Peek Inside – The Ozone Miracle

The Ozone Miracle

How You Can Harness the Power of Oxygen to Keep You and Your Family Healthy

By Frank Shallenberger, MD

Disclaimer: No portion of this book is meant to take the place of proper medical treatment. If you are sick with any condition, please do not think that you can safely treat your condition by reading this book without the help of a licensed medical practitioner.

Dedication
This book is dedicated to my teacher, Renate Viebahn, and all of the early pioneers of ozone therapy whose shoulders I am proud to stand on. Without the marvelous work of these men and women we would all still be in the dark about the many miracles of ozone therapy.

Thank You
A special thank you goes out to Chantal Foguth for proof reading. I didn’t know I could make so many mistakes!

Chapter 1 – No Disease – Ever! Unlocking The Power of Oxygen

I trust that the unassuming title of this chapter caught your eye. No Disease, Ever! What the heck is that supposed to mean? Has he got some kind of special supplement that I don’t know about? Or is he just shooting off his mouth. Sorry, but to borrow a line from one of our senators, you’ll have to read the book in order to find out. But here’s something you already know. There are tens of thousands of people every year who live out long lives, never get a chronic disease, and are on no medicines. So how do they do that? I think I know. And I’m going to tell you how you can be one of them. But first, let me digress to another important topic – money.

Do you have any idea how much money it costs people to be sick? I hadn’t a clue until a remarkable report came out in the Boston Globe titled, “Retired couples may need $240,000 for health care.” It was written by Mark Jewell and published by The Associated Press, May 9, 2012. The author used data compiled by Fidelity Investments that determined what the average out-of-pocket costs for medical expenses would be for a couple who were both 65 years old if they lived to their life expectancy. For men that is 82 years old, and for women 85. That number came out to be a whopping $240,000! That includes the cost of Medicare premiums for our couple which amounts to about $93,000. The net difference when you subtract out the cost of premiums comes to $147,000! That’s $147,000 extra money in that couple’s pocket as a little reward for not getting sick. But that’s not all.

$240,000 is just the average number. Fifty percent of those people will be paying more than that. Some will be paying twice that. And it can get even worse. These costs don’t include dental expenses or long term care which could easily add up to thousands more.

The way I figure it is if I can only stay healthy until I’m 82 it will be like someone writing a check out to me for $74,000 or more. Now, that’s something this man can relate to – feeling and functioning at a high level, being medication free, and being $74,000+ richer. So with that in mind I guess I shouldn’t complain too much about paying for that gym membership and everything else I do to keep myself healthy that insurance doesn’t cover. But can it really be done? Is this realistic? The answer is yes!

Right now there are an estimated 80,000 people in the United States who are more than 100 years old. Virtually all of these people have been completely free of disease all their lives. I have quite few patients in their mid to late 80’s who are free of disease, fully functional, and on no medications. It reminds me of something Redd Fox once said, “Imagine all those health nuts lying in hospitals dying of nothing.” Obviously the healthier you live your life the less your chances of getting a disease. But is there a central foundation to this story? Is there a process that goes on in the body that is at the very core of what makes us more or less healthy and invulnerable to disease? The answer is, there is. So I’m going to ask you discover it for yourself right now. Simply hold your breath for the next 60 seconds, and then read on.

What happened? Did you feel good? Did you become weak, dizzy, anxious? Did your heart pound? Did you feel like you might be dying? Did your blood pressure go up? Clearly there is absolutely nothing as critical to our health as oxygen metabolism. And yet as critical as it is virtually every doctor you will see in these United States will never once test it in his or her patients. Why? Because we were taught in school that as long as you were breathing, had normal lungs, and had a normal oxygen blood level your oxygen metabolism must be optimal. But here’s the thing. That is just not correct.

There is much more to any nutrient including oxygen than simply how much you take in. The other aspect is how efficiently you use the nutrient. You can take in vitamin B6 all day long, but if you can’t efficiently use it you are wasting it, and the net effect is the same as being deficient in it. This is also true of oxygen. You can be breathing good air and have normal levels of oxygen in your blood but that in no way means you are using it efficiently.

Oxygen utilization is the term I coined to refer to how efficiently your body uses the oxygen that you take in. And now we are getting down to business. Because your oxygen utilization is the single most important predictor of your risk for degenerative disease and premature aging. It’s not how much oxygen you take in that determines your health – it’s how efficiently you use the oxygen. How do I know? Because for the past fifteen years I have been measuring the oxygen utilization in each and every one of my patients whether they are sick or well. And after looking at literally thousands of patients I noticed an absolutely stunning statistic.

Every single patient who had cancer or any other chronic disease had a very significant decrease in their oxygen utilization. 100% of them! That goes for an otherwise “healthy” woman with a cancerous breast lump. It also goes for the “healthy” man on meds for hypertension. Combine that observation with this one. Over the same 15 years I have never once seen anyone with healthy oxygen utilization come down with cancer, a heart attack, an auto-immune disease, or any other chronic disease. Not one. As, long as their oxygen utilization was in the pink, these people appeared to be completely invulnerable to illness. What would be the reasons for these incredible observations? I can think of two.

