Ozone for back pain

Can ozone treatment help my back pain?

Millions of people suffer from back pain. For many this disorder is disabling, leads to loss of jobs and inability to make a living. There are hundreds of ads for back pain cure, ranging from herbs, medications, manipulation therapy, alternative therapy and surgery. In reality, the majority of these treatments do not work. Moreover, no one responds to the same treatment and the symptoms relief is short term. Almost every week a new treatment is introduced. Now there is another experimental treatment that is being promoted for back pain. It involves spinal injections of ozone gas and corticosteroids.

One recent study showed that this combination did help relieve back pain.

How ozone works is a mystery. Corticosteroids have been used to treat back pain but the results have never been impressive. In fact most patients do not find any major benefit from steroid injections.

The researchers in this study claimed that ozone therapy may help some patients avoid surgery.

However, experts in back pain indicate that ozone is just another scam.

Ozone therapy is widely used in some parts of Europe to treat a variety of disorders including back pain. Unfortunately many of the reports on ozone are case reports and small case studies. Further, the benefits of ozone have not been consistently been seen in all patients and the therapy is not cheap.

 

For consumers who have back pain, a word of warning- ozone is considered experimental therapy and is not approved by the FDA. In my opinion, it is just one more treatment with a lot of gas but no real science behind it. Leave ozone for the quacks who have money to waste. When it comes to back pain, the only people who benefit are the providers of therapies-the majority of patients continue to suffer.