Methylene Blue, Mitochondrial Bioenergetics, and Disease Metabolism

[kiret]

If they're past their coughing, I would use only vitamin C and NAC.

Okay, but surely severe depletion of energy is due to lack of oxygen getting into the cells? After a 5 hour hospital visit, we have just gotten news that he has covid, surprise surprise.

In what you have read about 'reduced methylene blue', how and why should it be used as a treatment protocol?

 

[Gaby]

Okay, but surely severe depletion of energy is due to lack of oxygen getting into the cells? After a 5 hour hospital visit, we have just gotten news that he has covid, surprise surprise.

In what you have read about 'reduced methylene blue', how and why should it be used as a treatment protocol?

They can give it a try, but the lack of energy is not necessarily a lack of oxygenation. COVID patients may have severe fatigue even when they saturate perfectly well.

I would keep it in mind for moderate to severe COVID-19.

 

[anartist]

Interesting article/interview on Methylene blue, Dr Mercola interviewing Francisco Gonzalez-Lima (Francisco also mentioned here)

https://www.bitchute.com/video/DP2YDe7La2p9/

STORY AT-A-GLANCE​

• Methylene blue helps mitochondrial respiration and improves brain energy metabolism. By doing that, it can improve cognitive performance and prevent neurodegeneration
• Methylene blue is the parent molecule for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, off-patent drugs commonly used to treat not only malaria but also COVID-19
• Emergency rooms around the world use it, as it’s the only known antidote for metabolic poisons causing methemoglobinemia, which is when a metabolic poison interferes with the transport of oxygen in hemoglobin
• Methylene blue is a hormetic drug, so low doses have the opposite effect of high doses
• Low doses, 0.5 mg to 1 mg per kilo of bodyweight, are recommended for nonacute, longer-term treatments. Uses include the prevention and treatment of dementia, post-stroke and other brain injuries, cognitive enhancement, and the general optimization of health if you’re already healthy

In this interview, Francisco Gonzalez-Lima, Ph.D., discusses a really powerful strategy to improve your mitochondria, which generate the vast majority of the energy your cells produce from food.
Gonzalez-Lima is an expert on methylene blue, which helps mitochondrial respiration and improves brain energy metabolism. By doing that, it can improve cognitive performance and prevent neurodegeneration.

“With methylene blue, we have been able to show all of those [benefits],” Gonzalez-Lima says. “Our group was the first to map the effects of methylene blue in the brain of humans and show its effects on improving brain metabolism, blood flow and memory function.”

What Is Methylene Blue?​

Methylene blue is the parent molecule for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, off-patent drugs commonly used to treat not only malaria but also COVID-19. Best known as a fish tank antiseptic and textile dye for blue jeans, it was actually the first synthetic drug in modern history, developed in 1876. Since then, we’ve discovered it has many really important medicinal benefits.
The first medical application of methylene blue was for malaria. In 1890, Paul Ehrlich, a scientist at the famous Charité Hospital in Berlin, Germany, discovered methylene blue inhibits an enzyme that weakens the malaria parasite.
One of the first antipsychotic medications was also made from methylene blue. Other drugs developed from or with it include antibiotics and antiseptics. In the past, it was commonly used to treat urinary tract infections. It’s also been used as an antiviral agent in blood used for transfusions.
To this day, methylene blue is found in every hospital in the world, as it’s the only known antidote for metabolic poisons (any poison that interferes with oxygen transport or displaces oxygen, either from the blood or from the mitochondria).

For example, if you’re admitted for carbon monoxide poisoning, they’ll give you methylene blue intravenously. Cyanide is another example. The only known antidote for cyanide poisoning is methylene blue. It’s also been speculated that methylene blue might be useful in the treatment of acute lung infections such as SARS-CoV-2.
Importantly, methylene blue is a hormetic drug, which means that low doses have the opposite effect as high doses. For example, it’s primarily used in emergency rooms at the upper dosage limit (3 milligrams to 4 mg per kilo of bodyweight) for methemoglobinemia, which is when a metabolic poison interferes with the transport of oxygen in hemoglobin, by the iron in hemoglobin being oxidized to +3 rather than its normal reduced +2 state.
However, if you take too high a dose, you produce methemoglobinemia. At dosages in between, there’s no effect. Likewise, while low dosages have an antioxidant effect, high doses are pro-oxidative and can kill bacteria and tumor cells.

Methylene Blue, an Antioxidant and Energy Producer​

Gonzalez-Lima’s research has primarily focused on low-dose benefits for nonacute purposes over the longer term — such as neuroprotective benefits and cognitive enhancement. While it has several mechanisms of action, a unique feature is that it acts on the level of electrons. He explains:

“Our body uses electrons as part of the electron transport chain that happens inside mitochondria, and these electrons, moved along through the mitochondria, are generated from electron donors that we produce by the foods that we eat.

All the foods that we eat, the only way they contribute to energy is by producing electron donors. They donate these electrons to the electron transport inside the mitochondria. The ultimate electron acceptor in nature is oxygen. That's why the process of removing electrons from a compound is referred to as oxidation.

In mitochondria, this process is called oxidative phosphorylation. The electron transport is coupled with the phosphorylation of adenosine to eventually produce the adenosine triphosphate molecule (ATP). Methylene blue is an electron cycler. It's an autooxidizing compound.

So, methylene blue donates its electrons directly to the electron transport chain, it obtains electrons from surrounding compounds, and maintains oxygen consumption and energy production. By doing this, it helps oxygen to be fully reduced into water.

So, it becomes two things that are often not found together. It acts as an antioxidant, because oxygen is neutralized into water by donating electrons to the electron transport, and it produces energy, because when the electron transport pumps are moving along oxidative phosphorylation, you have an increase in ATP formation.

Oftentimes, we have things that improve energy metabolism, but then they lead to oxidative stress. In the case of methylene blue, that's not the case.

