The New Oxygen Prescription

The Miracle of Oxidative Therapies

Nathaniel Altman

• Publisher: Healing Arts Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781620556078
• eBook ISBN: 9781620556085
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Alternative & Complementary Medicine

A guide to the latest research in oxygen therapies and their use on the path to optimum health• Presents new clinical advancements and scientific findings from Cuba, Italy, Spain, Russia, China, and the United States • Explores the effectiveness of oxidative therapies for treating many conditions, including heart disease, cancer, HIV, hepatitis, diabetes, MS, macular degeneration, herniated discs, arthritis, Alzheimer's, Crohn's, candida, emphysema, and eczema• Includes new research on oxidative therapies in veterinary medicine and dentistry, including its success in treating cavities and preventing infection Scientists now agree that most disease states are caused by oxygen starvation at a cellular level. Polluted air, devitalized foods, and poor breathing habits can all lead to chronic oxygen deficiency, a bodily environment in which toxins thrive as the overall immune response is weakened. Through oxidative therapies--the medical use of ozone (O3) or hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)--we can assist the body in generating the oxygen needed to oxidate viruses and bacteria as well as weak and sick tissue cells, so stronger and healthier cells can take their place.Presenting the latest advancements and clinical findings from Cuba, Italy, Spain, China, Russia, and the United States, as well as recommendations from the International Scientific Committee of Ozone Therapy (ISCO3), Nathaniel Altman explores the effectiveness of oxidative therapies for treating a wide range of conditions, including heart disease, herpes, HIV, diabetes, candida, tonsillitis, macular degeneration, herniated discs, burns, and arthritis. He shows how Cuban and Russian physicians have been successfully treating patients with heart disease with ozone therapy for decades and explains how ozone interacts with cells when introduced into the bloodstream, stimulating the body's own ability to fight cancer, osteoporosis, and hepatitis. He investigates promising new studies on the use of ozone and hydrogen peroxide therapies to treat Alzheimer's, Crohn's, multiple sclerosis, emphysema, eczema, and sepsis and the potential for these therapies to successfully treat new diseases such as Ebola and Zika.The author also explores the expanding use of oxidative therapies in veterinary medicine and dentistry, including their success in treating cavities and preventing infection. Providing a detailed resource section, he explains how to combine oxidative therapies with holistic methods, such as fasting, detox therapies, herbal medicine, and nutritional healing, for a stronger start on the path to optimum health.

PART ONE

Foundations

1

Foundations of Oxidative Therapies

Oxygen is essential for life. Over 62 percent of Earth’s crust (by mass) is made up of oxygen. Compounds containing oxygen form a major part of oceans, rocks, and all living things. Oxygen also is found in 65 percent of the elements of our body, including blood, organs, tissues, and skin.¹

Like all matter, oxygen comprises atoms. A substance that is made up of only one type of atom is known as an element (of which there are 108); a substance that is made up of more than one element is called a compound. Scientists have discovered literally millions of compounds, and new ones are being discovered and produced in laboratories every year.

Oxygen is a clear, odorless gas that can easily be dissolved in water. Each molecule (the smallest amount of a chemical substance that can exist by itself without changing or breaking apart) of oxygen is composed of two atoms of oxygen and is known by the chemical formula O₂.

We require a continual supply of oxygen in order to survive. The average person needs some 200 milliliters (about 1 cup) of oxygen per minute while resting, and nearly 8 liters (approximately 2 gallons) per minute during periods of strenuous activity. The brain—which makes up about 2 percent of our total body mass—requires over 20 percent of the oxygen taken in by the body. While we can go without food for several months and survive without water for a couple of days, we cannot live without oxygen for more than a few minutes.

Oxygen makes up approximately 21 percent of the air we normally breathe.^*1 Smokers or people who live in heavily polluted environments are likely to consume a smaller percentage of oxygen.

The oxygen in the air we breathe reacts with sugars in our systems (from the food we eat and from the breakdown of fats and starch in the body) to produce carbon dioxide, water, and energy. The energy from this process, a form of combustion, is stored in a compound called ATP (adenosine triphosphate). ATP is essentially the fuel we need to live, think, and move. According to Sheldon Saul Hendler, M.D., in his book The Oxygen Breakthrough, oxygen is the most vital component of ATP within our cells: “ATP is the basic currency of life. Without it, we are literally dead. Imbalance or interruption in the production and flow of this substance results in fatigue, disease and disorder, including immune imbalance, cancer, heart disease and all of the degenerative processes we associate with aging.”²

The lungs, heart, and circulatory system deliver sufficient amounts of oxygen to the entire body. This oxygen creates the energy we need to survive and thrive. At the same time, the lungs take carbon dioxide (CO₂), a waste product, from the blood and discharge it back into the air. It is estimated that we breathe in 2,500 gallons of air each day. Trees take in carbon dioxide and convert it into oxygen through the process of photosynthesis, sending it back into the atmosphere for us to enjoy once more.

