The shutting down of all ozone medical centres has stirred debate over their therapeutic benefits, reports Reem Leila Most ozone therapists have expressed their anger at the recent decree issued by Minister of Health and Population Hatem El-Gabali banning all therapists from using ozone in their treatment, as well as the closing of all of Egypt's eight ozone medical centres. They have attributed the campaign against the ozone centres to several reasons, the most important of which being that few expected their beneficial effects on health. In a press release, the Ministry of Health has warned the public about the harms of ozone treatment, stating that it is a toxic gas which can seriously impact people's health. Medical ozone is completely safe and non- toxic to humans when generated by proper non- contaminating equipment and administered with proper protocols. According to Hamdi Basha, head of the ozone unit at Al-Haram Hospital, ozone has been shown to be completely safe even when a dosage many times greater than the proposed human dosage is administered. "Ozone is only toxic if inhaled for long periods and at high concentrations which exceed 30 per cent," Basha said. "Medical ozone is used at very low concentration levels which range from 0.5 per cent to a maximum of five per cent." The therapeutic use of ozone has an excellent safety record not only in Egypt but throughout the world. No toxic effects here or elsewhere 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," Basha said. While acknowledging that some individual transgressions by doctors have been made, Basha affirmed that these do not justify the "collective punishment" of all doctors using such treatment. Ibrahim Abdel-Maqsoud, a member of the Egyptian and European Associations for Ozone Treatment, says ozone is safe to breathe when it is bubbled through extra virgin olive oil. Abdel-Maqsoud called it an excellent therapy for asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia, especially when combined with magnetic therapy. The breathing of ozone has been practiced in North America for over 90 years. "When ozone is bubbled through olive oil continuously for weeks, the oil starts to change," Abdel-Maqsoud said. First it loses its colour, then it begins to foam, and eventually it becomes a gel, although the oil is not oxidised. If it is kept refrigerated at 40 degrees F, the gel will hold on to its ozone for more than 10 years. The gel applied to the skin has many uses: for cuts, scrapes and burns, insect bites, diaper rash, eczema, impetigo and herpes. When massaged vigorously into the body by a trained therapist, over time it has enabled multiple sclerosis patients to regain the use of their limbs. Ozonated gel is 95 per cent as active as ozone gas. The ozonated gel liquefies as soon as it reaches skin temperature. Ozone treatment is safe because, according to Abdel-Maqsoud, healthy cells are surrounded by an enzyme coating which ozone cannot penetrate. Bacteria and viruses have no such coating and are oxidised on contact by ozone. Ozone also promotes the production of glutathione peroxidase, catalase, reductase and super-oxide dismutase which are the enzymes forming the cell wall coating; therefore cellular immunity is enhanced. Abdel-Maqsoud believes that when it is incorporated into a holistic approach of cleansing there is virtually no known side effect of ozone treatment if it is applied properly. "It has been proven that even direct delivery of ozone into the blood vessels has very low risk factors," Abdel-Maqsoud added. However, since ozone therapy is dose-dependent, it should be administered with supervision. Nine years ago the Ministry of Health and Population created an alternative medicine committee which agreed on a protocol approving the use of ozone under certain conditions. According to Abdel-Rahman Shahin, official spokesman of the Ministry of Health and Population, ozone should be used only as complementary therapy in the treatment of diabetic foot, burns, anaerobic microbes, arthritis and fibro malign and not as an independent means of medication. Generating ozone devices must be placed in a separate room that is not less than nine square metres. There should be an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), good ventilation, and smoking should be totally prohibited where the generator is. "All of these regulations were severely violated," Shahin said. "Accordingly and after several warnings the ministry's only solution was to ban ozone use for the patients' sake." According to Shahin, these medical centres could be reopened on condition that scientific research proves the effectiveness of ozone in fields other than that approved by the Ministry of Health, including liver and cancer, and which are to be presented to the ministry for approval. "After approval the centre could be reopened," added Shahin. Basha told Al-Ahram Weekly that he was surprised by a statement made by Madiha Khattab, the head of the ministry's committee, which said that "Ozone is toxic and its use in treatment may help spread viruses." Basha stressed that Khattab was a member of a previous committee formed by the ministry which approved the use of ozone as a treatment. According to Khattab, until now, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not approve the use of ozone, considering it toxic. Responding to Khattab's claims Basha said that in a 1980 study conducted by the German Medical Society for Ozone Therapy, 644 therapists were polled regarding their 384,775 patients, comprising a total of 5,579,238 ozone treatments administered. There were only 40 cases of side effects noted out of this number which represents the incredibly low rate of .000007 per cent, and only four fatalities. "FDA has proven many times to be faulty in approving medicines which proved later to be carcinogenic. Accordingly, it's very possible the FDA is mistaken in its ban. Ozone has proven to be the safest medical therapy ever devised. Why then should it be banned in Egypt?" asked Basha. Only two conditions where ozone is totally prohibited, according to Basha -- thyrtoxicois and fauvism. "Ozone in these two conditions could be fatal," stressed Basha. There are at least 200 licensed medical centres in Egypt using ozone as an approved therapy. Most of them are undergoing scientific research on various diseases curable by ozone. According to Basha, nearly 30 per cent of patients with the Hepatitis C virus and breast cancer, in addition to many viral diseases have responded positively to ozone treatment after just a few sessions, at LE80 a session.
