Hydrogen Peroxide IV: Uses and Benefits

• September 5, 2024
• Written by :  Rebecca LaMarca, MSN, APN-BC, CNS

Hydrogen peroxide is a topical antiseptic that’s commonly been used to treat minor cuts, scrapes and burns for well over a century. But is there more to the substance often stored in that notorious brown container in Mom’s medicine cabinet?

In alternative medicine spaces, hydrogen peroxide IV therapy has been used as a cancer treatment, but the few studies released about its efficacy are “small” and “inconsistent,” according to Verywell Health.¹

In this blog, we’ll examine how hydrogen peroxide IV therapy is purported to work and the dangers associated with the treatment.

Hydrogen peroxide IV benefits

In a summary report from the University of Maryland that included a literature review and interviews, purported uses of hydrogen peroxide IV therapy include “influenzal pneumonia, contrast echocardiography, cancer, reduction of arteriosclerotic plaques, infection, wound healing, and pain management.”²

In a 2017 LAist article, Dr. Paul Offit, the Director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said that there are no proven benefits of hydrogen peroxide IVs.³

“If you’re going to do placebo medicine, which is what I think this is, then use a placebo, because hydrogen peroxide can kill you,” Offit told LAist at the time.

Is hydrogen peroxide IV therapy safe? A look at hydrogen peroxide IV dangers

In 1997, Dr. Charles Farr, self-dubbed the pioneer of “oxidative therapy,” received a warning letter from the FDA after an inspection of the institutional review board of his organization, the International Bio-Oxidative Medicine Foundation, Inc.⁴ The letter included 10 violations, including IRB membership, functions and operations violations.

The FDA still has not approved the use of IV hydrogen peroxide, and there’s been at least one case of its use leading to death.

A team of forensic scientists in Poland studied the death of a 37-year-old woman after she received “infusions containing perhydrol and DMSO (0.5 mL 0.04% hydrogen peroxide/0.5 mL p.d.a DMSO in saline) due to a MTHFR A1298C mutation.”⁵

The medical examiner ruled the cause of death “an acute cardiopulmonary failure due to the toxic effects of intravenously administered hydrogen peroxide” after conducting an autopsy.

REFERENCES

Rzepczyk, S., Świderski, P., Sommerfeld-Klatta, K., Tezyk, A., Łukasik-Głębocka, M., Zielińska-Psuja, B., Żaba, Z., & Żaba, C. (2023). Causes of Death during the Intravenous Infusion of Dimethylsulphoxide and Hydrogen Peroxide in the Course of Alternative Medicine Therapy. Toxics, 11(8), 652. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics11080652

Bottaro, A. (2024, January 11). Does hydrogen peroxide therapy work? Verywell Health. https://www.verywellhealth.com/hydrogen-peroxide-therapy-5198732

Gianturco, Stephanie L.; Pavlech, Laura L.; Storm, Kathena D.; Yoon, SeJeong; Yuen, Melissa V.; Mattingly, Ashlee N. (2020, November). Hydrogen peroxide. https://archive.hshsl.umaryland.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/22b10c20-3a57-4926-bc0b-d8e6a1ba566b/content

Plevin, R. (2018, January 10). IV hydrogen peroxide: An unproven therapy that could be dangerous. LAist. https://laist.com/news/kpcc-archive/iv-hydrogen-peroxide-an-unproven-therapy-that-coul

Department of Health and Human Services. (1997, June 2). https://www.circare.org/fdawls/ibomfirb_19970602.pdf

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