.

We’re going to focus on the dose in this blog, but if you need to know more about how to administer ozone therapy, you can find it in other blogs or on our YouTube channel.

DOSING IN GASEOUS FORM VS LIQUID FORM

Now let’s discuss the differences and life spans of ozone in both gaseous and liquid forms.

Ozone administered in gaseous form is pure ozone in its natural state—gas. The administration methods of ozone that use gas include Major Autohemotherapy (MAHT), minor Autohemotherapy (mAHT), rectal insufflation, intramammary insufflation, limb bagging, ear insufflation and direct intravenous.

When ozone is administered in gaseous form, an animal will receive the exact concentration of ozone that was used when preparing the treatment. For example, if a vet is administering rectal ozone at an ozone concentration of 35ug/ml, the patient will receive the ozone at a concentration of 35ug/ml. However, ozone in liquid form will saturate between 25-35ug/ml even if the concentration coming out of the generator is 100 ug/ml. Using a fluid limits the amount of ozone that is actually delivered to an animal because the amount delivered is different than the dose delivered into the fluid. Therefore, the concentration used to ozonate a liquid isn’t quite as important as it is when administering ozone in gaseous form.

The half-life of ozone in gaseous form is about two hours while ozonated fluids will reduce in potency by half every forty minutes or so. You can increase the lifetime and concentration of ozone in a sterile fluid significantly by using bi-distilled water for those treatments that don’t call for saline. It is also possible to get up to three days of use out of an ozonated fluid (either water or saline) IF the fluid is stored in the refrigerator in a properly sealed jar. Click here for such a jar. 

HI-DOSE OZONE VERSUS LOW-DOSE OZONE

There are two concepts when it comes to ozone dosing--the hi-dose concept and the low-dose concept.

But, what does that even mean?

Hi-Dose Ozone Concept

There are doctors in human medicine who have been teaching and using a technique called “10 Pass Hyperbaric Ozone.” This technique increases the dose of ozone ten-fold over the traditional ozone therapy treatment methods.

Good results with minimal side effects have been reported with hi-dose ozone treatments in humans, but the scientific ozone community is rejecting these high-dose treatment methods as unproven and potentially dangerous. The reality is that there really isn’t enough information to determine whether hi-dose ozone treatments are effective and/or safe.

Hi-dose ozone treatments involve removing blood from the body, mixing it with ozone, and then reinfusing it back into the body. Some low-dose ozone treatments involve the same thing, but they are done differently with different equipment. 

Hi-dose ozone equipment often utilizes pressure (hyperbaric) that speeds up the treatment process.

Hi-dose ozone treatments can also be combined with Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation.

Because of the lack of scientific backing and proof of efficacy and safety, it is the consensus of O3Vets that hi-dose ozone treatments NOT be administered to animals.

Low-Dose Ozone Concept

Low-dose ozone treatments, on the other hand, have been proven safe and effective time and time again. There is no question that low-dose ozone treatments can be administered to animals.

Low-Dose Ozone and Chronic Inflammatory and Other Chronic Diseases

All chronic inflammatory diseases have one thing in common—high oxidative stress, suppressed antioxidant capacity, and immune imbalance. When you use low-dose ozone to treat inflammatory diseases, the ozone acts as a bioregulator. An article entitled “Ozone in Medicine. The Low-Dose Ozone Concept and Its Basic Biochemical Mechanisms of Action in Chronic Inflammatory Disease” describes this process very well.

 Ozone is HIGHLY effective as an anti-inflammatory agent in the low-dose range. In fact, ozone therapy is now considered to be a complementary therapy in human Rheumatoid Arthritis patients. This is great news because ozone enhances conventional therapy with the goal of reducing basic therapeutics or making them more tolerable through the activation of detoxifying mechanisms in the liver. Imagine being able to replace anti-inflammatory pharmaceuticals with something natural and safe that doesn’t wreak havoc on the liver!!

 Long-lasting disturbances, chronic stress, and a multitude of different disturbance factors actually leave lesions that lead to chronic disease. Disturbances and stress throw off biochemical equilibria so it can no longer be compensated, and biological repair mechanisms can no longer function properly. The result—CHRONIC DISEASE! If you don’t already know, you need to know that systemic ozone therapy treatments (MAHT, rectal insufflation, etc.) are very effective treatments for chronic diseases.

Low-Dose Ozone and Hydrogen Peroxide

Now let’s touch base on ozone and hydrogen peroxide.

Hydrogen peroxide is one of the most important oxidative bioregulators that the body has. When levels of hydrogen peroxide are too high, biological regulation is blocked, which just welcomes degeneration and chronic inflammatory disease with open arms. Systemic low-dose ozone treatments allow ozone peroxides or ozonides to replace hydrogen peroxide in biological redox and immune regulation, which also improves antioxidant capacity.

Ozone Topical Treatment

Low-dose topical ozone treatments are highly effective. (Please note that, when I refer to “topical” treatments here, I am referring to those ozone applications that are local and not systemic. These include limb bagging, ear insufflation, ozonated fluids for lavaging, ozonated oils, etc.) When ozone is applied topically, it has a different reaction, or unique effect, than when ozone is administered systematically. When ozone is used topically, there is a direct oxidation of pathogens resulting in wound cleansing and an immediate cellular signaling to release growth factors. Ozone is profoundly more beneficial than something like hydrogen peroxide for cleansing wounds. Though hydrogen peroxide sterilizes wounds, it actually has a negative effect on the healing process. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14668934/.

 Higher concentrations and larger doses (not to be confused with hi-dose ozone therapy) of ozone can be used topically because they quickly and effectively disinfect. These high concentrations and larger doses work perfectly as an antimicrobial when applied topically. The ability of ozone to destroy pathogens by direct contact cannot be duplicated by other substances. In an ideal world, this would be taken full advantage of within human and veterinary medicine.

But What Ozone Concentrations are Considered Low, and What Ozone Concentrations Are Considered High

In a nutshell, ozone concentrations less than 10ug/ml may have a low impact because antioxidants such as Vitamin C will scavenge the ozone completely. On the flipside, ozone concentrations of more than 70ug/ml can damage blood cells. Additionally, ozone concentrations in the range of 70ug/ml to 100ug/ml are completely restricted to topical application of ozone.

Because there is so much scientific data proving that low-dose ozone is safe and effective, it is the recommendation of O3Vets that animals only be treated using the low-dose ozone concept. The possibilities are endless in treating animals with low-dose ozone.

WHERE CAN I FIND DOSAGES FOR THE VARIOUS METHODS OF OZONE ADMINISTRATION?

For specific dosing volumes and protocols for animal ozone therapy, click her to see O3Vets’ Veterinary Ozone Treatment Guide. This Guide is so easy to follow, and it’s very educational. I hope you will find it helpful and informative.

Until next time—Keep spreading the word about ozone therapy!!