Velio Bocci - The Pioneer of the Modern O3 Ozone Therapy: Professor - by Roberto Quintero, ISCO3 Legal Advisor

By using his expertise in the study of protein metabolism and of analyzing results obtained by isolating and perfusing organs such as liver, kidney, lungs and heart, during the period 1967-1990 he became the world leader on the metabolism, pharmacology and physiological significance of interferons. The achieved results have been highly cited in many international journals and Encyclopedia.

He has warmly welcomed the legal advances done by the ozonetherapy in Cuba, Russia and Spain (in eleven out of 17 of its States) where this therapy has been regularized by the health authorities. In his own country, ozonetherapy has been also the object of regularizations at
the Regions (States) of Cremona, Lombardia and Marche and by rulings of the Administrative Court in the Region of Lazio. He continues encouraging ozonetherapists to devote time and knowledge to regularize the ozonetherapy in their own countries.

The legacy of Professor Bocci is clear: “The antagonism of Health Authorities is responsible for delaying the application of ozone therapy to billions of patients and we must do the maximal effort to break this situation.”

It depresses me to think that ozone, the cheapest drug on earth, is today either badly or minimally used because orthodox medicine refuses to evaluate it and Health Authorities are antagonistic or negligent. Both are responsible for leaving millions of people suffering and dying.

I must not get discouraged and continue to work and hope that ozone therapy will eventually benefit many people. I cannot hide my dream of organizing and gratuitously working in a large clinic with enthusiastic collaborators able to evaluate the full relevance of ozone therapy. There are many philanthropists helping the development of arts, science and sport and one day we may be lucky to find someone who believes and values this approach. In conclusion what are the aims of this book?

This has been specifically written for physicians, who want to learn and then perform a correct ozone therapy. Moreover, by using a plain scientific language, the book should be useful for the layman, who must receive the most objective information avoiding any undue hype.

The greatest effort will be dedicated to clarify in which diseases ozone therapy has been proved to be really useful and in others where the
efficacy remains uncertain. Because mass media and popular books often tend to elicit unrealistic hopes, it appears necessary that the reader is
precisely informed on the best available options provided by orthodox medicine and, if necessary, by ozonetherapy that, in any case, remains a complementary approach or the last resort.

We will expose the biological and pharmacological mechanism of action of ozone when dissolved in bodily fluids.

Although ozone is a strong oxidant, under controlled conditions, it can be therapeutically useful, in several human diseases. In fact ozone, once dissolved in the water or the blood, triggers a cascade of well-defined chemical compounds acting multiple cellular targets. We will demonstrate that ozone is extremely an versatile drug and the therapeutic range has been defined precisely to avoid any acute and chronic toxicity.

An interesting aspect is that prolonged ozone therapy allows an upregulation of the antioxidant enxymes and therefore ozone therapy represents a sytem for correcting the chronic oxidative stress present in many diseases.

Oxygen/ozone therapy is a well established complementary therapy practiced in many European countries. The ozone dissolves in body fluids and immediately reacts with biomolecules generating messengers responsible for biological and therapeutic activities. This results in an anti inflammatory response, which also results in a similar trophic reaction to that of RIT.

It is logical to expect that combining these two modalities would result in enhanced healing and therefore improved clinical outcomes. Oxygen/ozone therapy, accomplished by autohemotherapy (AHT), is performed by either administering ozonated blood intravenously (Major AHT) or via intramuscular route (Minor AHT). These procedures result in stimulation of the immune and healing systems.

Our concept is that the local injection of this activated blood injected directly to the ligamentous areas that are also being treated with RIT will act as a direct stimulation to the healing process. In addition, combining this with intravenous major AHT should stimulate the immune system to augment and support this process. RIT and oxygen/ozone therapy have been extensively studied separately.

We are proposing to evaluate whether a complementary approach based on cycles of oxygen-ozone autohemotherapy (O3-AHT) already performed in millions of patients, can abate the chronic oxidative stress and improve the quality of life of serious hemoglobinopathic patients.

Although a preliminary study has yielded encouraging results, it appears appropriate to perform a controlled, randomized and possibly multicentre clinical trial. The long use of this approach in other pathologies has proved to be very useful and it is hoped that scepticism will not
prevail over scientific rationale.

Ozone, as any other drug, has an intrinsic toxicity that, in the proposed application, is fully tamed by the blood antioxidant system.

It has been pointed out that ozonated autohemotherapy performed with an optimized procedure represents a powerful therapeutic approach. its main advantages are the lack of toxicity, a feeling of well-being and equilibated stimulation of cytokine production accompanied by improved oxygenation and metabolism. Both in the treatment of neoplasia, particularly after chemiotherapy, and of chromic viral diseases, the frequent reports of well-being after treamtent is relevant because the qulaity of life of these patients if generally poor.

In contrast to normal tissues, tumors thrive in hypoxic environments. This appears to be because they can metastasize and secrete angiopoietins for enhancing neoangiogenesis and further tumor spread. Thus, during chronic ischemia, normal tissues tend to die, while neoplasms tend to grow.

During the past two decades, it has been shown in arteriopathic patients that ozonated autohemotherapy is therapeutically useful because it increases oxygen delivery in hypoxic tissues, leading to normoxia. Although several oxygenation approaches have been tested, none is able to restore normoxia permanently in patients with cancer.

We postulate that a prolonged cycle of ozonated autohemotherapy may correct tumor hypoxia, lead to less aggressive tumor behavior, and represent a valid adjuvant during or after chemo- or radiotherapy. Moreover, it may re-equilibrate the chronic oxidative stress and reduce fatigue.