The Surprising Health Benefits of Oxidative Medicine October 14 2012 | 79,476 views | + Add to Favorites 587 6 589 Email Print To view the full interview, please click HERE! Download Interview Transcript Visit the Mercola Video LibraryBy Dr. Mercola Dr. Robert Rowen was board-certified and recertified by the American Boards of Family Practice and Emergency Medicine; he's currently also certified by the American Board of Clinical Medical Toxicology. He's also a leader in medical freedom, primarily with his pioneering work in 1990 in Alaska, where he was instrumental in creating the first statutory protection for natural medicine in the United States. Alaska's governor appointed him to the state medical board in 1992. I've interviewed Dr. Rowen before on the topics of natural health, cholesterol and statin drugs. This discussion will review the fascinating uses for oxidative medicine and oxidation therapies. What is Oxidative Medicine? When most people consider oxidation, they think about free radicals and the need to protect themselves using antioxidants. However, when used therapeutically, oxidants can be beneficial for treating a wide range of conditions ranging from viral and fungal infections to joint pain and arthritis. Dr. Rowen explained: "Oxidation medicine is any number of therapies that uses oxidants. Oxidants are electron receptors. Oxygen is typically the final electron receptor of oxidants, which facilitate and stimulate body processes. The three that are most commonly used parenterally – meaning intravenously or by other injection – would be ozone therapy, ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy, and intravenous hydrogen peroxide therapy. Believe it or not, a high dose of vitamin C has now been proven to work through oxidation medicines, because it stimulates the production of hydrogen peroxide in the tissues." A Cure for Staph Infections Discovered in 1943 The use of oxidative therapies clinically was first documented during the great flu outbreak of 1918-1920. During that time a British physician in India was able to cut the death rate of influenza and pneumonia by 50 percent using intravenous hydrogen peroxide therapy. Ultraviolet energy had been applied to skin for skin infections. Then, in the 1930s and '40s, ultraviolet blood irradiation (UBI) treatment began to appear in the literature and a physicist named Knott developed a technique for removing some blood, treating it with ultraviolet light, and putting it back into the patient. Remember, this was before antibiotics, and the therapy was remarkably effective for treating infections that would have otherwise been fatal. "I have every American article that was ever published on ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy, and the results were simply stunning in terms of what it could do to bacterial infections, viral infections, and even allergic problems," Dr. Rowen said. Now, more than half a century later we're facing an epidemic of antibiotic-resistant diseases like MRSA staph infections. Dr. Rowen continued: "In 1943, I believe it was the American Journal of Surgery, they had an article showing that the Knott technique was used for staph infections. We have a crisis in this country today with staph. People are dying. They (UBI clinicians) started using UBI on a series of staph infections and patients died. But they happened to notice that the patients that died... had also simultaneously been given the new 'wonder drug,' sulfa. They thought that maybe that (sulfa) could be interfering. So they did another series of patients with staph. Every one of them lived with just a couple of sessions of UBI. These patients were denied the use of sulfa. Sulfa actually happens to absorb ultraviolet energy. So yes, it would interfere. But going back to 1943, we have a cure for staph. It doesn't matter whether it's MRSA or not. MRSA means methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. That germ is no more pathogenic or pathological than any other common staph. The only difference is it happens to be resistant to the relatively (I said relatively) safe antibiotic, methicillin. So you have to use extraordinarily toxic antibiotics, if you're able to treat it at all. Remember, that germ is not any different in terms of its pathogenicity, meaning its risk of hurting you. And it's no more or less susceptible today to ultraviolet energy than it was four billion years ago, because organisms have had years to get used to the sun's energy and they haven't, because they can't." The Ultimate Safe "Vaccination"? So how, specifically, does UBI work? When you take several ounces of blood out of your body and expose it to ultraviolet energy, it becomes cleansed of UV-sensitive pathogens. What about the rest of the blood that's infected? Dr. Rowen explained: "If you give that blood a clean slate, you inactivate the organisms with the ultraviolet, and give it back to the body, the body can now see the antigen structure of those organisms, or in other words, the three dimensional structure. It knows that those organisms are there, but the organisms happen to be dead, so they're not going to hurt you. Your body can then see those organisms and mount a much more efficient immune response." Simplistically, another way to describe that would be as the ultimate, safe vaccination, because you're getting the proper dose, but you're not getting any additives that are potentially harmful like preservatives, mercury, aluminum, and all those other components. Dr. Rowen continued: "All the toxins could be inactivated by ultraviolet presumably because it carries so much energy, it can actually break linkages. That's one of the things that it's doing. Also, we know that bacteria and viruses don't have a mechanism to protect themselves from oxidation. Viruses, for example, have what's called lipid envelopes, meaning they're surrounded by lipids. These lipids could be very vulnerable to oxidative damage. If they're altered, then they're not functional and the virus might not be able to penetrate the cell." Interestingly, in Germany they have been using a similar process known as minor autohemotherapy for decades. During this process, a small portion of blood, such as 5-10 cc's, are removed, ozonated or exposed to UV light, shaken up and then given back as a "vaccine" in the hip, to stimulate the immune system. Major autohemotherapy involves taking six to seven ounces of blood and undergoing the same process, for similar immune-boosting benefits. The same process can be done with ozone instead of ultraviolet. Dr. Rowen says that these therapies are the ultimate modern treatment for influenza. Rather than take a shot in the dark on a potentially dangerous vaccine, he uses oxidation. These techniques are his first choice for treating influenza and viruses. Research and experience indicates they will cut recovery time about in half. In fact, intravenous hydrogen peroxide was published in 1920 in Lancet to cut by 50% the death rate from the horrible Spanish flu epidemic in India, and UBI cured viral pneumona quite quickly in American hospitals in the 1940's. Amazing Improvements in Lyme Disease, Heart Attack Recovery and More On Dr. Rowen's YouTube channel, "RobertRowenMD," you can hear stories from numerous patients who have experienced amazing improvements, sometimes after just two or three UVI or ozone treatments. Dr. Rowen shared the case of a licensed health professional with Lyme disease, which is very difficult to treat. In a matter of weeks, he came in with a smile on his face rating his improvement eight points on scale of 10. In other words, coming in at zero, 10 is perfect. In three weeks, he improved