No, it is not true.

What your friend is referring to is known as autohemotherapy, which is based on the theory that disease is caused by the absence of oxygen in the blood and the loss of the cell’s ability to use oxygen for “good energy” metabolism, detoxification and immune system function. Oxygen therapies claim to be able to restore the body’s ability to produce this “good energy”, to rid the body of metabolic poisons and to kill invading organism. However, over the last five decades since this concept was first proposed, scientists have found significant flaws in the underlying premise for these treatments.

The one your friend is referring to involves the introduction of ozone into the blood which then reacts with water in red cells to produce hydrogen peroxide.

As this article by Dr. Saul Green explains, “In the late 1930's, German doctors began to use it in experiments on patients who had a variety of infections and wounds. Ozone gas might be bubbled directly into the patients blood, it might be bubbled into blood taken from the patient after which the blood would be re-infused, it might be bubbled into a solution to be used in an enema, colonic irrigation, or douche, or it might be pumped directly into the rectum. Except for situations in which ozone was used topically, the determination of effectiveness was depicted by patient testimonials.”

Unfortunately, patient testimonials do not amount to proof that something works although they can sound very convincing. German newspapers, magazines and proponent newsletters were full of fantastic claims about its effectiveness. When the AIDS pandemic came to life in the 1980’s, some German physicians began using it on their patients in spite of the fact that its efficacy was still scientifically unfounded.

As Dr. Green reports, the first well-controlled clinical study of autohemotherapy for AIDS was carried out in 1991. “The results showed that ozonated blood produced no significant hematologic, biochemical, or clinical toxicological effects when compared with controls. . . . These results have been replicated and confirmed by independent investigators.”

After reviewing the clinical histories of AIDS patients who were being treated with ozone, a leading German AIDS specialist named H. S. Fuessl, made the following statement:

“After observing ozone treated AIDS patients for long periods of time, we noted that patients who had just started on the ozone therapy showed some increases in CD-4 T-cell counts. But a few weeks later their CD-4 T-cell counts not only returned to their original low levels but in many cases went lower as the clinical picture clearly worsened. Two patients died before our eyes from opportunistic infections soon after beginning the ozone therapy. Those of us who treat HIV infected patients on a daily basis recognize that monitoring the changes of the CD-4 T-cell counts over a short period of time, does not accurately reflect the effect of the treatment or the prognosis of the patient. After following a number of AIDS patients that were receiving ozone therapy, I recognized that increases in the CD-4 T-cell counts could occur in any patient, at any time. But it did not mean that HIV was being killed or that the infection was being arrested.”

Unfortunately, the idea that infusion of ozone-treated blood can cure AIDS is still being marketed despite its lack of efficacy.

In fact, as recently as 1993, a man named Ed McCabe [aka “Mr. Oxygen”] testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations that he had interviewed 644 German ozone therapists who said they successfully treated 384,775 patients with more than five million ozone treatments; however, he was unable to provide any evidence to support this claim.

Sadly, there is no cure for AIDS although many promising drugs have been created that are allowing infected persons to live much longer, healthier lives.

The people who are selling these treatments may be well meaning, and may actually believe what they are doing will work, but thus far they have only added disappointment to the already long-list of woes incumbent upon those who suffer from this deadly disease.