How ozone therapy works
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.
The molecule
Oxygen in air is diatomic: two oxygen atoms bonded together, written O2. Ozone is triatomic, written O3. A high electric charge splits a normal O2 molecule, and each of the two freed atoms then attaches to another O2 molecule to form a new trivalent molecule, O3.
Why the extra atom matters
That third atom is loosely held, which makes ozone both a strong oxidant — a substance that takes electrons from whatever it meets, changing it chemically — and a short-lived one. The same instability means the molecule does not persist: it reverts to O2, so it leaves no residual chemical behind.
What ozone is not
- It is not the stratospheric ozone layer, which is what most people picture when they hear “medical ozone”. Different context entirely.
- It is not a drug or a nutrient. It is a gas that has to be generated at the point of use.
- It is not interchangeable with breathing oxygen. Ozone is used on the body in a sauna, not breathed.