"Hyperoxygenation" therapy--also called "oxymedicine," "bio-oxidative therapy," "oxidative therapy," and "oxidology"--is a method of cancer management based on the erroneous concept that cancer is caused by oxygen deficiency and can be cured by exposing cancer cells to more oxygen than they can tolerate. The most highly touted "hyperoxygenating" agents are hydrogen peroxide, germanium sesquioxide, and ozone. Although these compounds have been the subject of legitimate research, there is little or no evidence that they are effective for the treatment of any serious disease, and each has demonstrated potential for harm. Therefore, the American Cancer Society recommends that individuals with cancer not seek treatment from individuals promoting any form of hyperoxygenation therapy as an "alternative" to proven medical modalities.
Oxygenation therapists proposed that disease is caused by absence of oxygen and loss of cellular ability to use oxygen for "good energy" metabolism, detoxification, and immune system function. Oxygen therapies are proposed in order to restore the body's ability to produce "good" energy, to "detoxify" metabolic poisons, and to kill invading organisms. However, over the five decades that have passed since this concept was proposed, scientists have shown that:
1. Anerobic energy metabolism (fermentation) is not the cause of cancer.
2. Koch's glyoxylide does not exist.
3. Ingestion, infusion, or injection of hydrogen peroxide cannot re-oxygenate the tissues of the body.
4. Ozone-treated blood infused during autohemotherapy does not kill AIDS virus in vivo.