The Benefits of Ozone Sauna Therapy

Who doesn't love to sweat out toxins for better health? Dry saunas and steam rooms have been used for centuries to help people feel better, not just by the relaxation but by the heat, allowing one to sweat out toxins and boost the immune system. When doing this type of therapy, one always has to be careful not to detox too fast and cause a detox reaction or dehydration. 

To help prevent dehydration, I love using steam versus dry heat. But even after spending time in a steam room, you want to drink at least 64 ounces of water that same day to help flush out toxins that were brought up and out of the cells during the steam room time. Besides a steam room, hot showers always do the trick for me, especially if I have tight muscles or feel like I need an immune boost. I was lucky enough to have a steam room in my gym before COVID hit, so now I settle for hot showers and the benefits of steamed water in a pot over the stove with a towel over my head for any head or sinus pressure. But now I can get the benefits of a steam room with ozone at Healing Arts (I have to come to work early or leave later to have time for treatment). 

I love ozone. Having had asthma as a child, putting ozone into the air saves me when I go to my mom's dusty cabin in the Adirondacks. I also make ozonated water to drink 16 ounces daily, wash my fruits and vegetables to get the dirt and bugs off it, and use it to wash my face. The ozone-pod makes that all possible, creating ozonated water at home. Washing my face with the ozonated water is fantastic! I couldn't believe it the first time I used it; my skin got tighter. More oxygen to the skin is only beneficial. So, when I learned about ozone sauna therapy, I couldn't wait to try it! If I had amazing results with just washing my face, imagine if I did my whole body! It is excellent for the skin, and an ozone sauna is also therapeutic for the body. As the ozone gets absorbed through the skin to the lymphatic and blood streams, the extra oxygen gives the body the extra boost it needs to fight free radicals, fight infection, detox heavy metals, absorb nutrients, reduce inflammation, have better digestion, and more! I knew I had to have one in the office so others could experience it and understand why I love ozone.

Ozone is a colorless gas comprising three atoms of oxygen (O3). The oxygen in the air is O2, so when ozone gets absorbed into the body, the extra oxygen atom easily breaks off and bonds to where it is needed in the body. Your body can benefit in many ways if it has extra oxygen. To help detox, the additional oxygen molecule bonds with sulfur compounds like glutathione. In this way, ozone helps take the burden off the liver by binding to toxic substances, making them neutral in the body and no longer a toxin. 

Ozone sauna therapy is the combination of steam sauna and ozone gas. During an ozone sauna session, you sit in a sauna pod that covers you from the neck down and induces sweating using steam from distilled water. This sweating opens up pores, allowing the skin to absorb the ozone gas. As you sit in the sauna pod, ozone gas is introduced simultaneously. The sauna must enable the head to stick out to prevent you from inhaling much of the ozone gas. Inhaling some ozone will only benefit the lungs as the extra oxygen is beneficial, but too much can irritate the lungs and cause lightheadedness. You google ozone, and there is a lot of controversy despite the research, which shows how therapeutic it is for the body. I'm not waiting for research to catch up to the results I see daily. 

So when you combine the wet and warm skin with the ozone gas, the extra oxygen that goes in has significant anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting effects—ozone sauna therapy is a powerful treatment comparable to IV ozone administrations, just without the needle. Ozone therapy breaks up lactic acid, increases cellular respiration in muscles, speeds up the recovery of damaged tissue, and accelerates muscle growth for those with tight, sore muscles. Ozone therapy improves blood circulation, improves vitamin and mineral absorption, fights inflammation, and is wonderful at killing mold, parasites, candida, viruses, and bacteria.

What To Expect

You will sit in the Ozone pod with your head out of the top of the pod while steam and an ozone, oxygen mixture circulates inside the unit. The steam and heat trigger the opening of your pores. Ozone then enters your body through your skin and into your lymphatic fluid, blood, and fat cells. Toxins in your lymph, fat & blood are oxidized, and the oxidized toxins are expelled through your skin, sparing your liver and kidneys. Because ozone enters the body and pulls toxins out of fat cells, it increases the body's metabolism and can assist with weight loss.