to an eight. And another was a woman with skin MRSA whose problem melted away dramatically with just her first session of ozone. In another case, an eye surgeon who Dr. Rowen described as a "cardiac cripple" due to a heart attack also experienced an eight-point improvement after four to six weeks of treatment with intravenous oxidation therapy, oral and occasional intravenous chelation therapy, and nutrients. Other cases include a woman with bone-on-bone arthritis who was advised to get joint replacement, and in a few sessions of ozone gas injections into her knee joints she no longer had pain. In a similar case, a woman who was told she needed an ankle replacement experienced a 90 percent improvement in just two sessions of ozone injections. How is it that oxidative therapies have the potential to treat such a wide range of health issues? Dr. Rowen explained the research of Velio Bocci, an Italian MD who has written numerous books on ozone. Initially, he got to wondering how doctors could get such a wide variety of specific responses and cures to a really broad variety of non-specific diseases using oxidative medicine. It didn't make sense to him, because Western medicine is designed to shoot a bullet at one particular disease like, say, methicillin for staph. Dr. Rowen continued: "He [Bocci] then started doing research on the effects of ozone on the immune system. He found that ozone generated a whole host of cytokines and interferons. Those are the hormones that white blood cells use to talk to each other. These are extraordinarily immune stimulating. What he found, in his own words, was that 'ozone is the ideal cytokine inducer.' Contrast that to Pharma, which is trying to dissect out individual cytokines and interferons for parenteral use. And they're killing people, because you're giving one. Bocci found that when you use oxidation therapy – and this crosses over to ultraviolet, same thing – you're stimulating your white cells to come alive and do what God designed those cells to do, which is to go out and kill infections. He also found that ozone therapy generates what he calls, super-gifted red blood cells. Red blood cells... carry oxygen. A super-gifted red cell would be a red cell that can dump its oxygen into the tissues. Because it might carry oxygen, but if it doesn't get rid of that oxygen, that's not going to do you any good. He says, 'Ozone creates super-gifted red cells.' So now we're getting a treatment that improves oxygenation. I'm an oxygen man. Burn more oxygen, you heal, stimulate, and augment the immune system. It's a really nice one-two punch to jumpstart your body. It doesn't just deal with the immune system. If you're going to get more oxygen to the tissues, you can heal almost anything." Using Oxidative Medicine Preventively at Home: The Best Anti-Aging Therapy of All Time? Dr. Rowen is, to his knowledge, the longest living continuous user of oxidation therapy in North America, since 1986. He uses this prophylactically because, in his words: "I happen to think that oxidation therapy is an ultimate – if not the ultimate – anti-aging therapy... I really believe this. I have been doing this for years. I have been in ozone, like I said, longer than anybody in North America. I think it's the ultimate anti-aging therapy. I do it on a regular basis even on me. One option is to use oxygenation therapy while you exercise. Dr. Rowen continued: "My favorite here is exercise with oxygen therapy also known as, EWOT exercise with oxygen therapy). I have written about that repeatedly in Second Opinion. With EWOT, you breathe oxygen at a high concentration. Try and get it as close to 100 percent, as you can while you exercise. A German named Manfred Von Ardenne studied this many years ago. He found that if you exercise with this extra load of oxygen coming in under a higher partial pressure, meaning 100 percent oxygen, you can reverse aging in your capillaries and improve oxygenation of your body. This is any man's approach to improving oxygenation. All you need is an oxygenator. I have written about this in my newsletter, Second Opinion, with full details on how to do it. It's not expensive to do." Why Isn't Oxidative Medicine More Widely Known? If you're experiencing joint pain, Lyme disease or an infection, drugs are probably the go-to treatment recommended by your physician. This is, unfortunately, the way the medical system is set up – to promote drugs and surgery first and foremost, even when safer, more natural alternatives exist. When asked why he thinks oxidative medicine isn't adopted more widely, Dr. Rowen said: "One of the reasons why is because these drugs are extraordinarily, widely promoted. If you take the case of any of the NSAIDs or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, I tell my patients, 'You can reduce your pain by taking the drug today and destroy your cartilage tomorrow,' because one of the mechanisms by which they act is reducing the production of cartilage. So they're actually inducing long-term arthritis by reducing your pain forcibly today. But the drug industry is a huge industry. Everywhere you turn on television... [and] you see these commercials for petrochemical pharmaceuticals. I'm wondering when are the people going to wake up? There are plenty of alternatives. If you're really in pain, there's plenty of ways to reduce the COX enzyme or cyclooxygenase enzymes, which is what these drugs do, without poisoning yourself. Curcumin is a great one. Ginger is another one. Almost all bioflavonoids do it with very little risk. The reason why you don't see things like ozone out there taking over things is mainly because of what I call the most corrupt industry in the world. That gets back to the politics, where if you can't make a better product, how do you keep your product out there? You can't do it in a free market. You have to buy the government, so that you can purchase a monopoly on what you have and keep out everything else. That's what we have in this country today. We have the best disease maintenance system money can buy. It's not a health system. It's a disease maintenance system." Additional Resources for Exploring Oxidative Therapies "I believe that the fundamental cure for almost every condition is getting the body to burn oxygen. You burn oxygen - you make energy - you feel better. Oxidation therapy is a system that's with virtually no risks," Dr. Rowen said. "They can stimulate better circulation and better immune system. They actually turn on mitochondrial processes. If you look at the blood levels of lactate and pyruvate after you go through oxidation, these reduce. The only way they can reduce is if you're turning on mitochondria (energy production)." If you'd like more information on oxidative therapies and practitioners, see the resources below: The American Academy of Ozonotherapy1 OxygenHealingTherapies.com International College of Integrative Medicine American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM)2 – look for physicians in your area that list the words "oxidation therapies," "ultraviolet," or "ozone" in their profile Dr. Rowen's YouTube Channel "RobertRowenMD" Velio Bocci's book, Ozone: A New Medical Drug Into the Light – Tomorrow's Medicine Today, by William Campbell Douglass You can also visit Dr. Rowan's Web site, www.DoctorRowen.com, and see his article "Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation Therapy (Photo-Oxidation): The Cure That Time Forgot."3 "I would encourage anybody with chronic unexplained conditions that's not getting any better from any other means to consider oxidation therapy, because it really stimulates your body to take over," Dr. Rowen said.