We all know how tired and sluggish we feel when we are in a closed room full of people. Although the room is filled with air, that air is high in carbon dioxide and deficient in oxygen. A number of studies have linked the high CO₂ level in the cabins of commercial jet aircraft (which is almost double the minimum comfort standard for indoor air) to a variety of temporary health problems, including headaches, exhaustion, and eye, nose, and throat discomfort.³ When passengers arrive at their destination and leave the aircraft, and oxygen consumption returns to normal, symptoms often disappear within a couple of hours.

Oxygen is absolutely essential for healthy cells, as it acts against foreign toxins in the body. Many such toxins, like viruses and bacteria, are mostly anaerobic, meaning that they thrive in a low-oxygen environment. Cancer viruses are among those that are anaerobic. In 1966 Nobel Prize winner Dr. Otto Warburg confirmed that the key precondition for the development of cancer is a near lack of oxygen on the cellular level.⁴

HOW DO HUMANS BECOME OXYGEN DEFICIENT?

In a perfect world, we would easily get enough pure oxygen for our body’s needs. However, in modern society, there are several major factors that make this difficult.

Polluted Air

Perhaps the most important contributor to oxygen deficiency is air pollution. Automobile exhaust, factory emissions, and burning garbage are the three greatest causes of lowered oxygen content in the air we breathe. The oxygen content of the air for those who smoke or are unfortunate enough to breathe in secondhand smoke is even lower.

Devitalized Foods

As we will see later, fresh fruits and vegetables contain an abundance of oxygen that is dissolved in water. When we eat generous amounts of fresh, raw vegetables and fruits, we benefit from increased oxygen intake as well as from the valuable vitamins and minerals these foods contain.

However, foods that have been heavily processed, cooked, and preserved through canning tend to be very low in oxygen. High-fat foods like meat, eggs, and dairy products tend to be lower in oxygen as well. The standard American diet (known appropriately as SAD) tends to be very low in oxygen content. It should be no surprise that this type of diet has been linked to a wide variety of degenerative diseases like arteriosclerosis, cancer, and diabetes.

Poor Breathing

Healthy breathing involves deep, rhythmic breaths that fill the lungs with air and then exhale that air fully back into the atmosphere. Due to pollution, stress, or simply habit, most people do not breathe fully. For example, many of us were taught to breathe relying only on the muscles of the upper chest, which tends to ventilate just the upper part of the lungs. By using the diaphragm as well as the upper chest to breathe, we are able to take fuller breaths and incorporate more of the available oxygen in our lungs. We’ll examine the subject of breathing later on.

OXIDATION

The primary effect that breathing has on the body is oxidation. Oxidation is simply a natural process that involves oxygen combining with another substance, resulting in changes in the chemical composition of both substances. Technically speaking, oxidation includes any reactions in which electrons (tiny particles smaller than an atom that have an electrical charge) are transferred. Most oxidation produces large amounts of energy in the form of light, heat, or electricity. The products of oxidation include corrosion, decay, burning, or respiration.⁵ By exposing certain metals to oxygen, for example, the metal is oxidized, producing rust. When butter is left out in the open air for long periods of time, the process of oxidation turns the butter rancid.

Oxidation is also a primary component of combustion. When we light a fire in the fireplace, we are causing the wood to be oxidized. When we start our car engine in the morning, gasoline combines with oxygen and is oxidized to water and carbon dioxide.

Oxidation occurs as combustion within the body when oxygen turns sugar into energy. Our body uses oxidation as its first line of defense against harmful bacteria, viruses, yeast, and parasites. Oxidation breaks down the toxic cells into carbon dioxide and water, and they are removed from the body through its normal processes of elimination.

OXYGENATION

After oxidation, the most important effect of breathing is oxygenation. Oxygenation involves saturation with oxygen, as in the aeration of blood in the lungs. Breathing in oxygen is a major source of oxygenation. Although hydrogen peroxide and ozone are best known as oxidizers, they are also powerful oxygenators.