Treatment is usually between 20 and 30 minutes, depending on your health. But we also offer 10-minute sessions to help prevent too much detox if you want to give it a try and don't have enough time. You will sit naked on a towel inside the pod. You could also have a towel wrapped around you, but the idea is that the more skin exposed to the steamy ozone air, the better. No jewelry, water bottles, or foreign objects should be taken into the pod with you due to the wet heat. 

You can expect to feel relaxed, refreshed, and energized from the treatment. We provide towels to dry off. Remember to drink plenty of water and breathe deeply for the rest of the day!

What is Ozone Sauna Therapy Used For?

Ozone saunas are used for many conditions because of their potent anti-inflammatory, detox, and immune-boosting effects. Ozone sauna therapy can be used for:

• Joint pain
  
• Multiple Sclerosis
  
• Foggy Brain
  
• As a complementary treatment to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy
  
• Lyme disease
  
• Rheumatoid arthritis
  
• Auto-immune disorders
  
• Lupus
  
• Eczema
  
• Injuries
  
• Weight loss
  
• Chronic viral diseases like EBV, hepatitis B and C
  
• Bacterial infections
  
• Fungal infections
  
• Skin ulcers (diabetic, infectious, necrotic)
  
• Allergies
  
• Influenza, cold
  
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
  
• Fibromyalgia
  
• Poor Circulation
  
• Diabetes
  
• Scleroderma
  
• Asthma
  
• and more

Possible Side Effects of Ozone Sauna Therapy

Ozone saunas are one of the safest treatments in the alternative health field: They're non-invasive and relaxing. 

The reported side effects are usually minor and transient and can be easily remedied using the sauna less. I like muscle testing for how long a patient's ozone sauna session should be. We have 10, 20, or 30-minute intervals. The longer the session, the more oxygen can enter the body, but we don't want to detox too fast. Signs of detoxing too fast from the ozone include a rash or fatigue. The body becomes fatigued because all of the body's energy goes into detoxing, not towards daily output. If this happens, be kind to yourself for the day, and it usually wears off with a good night's sleep. 

A rash can occur because the ozone has brought up too many toxins, and the body is trying to eliminate toxins through the skin as you sweat. It can be itchy, and it usually looks like small red pimples. It can occur on the abdomen, chest, back, or limbs. It is usually the itchiest the night of the ozone sauna therapy and dissipates entirely in 3-4 days without any long-standing damage to the skin. It's a good thing because you know you detoxed a lot, but there is no reason to overwhelm the body, so if you get a rash, I suggest the next time you do it, either a reduction of the ozone concentration or frequency of administration.

If you get itchy, you can alternate between hot and cold showers when you get home. Ten minutes hot shower, two minutes as cold as you can stand, and the water only has to hit the rash area. You may also want a liver flush to help with the toxins. A lotion with oats can be really soothing. Bentonite paste on the rash can draw out the toxins, allowing the skin to, and a high dose of vitamin B12—up to 1500 micrograms at a time—can help the rash, too. 

For those who want to do a steam sauna and not ozone, it is possible to turn the ozone off and get the health benefits of just the hot sauna.

You are not allowed to do the ozone sauna if you have high blood pressure, are worried about a stroke, have an organ transplant, or have hyperthyroidism. If you are pregnant, please do not partake in sauna ozone therapy; instead, consider it for your post-pregnancy protocol.

To know whether ozone sauna therapy is right for you, talk to me or one of the other practitioners at Healing Arts, and we can muscle test you for the best course of action. If your body would benefit, we can test for the best duration of 10, 20, 30-minute sessions and for how often. I do see 

For general detoxification and well-being, a schedule of four 30-minute sessions once every other week is tested often. For chronic medical disorders, up to 12 sessions or more are required, but everyone is different, and we want to personalize your care. So, if you are thinking about it, let us know at your next appointment so we can muscle test you for it. 

Resources

• Ozone Therapy Research - The National Library of Medicine