There is a particular kind of glow which is difficult to manufacture with make-up. Skin can be polished, hydrated and temporarily plumped, yet still look tired.
However, there’s a treatment called ozone therapy, which helps to restore the glow that comes when you return from a long holiday out in the country. It’s a natural treatment which I have personally experienced and which gives a natural shine.
While ozone therapy can be administered in different ways, the specific treatment I experienced involved sitting in a capsule-like setting, which allowed the head to stick out. Ozone was then pumped into the capsule for a period of time. The actual process, which also involved heat and steam, had a detoxifying effect so that you emerged after a series of treatments with a vibrant glow.
What I particularly liked about this treatment was that other people noticed that I had done something different and comments like, ‘You’re looking radiant’, or ‘You’re looking happy’, and even ‘Have you done something different with your make-up?” were made.
Nothing external was done to me, but the effects were noticed by others. I looked like a well-rested version of myself. Looking happy and radiant, in my opinion, is a key ingredient of beauty.
Let’s look at ozone therapy more closely. Ozone is a highly reactive form of oxygen. In medical ozone treatments, carefully controlled ozone is used in particular clinical applications rather than simply being ‘added’ to the body as an oxygen boost. .
Clinics offering ozone treatments use different protocols and routes of administration. Healand Clinic in London’s ozone infusion treatment, for example, presents ozone infusions within its medical treatment portfolio, however the clinic’s focus is on facilitating healing, for example, through addressing inflammation and pain. The clinic also offers ozone injections.
The concept should not be confused with breathing ozone, which is hazardous to the lungs. Medical ozone therapy involves controlled clinical procedures and should only be considered within an appropriately supervised medical setting.
From Skin-Deep Beauty To Biological Radiance
For much of modern aesthetics, rejuvenation has meant manipulating what can be seen. Wrinkles are softened, volume is restored or skin texture is resurfaced, to give examples. However, the industry is increasingly interested in the idea of ‘skin health’ rather than simply correction.
Skin is a living organ, constantly responding to inflammation, hormones, circulation, environmental exposure, nutrition and the ageing process. Its appearance is influenced by what is happening beneath its surface.
Treatments like ozone therapy are designed to impact from within.
Ozone therapy is generating interest in the beauty world because of the possibility that healthier-looking skin may depend on more than what is applied to its surface.
Ozone is a highly reactive form of oxygen, and researchers are investigating its potential effects on processes linked to inflammation, oxidative stress, circulation and tissue repair.
The theory is that controlled ozone exposure may stimulate the body’s own antioxidant defence mechanisms, potentially helping cells respond to oxidative stress more effectively.
For aesthetics, this raises an intriguing possibility. This is whether influencing these underlying processes could contribute to skin which looks fresher, brighter and more radiant.
Ozone has been investigated in dermatology for its potential role in wound healing and inflammatory skin conditions, with research suggesting that it may influence local biological processes involved in tissue repair. However, evidence specifically showing that ozone therapy produces a visible cosmetic ‘glow’ remains limited.
Perhaps it was the combination of the sauna-like treatment and the ozone which left my complexion refreshed, I can’t say. But I do believe that the treatment penetrates to beyond the skin and benefits the systems of the body; when done in a controlled, professional environment.
The treatment has attracted a lot of attention among people interested in the emerging concept of treating beauty from the inside out. Rather than simply adding hydration or temporarily smoothing the skin, the appeal of ozone therapy lies in the possibility of influencing the biological environment in which skin functions.
It is still an emerging area, rather than a proven anti-ageing treatment. However, as aesthetic medicine becomes increasingly interested in cellular health, inflammation and biological ageing, ozone therapy offers an intriguing glimpse of where the search for radiance could go next.
The best way I can think to describe it is when people have gone away for holiday and when returning are met with comments like, “You look good! It must be the fresh country air!”
Something about ozone therapy is like a fresh of breath air to the complexion and hopefully researchers will continue to study its impact in years to come. With advances in technology, researchers might be ble to measure inflammatory markers, oxidative-stress pathways, skin-barrier function, collagen-related markers, vascular changes and objective measures of skin reflectance. Ozone therapy is one of many treatments which could eventually be investigated and tailored according to these variables.
