By Mila McManus MD
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has long been accepted and used as a safe, affordable disinfectant on surfaces and wounds. The intense bubbling you see on a bacteria-laden wound treated with hydrogen peroxide is oxygen being released and bacteria being destroyed in the wound.
Did you know that your white blood cells make hydrogen peroxide and use it to destroy harmful bacteria, viruses, and fungi? In fact, the ability of our cells to produce hydrogen peroxide is essential for life.
New research indicates that hydrogen peroxide is needed for a multitude of chemical reactions that take place throughout the body. Our friendly bacteria found in our mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, sinuses, lungs, digestive tract, and urinary tract are aerobic. This means they flourish in high oxygen environments. Hydrogen peroxide is oxygen-rich!
One very interesting connection is being made to leaky gut syndrome and other diseases of the gut. Dr. Thomas Levy, MD, JD, explains in his book, Hidden Epidemic (MedFox Publishing, 2017), what happens following any acute respiratory viral syndrome, such as the flu, COVID, or a common cold. The nasal and oral cavities remain in a low-grade infectious state with disease-causing colonies known to protect themselves with biofilms. This allows them to persist chronically. The tonsils and other parts of the immune and lymphatic systems in the oral cavity remain persistently challenged and infected. This infection also gravitates to teeth, gums, and the gut, as the pathogens are swallowed continually and transported to the gut. This causes persistent oxidative stress in the gut, destroying the gut’s barrier and leading to leaky gut syndrome.
So why haven’t we heard more about the use of hydrogen peroxide for healing? Interest in hydrogen peroxide waned in the 1940’s when prescription medications came on the scene. There has been little economic interest in funding research for something so inexpensive that can’t be patented. In other words, there is no money to be made with hydrogen peroxide therapies.
Despite that, therapeutic uses for hydrogen peroxide have continued to be reported in both standard medical journals and alternative health publications for the last 25 years. It appears that there are an astounding number of conditions that could be helped by H2O2 therapy. We’ve heard more about it recently because of its use in the prevention and treatment of COVID.
Hydrogen peroxide can be used internally (food grade ONLY!). It can also be used externally using numerous delivery methods, including orally, nebulized, intravenously, topically, and for douching. (Note: A nebulizer turns liquid medicine into a very fine mist that a person can inhale through a face mask or mouthpiece).
What are the benefits of nebulizing H2O2? Here are a few to consider:
- A dramatic increase in the oxygen content of the blood and body tissues which creates an environment that is not conducive to disease states.
- Hydrogen peroxide breaks down biofilm that protects disease-causing bacteria and mold from the immune system. Antibiotics often fail due to inability to penetrate through biofilms.
- H2O2 destroys harmful bacteria in the nasal/oral cavity, protecting the teeth, gums, and gut from oxidative stress and infection.
- Most strains of harmful bacteria are anaerobic and cannot survive in the presence of oxygen-rich hydrogen peroxide.
- Hydrogen peroxide stimulates enzyme systems throughout the body, increasing metabolic rate, dilating small arteries, and increasing blood flow to the heart and brain, enhancing the distribution and use of oxygen throughout the body.
- Hydrogen peroxide therapy has been used for allergies, influenza, asthma, bacterial infections, yeast and fungal infections, cancer, parasitic infections, heart disease, Herpes, gingivitis/periodontal disease, shingles, sore throat, and emphysema, to name a few.
- H2O2 nebulization is affordable and can be easily self-administered at home.
Hydrogen peroxide nebulizer treatments are available at The Woodlands Institute for Health and Wellness. Ask your health care provider if this might be a wise therapy for you.
References:
Levy, Thomas E., Rapid Virus Recovery, (Henderson, NV:MedFox Publishing, 2021)
Levy, Thomas, Hidden Epidemic