Ozone as Janus: this controversial gas can be either toxic or medically useful.

Ozone is an intrinsically toxic gas and its hazardous employment has led to a poor consideration of ozone therapy. The aim of this review is to indicate that a wrong dogma and several misconceptions thwart progress: in reality, properly performed ozone therapy, carried out by expert physicians, can be very useful when orthodox medicine appears inadequate. The unbelievable versatility of ozone therapy is due to the cascade of ozone-derived compounds able to act on several targets leading to a multifactorial correction of a pathological state. During the past decade, contrary to all expectations, it has been demonstrated that the judicious application of ozone in chronic infectious diseases, vasculopathies, orthopedics and even dentistry has yielded such striking results that it is deplorable that the medical establishment continues to ignore ozone therapy.