You can increase oxygen consumption rates, increase ATP production for energy metabolism, and at the same time reduce oxidative stress which, of course, will lead to reduction in oxidative damage at the level of mitochondria, then at the level of the other parts of the cells, and eventually membranes of the cells, and reactions that are cascades of this oxidative damage.”

Basically, as an electron cycler, methylene blue acts like a battery, but unlike other compounds that do the same thing, it doesn’t cause damaging oxidation in the process. If anything interferes with oxygenation or cellular respiration, such as cyanide, methylene blue is able to bypass that point of interference through electron cycling, thus allowing mitochondrial respiration, oxygen consumption and energy production to function as it normally would.

Improved Mitochondrial Respiration Improves Health, Cognition​

Methylene blue can also be helpful in instances where you have impaired blood flow that prevents the delivery of oxygenated hemoglobin to the tissues. In this case, methylene blue helps counteract the reduced blood flow by optimizing the efficiency of mitochondrial respiration.
Healthy blood flow is particularly important for brain function, and many older people have chronic hypoperfusion that contributes to neurodegeneration and memory problems. These issues, Gonzalez-Lima says, can be prevented by methylene blue.
In summary, inside the electron transport chain in your mitochondria are five complexes, the primary purpose of which is to conduct the electrons generated from food, primarily carbohydrates and fat, in the form of acetyl CoA. Sometimes the electron transport chain gets blocked or impaired, and methylene blue is able to bypass such blockages.
When you’re perfectly healthy, low doses of methylene blue will enhance oxygen consumption, mitochondrial respiration and ATP production above baseline, basically optimizing the whole system. So, it acts as a metabolic enhancer and not just an antidote for metabolic poisons and other inhibitory processes.
The most important complex, Cytochrome c Oxidase, which catalyzes the reaction of oxygen becoming water, is blocked by cyanide. But methylene blue can insert electrons wherever there is a blockage.
What’s more, when you’re perfectly healthy, low doses of methylene blue will enhance oxygen consumption, mitochondrial respiration and ATP production above baseline, basically optimizing the whole system. So, it acts as a metabolic enhancer and not just an antidote for metabolic poisons and other inhibitory processes.
Methylene blue’s action on mitochondrial respiration is also coupled with biochemical upregulation of your oxygen consumption machinery in general, and hemodynamic processes that increase local blood supply to tissues.
And, as detailed by Gonzalez-Lima in the interview, this upregulation remains even after the methylene blue is expelled from your system (primarily through urination unchanged as your body minimally metabolizes it), and over time, it can actually increase the number of mitochondria. In your brain, this will benefit cognition, as your brain is the most energy-dependent organ in your body.
Methylene blue also activates the Nrf2 pathway. Nrf2 is a transcription factor that, when activated, goes into the cell’s nucleus and binds to the antioxidant response element (AREs) in the DNA. It then induces the transcription of further cytoprotective enzymes such as glutathione, superoxide dismutase catalase, glutathione peroxidase, phase II enzymes, heme-1 oxygenase and many others.

Methylene Blue for Brain Health​

Perhaps one of the most revolutionary benefits of methylene blue is for the prevention and treatment of dementia, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and neural injuries caused by stroke and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). This is particularly important as the COVID jabs have radically increased strokes. As explained by Gonzalez-Lima:

“Any process where increasing oxygen-based energy production plays a major role, methylene blue will have a role to play. One of the first studies we did that was very impressive [was on] a model in the eye. The reason we used the eye was because the retina in animals is readily accessible so that we can inject into the retina.

Rotenone [a broad-spectrum pesticide and Complex 1 inhibitor] inhibits mitochondrial respiration, subsequently there is atrophy and degeneration of the retinal layer, which is very dramatic. If methylene blue is on board, we can prevent this process because the mitochondrial respiration can continue, so the tissue is not affected.

This was a model called an optic neuropathy due to mitochondrial defects. It’s the most common form of blindness in younger people, so we did this to verify in vivo that [methylene blue] could have this neuroprotective effect. Then we did it in other things like brains. We found a similar phenomenon ...

Methylene blue can be protective in ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. We’ve also published a study with a hypoxia. In other words, we reduced the amount of oxygen delivered to the animals, and we could use an fMRI, noninvasively, in the animals to see that we were able to increase the amount of cerebral metabolic rate for oxygen consumption in the presence of methylene blue under hypoxic conditions.

With respect to dementia, by the time you see the tau protein inside neurons, those neurons are metabolically, essentially, dead, so it is too late. By acting on that, you cannot recover the metabolic machinery and the health of the neurons.

So, those neurons are not rescued in any way that is functionally meaningful. Generally speaking, biomarkers are not good therapeutic targets because they may or may not have any causal relationship with the disease.”

In biohacker circles, low-dose methylene blue is used as a nootropic, meaning a compound that helps improve cognitive function. However, while some promote sublingual or buccal application (under your tongue or on the inside of your cheek), the best way is to swallow it, as the acid in your stomach makes it more bioavailable.

Urinary Tract Infections in the Elderly​

In my mind, this is one of the most important uses: It is a highly effective agent against urinary tract infections (UTIs). Many elderly are put on antibiotics, which disrupts their microbiome. Methylene blue was used for many decades at a dose of 65 mg per day and was even sold in pharmacies as Urolene Blue.
Since your body doesn’t really metabolize it, it is excreted by your kidneys into your bladder where it reaches very high concentrations over time and becomes a potent oxidant stress that kills virtually any pathogen in the bladder. Plus, it has the additional “side effect” of improving brain health and reducing dementia. In my mind, it is reprehensible medical malpractice not to use methylene blue in UTIs in the elderly. It clearly is the safest and most effective drug of choice.

Contraindications​

While methylene blue is very safe, there are some contraindications. One is G6PD deficiency, which is also a contraindication for high-dose ascorbic acid treatments, which could be deadly. Methylene blue is also a mild monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor, so taking high doses with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant could potentially lead to serotonin syndrome, which is not good. The risk of this, however, is very small. Gonzalez-Lima explains:

“With respect to the warning about the SSRIs, the problem is not methylene blue but the amount of SSRI. The problem was in a specific application of methylene blue where they use it for parathyroid surgery as a stain ...