The first is free radical production. Free radicals are molecules that the body makes from oxygen. Free radicals are powerful molecules that our cells need to stay healthy. However, they are so reactive that they need to be tightly controlled with what is called antioxidant enzyme systems. If they are not tightly regulated they will destroy cells and/or DNA and can be very dangerous. Virtually all doctors and scientists agree that uncontrolled free radical activity is what ultimately damages the body causing it to age, break down, and become sick over time. So what determines how efficiently your antioxidant control systems are working? You guessed it – it’s the efficiency of your oxygen metabolism. The more efficient your oxygen utilization, the better these systems work, the less free radical damage you will have, the healthier you will be, and the longer you will live. The worse your oxygen utilization, the more free radical damage you will have along with all the nasty effects that follow. It’s that simple. But there’s another reason why people with optimal oxygen utilization live longer and don’t get sick.

Oxygen utilization is the most global and sensitive marker for health that there is. That’s because as important as it is, the process is very vulnerable. Almost anything will disrupt it. I’m talking about inadequate nutrition, toxicity, drugs, hormone deficiencies, stress, poor sleep, injuries, infections, decreased fitness, and impaired circulation. Literally, everything that everyone already agrees forms the basis for disease will depress oxygen utilization. So when someone’s oxygen utilization is optimal it means that virtually everything in that person’s lifestyle and environment is matching up perfectly with their genetics. No wonder they don’t get sick. But is there any other evidence that decreased oxygen utilization is really the root of disease? Yes, lots of it.

Oxygen works its wonders in little bubbles in each cell called mitochondria. Remarkably, in a truly healthy person mitochondria make up almost 50% of the entire mass of a cell. That’s how important they are. Roughly 10% of your entire body weight is mitochondria. And here’s the important part. Your oxygen utilization is a direct indicator of how well your mitochondria are functioning.

If you search the United States National Library of Medicine web site, PubMed, for “mitochondria and aging” you will find 6,297 papers linking aging to decreased mitochondrial function. If you search for “mitochondria and disease” you will find 16,318 citations. And if you search for mitochondrial function and any particular degenerative disease you can think of you will find hundreds of references for each disease. All of these papers directly tie oxygen utilization to both aging and disease.

Today we are still led to believe that as long as we feel good and our physical examination and routine blood tests are normal than we are healthy. But this is just not true. There are many people out there who meet all these criteria and yet have very poor oxygen utilization. In fact, we know that long before people actually get sick they have been on the road to disease for years. This road is called decreased oxygen utilization.

So, how can oxygen utilization be measured? Here’s how I do it. I measure what is known as VO2 testing. I use an FDA approved pulmonary gas analyzer to do it. This equipment is able to measure how much oxygen disappears into your body. In other words, how much oxygen you are using. I make that measurement while you are resting quietly in a recliner. Then I put you on a bicycle and I measure how much oxygen you are using during various levels of exertion. But at the same time that the analyzer is measuring how much oxygen you are using, it is also measuring how much carbon dioxide you are making. Why is that?

It’s because as your body uses oxygen it generates carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Don’t tell Al Gore, but every time he breathes he is contributing to the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. But here’s the thing. When you are using oxygen efficiently you generate less carbon dioxide. And when your use of oxygen is inefficient you make more carbon dioxide. So the efficiency at which a person uses oxygen is dependent on their ratio of oxygen consumed to carbon dioxide produced at specific levels of exertion.

When I determine how efficiently my patient is using oxygen I compare it to what would be typical for a person who is healthy and young. I call the result their Energy Quotient or EQ. If their EQ is 100% or greater, that means that they are using oxygen as efficiently as a healthy young person. That’s the goal. The higher your EQ is the less likely you are ever going to get a disease. As I mentioned above, I have never seen anyone with an EQ over 100% come down with any disease, period. Having a high EQ is the secret to No Disease Ever. If you want to learn what your EQ is, and you should want to, you can do that with a test called Bio-Energy Testing®. You can find a doctor who offers Bio-Energy Testing at www.bioenergytesting.com. But this book is about ozone therapy. So what in the world does ozone have to do with having a high EQ? It’s because ozone therapy improves oxygen utilization.

Chapter 2 – All About Ozone

Oxygen as a single atom is deficient in electrons. This makes the atom very unstable, and as a result single oxygen atoms cannot exist in nature all by themselves – at least not for more than nanoseconds. However, two oxygen atoms can join together to share electrons. And this combination forms a very stable molecule referred to as O2. This is the form of oxygen that is found in the atmosphere, and it is the form of oxygen that we breathe.