The Surprising Health Benefits of Oxidative Medicine October 14 2012 | 79,476 views | + Add to Favorites 587 6 589 Email Print To view the full interview, please click HERE! Download Interview Transcript Visit the Mercola Video LibraryBy Dr. Mercola Dr. Robert Rowen was board-certified and recertified by the American Boards of Family Practice and Emergency Medicine; he's currently also certified by the American Board of Clinical Medical Toxicology. He's also a leader in medical freedom, primarily with his pioneering work in 1990 in Alaska, where he was instrumental in creating the first statutory protection for natural medicine in the United States. Alaska's governor appointed him to the state medical board in 1992. I've interviewed Dr. Rowen before on the topics of natural health, cholesterol and statin drugs. This discussion will review the fascinating uses for oxidative medicine and oxidation therapies. What is Oxidative Medicine? When most people consider oxidation, they think about free radicals and the need to protect themselves using antioxidants. However, when used therapeutically, oxidants can be beneficial for treating a wide range of conditions ranging from viral and fungal infections to joint pain and arthritis. Dr. Rowen explained: "Oxidation medicine is any number of therapies that uses oxidants. Oxidants are electron receptors. Oxygen is typically the final electron receptor of oxidants, which facilitate and stimulate body processes. The three that are most commonly used parenterally – meaning intravenously or by other injection – would be ozone therapy, ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy, and intravenous hydrogen peroxide therapy. Believe it or not, a high dose of vitamin C has now been proven to work through oxidation medicines, because it stimulates the production of hydrogen peroxide in the tissues." A Cure for Staph Infections Discovered in 1943 The use of oxidative therapies clinically was first documented during the great flu outbreak of 1918-1920. During that time a British physician in India was able to cut the death rate of influenza and pneumonia by 50 percent using intravenous hydrogen peroxide therapy. Ultraviolet energy had been applied to skin for skin infections. Then, in the 1930s and '40s, ultraviolet blood irradiation (UBI) treatment began to appear in the literature and a physicist named Knott developed a technique for removing some blood, treating it with ultraviolet light, and putting it back into the patient. Remember, this was before antibiotics, and the therapy was remarkably effective for treating infections that would have otherwise been fatal. "I have every American article that was ever published on ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy, and the results were simply stunning in terms of what it could do to bacterial infections, viral infections, and even allergic problems," Dr. Rowen said. Now, more than half a century later we're facing an epidemic of antibiotic-resistant diseases like MRSA staph infections. Dr. Rowen continued: "In 1943, I believe it was the American Journal of Surgery, they had an article showing that the Knott technique was used for staph infections. We have a crisis in this country today with staph. People are dying. They (UBI clinicians) started using UBI on a series of staph infections and patients died. But they happened to notice that the patients that died... had also simultaneously been given the new 'wonder drug,' sulfa. They thought that maybe that (sulfa) could be interfering. So they did another series of patients with staph. Every one of them lived with just a couple of sessions of UBI. These patients were denied the use of sulfa. Sulfa actually happens to absorb ultraviolet energy. So yes, it would interfere. But going back to 1943, we have a cure for staph. It doesn't matter whether it's MRSA or not. MRSA means methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. That germ is no more pathogenic or pathological than any other common staph. The only difference is it happens to be resistant to the relatively (I said relatively) safe antibiotic, methicillin. So you have to use extraordinarily toxic antibiotics, if you're able to treat it at all. Remember, that germ is not any different in terms of its pathogenicity, meaning its risk of hurting you. And it's no more or less susceptible today to ultraviolet energy than it was four billion years ago, because organisms have had years to get used to the sun's energy and they haven't, because they can't." The Ultimate Safe "Vaccination"? So how, specifically, does UBI work? When you take several ounces of blood out of your body and expose it to ultraviolet energy, it becomes cleansed of UV-sensitive pathogens. What about the rest of the blood that's infected? Dr. Rowen explained: "If you give that blood a clean slate, you inactivate the organisms with the ultraviolet, and give it back to the body, the body can now see the antigen structure of those organisms, or in other words, the three dimensional structure. It knows that those organisms are there, but the organisms happen to be dead, so they're not going