To my knowledge, there’s never been more than five cases, where the patients were anesthetized, and they still had SSRIs [in their system], and they did repeated flushing in the open neck with methylene blue, which exceeded these doses that we have been talking about.

The U.S. FDA reacted with this warning. But this has been reviewed by both surgeons and pharmacologists at the Mayo Clinic, and they wrote a rebuttal paper where they indicate that there is no evidence to suggest oral methylene blue has any interaction with the therapeutic dosing of serotonergic compounds, especially SSRIs, and that this was something that happened under these specific [surgical] conditions.

Canada limits the warning to that particular application, but our FDA went beyond that to any kind of serotonergic drug. I think there is absolutely no evidence for oral methylene blue having interactions in this low-dose range with any SSRIs.

And when they talk about the MAO inhibitor function, it really only works as an MAO inhibitor in the higher concentration of the higher dose range, not the low-dose range. So, the effects of methylene blue as an antidepressant — only to a very limited extent, if you repeat it cumulative treatments — can be due to any kind of a MAO inhibitor role.

In addition, it is due to its metabolic enhancing function, so it antagonizes some of the depression symptoms like the low energy that is experienced with depression. So yes, it is effective to reduce symptoms of depression. Unfortunately, this warning is going to make some physicians scared of using it in combination with SSRIs.”

Dosing Suggestions​

As mentioned, methylene blue is a hormetic, so low dosages have the opposite effect of high dosages. While every possible dose response has not been tested, as a general guideline, the benefits Gonzalez-Lima discusses in this interview are based on dosages between 0.5 milligram per kilogram of bodyweight to 4 mg per kg. He admits lower doses may work but he hasn’t tested them.
For an acute treatment, the upper limit is between 3 mg to 4 mg per kg, which is typically the range given as an IV antidote for methemoglobinemia. For nonacute, more long-term treatment, 0.5 mg to 1 mg per kg per day works better. It has a half-life of 12 to 13 hours, so once-a-day dosing is fine. He gives the following example of how methylene blue has been used in the treatment of fears and phobias:

“One of the processes in which a memory formation can be used therapeutically is when you form a memory to extinguish fear. Individuals who have a phobia, you can expose them to the specific situation that is involved in the phobia, and there is a learning called extinction learning that happens that you extinguish your response.

In that situation, we only give methylene blue once after this extinction learning to facilitate the process of memory consolidation. What happens after you go through the learning is the process of consolidation, which requires energy.

So, by facilitating the energy availability during the consolidation phase, which happens over a number of hours, then the next time [you’re exposed to fear-evoking stimuli, you’ve] consolidated that extinction memory more effectively.

We’ve done this also with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), where you use prolonged exposure therapy. In that situation, you can give the methylene blue after different sessions where you see that there is a good extinction learning.

In other words, where people are learning through exposure to reduce their fear levels, that’s when you want to reinforce that therapeutic learning by giving them the methylene blue right after the session.”

For brain health, nootropic effects and the prevention or treatment of dementia, 0.5 mg to 1 mg per kg per day (or when needed) is the dose Gonzalez-Lima recommends and uses.

How to Select a High-Quality Product​

Last but not least, selecting the correct product is of crucial importance, in addition to getting the dosing right. There are three basic types of methylene blue: industrial, chemical and pharmaceutical-grade.
The only version you’ll want to use medicinally is pharmaceutical-grade. Do not ingest methylene blue from the pet store that is meant for fish tanks. Industrial-grade methylene blue has lots of impurities, and typically contain only 10% to 25% methylene blue.
Chemical or laboratory grade, which is used for staining purposes on laboratories, has a much higher purity, but it’s still not suitable for medicinal purposes as it typically has heavy metal contaminants like lead, cadmium and arsenic. Over time, the impurities can accumulate in your body, resulting in toxicity.
Pharmaceutical grade is 99%+ pure. This is the kind used when injected intravenously for antidote purposes, or used orally. These products will be marked USP, which stands for United States Pharmacopeia.
According to Gonzalez-Lima, USP is better in terms of purity than the European pharmaceutical grade, which has fewer requirements. Taking the methylene blue with some ascorbic acid (vitamin C) facilitates absorption. You won’t find methylene blue at your local pharmacy but many compounding pharmacies can obtain the pharmaceutical grade.
“Ascorbic acid is a way to facilitate the cycling of methylene blue by promoting its reduction,” he explains. Considering the importance of mitochondrial health, methylene blue appears to be a simple and remarkably effective way to improve your overall health and cognitive function.

 

[Expedition26]

Has anyone experimented with using MB externally? I’m just wondering if that would clear up issues for people without disturbing their microbiomes as the C’s said it might. I have an annoying spot of tinnea versicolor and I wonder if this would take care of it.

 

[Uperios]

Crucial Facts About Your Metabolism, Part 2​

Story at a glance:

• What medicine refers to as “oxidative stress” is actually reductive stress resulting in the production of free radicals. Once you understand this process, it becomes easier to understand how to optimize your health
• According to the rate-of-living theory, the higher your metabolic rate — which means the quicker the electrons move from food toward oxygen, which is the final acceptor of electrons — the faster you'll age because there'll be higher oxidative stress. But deeper analysis reveals the exact opposite appears to be the case
• The truth is, the higher your metabolic rate, the slower you age, because high metabolism creates fewer reactive oxygen species (ROS)
• Your metabolism is high when electrons move rapidly and easily through the mitochondrial electron transport chain. When electrons are impeded from moving forward, they can back up, leak through the mitochondrial membrane and start moving backward, where they combine with oxygen to create excessive ROS

 

[Uperios]

Fat vs. Glucose for Weight Loss: Constructing the Ideal Menu​

Story at a glance:

• When the fuel from the food you eat cannot efficiently be burned and converted to energy (ATP), it’s typically diverted and stored as fat. So, the primary cause of obesity is the inability to efficiently metabolize food, typically glucose in the mitochondria, into energy
• The inefficient burning of fuel (metabolizing of food) is why people who are obese typically also struggle with other health issues, such as low energy, fatigue, an inability to maintain focus, digestive problems and poor immune function
• Mitochondrial dysfunction, psychological stress, oxidative stress (reductive stress), heavy metals, endotoxin, lack of sleep and certain nutritional deficiencies can flip your metabolism into fat burning, which then impedes the metabolism of glucose and converts the glucose into fat rather than energy
• High energy production equates to high metabolism, so part of the solution for obesity and most other conditions is to raise your metabolic rate
• A key strategy to optimize your mitochondrial energy production is to remove blocks in the electron transport chain. Endotoxin and other bacterial toxins are among the biggest culprits, as they can directly impair electron transport. Another effective blocker of mitochondrial energy production is polyunsaturated fat (PUFA)

 

[Ellipse]

An interesting article about mitochondrial efficiency. A good summary of what with already know except for the "pulsed electromagnetic field therapy" for which I'm not sure of it at all.

Mitochondrial Imbalance Linked To 90 Percent Of Chronic Diseases​

By Ben Lam and JoJo Novaes - 11/2/2024 Updated 11/4/2024

Many chronic diseases can be traced to mitochondrial dysfunction, according to Chen Junxu, a natural medicine expert at Bastyr University. After reviewing over 500 research papers and drawing from his extensive clinical practice, Chen developed a comprehensive theory about the relationship between mitochondrial health and chronic disease, which he shared in a recent interview on NTDTV’s “Health 1+1“ program.

Understanding Mitochondria’s Vital Role​

Mitochondria are often called the power generators of human cells. They convert nutrients such as glucose and fatty acids that we obtain from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the primary energy source in our cells during metabolism.

At the same time, mitochondria are the core of human immunity, too. Healthy mitochondria effectively regulate immune responses, while mitochondrial dysfunction can damage immune cells, resulting in many chronic diseases and impaired cellular differentiation.

Chen argues that seemingly diverse conditions—including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, allergies, autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, and even various mental illnesses—can be understood through a “unified theory” of mitochondrial imbalance. This means that almost every disease can be traced to mitochondrial imbalance. In other words, in mitochondrial imbalance, there is invariably something wrong with the body’s basic metabolism. This perspective suggests that approximately 90 percent of chronic diseases stem from problems with mitochondrial metabolism.

Chen quoted Dr. Chris Palmer, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard University and founder and director of the Metabolic and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital, as saying that mental illnesses are metabolic syndromes. That means mental illnesses and metabolic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cancer are all caused by problems with cell metabolism, which has its functional core residing in the mitochondria.

His theory about mitochondria is fully illustrated in his recent publication, “Renewal of Mitochondria to Cure Chronic Diseases.” He said this book is written from a relatively “avant-garde” perspective of medical investigation, exploring why people get sick and whether the human body possesses an infallible health mechanism. He predicts that the study of mitochondria will become a handy tool in empirical medicine in the next three decades.

The ‘Cocktail Therapy’ That Repairs Mitochondria​

Chen has developed a comprehensive “cocktail therapy” approach to restore and enhance mitochondrial function. This protocol includes five key components.

1. Optimizing Energy Sources​

Start with a low-carb ketogenic diet, with no more than 30 grams (1 ounce) of carbohydrates per day. Switching the fuel supply to mitochondria from glucose to ketones can lower blood sugar and keep it stable. This can also allow the mitochondria function to return to normal gradually, allowing the pancreas, liver, and immune system to return to a healthy state. This is a remedy for the mitochondria that were damaged due to previous long-term high sugar (carbohydrate) diet, staying up late, and other factors.

If the mitochondria of the pancreas and liver are damaged due to these factors, insulin resistance or reduced glucose tolerance will occur and may even lead to diabetes, Chen said. Once we switch from glucose to ketones, we break free from the limitations of glucose metabolism. Mitochondria, now unburdened, can efficiently use ketones for energy. This revitalizes organs like the pancreas and liver, restoring their proper functions.

2. Nutrient Supplementation​

The next step is to use certain nutrients to repair and renew the mitochondria. This includes supplementing the mitochondria with the primary important antioxidant, glutathione.

Since this nutrient cannot be taken directly because it will be destroyed by gastric acid, we can take some of its precursors, including N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and glycine, as supplements. They will synthesize an appropriate amount of glutathione, which will neutralize the free radicals produced by the mitochondria and help them repair themselves, slowly leaving the mitochondria to become healthy again.

3. Grounding and Environmental Factors​

Another approach involves restoring mitochondrial membrane potential through grounding, either by direct earth contact or exposure to the Schumann Resonances. This natural electromagnetic frequency from Earth can help normalize cell membrane potential, preserving up to 20 percent of mitochondrial production capacity.

Mitochondria typically expend 20 percent of their energy each night restoring normal cell membrane potential. External grounding and pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF), a noninvasive treatment that uses electromagnetic fields to promote healing and improve various health conditions, can reduce this energy burden on the mitochondria.

This approach, Chen suggests, could not only reverse disease but also help achieve optimal health and vitality.

4. Quality Sleep​

Chen emphasized that “mitochondrial cocktail therapy” also needs to go with exercise and good rest.
Equally important is to avoid damage to mitochondria from environmental pollution, food additives, pesticides, and other toxins.

He specifically mentioned that we must maintain a quality sleep routine and ensure an adequate amount of deep sleep every night. Although this may sound like common sense, most people don’t do it.

5. ‘Zone 2’ Exercise​

Chen strongly recommends “Zone 2” exercise, which focuses on low-heart rate training. This type of exercise uses aerobic respiration but does not produce lactic acid, so it won’t make you feel tired.

Examples of Zone 2 exercises include ultra-slow jogging, brisk walking, or leisurely biking. You should be able to talk during these activities, but you'll notice that you’re breathing a bit harder. This level of exercise helps improve mitochondrial efficiency, gradually repairing organs.