When an energetic force, such as electricity or ultra-violet light, is imposed upon a molecule of O2, the two oxygen atoms are temporarily split apart into single oxygen atoms. But because single oxygen atoms are so unstable in a matter of nanoseconds they will pair up again and reform back into O2 molecules. But a small percentage of them will unite in a ménage-a-trois known as ozone. Thus, ozone, referred to as O3, is a molecule which consists of three oxygen atoms sharing the same amount of electrons that makes two oxygen atoms stable. This means that because of its extra oxygen atom, ozone is a relatively unstable molecule. This instability is exactly why it is so powerful in the human body. Much more powerful than O2. And that’s why when ozone is introduced into the body a remarkable thing happens. It stimulates the mitochondria in your cells ten times better than O2 can to use the oxygen they get more efficiently.

But hold on for a second! Ozone is an environmental pollutant. It’s a poison. How can it possibly be an effective medical treatment? It’s a good question because unfortunately about the only time most people have ever heard the word ozone it has been in the context of pollution. So how in the world can something that everyone thinks of as a pollutant be good for us? It has to do with the stratosphere.

Until pollution arrived atmospheric ozone was limited to a layer hundreds of miles above the earth in the upper stratosphere where it is formed as the ultraviolet rays of the sun hit the oxygen that surrounds our planet. But then pollution came along. When combustion engines and factories began to release hydrocarbons into the atmosphere these molecules began interacting with the oxygen and nitrogen and water vapor in the air to yield a mixture of hydrocarbon, nitrates, peroxides, sulphur oxides, and ozone. This mixture is what we call smog. The important thing to remember here is that the negative health consequences of smog have to do entirely with the hydrocarbon, nitrate, peroxides, and sulphur oxides in it, not the ozone.

Since ozone is formed along with the hydrocarbon, nitrogen, and sulphur oxides in smog, environmental scientists use the ozone level as an indicator that the hydrocarbon, nitrogen, and sulphur oxides are becoming excessively high. So when they announce that the ozone levels in the air are high the warnings are not being issued because the ozone content in the smog is what is creating respiratory problems for people with lung conditions. The warnings are being issued to warn patients about the presence of hydrocarbon, nitrates, peroxides, and sulfur oxides. An elevated ozone level indicates that these toxic molecules are also high and can cause substantial respiratory injury. The fact is that the actual ozone levels even in severe smog conditions are well below the toxicity level. Nevertheless, because ozone monitoring has been used for the past thirty years to determine the level of pollution it has been mistakenly assumed to be the irritating factor in pollution.

It is true that ozone can be a very potent respiratory toxin in high enough levels. But here is the big difference between the ozone that doctors use and pollution. Medical grade ozone is made from pure oxygen using a special generator designed specifically for medical use. It does not contain hydrocarbons, nitrates, peroxides, sulphur oxides or any other potentially toxic material. Medical grade ozone is pure oxygen, nothing else. And as you shall see, as long as it is used according to the guidelines discussed in this book, it is the single safest therapy in the history of medicine.

Generating Medical Ozone

Medical ozone is made by passing pure oxygen (O2) through a special generator designed for that purpose. An ozone generator basically consists of a tube through which oxygen flows. As the O2 flows through the tube (called an electrode) an electrical current is directed across the tube. This current breaks up the O2 molecules into separate single oxygen atoms. But as I explained, these single oxygen atoms cannot exist in nature and so immediately they combine back into O2 molecules. But a portion of them, roughly 2-3%, combine into a triplet of three oxygen atoms. This new molecule, O3, is ozone.

Here are two very important things to remember about ozone. One is that because it is so unstable it will very quickly convert back into O2. So when doctors use ozone therapy we have to make up the ozone right before we use it. If we wait too long the ozone will be gone and all we will have is O2. And that will do nothing.

The other important concept is that with the exception of ozone generators that are strictly used for air or water purification, in no case should ozone destined to be used for medical applications ever be made from room air! The reason is that room air contains 80% nitrogen, and when nitrogen passes through the ozone electrode it is converted to nitrous oxide which is highly toxic. This is why it is imperative that only high quality pure oxygen be used to generate the ozone used for medical purposes.

There is another word of caution about generating medical grade ozone that you need to know about. Unfortunately, either through ignorance or by design there are many companies around the world selling “medical” ozone generators that are not fit for human use. They are not safe for medical use for two reasons.

First, remember that ozone is a highly reactive molecule. It will react with almost any material that it comes into contact with. This includes metals, plastics, ceramics, glues, etc. And when it reacts with these materials toxic by-products are produced. Unfortunately, at the date I am writing this book most of the ozone generators being sold in the United States are made of non-ozone resistant materials that can produce potentially toxic substances. To date, there is no certifying agency in the United States that can certify that a particular ozone generator is safe. And the last thing I want my readers to do is be injecting toxic substances into their bodies from poor quality ozone generators.

Second, in order for you to have all of the benefits of ozone that I am going to be discussing the ozone that you are using must be in the proper concentration. Too high a concentration can cause negative effects. Too low a concentration will not work. And the problem is that many of the generators out there do not accurately produce the concentrations that the manufacturers say they are producing. So for these two reasons when you buy an ozone generator make sure you get a good one.

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