History of Oxygen Therapies

The use of various forms of oxygen in medicine is by no means a new one. As far back as 1896 Nikola Tesla, the Croatian electrical engineer and inventor, patented an ozone generator1 and many doctors achieved excellent treatment results with it, although The Tesla Ozone Company’s equipment was far from perfect. Ozone, a gas one and a half times denser than oxygen, caused corrosion of the rubber tubing in Tesla’s equipment and by the thirties, its use had almost ceased.2

Later, in the twenties, Tesla, who had by then emigrated to America, attempted to develop an improved ozone generator, but was unable to do so successfully because the correct materials still did not exist and the design was never patented. The American company Ozonifier Industries (re-named Plasmafire International in 1995), have since perfected Tesla’s original 1920s design, which is now produced by them, in Langley, Canada and trademarked as The Plasmafire Glass Tube. In 1994, Plasmafire sponsored an ozone symposium in Vancouver which resulted in ozone therapy being recognised as an accepted modality by the Naturopathic Association of BC, with over 40 naturopaths treating patients with ozone therapy.3
In 1902, JH Clarke’s A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, London, describes the successful use of ozonated water (Oxgenium) in treating anaemia, cancer, diabetes, influenza, morphine poisoning, canker sores, strychnine poisoning and whooping cough.3
In 1904, The Medical Uses of Hydrozone (ozonated water) and Glycozone (ozonated olive oil) by Charles Marchland, a New York chemist, appeared in its 19th edition. The book is in the Library of Congress with the US Surgeon General’s stamp of approval on it.3
In 1913, the Eastern Association for Oxygen Therapy was formed by Dr Eugene Blass and some German associates.3
In 1927, Blass published Oxygen Therapy: Its Development into a Complete Uniform Treatment of Disease. He stated “The recognisable results of an insufficient oxidation, either because of a lack of minerals or oxygen, or because of the presence of foreign matter in the bloodstream, are the symptoms which bear the imposing nomenclature of modern “disease”. The different kinds of parasites, which are the “germs”, commonly blamed for the creation of these various symptoms, find food and lodging in the diseased soil which accumulates in the body but, logically, are not the cause of disease. A clean habitation will not tolerate such hospitality and normal vital fluids constitute the best insurance against sickness.”4
During World War One, a German doctor, A Wolff, successfully used ozone for its bactericidal properties to treat a variety of ailments, including the anaerobic condition gangrene, trench foot, chlorine gas burns and influenza. German medical journals at the time reported on his work and results.2
Hydrogen peroxide, although semi-stable and toxic to friendly intestinal bacteria5 has been used medically, intra-arterially. “The intra-arterial infusion of hydrogen peroxide has been employed by the investigators for the past six years as a method of regional oxygenation in the management of a variety of diseases. In some patients so treated, a decrease in the severity of their atherosclerosis was observed. This phenomenon was studied and confirmed by both in vitro and in vivo experimentation. Following confirmation of the reduction of atherosclerosis by intra-arterial hydrogen peroxide, it was employed therapeutically for the first time in a patient with inoperable cerebral vascular insufficiency secondary to arteriosclerosis, which was unresponsive to medical treatment.”6
In 1931, Otto Warburg won his first Nobel prize for his work on the oxygen transferring enzyme of cell respiration and his second in 1944 for his discovery of the hydrogen transferring enzyme. He showed that the primary cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by the fermentation of sugar and that no cancer cell exists which has its respiration intact. Therefore, cancer could be prevented if the respiration of the body cells were kept intact.7 A director of The Max Planck Institute for Cell Physiology in Germany, he published The Prime Cause and Prevention Of Cancer in the 1960s.
His work showed that a normal body cell will burn sugar to produce energy using oxygen as fuel to do so.7 If there is an oxygen deficit, the carbon in the sugar will be changed into carbon monoxide instead of carbon dioxide. Carbon monoxide, being very difficult for the body to eliminate, builds up and becomes an irritant to the organs.2
After the Second World War, interest in oxygen therapies became more widespread and in the fifties when suitable plastics became available, medical ozone, a mixture of ozone and oxygen gas, became safe to handle and easier to administer.2
However, although hydrogen peroxide, chlorine dioxide and ozone will carry oxygen for a short time, which can be shown by adding them to water, they are unstable forms of oxygen. In a water test, the oxygen content increases for a short time initially, but will drop within a matter of hours and cease to be effective.
Working on this principle, researchers have been trying to develop a stable oxygen product for many years and eventually Aerobic Oxygen (a trademark) was developed in Canada. Aerobic Oxygen remains totally stable during the water test even after a period of years.
The stability has been achieved by using a solution of sodium and chlorine, two of the most important and abundant electrolytes of body fluid, to act as the carriers for concentrated molecules of oxygen which are released through the digestive process and absorbed into the bloodstream. Furthermore, Aerobic Oxygen is negatively charged and is the only oxygen product with no positively charged ions.
“The oxygen molecule in Aerobic Oxygen is loosely bonded and is therefore what is considered to be a stable oxygen molecule. This molecule will remain bonded until some function of the body requires the oxygen, at which time the bond is broken and the oxygen is used. Thus, the oxygen in aerobic oxygen will not cause any free radical activity.
If you take a glass of water, contaminate it with bacteria and add 50 drops of Aerobic Oxygen, it will kill the bacteria in a few minutes. You can add more bacteria and it will kill again in a few minutes. Or you can leave the water for a long period of time and bacteria will not grow in it.”5
In answer to the theory that oxygen, being a free radical, is harmful, let us look at the facts.
Free radicals, a natural occurrence in biochemical reactions, are atoms with unpaired electrons, the properties of which vary and without which there can be no life. Some are toxic to all living cells, some to the most vulnerable cells, and singlet oxygen 01 acts as a scavenger of other free radicals, combining with them to render them harmless, protecting cells from damage.2
As well as being the ideal environment for anaerobic bacteria, oxygen-deficient cells are unable to make their defensive enzyme shields strong enough and viruses can invade, forcing the cell to replicate the virus. The defensive enzyme shields produced by healthy cells are composed of four major enzymes: super oxide dismutase, reductase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase. As long as the cell maintains this enzyme shield, viruses cannot penetrate them and oxygen cannot harm them.2
Disease microbes have no enzyme shields. When oxygen is introduced into the area it attacks microbes without a coating and diseased cells with deficient wall enzymes. It oxidises them, allowing them to be cleared from the body and replaced with healthy new cells.2
The broad application of oxygen therapy in medicine is based on the simple principle that diseased cells cannot exist in the presence of oxygen and that cells cannot become diseased if they are supplied with sufficient oxygen.2
We know that certain organisms are anaerobic and cannot live in an oxygen-rich environment and so it follows that oxygen treatment will kill these organisms.2
The stability of Aerobic Oxygen allows it to remain within the body until it is utilised – it cannot break down and lose its effectiveness. It is added to drinking water and therefore requires no specialised method of administration.
Peter Hudson ND, DO, RSHom states that stress depletes oxygen reserves, weakening the immune system and leaving the body open to disease. He mentions that many diets are excessively acidic, resulting in an excess of positively charged hydrogen ions throughout the system, which combine with and use up oxygen, thus reducing the amount of oxygen available for metabolism.5
A pioneer of the use of Aerobic Oxygen in the UK is homoeopath Gordon Steward LCH, RSHom, who has used it in his practice for over two years for a variety of medical conditions. One which is on the increase is Candida albicans. Gordon says that this is partly due to poor eating habits and he is tough on patients’ diets, correcting them in order to deprive the candida of its food source. “I totally ban fermented items such as wine and vinegar, plus yeast, sugar, mushrooms and other fungi and aim to strengthen the immune system. Even so, when candida has gained a stronghold, treatment has generally been painfully slow. However, by using Aerobic Oxygen, all the candida cases I have treated have been free of the disease within three to five months. I use a very low dose to start with, gradually increasing it, in order to avoid uncomfortable symptoms of detoxification, such as stomach cramps, which occur as the candida dies.”8
Lin Clarke of The Allergy Clinic in Horley, Surrey, is a Complementary Medical Practitioner specialising in Allergy and Nutritional Medicine. Says Lin, “I look for the reason that triggered the symptom in the first place, whether it be ulceration, inflammation, bleeding or diarrhoea and find that a fungal form of gut yeast is found in 60-70% of patients, as well as gut parasites in approximately 30%.” In every one of Lin’s patients “low levels of gut/cellular oxygen accompany the recorded levels of the presence of fungus, parasites, viruses and adverse bacteria.” Like Gordon Steward, Lin Clarke also corrects patients’ diets, although she allows wine in moderation, but not beer. Since adding doses of Aerobic Oxygen to her standard treatment “subsequent levels of recorded gut oxygen have risen, many reaching a recognised benchmark in as little as 4-8 weeks depending on the severity of the symptoms.” Lin discovered that not only did her patients’ oxygen levels rise, but trace elements, vitamins and minerals, which were recorded as low at the start of the treatment, rose favourably without the addition of supplements, indicating that the addition of Aerobic Oxygen has improved the absorption of essential nutrients from the average daily diet.9
Aerobic Oxygen, although fairly new in the UK has been used in Canada, South America and the United States for some time.
The Author became aware of Aerobic Oxygen during a conversation with a sufferer of arteriosclerosis, who claimed the product, which her homoeopath had recommended to her, had saved her life. Previously, the patient’s specialist had treated her with injections of hydrogen peroxide. It is interesting to note that if red cells clump, 20-30 drops of Aerobic Oxygen in water will separate them after one hour.5 Suzanne was interested to see what effect the product would have on her own blood as she had needed iron supplements for eight years to treat a haemogloblin level that at its lowest had dropped to 6.9. During this time no cause had been found for the iron-deficient anaemia other than a failure to absorb iron from the diet. After three months without iron supplements, but taking Aerobic Oxygen, Suzanne’s haemoglobin level was 13.8.