In contrast, more intense endurance training can increase the number of mitochondria, boosting their overall production capacity.

According to Chen, any form of exercise benefits mitochondrial health, whether it improves efficiency, increases the number of mitochondria, or both. However, Zone 2 exercise is more manageable for most people. It’s less likely to cause injuries and can be done indoors or outdoors, making it a more accessible option.

Why Do People Get Sick?​

Chen emphasized that illness often results from violations of natural health principles, whether through environmental factors or personal choices. He suggests that disease can serve as a warning signal, prompting necessary lifestyle adjustments.

Key preventive measures include:

• Avoiding environmental toxins
• Limiting exposure to food additives and pesticides
• Making conscious dietary choices
• Maintaining consistent sleep patterns
• Getting regular exercise appropriate to individual fitness levels

Chen said that sometimes illness can be a blessing in disguise that reminds people of the need to rest, adjust their lifestyle, retreat from their earlier mistakes, and return their bodies to a healthy state.

source : Mitochondrial Imbalance Linked to 90 Percent of Chronic Diseases

 

[domi]

Fixing your links:

Here is comprehensive podcast on the beneficial uses of Methylene Blue and toxicity of Nitric Oxide by Danny Roddy and Haidut:

Another useful lecture given at the Sillicon Valley Health Institute:

 

[Beau]

Fixing your links:

Thanks Domi, I inserted them into the original post.

 

[domi]

Youtube algorithm recently served me up the following Riordian Clinic video:

After watching it, the thing that got my attention was combining vitamin C (ascorbic acid) with with methylene blue to get colorless leucomethylene blue and dehydroascorbic acid.
My take-away from the video:
- leucomethylene blue: colorless so no staining and still works same as MB
- dehydroascorbic acid: can cross the blood brain barrier. (which is what got me excited)
- they work synergistically as far as providing electrons

One thing I did notice is that warming up the water some does really help with the chemical reaction and the solution gets colorless a lot quicker.
I don't know if it is my imagination but I did think that the vision in one of my eyes did improve ever so slightly in the first few days.
I started with one drop of 1% solution (from a dropper) for several days with the idea to increase gradually over time.

 

[Gaby]

Cassiopaean Session Transcripts Search

cassiopaeatranscripts.org

Q: (L) Well, then that kind of leads to my next question. There's this issue about using methylene blue as some kind of brain enhancer or body enhancer and so forth. So, I would like to know if methylene blue is in a general sense for many people, or the majority of people, or lots of people, a beneficial element to take?

A: No

Q: (L) Why?

A: The studies used to back this claim have to do with disease conditions. If you read carefully, you will note that the benefits accrue to those with pathology and not so much to normal controls. Further, MB raises blood pressure and can destroy beneficial biomes. So, extrapolating results to justify ingestion is irresponsible.

Q: (Joe) Were you taking methylene blue before you went to Serbia?

(L) Yeah. But I quit a couple of weeks before we went.

(Joe) When you were in Serbia, you had high blood pressure.

(Artemis) Well, I'm glad I only took it three times.

(Pierre) Each time I took it, I felt terrible. It increased the headaches.

A very important update on methylene blue explaining the seemingly positive results people are getting, at the risk of long-term consequences. On the plus side, MAO inhibitors do tend to be easier to interrupt compared to other psychiatric drugs such as benzos.

As a side note, people with conjunctive tissue anomalies do tend to react more strongly to these kinds of drugs, or in this case, "nootropic". So it could explain why so many here had problems with it.

Emergency notification: methylene blue is highly neurotoxic to your brain and mind​

Emergency notification: methylene blue is highly neurotoxic to your brain and mind

methylene blue is a Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor (MAOI). As such, it is one of the most toxic agents ever used in medicine and psychiatry, and the mother of the most dangerous drugs used in psychiatry

gingerbreggin.substack.com

Methylene blue is a Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor (MAOI). As such, it is one of the most toxic agents ever used in medicine and psychiatry, and the mother of the most dangerous drugs used in psychiatry​

Dr. Peter and Ginger Breggin
May 18, 2025

In reality, methylene blue is a lethal neurotoxin, a poison to the brain. It has the same basic chemical composition and harmful clinical effects as the oldest and most neurotoxic “antidepressants,” the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). It also has similarities to the neurotoxic phenothiazine “antipsychotic” drugs, including the original Thorazine (chlorpromazine), but methylene blue is more stimulating or activating.

Methylene blue is not a miraculous new discovery. It’s the opposite. Created in 1876 in a lab, it is the oldest manmade chemical to be used in medicine. But for well over a century, methylene blue has never been FDA-approved for psychiatric purposes. Later, its chemical structure was modified in labs to create many of the earliest, most neurotoxic psychiatric drugs.

Methylene blue is widely marketed over the counter to the general public as well as to the natural health, health freedom, and freedom communities, often on the internet. It’s flooding America.

Some sellers are touting methylene blue as a “miracle” tonic that improves “cognitive function”1 and boosts energy to previously unimagined heights. Some have given live demonstrations on TV and podcasts demonstrating how the oral form hyperactivates some people within 35 minutes of the first dose — a typical stimulant drug rush—which is actually a danger signal for potentially activating them into a dangerous manic episode during future exposures or even more deadly outcomes.

Methylene blue suppresses or destroys forms of the enzyme monoamine oxidase that are used by the brain for controlling or modulating four different powerful neurotransmitters — serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. In short, by crushing monoamine oxidase, methylene blue causes overstimulation of four of the brain’s major neurotransmitters, all of which profoundly impact the mind.