to hurt you. Your body can then see those organisms and mount a much more efficient immune response." Simplistically, another way to describe that would be as the ultimate, safe vaccination, because you're getting the proper dose, but you're not getting any additives that are potentially harmful like preservatives, mercury, aluminum, and all those other components. Dr. Rowen continued: "All the toxins could be inactivated by ultraviolet presumably because it carries so much energy, it can actually break linkages. That's one of the things that it's doing. Also, we know that bacteria and viruses don't have a mechanism to protect themselves from oxidation. Viruses, for example, have what's called lipid envelopes, meaning they're surrounded by lipids. These lipids could be very vulnerable to oxidative damage. If they're altered, then they're not functional and the virus might not be able to penetrate the cell." Interestingly, in Germany they have been using a similar process known as minor autohemotherapy for decades. During this process, a small portion of blood, such as 5-10 cc's, are removed, ozonated or exposed to UV light, shaken up and then given back as a "vaccine" in the hip, to stimulate the immune system. Major autohemotherapy involves taking six to seven ounces of blood and undergoing the same process, for similar immune-boosting benefits. The same process can be done with ozone instead of ultraviolet. Dr. Rowen says that these therapies are the ultimate modern treatment for influenza. Rather than take a shot in the dark on a potentially dangerous vaccine, he uses oxidation. These techniques are his first choice for treating influenza and viruses. Research and experience indicates they will cut recovery time about in half. In fact, intravenous hydrogen peroxide was published in 1920 in Lancet to cut by 50% the death rate from the horrible Spanish flu epidemic in India, and UBI cured viral pneumona quite quickly in American hospitals in the 1940's. Amazing Improvements in Lyme Disease, Heart Attack Recovery and More On Dr. Rowen's YouTube channel, "RobertRowenMD," you can hear stories from numerous patients who have experienced amazing improvements, sometimes after just two or three UVI or ozone treatments. Dr. Rowen shared the case of a licensed health professional with Lyme disease, which is very difficult to treat. In a matter of weeks, he came in with a smile on his face rating his improvement eight points on scale of 10. In other words, coming in at zero, 10 is perfect. In three weeks, he improved to an eight. And another was a woman with skin MRSA whose problem melted away dramatically with just her first session of ozone. In another case, an eye surgeon who Dr. Rowen described as a "cardiac cripple" due to a heart attack also experienced an eight-point improvement after four to six weeks of treatment with intravenous oxidation therapy, oral and occasional intravenous chelation therapy, and nutrients. Other cases include a woman with bone-on-bone arthritis who was advised to get joint replacement, and in a few sessions of ozone gas injections into her knee joints she no longer had pain. In a similar case, a woman who was told she needed an ankle replacement experienced a 90 percent improvement in just two sessions of ozone injections. How is it that oxidative therapies have the potential to treat such a wide range of health issues? Dr. Rowen explained the research of Velio Bocci, an Italian MD who has written numerous books on ozone. Initially, he got to wondering how doctors could get such a wide variety of specific responses and cures to a really broad variety of non-specific diseases using oxidative medicine. It didn't make sense to him, because Western medicine is designed to shoot a bullet at one particular disease like, say, methicillin for staph. Dr. Rowen continued: "He [Bocci] then started doing research on the effects of ozone on the immune system. He found that ozone generated a whole host of cytokines and interferons. Those are the hormones that white blood cells use to talk to each other. These are extraordinarily immune stimulating. What he found, in his own words, was that 'ozone is the ideal cytokine inducer.' Contrast that to Pharma, which is trying to dissect out individual cytokines and interferons for parenteral use. And they're killing people, because you're giving one. Bocci found that when you use oxidation therapy – and this crosses over to ultraviolet, same thing – you're stimulating your white cells to come alive and do what God designed those cells to do, which is to go out and kill infections. He also found that ozone therapy generates what he calls, super-gifted red blood cells. Red blood cells... carry oxygen. A super-gifted red cell would be a red cell that can dump its oxygen into the tissues. Because it might carry oxygen, but if it doesn't get rid of that oxygen, that's not going to do you any good. He says, 'Ozone creates super-gifted red cells.' So now we're getting a treatment that improves oxygenation. I'm an oxygen man. Burn more oxygen, you heal, stimulate, and augment the immune system. It's a really nice one-two