Research should show
where certainty ends.

Before you decide on a treatment or a test, it helps to know what the scientific evidence actually shows: what is established, what is still emerging, and what is being sold before it has been proven. Each review here reads the real, published scientific studies, names them, and tells you plainly where the certainty ends, across every therapy and diagnostic AION offers.

14 COLLECTIONS · 45 REVIEWS · 164+ SOURCES CITED

How to read each review

PROCEDURE STATUS: Is the medical procedure itself established and clinically understood?
INDICATION EVIDENCE: Does it improve outcomes for this patient group and this specific purpose?
WHO CHECKED IT: Each review names the physician who approved it and when it is next due for a re-check, because the evidence keeps moving.

Jump to a collection

TREATMENTS

Therapeutic Apheresis5 EBOO (Extracorporeal Blood Oxygenation and Ozonation)1 Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)4 Whole Body Cryotherapy5 IV Vitamin & Nutrient Therapy5 Infrared Sauna3 Halotherapy (Salt Therapy)1 Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy4 Emsella (Electromagnetic Pelvic Floor Stimulation)1 Rehabilitation & Physiotherapy: Advanced Modalities3

DIAGNOSTICS

Diagnostic Evidence: Cardiovascular & Biological Age Testing4 Diagnostic Evidence: Cellular, Mitochondrial & Gut Health Testing1 Diagnostic Evidence: Functional, Hormonal & Cognitive Testing4 Diagnostic Evidence: Imaging, Cancer Screening & Laboratory Medicine4

Treatments

The real Spectra Optia apheresis suite at AION

TREATMENTS COLLECTION 01

Therapeutic Apheresis

5 REVIEWS

Therapeutic plasma exchange: established procedure, indication-specific evidence

Why an established medical procedure is not automatically an established treatment for every condition or health goal.

Established8 MIN

Plasma exchange and longevity: promising biomarkers are not longer life

Animal findings and early human biomarker trials justify research, but they do not yet demonstrate longer life, better healthspan or durable clinical benefit.

Emerging10 MIN

Therapeutic apheresis for Long COVID: early signals, then a null controlled trial

Small uncontrolled studies reported improvement and biomarker reduction, but a sham-controlled randomized trial did not demonstrate efficacy.

Early evidence9 MIN

INUSpheresis: what the filter removes, and what outcomes remain unproven

Proteomic and Long COVID studies show measurable removal of circulating factors. That is not yet equivalent to demonstrated patient benefit for broad preventive or post-viral use.

Early evidence8 MIN

Apheresis biomarkers: what a laboratory change can and cannot tell us

A treatment can change proteins, antibodies or biological clocks without proving that patients live longer, function better or recover from illness.

Established8 MIN

A close view of an extracorporeal blood oxygenation circuit

TREATMENTS COLLECTION 02

EBOO (Extracorporeal Blood Oxygenation and Ozonation)

1 REVIEW

EBOO and Ozone Autohemotherapy: What the Evidence Actually Supports

EBOO rests on one small, unblinded, 20-year-old trial that has never been repeated, and the wider ozone therapy literature is thin, inconsistent, and includes at least one trial where patients did worse on ozone, not better.

Early evidence9 MIN

The pressure seal and gauge of a hyperbaric oxygen chamber

TREATMENTS COLLECTION 03

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)

4 REVIEWS

Hyperbaric Oxygen for UHMS-Approved Indications: Wound Healing, CO Poisoning, and Decompression Sickness

Hyperbaric oxygen has genuine trial evidence behind it, but only for a defined list of indications, and the strength of that evidence varies a lot across the list.

Established9 MIN

HBOT for Long COVID: One Positive Sham-Controlled Trial, One Negative One

Two randomized, sham-controlled trials tested HBOT for long COVID: one found meaningful cognitive gains, the other found nothing, and the difference may simply come down to how many sessions patients received.

Emerging9 MIN

HBOT for Cognitive Enhancement and Biological Anti-Aging (Telomere Length) in Healthy Adults

Two small trials from one research group suggest hyperbaric oxygen might sharpen cognition and lengthen telomeres in healthy older adults, but neither proves it slows aging or is ready for routine use.