After the FDA was created in 1906, methylene blue was grandfathered into the market by the agency as an obscure antidote for methemoglobinemia, but it must be emphasized that the FDA has never tested the safety of methylene blue for any purpose. Furthermore, the FDA, based on its adverse reporting system and scientific reports, has published serious warnings about potentially lethal adverse reactions from methylene blue, especially when combined with numerous other drugs.2

The first MAOIs used as depressants were derived from methylene blue, and they turned out to be so toxic that the first two were quickly taken off the market by the FDA. One caused lethal liver disease, and the other caused hypertensive crises. Methylene blue is known to impair liver function tests and to cause hypertensive crises. Early on, all MAOIs were removed for a while from the international list of approved drugs. Please go to this endnote in my report for a list of historical and scientific studies about the extraordinary history and the nature of methylene blue and the other MAOIs.3

Psychiatry and the psychopharmaceutical complex are so driven to impose neurotoxins upon our brains that some MAOI antidepressants remain on the market today. FDA Full Prescribing Information for the existing MAOI antidepressants, readily available online,4 provides quick access to the kinds of adverse effects caused by methylene blue. These FDA documents also provide lists of the foods and of some of the many, many drugs you cannot take with MAOIs, like methylene blue, without risking death from serotonin syndrome or a hypertensive crisis.

Meanwhile, all of America is being made a market for the original mother of them all, methylene blue, without requiring a prescription, with bizarrely distorted claims, and with unlimited supplies handed out as easily as a new caffeinated soda.

All of the three approved MAOIs, as well as methylene blue, carry repeated warnings at the FDA and in the scientific community about causing the two potentially crippling and lethal outcomes, serotonin syndrome and malignant hypertension (see below). These potentially lethal outcomes, as with all MAOIs, become much more serious and higher risk when methylene blue is taken with certain foods such as cheese and bananas, or literally with so many other drugs that it is impossible to memorize them or to keep track of them.

Here is one version of a short summary of the long list of dangerous interactions between MAOIs, including methylene blue, and other drugs and foods, taken from Goodman and Gilman’s The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics (2018, p. 274):

Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors

Serotonin syndrome is the most serious drug interaction for the MAOIs (see Adverse Effects). The most common cause of serotonin syndrome in patients taking MAOIs is the accidental co-administration of a SHT reuptake-inhibiting antidepressant or tryptophan. Other serious drug interactions include those with meperidine and tramadol. MAOIs also interact with sympathomimetics such as pseudoephedrine, phenylephrine, oxymetazoline, phenylpropanolamine, and amphetamine; these are commonly found in cold and allergy medication and diet aids and should be avoided by patients taking MAOIs. Likewise, patients on MAOIs must avoid foods containing high levels of tyramine: soy products, dried meats and sausages, dried fruits, home-brewed and tap beers, red wine, pickled or fermented foods, and aged cheeses.

I am presenting this detailed summary in the hope of gaining the immediate attention of people and businesses who are promoting methylene blue and anyone who is unfortunately taking it. Please share this summary or the entire document as widely as possible and with proper attribution.

This article continues with my professional experience in psychopharmacology, followed by a lengthy scientific analysis with more than two dozen endnotes containing an even greater number of scientific citations.

My Background in Psychopharmacology Related to Analyzing Methylene Blue

In presenting this emergency notice on the dangers of methylene blue, I am drawing on a lifetime of professional work, starting with my own published animal laboratory research while a medical student.5 My research demonstrated for the first time that exposures of animals to intramuscular adrenaline (a combination of epinephrine and norepinephrine) might give initial activation or stimulation, but that more prolonged exposure over a few minutes or hours made the animals sedated, exhausted, sluggish, or blunted for the duration of their drug exposure. I hypothesized that a feedback mechanism to the hypothalamus caused a compensatory reaction that slowed down the brain and made the animals sluggish.

Methylene blue is in the biochemical and clinical classification of Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs) used as “antidepressants,” but it has no FDA testing for safety! It has all the same hazards as the FDA-approved MAOIs for depression and is probably biochemically more harmful or neurotoxic. It is made even more dangerous in the manner in which it is sold, marketed without medical supervision as a powder or liquid, with unlimited doses made available at once, and with enormously unrealistic expectations and no extensive warnings.

Since becoming a psychiatrist, I have written many scientific papers and many books6 showing how human beings who take psychiatric drugs sometimes are initially stimulated when the drug over-activates the monoamine neurotransmitters, including epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine; but eventually, similar to the animals, the human drug recipients typically become more subdued, apathetic, or disengaged from their own feelings, those around them, and with life itself.

Since the 1970s, I have researched, published, lectured, consulted, and testified in court about adverse drug effects. I have been a medical consultant and expert in hundreds of malpractice, negligence, and product liability lawsuits against drug companies, medical facilities, and medical doctors who make, market, or prescribe these neurotoxins, including consultations to the FAA (about pilots taking antidepressants), to a committee of U.S. attorneys general, and to several committees of the U.S. Congress.7 I have also testified in court more than 100 times, mostly about adverse drug effects causing very serious outcomes such as psychosis, mania, violence, and suicide.

Because they do more harm than good, I do not prescribe psychiatric drugs as a treatment in my clinical practice. Instead, I offer individual and family therapy, as well as education on more effective and healthier principles of living. However, I have specialized for decades in withdrawing patients from the medications given to them by other prescribers, which continues to provide me with considerable personal experience with prescribing these medications.

I am the author of the only medical textbook on the subject, called Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and Their Families.


Destructive Claims for Methylene Blue

Within the general population as well as the freedom and health freedom communities, methylene blue is now being heralded as a nearly harmless potion that will improve all of our lives, backed online by testimonials of well-known freedom fighters and researchers. One demonstration shows that in 30 minutes, we will feel better than ever, lifting our usual physical and mental functioning to new levels. Some of the individuals look and sound very “hyper” and even mildly euphoric, with some distortions in perception and thinking. That means that the individual has taken a truly toxic drug and is in more grave danger with continued use.

In particular, methylene blue is credited with “cognitive enhancement” and who among us wouldn’t like more of that — especially when we’re so stressed or overworked? Methylene blue is being marketed by businesses and people within the health freedom and freedom movements as a “miracle” and a “silver bullet” for everything you can imagine.

I will not at this time name any person or any business who is promoting methylene blue, some of whom I know and even love. My hope is that they will hear the truth and simply stop marketing it, and hopefully stop taking it themselves. Ultimately, the widespread use of methylene blue, especially among freedom-oriented people and some of their most revered leaders, is one more threat to the survival of human freedom.



