High Dose Ozone vs. 10 Pass Ozone
- June 18, 2024
- Written by : Rebecca LaMarca, MSN, APN-BC, CNS
High dose ozone therapy and 10 pass ozone therapy are two popular specialty IV treatments that use ozone through different approaches. But what are those differences? In this blog post, we’ll address how high dose ozone differs from 10 pass ozone.
High dose ozone therapy
High dose ozone therapy uses direct intravenous infusion. At IV Elements, these options include major autohemotherapy (MAH) and saline ozone. Two passes of MAH through the ultraviolet blood irradiation (UVBI) machine makes the procedure “high dose.”
IV Elements’ MAH treatment consists of 200ml of blood and 90-200 ml of ozone (depending on someone’s first or returning sessions). The standard ozone concentration for treatments is 30-70 gamma (again depending on someone’s first or returning sessions). Doing this twice for high dose ozone makes it 400 ml of blood and a half liter of ozone.
UVBI stands for Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation. This is an addition to ozone therapy where blood is drawn from the patient, exposed to UV light and then dripped back into the patient’s bloodstream. Oftentimes, UVBI therapy is used alongside cancer treatment due to its culmination of benefits. It has shown to have antimicrobial effects and effectively kills bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens effectively. Moreover, UVBI strengthens the immune system and has anti-inflammatory effects which can be extremely beneficial to those who suffer from autoimmune disorders. Additional benefits include detoxification, improved blood flow and pain relief.

MAH was first noted by German researchers Werhli and Steinbart in 1954.1 In the 70 years since, “it has been carried out worldwide millions of times without side-effects and with therapeutic results, albeit poorly documented,” according to a study published in Translational Medicine Communications in 2022.2 The 2022 study from the research team of Brigitte König and Johann Lahodny describes MAH as “a procedure where around 200 ml blood are mixed with ozone before reinserted under gravity into the patient.”
König and Lahodny’s study looked more closely at how 10 pass ozone therapy (OHT) “may be linked to a beneficial effect on mitochondrial bioenergetics which can be expressed as a bioenergetic health index (BHI).” They reported on six patients and looked at four different aspects of mitochondrial function: basal oxygen consumption rate (OCR), ATP-linked OCR and proton leak; maximal OCR and reserve capacity; non-mitochondrial OCR. Their results suggest that BHI “improves significantly after just 2 OHT applications over a period of 1 week.”
An article published just a few months later in the same journal in response to the König and Lahodny study was critical of what they found. In the article “Comments on the optimal use of medical ozone in clinics versus the Ozone High Dose Therapy (OHT) approach” a team of Italian researchers cited four methodological issues on their research: lacking of clinical impact, the effect of huge doses of ozone on PBMC mitochondria, mitochondria parameters and bias on autohemotherapy.3
“The conclusive message that OHT, by improving mitochondria function, is able to successfully treat patients, is biased, as the study does not deal with clinical outcomes and patients’ recruitment was flawed,” they said in the response.
The Italian research team went on to say that safety and correct dosage are key to “preventing ozone-related adverse effects and lead to a disappointing failure of the O2-O3-MAHT.”
While these contradictory studies may cause concern about the effectiveness of high dose ozone therapy, there are additional studies that have noted the success of high dose ozone.
According to a 2023 study published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, “major autohemotherapy reduces GDF-15 levels in type-2 diabetes mellitus and contributes to the therapeutic effects of ozone therapy.”4
The Department of Medical Services and Clinical Research, NeuroGen Brain & Spine Institute in India published a study in May 2021 in European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences about intravenous ozonized saline therapy and its effects on healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.5 In the study, healthcare workers were administered IV ozonized saline daily over the course of four days in a month “in addition to standard prophylaxis for COVID-19 to [healthcare workers] in a dedicated COVID hospital.”
The researchers concluded that “IV ozonized saline can be used in addition to the standard prophylactic regimen for the prevention of COVID-19 in [healthcare workers]. Prospective larger studies are required to establish the potency of IV ozonized saline as prophylaxis.”
High dose ozone therapy treatments are considered the next best thing to getting 10 pass ozone treatments when it comes to chronic conditions like Lyme disease. .
10 pass ozone therapy
One of the major differences between high dose ozone therapy and 10 pass ozone therapy, also known as OHT, is the amount of time each treatment takes. The 10 pass or multipass treatment can take upwards of 90 minutes, while high dose ozone treatments typically take between 45 minutes to one hour.
The 10 pass ozone therapy treatment takes longer because it involves administering up to 10 times more ozone mixed with up to 10 times more blood from the hyperbaric pressure. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves the use of 100 percent pure oxygen at elevated pressure. Comparatively, the air we breathe is roughly 21 percent oxygen.6 This process requires that the client have a relatively large vein to insert the catheter and successfully complete multiple passes compared with the traditional IV drip involved with MAH.
The study from König and Lahondry concluded that 10 pass ozone “can modulate mitochondrial functions.”
IV Elements ozone therapy options
To learn more about ozone therapy options at IV Elements, call our team or book an appointment online.
REFERENCES
- Wehrli, F., & Steinbart, H. (1954). Erfahrungen mit der Haematogenen Oxydations–Therapie (HOT). Ars Medici, 10, 44-51. [Google Scholar]
- König, B., & Lahodny, J. (2022). Ozone high dose therapy (OHT) improves mitochondrial bioenergetics in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Translational Medicine Communications, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41231-022-00123-7
- Franzini, M., Valdenassi, L., Pandolfi, S., Ricevuti, G., Tirelli, U., Vaiano, F., & Chirumbolo, S. (2022). Comments on the optimal use of medical ozone in clinics versus the Ozone High Dose Therapy (OHT) approach. Translational Medicine Communications, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41231-022-00132-6
- A New Treatment Strategy that Reduces Growth/Differentiation Factor-15 in Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus: Major Autohemotherapy: A Pilot Study. (2023, October 1). PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37573604/
- Intravenous ozonized saline therapy as prophylaxis for healthcare workers (HCWs) in a dedicated COVID-19 hospital in India – A retrospective study. (2021). PubMed. https://doi.org/10.26355/eurrev_202105_25847
- Treatments and Procedures – Penn Medicine. (n.d.). https://www.pennmedicine.org/for-patients-and-visitors/find-a-program-or-service/hyperbaric-medicine/treatments-and-procedures