Early evidence9 MIN

HBOT for Sports Recovery and Athletic Performance

HBOT around exercise does not improve performance or ease ordinary muscle soreness, but it may speed recovery from actual muscle injury, three different outcomes with three different answers.

Early evidence9 MIN

Frost and cold vapour forming along a cryotherapy chamber

TREATMENTS COLLECTION 04

Whole Body Cryotherapy

5 REVIEWS

Whole Body Cryotherapy: Procedure, Safety Profile, and Contraindications

Whole body cryotherapy is a well-defined procedure with a generally good safety record, but it is not risk-free, and a documented list of people should not receive it.

Established8 MIN

Whole Body Cryotherapy for Athletic Recovery and Muscle Soreness (DOMS)

Whole body cryotherapy has not been shown to relieve muscle soreness better than rest, and the best current evidence suggests cold water immersion beats it for that specific outcome.

Emerging9 MIN

Whole Body Cryotherapy as an Adjunct for Depressive Symptoms

One sham-controlled trial found add-on cryotherapy improved depression scores, but the same trial's clinician-rated remission and biomarker results were not significant, and independent reviews call the evidence preliminary.

Early evidence9 MIN

Whole Body Cryotherapy for Weight Loss, Fat Reduction, and Metabolic Markers

The best controlled trial available found that whole body cryotherapy did not beat standard obesity management alone, and did not activate brown fat.

Early evidence8 MIN

Whole Body Cryotherapy and Immune/Inflammatory Modulation

Whole-body cryotherapy shifts a couple of blood markers in small trials, but no study has shown it changes how often people get sick or how they actually feel.

Emerging7 MIN

TREATMENTS COLLECTION 05

IV Vitamin & Nutrient Therapy

5 REVIEWS

IV Hydration and Micronutrient Repletion: The Established Baseline

IV fluids and vitamins reliably correct real dehydration and documented deficiency, faster and more completely than the oral route, but that is a different claim from the energy, immunity, and "detox" benefits sold alongside them.

Established9 MIN

IV Micronutrient Cocktails (Myers' Cocktail) for Chronic Pain and Fatigue Syndromes

The only placebo-controlled trial of the Myers' cocktail in fibromyalgia found that patients improved, but so did patients given plain IV salt solution.

Early evidence7 MIN

High-Dose IV Vitamin C as an Oncology Adjunct

One small trial suggests high-dose IV vitamin C alongside chemotherapy may help, but the field still has not produced the large randomized trial needed to know for sure.

Emerging8 MIN

High-Dose IV Vitamin C in Sepsis and Critical Illness

The best available evidence, the largest trial to date, does not support high-dose IV vitamin C as a treatment for sepsis, and it may cause harm.

Emerging9 MIN

NAD+ IV and Wellness-Market IV Claims (Energy, Immunity, Hangover, Longevity)

IV NAD+ and wellness vitamin drips are marketed for energy, immunity, hangovers, and anti-aging, but the trials behind those claims measure tolerability and blood markers, not whether healthy people actually feel or age better.

Early evidence9 MIN

TREATMENTS COLLECTION 06

Infrared Sauna

3 REVIEWS

Infrared Sauna and Cardiovascular Health: What the Controlled Evidence Actually Shows

Most of the dramatic sauna-and-heart-health headlines come from Finnish dry-heat sauna cohorts, not infrared cabins, and the infrared-specific evidence is smaller, shorter, and more mixed.

Emerging9 MIN

Infrared Sauna 'Detoxification' Claims: Separating Sweat Physiology from Marketing

Sweat does carry trace heavy metals, but no study has shown that infrared sauna sweating clears a meaningful fraction of the body's toxic burden, or changes a health outcome.

Established8 MIN

Infrared Sauna for Musculoskeletal and Inflammatory Pain: A Preliminary Evidence Review

Two small trials hint that heat sessions can ease fibromyalgia and inflammatory joint pain, but the evidence is thin, mostly unblinded, and nowhere near as strong as the cardiovascular research on the same devices.

Early evidence9 MIN

A client inside the real HaloCab chamber at AION

TREATMENTS COLLECTION 07

Halotherapy (Salt Therapy)

1 REVIEW

Halotherapy and Speleotherapy: What the Trials Actually Show for Asthma, COPD, and Skin Claims

Small trials report real changes in symptoms and reactivity, but the only sham-controlled speleotherapy trial found no treatment-specific effect, and lung function itself has not improved in any of them.