If the oxygenation process within the body is weak or deficient, the body cannot eliminate poisons adequately and a toxic reaction can occur. In minor cases, a toxic buildup can lead to fatigue, dullness, and sluggishness. However, when poor oxygenation is chronic, our overall immune response to germs and viruses is weakened, making us vulnerable to a wide range of diseases.

OXIDATION AND FREE RADICAL PRODUCTION

One of the medical establishment’s chief reservations about the use of oxidants like ozone and hydrogen peroxide in medicine is the production of free radicals. A free radical has been defined as “any molecule that possesses an unpaired electron, an electrically-charged particle spinning in lonely orbit and searching for another electron to counterbalance it.”⁶

Stable molecules have electrons in pairs. To become stable, a free radical will steal an electron from a stable molecule, which then becomes a free radical itself. Free radical formation follows a chain reaction, with one free radical causing important structural changes in many other molecules. Cell damage, including mutations, often results.

Yet free radicals are not necessarily “bad.” In fact, many are essential to life. Physiological amounts of some free radicals (including superoxide and hydroxyl radicals) are produced by the body to deliver energy to the body’s cells. In addition, free radicals have a crucial role in killing bacteria, fungi, and viruses—without them, we could not survive on Earth. For example, when exposed to a flu virus, the body creates free radicals to destroy it. Free radicals also play an important role in regulating the chemicals the body needs for its survival, such as hormones.

Free radicals are manufactured by the body (they are produced in extra-high amounts during vigorous exercise, but people who are in good physical shape are easily able to detoxify them) and are formed by certain medications. Free radicals are also produced in the environment. Air pollution (including ozone-laden smog, motor vehicle exhaust, and cigarette smoke), toxic waste, certain food additives, pesticide residues, and radiation (such as radiation from X-rays and airplane travel) all produce free radicals that can affect us in different ways.

When we have too many free radicals in our bodies, cell damage can occur. In his book Free Radicals and Disease Prevention, David Lin lists how excess free radicals can cause harmful effects to cells. They can

• Break off the membrane proteins, destroying a cell’s identity
• Fuse together membrane lipids (fats) and membrane proteins, hardening the cell membrane and making it brittle
• Puncture the cell membrane, allowing bacteria and viruses easy entry
• Disrupt the nuclear membrane, opening up the nucleus and exposing genetic material
• Mutate and destroy genetic material, rewriting and destroying genetic information
• Burden the immune system with the above havoc and threaten the immune system itself by undermining immune cells with similar damage⁷

As a result, free radical damage has been linked to a number of degenerative diseases, including atherosclerosis, cancer, cataracts, diabetes, allergies, mental disorders, and arthritis. Excess free radicals also play a role in the aging process and decreased immune response, opening the door to a variety of immune disorders, including the onset of AIDS.⁸

SEEKING BALANCE: THE BODY’S “ANTIOXIDANT” SYSTEM

The human body is more than a machine; it is a highly complex living organism that is constantly striving to achieve a dynamic state of self-healing. Healing involves the constant interaction among the myriad aspects of the immune system. One of the most complex and yet powerful components of body healing is the so-called “antioxidant” system. Antioxidants are enzymes (such as catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase) that protect cells from free radicals by chemically changing them into harmless compounds like oxygen and water.

In their book Antioxidant Adaptation, Stephen A. Levine, Ph.D., and Parris M. Kidd, Ph.D., write about the ability of the body’s antioxidant defense system to fight off free radical attacks by providing greater tolerance to oxidative stress to selected tissues:

The system is flexible: individual antioxidant factors can interact to donate electrons on to another, thereby facilitating the regeneration of optimally active (fully-reduced) forces. The system is also versatile and can respond adaptively to abnormal oxidative challenges subject to source and site availability of required factors. . . . The adaptabili...

Table of contents

• Cover Image
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• Foreword to the Third Edition
• Preface to the Fourth Edition
• Introduction
• Part 1: Foundations
• Part 2: Oxidative Therapies in Medicine
• Part 3: A Holistic Protocol
• Conclusion. The Future of Oxygen Therapies
• Appendix 1: Oxygen Products, services, and Applications
• Appendix 2: Resources
• Footnotes
• Endnotes
• About the Author
• About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company
• Books of Related Interest
• Copyright & Permissions
• Index