Overview of the Impact of Neurotoxins on the Lives of Humans

Most people taking psychiatric drugs eventually lose the intensity of caring required to defend freedom. All psychoactive drugs, and MAOI “antidepressants,” are especially neurotoxic, eventually robbing individuals of their own personal sovereignty and their motivation and ability to defend their rights. And as we shall demonstrate, these same drugs rob individuals of their ability to understand how badly impaired they have become by the drugs. I call it medication spellbinding (see below).



Methylene Blue is a Highly Toxic Monoamine “Antidepressant”

As already emphasized, methylene blue is a Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor (MAOI). As such, it is one of the most toxic agents ever used in medicine and psychiatry, and the mother of the most dangerous drugs used in psychiatry today.

Their severe adverse effects can be confirmed by looking at the FDA’s Full Prescribing Information or Label for any of the other MAOI antidepressants. Although most psychiatrists know enough to avoid prescribing them, several of these drugs remain FDA-approved for depression. Methylene blue is at least as dangerous as these very dangerous medications and is sold to an unsuspecting public, hearing promotions such as “three bottles for the price of two.”

When you take methylene blue, you are exposing yourself to the original lab-manufactured “psychiatric drug” from the 1890s that is so toxic to the brain and body and has so many bad interactions with other drugs and foods that even Big Pharma has not tried to get it approved by the FDA. Methylene blue can cause deadly serotonin syndromes and hypertensive crises, but much more commonly, it produces an artificial euphoria and manic reactions. The brain dysfunction that causes euphoria is very dangerous because it disinhibits people and is an early phase of the continuum of neurotoxicity that can lead to psychosis, mania, and violence. Ultimately, continued use of any such antidepressant can cause long-term chronic impairment of the brain and mind, and other organs of the body. All regularly used “antidepressants” act in this manner because they are modeled on and often derived from methylene blue.



Drugs.com Warns Healthcare Providers of Dangers of Methylene Blue, Even When Used Orally

Drugs.com8 provides several pages with long lists of adverse reactions from methylene blue. It is too long to include here. Then, in a section for “healthcare professionals,” it estimates the frequencies of some of the adverse effects. The top of the section specifically indicates that these reactions pertain to the compounded powders and tablets, which is how the drug is being dispensed as a liquid, powder, or tablet without prescriptions:

---

For healthcare professionals

Applies to methylene blue: compounding powder, injectable solution, intravenous solution, oral tablet.

Psychiatric

• Common (1% to 10%): Anxiety
• Frequency not reported: Confusional state, agitation

Nervous system

• Very common (10% or more): Dysgeusia (20%) [taste decreased or lost], dizziness (16%), headache (10%), paresthesia [tingling, numbness or “pins and needles” on or under your skin]
• Common (1% to 10%): Headache, paresthesia oral, dizziness postural
• Frequency not reported: Serotonin syndrome (with concomitant use of serotonergic drugs), tremor, aphasia [disability comprehending or producing speech]

Cardiovascular adverse events

• Common (1% to 10%): Chest pain, chest discomfort, presyncope, syncope
• Frequency not reported: Cardiac arrhythmia, tachycardia, hypertension, hypotension, palpitations

Gastrointestinal

• Very common (10% or more): Nausea (13%)
• Common (1% to 10%): Vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, hypoesthesia oral, oral discomfort
• Frequency not reported: Feces discoloration (blue-green), dry mouth, flatulence, glossodynia [burning mouth syndrome], tongue eruption, thirst, oropharyngeal pain, blue colored saliva]

Immunology

• Common (1% to 10%): Influenza-like illness, Influenza

Musculoskeletal

• Very common (10% or more): Pain in extremity (84%)
• Common (1% to 10%): Musculoskeletal pain, back pain, muscle spasms, chills, arthralgia
• Frequency not reported: Serotonin syndrome, myalgia

Metabolic

• Common (1% to 10%): Decreased appetite, limb discomfort
• Frequency not reported: Local tissue necrosis at the injection site

Genitourinary

• Very common (10% or more): Chromaturia (blue-green) (74%)
• Frequency not reported: Dysuria [difficult or painful urination]

Hematologic

• Common (1% to 10%): Ecchymosis [bruising]
• Frequency not reported: Hemolytic anemia, hemolysis, methemoglobinemia, hemoglobin decreased, hyperbilirubinemia (in infants only)

Hypersensitivity

• Frequency not reported: Anaphylaxis

Local [injection site]

• Common (1% to 10%): Injection site pain, injection site discomfort
• Frequency not reported: Infusion site extravasation, infusion site induration, infusion site pruritus, infusion site swelling, infusion site urticaria, peripheral swelling

Ocular

• Frequency not reported: Mydriasis, eye pruritus, ocular hyperemia, vision blurred

Hepatic

• Frequency not reported: Elevated liver enzymes [indicators of liver dysfunction]

Respiratory

• Common (1% to 10%): Dyspnea [shortness of breath]
• Frequency not reported: Dyspnea, tachypnea, hypoxia [loss of oxygen, potentially life-threatening],9 nasal congestion, rhinorrhea, sneezing

Other

• Very common (10% or more): Feeling hot (17%), fever
• Common (1% to 10%): Feeling cold, discomfort, catheter site pain
• Frequency not reported: Genotoxicity [damage to the genetic information within a cell causing mutations, which may lead to cancer], fever, lack of effectiveness, interference with in-vivo monitoring devices, interference with laboratory tests

Dermatologic

• Very common (10% or more): Skin discoloration (blue) (13%), hyperhidrosis (13%), sweating
• Common (1% to 10%): Pallor, contact dermatitis, pruritus, cold sweat, erythema
• Frequency not reported: Urticaria [hives], necrotic ulcer, papule, phototoxicity, rash (blue macules, severe burning pain)
  
  

  ---

The above is the complete list for “healthcare providers,”10 including some reactions from Short-term injection rather than ingestion. The frequencies of adverse effects are very high, which is typical of MAOIs, but surprising when there are few long-term exposures in regard to the accepted uses for methylene blue.