Early evidence10 MIN

A shockwave therapy applicator resting on a clinical instrument tray

TREATMENTS COLLECTION 08

Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy

4 REVIEWS

Shockwave Therapy for Plantar Fasciitis: The Established Evidence

Extracorporeal shockwave therapy has a genuinely established evidence base for chronic plantar fasciitis, but it works as a second-line option after standard conservative care, not as a first appointment or a guaranteed fix.

Established8 MIN

Shockwave Therapy for Calcific Tendinitis of the Shoulder

Shockwave therapy has genuine trial evidence for one shoulder problem specifically, calcific tendinitis, and the benefit depends heavily on what the calcium deposit actually looks like on imaging.

Established8 MIN

Shockwave Therapy for Other Tendinopathies: Where It Works and Where It Doesn't

Shockwave therapy has real evidence behind it for mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy, and consistently weak or negative evidence for tennis elbow and insertional Achilles pain, which is why the exact diagnosis has to come before the treatment decision.

Established8 MIN

Low-Intensity Shockwave Therapy for Erectile Dysfunction: An Emerging, Contested Indication

Shockwave therapy for erectile dysfunction produces a statistically real improvement in erectile function scores, but the two largest meta-analyses to date disagree on whether that improvement is large enough for an individual man to notice.

Emerging9 MIN

The sculpted treatment seat of an electromagnetic pelvic floor chair

TREATMENTS COLLECTION 09

Emsella (Electromagnetic Pelvic Floor Stimulation)

1 REVIEW

Emsella (HIFEM) for Urinary Incontinence and Off-Label Uses: What the Trials Actually Show

Emsella has real open-label and mechanistic support for pelvic floor incontinence, but the one independent sham-controlled trial of the actual device has not yet reported, and European guidelines still do not recommend magnetic stimulation as a class.

Emerging10 MIN

A client completing supervised treadmill work in AION rehabilitation

TREATMENTS COLLECTION 10

Rehabilitation & Physiotherapy: Advanced Modalities

3 REVIEWS

Instrumented 3D Gait Analysis: What the Evidence Actually Supports

Instrumented 3D gait analysis reliably changes what clinicians decide to do, especially in children with cerebral palsy, but proof that those decisions lead to better long-term outcomes than clinical judgement alone is still comparatively thin.

Established9 MIN

Body-Weight-Supported Treadmill Training After Stroke: A Well-Studied Modality With a Null Headline Result

One of the most rigorously tested gait-recovery technologies in stroke rehabilitation has not been shown to beat standard physiotherapy or a structured home exercise program.

Established8 MIN

AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill in Post-Surgical Orthopedic Rehab: Promising but Early

An anti-gravity treadmill can unload a healing limb during early rehab, but the strongest trial to date found no benefit on the outcome that matters most: how well the patient actually functions at six weeks.

Emerging9 MIN

Diagnostics

A clinical cardiovascular pulse sensor beside a pressure cuff

DIAGNOSTICS COLLECTION 01

Diagnostic Evidence: Cardiovascular & Biological Age Testing

4 REVIEWS

Coronary Artery Calcium Scoring: What the Evidence Actually Supports

CAC scoring genuinely sharpens who needs a statin, but no trial has shown that scanning people and acting on the result actually prevents more heart attacks or deaths.

Established9 MIN

Arterial Stiffness and Pulse Wave Velocity: An Adjunct Risk Marker, Not a Standalone Screen

Arterial stiffness testing is a well standardized measurement that modestly improves cardiovascular risk prediction on top of blood pressure, but the one trial that used it to guide treatment failed to show it improves outcomes.

Emerging9 MIN

Cardiorespiratory Fitness (VO2max) as a Vital Sign for Mortality Risk

Fitness predicts how long you live better than most standard risk factors, but that is not the same as proof that training a number upward changes your outcome.

Established9 MIN

Epigenetic and Biological Age Clocks: Correlative Research Tool or Clinical Test?