punch to jumpstart your body. It doesn't just deal with the immune system. If you're going to get more oxygen to the tissues, you can heal almost anything." Using Oxidative Medicine Preventively at Home: The Best Anti-Aging Therapy of All Time? Dr. Rowen is, to his knowledge, the longest living continuous user of oxidation therapy in North America, since 1986. He uses this prophylactically because, in his words: "I happen to think that oxidation therapy is an ultimate – if not the ultimate – anti-aging therapy... I really believe this. I have been doing this for years. I have been in ozone, like I said, longer than anybody in North America. I think it's the ultimate anti-aging therapy. I do it on a regular basis even on me. One option is to use oxygenation therapy while you exercise. Dr. Rowen continued: "My favorite here is exercise with oxygen therapy also known as, EWOT exercise with oxygen therapy). I have written about that repeatedly in Second Opinion. With EWOT, you breathe oxygen at a high concentration. Try and get it as close to 100 percent, as you can while you exercise. A German named Manfred Von Ardenne studied this many years ago. He found that if you exercise with this extra load of oxygen coming in under a higher partial pressure, meaning 100 percent oxygen, you can reverse aging in your capillaries and improve oxygenation of your body. This is any man's approach to improving oxygenation. All you need is an oxygenator. I have written about this in my newsletter, Second Opinion, with full details on how to do it. It's not expensive to do." Why Isn't Oxidative Medicine More Widely Known? If you're experiencing joint pain, Lyme disease or an infection, drugs are probably the go-to treatment recommended by your physician. This is, unfortunately, the way the medical system is set up – to promote drugs and surgery first and foremost, even when safer, more natural alternatives exist. When asked why he thinks oxidative medicine isn't adopted more widely, Dr. Rowen said: "One of the reasons why is because these drugs are extraordinarily, widely promoted. If you take the case of any of the NSAIDs or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, I tell my patients, 'You can reduce your pain by taking the drug today and destroy your cartilage tomorrow,' because one of the mechanisms by which they act is reducing the production of cartilage. So they're actually inducing long-term arthritis by reducing your pain forcibly today. But the drug industry is a huge industry. Everywhere you turn on television... [and] you see these commercials for petrochemical pharmaceuticals. I'm wondering when are the people going to wake up? There are plenty of alternatives. If you're really in pain, there's plenty of ways to reduce the COX enzyme or cyclooxygenase enzymes, which is what these drugs do, without poisoning yourself. Curcumin is a great one. Ginger is another one. Almost all bioflavonoids do it with very little risk. The reason why you don't see things like ozone out there taking over things is mainly because of what I call the most corrupt industry in the world. That gets back to the politics, where if you can't make a better product, how do you keep your product out there? You can't do it in a free market. You have to buy the government, so that you can purchase a monopoly on what you have and keep out everything else. That's what we have in this country today. We have the best disease maintenance system money can buy. It's not a health system. It's a disease maintenance system." Additional Resources for Exploring Oxidative Therapies "I believe that the fundamental cure for almost every condition is getting the body to burn oxygen. You burn oxygen - you make energy - you feel better. Oxidation therapy is a system that's with virtually no risks," Dr. Rowen said. "They can stimulate better circulation and better immune system. They actually turn on mitochondrial processes. If you look at the blood levels of lactate and pyruvate after you go through oxidation, these reduce. The only way they can reduce is if you're turning on mitochondria (energy production)." If you'd like more information on oxidative therapies and practitioners, see the resources below: The American Academy of Ozonotherapy1 OxygenHealingTherapies.com International College of Integrative Medicine American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM)2 – look for physicians in your area that list the words "oxidation therapies," "ultraviolet," or "ozone" in their profile Dr. Rowen's YouTube Channel "RobertRowenMD" Velio Bocci's book, Ozone: A New Medical Drug Into the Light – Tomorrow's Medicine Today, by William Campbell Douglass You can also visit Dr. Rowan's Web site, www.DoctorRowen.com, and see his article "Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation Therapy (Photo-Oxidation): The Cure That Time Forgot."3 "I would encourage anybody with chronic unexplained conditions that's not getting any better from any other means to consider oxidation therapy, because it really stimulates your body to take over," Dr. Rowen said. The Surprising Health Benefits of Oxidative Medicine

