Ozone Therapy for Arthritis

• Ozone improves tissue oxygenation within arthritic joints by increasing oxygen transport capacity.
• Antiplatelet effect.
• Ozone accelerates the beneficial results of the body’s antioxidant systems. 
• Ozone is potent virucidal and bactericidal, thus clearing the body of harmful inhabitants. As a result, the body can focus on repairing arthritic lesions. 
• Ozone supports the body’s immune system in autoimmune diseases, which is what arthritis boils down to. 

The overall clinical experience of those who use ozone therapy for their arthritis is that, in many cases, the individual can reduce their pharmaceutical arthritis medication. Any reduction in medication is always a huge win, as most medication taken over a long-term basis can provoke damage to our detoxification organs, such as the liver. Likewise, people who use ozone for their arthritis often see a tremendous improvement in their quality of life, as:

• Their overall recovery is accelerated. 
• They can return to their day-to-day activities without feeling constant pain.
• Their state of mind improves as they regain control over their lives. 

An integral point of ozone therapy is that it does not involve the use of drugs. Ozone therapy has no side effects, so it does not interact with any other medications one may be taking.

Data show that cytokine levels in various autoimmune diseases are reduced by ozone administration.

It has been shown that ozone decreases the cytokines such as IL-1 and tumour necrosis factor. 

These cytokines are the major players that contribute to the inflammation seen in arthritis. 

Ozone is an astonishing bioregulator which protects against damage by chronic oxidative stress. The increasing antioxidants enabled by ozone therapy inhibit chronic inflammation in disorders such as arthritis. Several experimental studies have demonstrated that controlled ozone administration can adapt to oxidative stress, thus preventing damage caused by reactive oxygen species. Reactive oxygen species are a leading cause of inflammation and a massive contributor to arthritis.

Vaillant et al. have shown that arthritis index was decreased in the RA group treated with 20 μg/ml ozone compared with the non-treating RA group. Chen et al. have detected an improvement in arthritis with 40 μg/ml ozone.  Ozone improves not only clinical findings but also histopathological findings in RA. It has been shown that the proliferation of angioblast and new capillaries in synovial membrane in RA recovered with ozone administration.

The bottom line is that ozone injections help your cells repair themselves. As arthritis is associated with chronic inflammation that causes persistent oxidative damage, ozone is the perfect counter to this key disease hallmark. Suppressing oxidative damage is a crucial therapy choice when considering which avenue to explore for your arthritis. Ozone represents a low-risk, high-success alternative to surgery and other invasive treatments. When injected into a joint, ozone can stimulate:

• Joint repair.
• Reduced joint inflammation.
• Promotion of new cartilage growth.
• Reduced pain.
• Improved functional status. 
• Increased vascularisation. 
• Accelerated rehabilitation of cartilage.

On top of all of this, ozone is a suitable treatment. Ozone for arthritis can be performed in an outpatient setting, unlike surgery and other invasive treatments. A press release in the American College of Rheumatology wrote, “Ozone Gas Injections may do the Trick for Knee Osteoarthritis”, and this article further exacerbates the efficacy of injecting ozone gas into the knee to reduce pain, improve function and upgrade the quality of life in people with arthritis. This statement was born from a research study led by Carlos César Lopes de Jesus and Virginia Fernandes Moça Trevisani, PhD.

• The team followed 98 people throughout the study. 
• Sixty-three of the participants received 10ml injections of ozone throughout the study, and 35 received 10ml injections of air as a placebo.
• The researchers evaluated the participants at the beginning of the study, after their fourth and eighth injections, and eight weeks after their last injection. 
• They looked at changes in pain, function, ability to sit, stand and walk, and other quality of life indicators. 
• The group on ozone therapy had significantly better results in tests that measured pain, function, and overall health, which showed significant improvements in the ozone group throughout the study.
• An evaluation of the quality of life (obtained using the Short Form-36 Health Survey) showed participants in the ozone group reported improvement in all areas that pertain to the quality of life after their fourth injection.

Thus, there is mounting evidence for the use of ozone in chronic joint pain and arthritis. But, how does ozone stack up to traditional therapies such as corticosteroid injects? Let’s find out! 

• A randomized control trial published in the journal Clinical Rheumatology compared the effects of ultrasound-guided corticosteroid injection with oxygen-ozone injection in patients with knee osteoarthritis. 
• This double-blind, randomized clinical trial was performed on 62 patients with knee osteoarthritis.
• The patients were randomly divided into two groups. In the first group, 40 mg triamcinolone (steroid) and in the second group, ten cc (15 μg/ml) oxygen-ozone (O2-O3) were injected into the knee joint under ultrasound guidance.
• The improvements in self-reported pain, function, and stiffness scores three months after treatment were in favour of the oxygen-ozone group compared to the steroid group.
• In the oxygen-ozone-receiving group, joint effusion decreased significantly.
• The study showed that the effects of oxygen-ozone injection last longer than those of steroid injection to the knee joint. 

What about ozone versus hyaluronic acid injections and dextrose prolotherapy injections?

• An October 2018 study in the Journal of Pain Research compared ozone treatments with hyaluronic acid injections and dextrose Prolotherapy injections as the control group.

The meta-analysis concluded that:

• The short-term effectiveness of intra-articular ozone is better than placebo (air) and corticosteroids.
• The short-term effectiveness of intra-articular ozone is equal to that of dextrose prolotherapy or hyaluronic acid injections.
• Ozone has an antinociceptive (pain-blocking) effect.
• Sixty-one percent (61%) of patients with lumbar disc herniation treated with intramuscular oxygen-ozone injection became pain-free compared with 33% of the control group.

Ozone has been shown to delay articular cartilage degeneration, as published in the medical journal Knee in March 2022. Ozone is a prosperous avenue to explore, as ozone is a flawless complimentary treatment alongside:

• Platelet-rich plasma therapy (PRP).
• In combination with dextrose Prolotherapy injections.
• Low-level laser therapy.

And much more! It is clear that therapeutic ozone injections into soft tissue structures, such as muscles, tendons and ligaments, and arthritic joints, for pain relief have been utilized for decades in medical clinics around the world. As a powerful oxidizing agent, ozone has been found to have a proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory effect, depending on the concentration utilized. Its proposed tissue repair and regeneration mechanisms include stimulating growth factor production and release.