References
1. Apparatus For Producing Ozone. USA Patent number 568177, September 22nd 1896.
2. Pressman Saul. Oxygen, Ozone and Medicine. Plasmafire International. 7186-205 St., Langley, BC, Canada, V2Y 1T1. 1995.
3. Pressman Saul. The History Of Medical Ozone. Plasmafire International. 7186-205 St., Langley, BC, Canada, V2Y 1T1. 1995.
4. Blass FM Eugene. Oxygen Therapy Blass: Its Development into a Complete Uniform Treatment of Disease. Oxidation News. International Association For Oxygen Therapy, Priest River, ID, USA 1(1): 3. 1990.
5. Hudson Peter. The Aerobic Oxygen Handbook. Mayfair Publishing. PO Box 860, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN20 7DJ. ISBN 1 898572-00-4. pp5,16, 45, 86, 87. 1997.
6. Urchell, Finney et al. Treatment of Arteriosclerotic Obstructive Cerebrovascular Disease with Hydrogen Peroxide. Vascular Surgery. 1(2): 77-81. June 1967.
7. Warburg Otto. The Prime Cause and Prevention of Cancer. Germany. pp6-7. 1966.
Warburg Otto. On The Origin of Cancer Cells. Science. 123(3191): 309-314. 1956.
8. An interview given by Gordon Steward to Suzanne Hotston September 1999.
9. An interview given by Lin Clarke to Suzanne Hotston September 1999