October 14 2012 | 79,476 views | + Add to Favorites

587

6

589 Email

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To view the full interview, please click HERE!
Download Interview Transcript

Visit the Mercola Video Library

By Dr. Mercola

Dr. Robert Rowen was board-certified and recertified by the American Boards of Family Practice and Emergency Medicine; he's currently also certified by the American Board of Clinical Medical Toxicology.
He's also a leader in medical freedom, primarily with his pioneering work in 1990 in Alaska, where he was instrumental in creating the first statutory protection for natural medicine in the United States. Alaska's governor appointed him to the state medical board in 1992.
I've interviewed Dr. Rowen before on the topics of natural health, cholesterol and statin drugs. This discussion will review the fascinating uses for oxidative medicine and oxidation therapies.

What is Oxidative Medicine?

When most people consider oxidation, they think about free radicals and the need to protect themselves using antioxidants. However, when used therapeutically, oxidants can be beneficial for treating a wide range of conditions ranging from viral and fungal infections to joint pain and arthritis.
Dr. Rowen explained:

"Oxidation medicine is any number of therapies that uses oxidants. Oxidants are electron receptors. Oxygen is typically the final electron receptor of oxidants, which facilitate and stimulate body processes.
The three that are most commonly used parenterally – meaning intravenously or by other injection – would be ozone therapy, ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy, and intravenous hydrogen peroxide therapy. Believe it or not, a high dose of vitamin C has now been proven to work through oxidation medicines, because it stimulates the production of hydrogen peroxide in the tissues."

A Cure for Staph Infections Discovered in 1943

The use of oxidative therapies clinically was first documented during the great flu outbreak of 1918-1920. During that time a British physician in India was able to cut the death rate of influenza and pneumonia by 50 percent using intravenous hydrogen peroxide therapy. Ultraviolet energy had been applied to skin for skin infections. Then, in the 1930s and '40s, ultraviolet blood irradiation (UBI) treatment began to appear in the literature and a physicist named Knott developed a technique for removing some blood, treating it with ultraviolet light, and putting it back into the patient.
Remember, this was before antibiotics, and the therapy was remarkably effective for treating infections that would have otherwise been fatal.

"I have every American article that was ever published on ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy, and the results were simply stunning in terms of what it could do to bacterial infections, viral infections, and even allergic problems," Dr. Rowen said.

Now, more than half a century later we're facing an epidemic of antibiotic-resistant diseases like MRSA staph infections. Dr. Rowen continued:

"In 1943, I believe it was the American Journal of Surgery, they had an article showing that the Knott technique was used for staph infections. We have a crisis in this country today with staph. People are dying. They (UBI clinicians) started using UBI on a series of staph infections and patients died. But they happened to notice that the patients that died... had also simultaneously been given the new 'wonder drug,' sulfa. They thought that maybe that (sulfa) could be interfering.
So they did another series of patients with staph. Every one of them lived with just a couple of sessions of UBI. These patients were denied the use of sulfa. Sulfa actually happens to absorb ultraviolet energy. So yes, it would interfere.
But going back to 1943, we have a cure for staph. It doesn't matter whether it's MRSA or not. MRSA means methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. That germ is no more pathogenic or pathological than any other common staph. The only difference is it happens to be resistant to the relatively (I said relatively) safe antibiotic, methicillin.
So you have to use extraordinarily toxic antibiotics, if you're able to treat it at all. Remember, that germ is not any different in terms of its pathogenicity, meaning its risk of hurting you. And it's no more or less susceptible today to ultraviolet energy than it was four billion years ago, because organisms have had years to get used to the sun's energy and they haven't, because they can't."