Biological age clocks correlate with disease risk across large populations, but no methylation clock has been validated as a test that tells one person, reliably, whether they are aging faster or slower, or whether a specific intervention changed that.

Early evidence9 MIN

Sealed diagnostic samples beside a laboratory centrifuge

DIAGNOSTICS COLLECTION 02

Diagnostic Evidence: Cellular, Mitochondrial & Gut Health Testing

1 REVIEW

Gut Microbiome and Mitochondrial/Cellular Testing: Clinical Utility vs. Wellness Marketing

Stool DNA sequencing and mitochondrial biomarkers are real laboratory science, but the wellness reports built on top of them have not been shown to reproduce reliably or to change outcomes for healthy people.

Early evidence9 MIN

The real Scaneca body-composition scanner at AION

DIAGNOSTICS COLLECTION 03

Diagnostic Evidence: Functional, Hormonal & Cognitive Testing

4 REVIEWS

Standard Hormone Panels: What They Diagnose vs. What They Don't Screen For

Thyroid, sex-hormone, and cortisol panels are well validated for diagnosing symptomatic endocrine disease, but the evidence does not support using the same panels to screen adults who have no symptoms.

Established8 MIN

Extended "Functional Medicine" Hormone Panels: Salivary Cortisol Rhythm and Dried-Urine (DUTCH) Testing

These panels measure real hormones with real chemistry, but the diagnosis they are most often sold to support, "adrenal fatigue," does not hold up when the evidence is reviewed.

Early evidence9 MIN

Cognitive Screening Instruments: Validated Use in Symptomatic Patients vs. Universal Asymptomatic Screening

MoCA and MMSE are validated for evaluating patients with a cognitive complaint, but that is a different claim from universal screening improving outcomes in people with no symptoms at all.

Established8 MIN

Blood-Based Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Risk (p-tau217): Diagnostic Promise vs. Asymptomatic Screening Readiness

Plasma p-tau217 predicts amyloid pathology with real accuracy, but the evidence and the guidelines both stop short of supporting it as a screening test for people without cognitive symptoms.

Emerging9 MIN

A real diagnostic examination room at AION

DIAGNOSTICS COLLECTION 04

Diagnostic Evidence: Imaging, Cancer Screening & Laboratory Medicine

4 REVIEWS

Organ-Specific Cancer Screening: What the Randomized Trials Actually Show

Cancer screening works, but not equally, not for everyone, and not without cost. Here is what the actual randomized trials show, organ by organ, including the large colonoscopy trial that still has not proven a mortality benefit.

Established10 MIN

Whole-Body MRI Cancer Screening in Asymptomatic, Average-Risk Adults

Whole-body MRI can detect abnormalities in people with no symptoms, but for average-risk adults it has not been shown to reduce cancer deaths, and it reliably generates incidental findings that need explaining away.

Early evidence8 MIN

Multi-Cancer Early Detection Blood Tests: Promise and Present Limits

A positive multi-cancer blood test result is not a diagnosis, and the largest randomized trial of the approach did not meet its primary goal of reducing late-stage cancer diagnoses.

Emerging9 MIN

General Health Checks and Broad 'Executive' Lab Panels: Does Routine Screening Beyond Guidelines Change Outcomes?

The largest pooled trial evidence available says routine general health checks do not reduce death from any cause, cancer, or heart disease, and broad executive lab panels have not been shown to do better.

Established8 MIN

Evidence informs the decision.
It does not make it for you.

These reviews are educational. Whether a therapy or test belongs in an individual plan depends on the indication, current findings, contraindications and a physician's assessment.

See AION's evidence standards

Research should showwhere certainty ends.

Therapeutic Apheresis

Therapeutic plasma exchange: established procedure, indication-specific evidence

Plasma exchange and longevity: promising biomarkers are not longer life

Therapeutic apheresis for Long COVID: early signals, then a null controlled trial

INUSpheresis: what the filter removes, and what outcomes remain unproven

Apheresis biomarkers: what a laboratory change can and cannot tell us

EBOO (Extracorporeal Blood Oxygenation and Ozonation)

EBOO and Ozone Autohemotherapy: What the Evidence Actually Supports

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)

Hyperbaric Oxygen for UHMS-Approved Indications: Wound Healing, CO Poisoning, and Decompression Sickness

