Ozone treatment for headaches

Migraines and Headaches

Using ozone therapy to increase quality of life.

Keywords: Migraine, Headache, Ozone therapy, Quality of Life

Journal of Pain and Relief online article (2)

Migraine is a proceeding or an episodic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent headache, moderate to severe, often in association with a series of symptoms of autonomic nervous system.

Ozone treatment for headaches

Case results

This report focuses on a case with recurrent migraine episodes, that shows the effectiveness of oxygen-ozone therapy also using a modality of ozone administration. In the case, a drastic reduction in the frequency and intensity of pain with a consequent reduction in disability and an improvement in some health-related quality of life aspects was observed.

“Ozone is an allotropic form of oxygen, mainly known for its ecological properties, industrial application and healing effects. Several mechanisms of action have been proposed to explain the efficacy of ozone therapy, including analgesic, anti-inflammatory and oxidant action on proteoglycans.

The versatility of ozone application is impressive because, if properly utilized, it can be proficient in vascular diseases and surprisingly in orthopaedics and odontoiatry.

No more papers describing the application of ozone therapy for the migraine treatment have been found in literature. This report shows a case of migraine much improved as a result of oxygen- ozone therapy.”(3)

Case Study

“A 10-years-old child came to our clinic “Salute Ok” in Rome, Italy, complaining of headache with vasomotor symptoms, with first onset at the age of 4-5 years and occurrence with daily frequency from the age of 8 years. The child had the right frontal and temporal headache and referred usual appearance of the disorder after an episode of dizziness and after intense workouts (basketball). The symptoms were occasionally associated with nausea. His family history was positive for migraine (mother). The child had been formerly visited by several medical specialists, including orthodontists and otolaryngologist, thus excluding other possible causes of headache. The patient reported previous unsuccessful treatments with different approaches, in particular pharmacological therapies, for some years. A physical examination revealed slight scoliosis and slight flat footedness. Our physician recommended a treatment cycle consisting of 10 rectal insufflations (2 insufflations/week) of oxygen-ozone to be performed throughout a 35-day period. The administered dose of ozone was an average of 120 cc of the gaseous mixture with a concentration of 25 parts of ozone in 1000 parts of oxygen. At baseline and at the end of the treatment cycle, the patient underwent an individual assessment of discomfort by means of the self-reported Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), rating from 0 to 10, in order to measure his overall perception of pain. According to the VAS results, pain intensity turned from 9/10 recorded at baseline to 0/10 at the end of the ozone-based treatment. In particular, the patient reported that before the treatment the pain was daily, very intense and often accompanied by nausea. In fact, even his mood was affected by discomfort, and he was always feeling very tired and silent. After only 17 days of treatment, the patient reported an increased sense of wellness and a significant reduction of headache episodes, which completely disappeared immediately after the treatment cycle. Now, 6 months after the end of the therapy, the patient reported to have experienced no more than 2 headache episodes in a month and that he is able to play basket safely with no hassles. Daily functional status and disability were monitored by means of the Short Form-36 Health-Survey (Questionnaire SF-36), composed of 36 items measuring how much the disease has influenced patients’ lives. The patient reported that even in the past his disturbance has never compromised his daily life (school, sport, social time) since it used to occur only after sport or physical efforts, however after the ozone-based therapy he feels certainly better in all his daily activities for he has no fear for the occurrence of migraine attacks.” (2)

Conclusions

“Ozone therapy decreased headache episodes and pain severity over a protracted period. This novel approach is effective and merits further research.” – The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Mary Ann Liebert (1)

Discussion

“This report wants to underline the importance of the ozone therapy in the treatment of migraine, a common and debilitating disorder in which the use of this application is still to be investigated in depth. In particular, one case  of ozone administration was shown, its result: a drastic reduction in the frequency and intensity of pain. No adverse and toxic effects have been pointed out with this therapy, in contrast to the classical anti-inflammatory  (4) drugs generally used for the pharmacological treatment this disease, and also formerly used by both our patients for different years without any result.

Another very important aspect of this report is represented by the improvement in patients’ quality of life, still following just a few cycles of ozone therapy. In fact, the observed reduction in both the frequency and severity of migraine attacks corresponded to an evident decrease in disability with consequent improvement in some health-related quality of life aspects, particularly in the social activity domain. In conclusion, the efficacy of ozone therapy in the treatment of headache is appropriate to be evaluated in further clinical studies with a greater number of patients.

Ozone treatment for headaches

Sources

  • (1) The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Mary Ann Liebert https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/acm.2012.0273#:~:text=Conclusions{e43154ce913794517af217fcab284b44cfe906ba9a1c4ba2ecde5a9be0395ec5}3A{e43154ce913794517af217fcab284b44cfe906ba9a1c4ba2ecde5a9be0395ec5}20Ozone{e43154ce913794517af217fcab284b44cfe906ba9a1c4ba2ecde5a9be0395ec5}20therapy{e43154ce913794517af217fcab284b44cfe906ba9a1c4ba2ecde5a9be0395ec5}20decreased{e43154ce913794517af217fcab284b44cfe906ba9a1c4ba2ecde5a9be0395ec5}20headache,effective{e43154ce913794517af217fcab284b44cfe906ba9a1c4ba2ecde5a9be0395ec5}20and{e43154ce913794517af217fcab284b44cfe906ba9a1c4ba2ecde5a9be0395ec5}20merits{e43154ce913794517af217fcab284b44cfe906ba9a1c4ba2ecde5a9be0395ec5}20further{e43154ce913794517af217fcab284b44cfe906ba9a1c4ba2ecde5a9be0395ec5}20research. [Accessed 14/01/21, online]
  • (2) Apuzzo D., Ferrazza P. (2016) Case Reports 0n Patients with Migraine Responding to Ozone Therapy. J Pain Relief 5:252.  https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/case-reports-0n-patients-with-migraine-responding-to-ozone-therapy-2167-0846-1000252.php?aid=74037 [Accessed 14/01/21, online]
  • (3) Case Reports 0n Patients with Migraine Responding to Ozone Therapy | OMICS International (omicsonline.org) [Accessed 14/01/21, online]
  • (4) A New Anti-inflammatory Therapy for COPD (hilarispublisher.com) https://www.hilarispublisher.com/open-access/a-new-antiinflammatory-therapy-for-copd-2161-105X-1000370.pdf [Accessed 14/01/21, online]