The Ultimate Safe "Vaccination"?

So how, specifically, does UBI work? When you take several ounces of blood out of your body and expose it to ultraviolet energy, it becomes cleansed of UV-sensitive pathogens. What about the rest of the blood that's infected?
Dr. Rowen explained:

"If you give that blood a clean slate, you inactivate the organisms with the ultraviolet, and give it back to the body, the body can now see the antigen structure of those organisms, or in other words, the three dimensional structure. It knows that those organisms are there, but the organisms happen to be dead, so they're not going to hurt you. Your body can then see those organisms and mount a much more efficient immune response."

Simplistically, another way to describe that would be as the ultimate, safe vaccination, because you're getting the proper dose, but you're not getting any additives that are potentially harmful like preservatives, mercury, aluminum, and all those other components. Dr. Rowen continued:

"All the toxins could be inactivated by ultraviolet presumably because it carries so much energy, it can actually break linkages. That's one of the things that it's doing. Also, we know that bacteria and viruses don't have a mechanism to protect themselves from oxidation. Viruses, for example, have what's called lipid envelopes, meaning they're surrounded by lipids. These lipids could be very vulnerable to oxidative damage. If they're altered, then they're not functional and the virus might not be able to penetrate the cell."

Interestingly, in Germany they have been using a similar process known as minor autohemotherapy for decades. During this process, a small portion of blood, such as 5-10 cc's, are removed, ozonated or exposed to UV light, shaken up and then given back as a "vaccine" in the hip, to stimulate the immune system. Major autohemotherapy involves taking six to seven ounces of blood and undergoing the same process, for similar immune-boosting benefits. The same process can be done with ozone instead of ultraviolet.
Dr. Rowen says that these therapies are the ultimate modern treatment for influenza. Rather than take a shot in the dark on a potentially dangerous vaccine, he uses oxidation. These techniques are his first choice for treating influenza and viruses. Research and experience indicates they will cut recovery time about in half. In fact, intravenous hydrogen peroxide was published in 1920 in Lancet to cut by 50% the death rate from the horrible Spanish flu epidemic in India, and UBI cured viral pneumona quite quickly in American hospitals in the 1940's.

Amazing Improvements in Lyme Disease, Heart Attack Recovery and More

On Dr. Rowen's YouTube channel, "RobertRowenMD," you can hear stories from numerous patients who have experienced amazing improvements, sometimes after just two or three UVI or ozone treatments. Dr. Rowen shared the case of a licensed health professional with Lyme disease, which is very difficult to treat. In a matter of weeks, he came in with a smile on his face rating his improvement eight points on scale of 10. In other words, coming in at zero, 10 is perfect. In three weeks, he improved to an eight. And another was a woman with skin MRSA whose problem melted away dramatically with just her first session of ozone.
In another case, an eye surgeon who Dr. Rowen described as a "cardiac cripple" due to a heart attack also experienced an eight-point improvement after four to six weeks of treatment with intravenous oxidation therapy, oral and occasional intravenous chelation therapy, and nutrients.
Other cases include a woman with bone-on-bone arthritis who was advised to get joint replacement, and in a few sessions of ozone gas injections into her knee joints she no longer had pain. In a similar case, a woman who was told she needed an ankle replacement experienced a 90 percent improvement in just two sessions of ozone injections.
How is it that oxidative therapies have the potential to treat such a wide range of health issues? Dr. Rowen explained the research of Velio Bocci, an Italian MD who has written numerous books on ozone. Initially, he got to wondering how doctors could get such a wide variety of specific responses and cures to a really broad variety of non-specific diseases using oxidative medicine. It didn't make sense to him, because Western medicine is designed to shoot a bullet at one particular disease like, say, methicillin for staph.
Dr. Rowen continued:

"He [Bocci] then started doing research on the effects of ozone on the immune system. He found that ozone generated a whole host of cytokines and interferons. Those are the hormones that white blood cells use to talk to each other. These are extraordinarily immune stimulating. What he found, in his own words, was that 'ozone is the ideal cytokine inducer.' Contrast that to Pharma, which is trying to dissect out individual cytokines and interferons for parenteral use. And they're killing people, because you're giving one.
Bocci found that when you use oxidation therapy – and this crosses over to ultraviolet, same thing – you're stimulating your white cells to come alive and do what God designed those cells to do, which is to go out and kill infections. He also found that ozone therapy generates what he calls, super-gifted red blood cells. Red blood cells... carry oxygen. A super-gifted red cell would be a red cell that can dump its oxygen into the tissues. Because it might carry oxygen, but if it doesn't get rid of that oxygen, that's not going to do you any good.
He says, 'Ozone creates super-gifted red cells.' So now we're getting a treatment that improves oxygenation. I'm an oxygen man. Burn more oxygen, you heal, stimulate, and augment the immune system. It's a really nice one-two punch to jumpstart your body. It doesn't just deal with the immune system. If you're going to get more oxygen to the tissues, you can heal almost anything."