HBOT for Long COVID: One Positive Sham-Controlled Trial, One Negative One

HBOT for Cognitive Enhancement and Biological Anti-Aging (Telomere Length) in Healthy Adults

HBOT for Sports Recovery and Athletic Performance

Whole Body Cryotherapy

Whole Body Cryotherapy: Procedure, Safety Profile, and Contraindications

Whole Body Cryotherapy for Athletic Recovery and Muscle Soreness (DOMS)

Whole Body Cryotherapy as an Adjunct for Depressive Symptoms

Whole Body Cryotherapy for Weight Loss, Fat Reduction, and Metabolic Markers

Whole Body Cryotherapy and Immune/Inflammatory Modulation

IV Vitamin & Nutrient Therapy

IV Hydration and Micronutrient Repletion: The Established Baseline

IV Micronutrient Cocktails (Myers' Cocktail) for Chronic Pain and Fatigue Syndromes

High-Dose IV Vitamin C as an Oncology Adjunct

High-Dose IV Vitamin C in Sepsis and Critical Illness

NAD+ IV and Wellness-Market IV Claims (Energy, Immunity, Hangover, Longevity)

Infrared Sauna

Infrared Sauna and Cardiovascular Health: What the Controlled Evidence Actually Shows

Infrared Sauna 'Detoxification' Claims: Separating Sweat Physiology from Marketing

Infrared Sauna for Musculoskeletal and Inflammatory Pain: A Preliminary Evidence Review

Halotherapy (Salt Therapy)

Halotherapy and Speleotherapy: What the Trials Actually Show for Asthma, COPD, and Skin Claims

Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy

Shockwave Therapy for Plantar Fasciitis: The Established Evidence

Shockwave Therapy for Calcific Tendinitis of the Shoulder

Shockwave Therapy for Other Tendinopathies: Where It Works and Where It Doesn't

Low-Intensity Shockwave Therapy for Erectile Dysfunction: An Emerging, Contested Indication

Emsella (Electromagnetic Pelvic Floor Stimulation)

Emsella (HIFEM) for Urinary Incontinence and Off-Label Uses: What the Trials Actually Show

Rehabilitation & Physiotherapy: Advanced Modalities

Instrumented 3D Gait Analysis: What the Evidence Actually Supports

Body-Weight-Supported Treadmill Training After Stroke: A Well-Studied Modality With a Null Headline Result

AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill in Post-Surgical Orthopedic Rehab: Promising but Early

Diagnostic Evidence: Cardiovascular & Biological Age Testing

Coronary Artery Calcium Scoring: What the Evidence Actually Supports

Arterial Stiffness and Pulse Wave Velocity: An Adjunct Risk Marker, Not a Standalone Screen

Cardiorespiratory Fitness (VO2max) as a Vital Sign for Mortality Risk

Epigenetic and Biological Age Clocks: Correlative Research Tool or Clinical Test?

Diagnostic Evidence: Cellular, Mitochondrial & Gut Health Testing

Gut Microbiome and Mitochondrial/Cellular Testing: Clinical Utility vs. Wellness Marketing

Diagnostic Evidence: Functional, Hormonal & Cognitive Testing

Standard Hormone Panels: What They Diagnose vs. What They Don't Screen For

Extended "Functional Medicine" Hormone Panels: Salivary Cortisol Rhythm and Dried-Urine (DUTCH) Testing

Cognitive Screening Instruments: Validated Use in Symptomatic Patients vs. Universal Asymptomatic Screening

Blood-Based Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Risk (p-tau217): Diagnostic Promise vs. Asymptomatic Screening Readiness

Diagnostic Evidence: Imaging, Cancer Screening & Laboratory Medicine

Organ-Specific Cancer Screening: What the Randomized Trials Actually Show

Whole-Body MRI Cancer Screening in Asymptomatic, Average-Risk Adults

Multi-Cancer Early Detection Blood Tests: Promise and Present Limits

General Health Checks and Broad 'Executive' Lab Panels: Does Routine Screening Beyond Guidelines Change Outcomes?

Evidence informs the decision.It does not make it for you.

Research should show
where certainty ends.

Evidence informs the decision.
It does not make it for you.