Knowledge Centre
How ozone therapy works
The science behind ozone, how the gas is made, and how an ozone sauna delivers it.
Questions (10)
- What is ozone (O3), and how is it different from the oxygen we breathe?Ozone is O3, a molecule of three oxygen atoms. The oxygen you breathe is O2, which has two. Ozone forms when a high electrical charge splits an O2 molecule and the freed atoms attach to other O2 molecules. Ozone is unstable and reverts to ordinary oxygen.
- How is ozone made inside an ozone sauna?Room air is drawn into an oxygen concentrator, which separates oxygen from nitrogen and other gases. That concentrated oxygen — 93% purity, plus or minus 3%, on the units we supply — is fed to the ozone generator built into the sauna cabinet, where a high-voltage process converts oxygen (O2) into ozone (O3).
- What does an oxygen concentrator actually do, and why is one part of the system?An oxygen concentrator draws in room air and passes it through molecular sieve beds that hold back nitrogen, delivering a continuous stream of concentrated oxygen. Every concentrator we supply with an ozone sauna is a 5 litre per minute medical unit producing 93% oxygen, plus or minus 3%. The sauna's ozone generator runs on that oxygen.
- What do ppm and mg/h mean on an ozone sauna, and why is the output adjustable?Parts per million (ppm) is the ozone concentration in the air; milligrams per hour (mg/h) is the mass of ozone the generator produces. Our saunas run a 500 mg/h generator on a constant 2 litre per minute oxygen feed, which gives about 47 ppm in the sauna's air. Ten display levels adjust output in 10% steps.
- What do "three modalities in one" and "seven modalities in one" mean on an ozone sauna?Three modalities in one describes our Standard and Deluxe ozone saunas: ozone, steam and 12 micron far infrared in a single cabinet. Steam warms the body and opens the skin, ozone is the active gas, and far infrared adds radiant heat. The Red Light cabinet is seven modalities in one.
- Why does an ozone sauna deliver ozone through the skin rather than having you breathe it?This is transdermal delivery — giving something across the skin rather than by mouth, injection or inhalation. In an ozone sauna your head stays outside the cabinet and the neck opening is covered, so ozone reaches skin and not the lungs. Steam warms and hydrates the skin, and ozone dissolves into the moisture film there.
- Why must ozone never be inhaled?Ozone is toxic to the lungs. Our ozone studies page states that ozone is toxic if inhaled and that medical applications must use strictly controlled routes such as topical, transdermal, injection or autohemotherapy. That is why an ozone sauna keeps your head outside the cabinet with the neck opening covered.
- What is ozone's half-life, and why does it turn back into oxygen?Ozone (O3) is unstable and reverts to ordinary oxygen (O2). In the heat and humidity of a sauna its half-life — the time for half of it to disappear — is roughly 10 to 20 minutes. That is why ozone cannot be bottled and has to be generated where it is used.
- What does "medical ozone" mean, and why do some sites use the term?Medical ozone means ozone generated from a pure medical oxygen source, such as a medical oxygen concentrator or medical oxygen cylinder, rather than from ambient air. We use the term to describe that supply chain, and we advise using only equipment that creates ozone from a medical oxygen source.
- Where is ozone used outside medicine?Ozone is used industrially as an oxidiser. In water treatment it disinfects, removes algae, oxidises iron and manganese, and strips colour and odour. In air treatment it removes odours and pollutants in unoccupied spaces. In food handling, produce can be soaked in ozonated water. Its short life leaves no residual chemical.