Using Oxidative Medicine Preventively at Home: The Best Anti-Aging Therapy of All Time?

Dr. Rowen is, to his knowledge, the longest living continuous user of oxidation therapy in North America, since 1986. He uses this prophylactically because, in his words:

"I happen to think that oxidation therapy is an ultimate – if not the ultimate – anti-aging therapy... I really believe this. I have been doing this for years. I have been in ozone, like I said, longer than anybody in North America. I think it's the ultimate anti-aging therapy. I do it on a regular basis even on me.

One option is to use oxygenation therapy while you exercise. Dr. Rowen continued:

"My favorite here is exercise with oxygen therapy also known as, EWOT exercise with oxygen therapy). I have written about that repeatedly in Second Opinion. With EWOT, you breathe oxygen at a high concentration. Try and get it as close to 100 percent, as you can while you exercise. A German named Manfred Von Ardenne studied this many years ago. He found that if you exercise with this extra load of oxygen coming in under a higher partial pressure, meaning 100 percent oxygen, you can reverse aging in your capillaries and improve oxygenation of your body.
This is any man's approach to improving oxygenation. All you need is an oxygenator. I have written about this in my newsletter, Second Opinion, with full details on how to do it. It's not expensive to do."

Why Isn't Oxidative Medicine More Widely Known?

If you're experiencing joint pain, Lyme disease or an infection, drugs are probably the go-to treatment recommended by your physician. This is, unfortunately, the way the medical system is set up – to promote drugs and surgery first and foremost, even when safer, more natural alternatives exist. When asked why he thinks oxidative medicine isn't adopted more widely,
Dr. Rowen said:

"One of the reasons why is because these drugs are extraordinarily, widely promoted. If you take the case of any of the NSAIDs or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, I tell my patients, 'You can reduce your pain by taking the drug today and destroy your cartilage tomorrow,' because one of the mechanisms by which they act is reducing the production of cartilage. So they're actually inducing long-term arthritis by reducing your pain forcibly today.
But the drug industry is a huge industry. Everywhere you turn on television... [and] you see these commercials for petrochemical pharmaceuticals.
I'm wondering when are the people going to wake up? There are plenty of alternatives. If you're really in pain, there's plenty of ways to reduce the COX enzyme or cyclooxygenase enzymes, which is what these drugs do, without poisoning yourself. Curcumin is a great one. Ginger is another one. Almost all bioflavonoids do it with very little risk.
The reason why you don't see things like ozone out there taking over things is mainly because of what I call the most corrupt industry in the world. That gets back to the politics, where if you can't make a better product, how do you keep your product out there? You can't do it in a free market. You have to buy the government, so that you can purchase a monopoly on what you have and keep out everything else. That's what we have in this country today.
We have the best disease maintenance system money can buy. It's not a health system. It's a disease maintenance system."

Additional Resources for Exploring Oxidative Therapies

"I believe that the fundamental cure for almost every condition is getting the body to burn oxygen. You burn oxygen - you make energy - you feel better. Oxidation therapy is a system that's with virtually no risks," Dr. Rowen said. "They can stimulate better circulation and better immune system. They actually turn on mitochondrial processes. If you look at the blood levels of lactate and pyruvate after you go through oxidation, these reduce. The only way they can reduce is if you're turning on mitochondria (energy production)."

If you'd like more information on oxidative therapies and practitioners, see the resources below:

• The American Academy of Ozonotherapy¹
• OxygenHealingTherapies.com
• International College of Integrative Medicine
• American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM)² – look for physicians in your area that list the words "oxidation therapies," "ultraviolet," or "ozone" in their profile
• Dr. Rowen's YouTube Channel "RobertRowenMD"
• Velio Bocci's book, Ozone: A New Medical Drug
• Into the Light – Tomorrow's Medicine Today, by William Campbell Douglass

You can also visit Dr. Rowan's Web site, www.DoctorRowen.com, and see his article "Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation Therapy (Photo-Oxidation): The Cure That Time Forgot."³

"I would encourage anybody with chronic unexplained conditions that's not getting any better from any other means to consider oxidation therapy, because it really stimulates your body to take over," Dr. Rowen said.