Remember, this list applies to the liquid, powder and tablet forms that are routinely on sale without prescriptions.



FDA Publishes Serious But Incomplete Warnings About Methylene Blue

The FDA has issued serious warnings about methylene blue, titled FDA Drug Safety Communication: Serious CNS reactions possible when methylene blue is given to patients taking certain psychiatric medications.11

Although these warnings are based on combining methylene blue with other antidepressants, it is a matter of degree, and all the adverse effects can be caused by methylene blue alone. The reports are mostly based on brief injections of methylene blue, commonly requiring a single dose. The FDA warns that methylene blue is a “potent” “monoamine oxidase inhibitor” and elaborates on safety measures to be taken after potential adverse events. It states:

The reported adverse events include the following: lethargy, confusion, delirium, agitation, aggression, obtundation, and coma. These symptoms were frequently accompanied by neurological symptoms, such as myoclonus, expressive aphasia, hypertonia, and seizures, or autonomic symptoms, such as pyrexia and elevated blood pressure.

The FDA notes the danger of an extreme serotonin syndrome caused by methylene blue in combination with other similar drugs:

It is believed that when methylene blue is given to patients taking serotonergic psychiatric medications, high levels of serotonin can build up in the brain, causing toxicity. This is referred to as Serotonin Syndrome. Signs and symptoms of Serotonin Syndrome include mental changes (confusion, hyperactivity, memory problems), muscle twitching, excessive sweating, and fever.

How the Brain Is Injured and then Injures Itself by Fighting Against Methylene Blue and All Psychoactive Substances

The direct injuries of neurotoxins on our complex brain are infinite. Innumerable research papers are published every year on how various psychoactive drugs, including psychiatric drugs, injure the brain on the cellular and biochemical level, and too often it is gross enough to be detected using sophisticated functional analyses as well as PET scans. Basically, any psychoactive substance that affects the brain and mind, even if it “feels good,” is poisoning the highest centers of the brain and harming or destroying multiple brain functions on a cellular and biochemical level. I have discussed this in many scientific articles and books, especially in great detail in my medical textbook, Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry, Second Edition.12

In that book, using the SSRI antidepressants as a model, I described at least three compensatory actions by the brain that go into action to inhibit the drug-induced excitatory neurotransmissions while adding new imbalances to the brain. First, when the brain senses the drug-induced pathological changes, the cells of origin of the particular monoamine transmitter stop producing it. Second, the receptors on the cells that receive the neurotransmission become less sensitive or die. And third, the transport mechanisms for removing serotonin from the synapse increase their power to remove the neurotransmitter.

These changes in the brain, forced on it by the neurotoxins, add to the harm from the drugs. In animal studies, these compensatory changes can persist long after the drug has been stopped. That is one cause of withdrawal reactions.

While I was able to unearth this research early in my career by simply looking for it in the scientific literature, it is practically a secret in the profession of psychiatry. Even professionals rarely learn about how the brain resists drugs because it is rarely taught in medical schools or residencies, and rarely mentioned in textbooks of medicine or psychiatry, which essentially promote drugs as part of the Psychopharmaceutical Complex.



How People Significantly Harmed by Methylene Blue, or Any Psychoactive Drug, Often Mistakenly Believe It is Helping Them

In my private practice, I regularly withdraw patients from psychiatric drugs with similar biochemistries to methylene blue. As the patients recover, they often realize for the first time how blunted they have become since starting on the drugs. I have characterized this lack of self-awareness about the neurotoxic effects of neurotoxic substances while under their influence as “medication spellbinding” or, more technically, medication anosognosia—the failure to identify one’s mental and emotional decline while taking psychiatric drugs. As I describe in my book, Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal, it derives from the dysfunction in the frontal lobes invariably produced by psychiatric drugs given at normal, effective doses. Medication spellbinding applies to all psychoactive substances, both medical and non-medical, and helps to explain why people continue to take harmful drugs.

Another reason many individuals stay on harmful drugs is that they become confused and discouraged by painful withdrawal symptoms, which definitely can occur with methylene blue (see below). Withdrawal effects often confuse patients, family members, or doctors because they can be misunderstood as proving the need for the drug when they, in fact, reinforce the need to get off the harmful drugs. Withdrawal symptoms prove that the drug is having a negative effect that is being covered up until the person tries to withdraw.

Both medication spellbinding and withdrawal are especially confusing to the person who is taking the medication, so even if methylene blue is “helping you,” you may be dead wrong.

The emotional insensitivity can last for a lifetime as long as the drugs are still taken. As I help patients carefully and gradually withdraw from the drugs, almost everyone becomes more able to reengage with their own inner life, with the lives of the people they love, and with every aspect of their own lives.13



The Brain-Disabling Principle of Psychiatric Drugs, including Methylene Blue

Methylene blue has so many destructive impacts on the body that it is beloved by researchers who imagine it will still someday prove to be a miracle drug in psychiatry, and even in neurology and elsewhere.14 This twisted thinking is the source of all psychiatric drugs — that by pouring neurotoxins into the brain, and disrupting its most basic processes, we are going to somehow cure “mental illnesses” by making the brain function better. This is what I have, for many decades, researched and called “the brain-disabling principle of psychiatric drugs.” It not only applies to neurotoxic psychiatric drugs, but more grossly to lobotomy and electroshock (ECT).

Poisoning the brain with neurotoxins, burning holes in it with psychosurgical electrodes, and traumatizing it into a coma with huge overdoses of electricity in ECT, would be simply ludicrous if were not the cause of tens of millions of deaths and untold billions of injured brains and minds, and the mainstay of psychiatry and the psychopharmaceutical industry.

I have researched and written about the “brain-disabling principle of psychiatric treatment” in many scientific articles and in easily available books, including the textbooks Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex, second edition (2008) and Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families (2013), as well as in the popular book, Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide and Crime (2008).

Marketing methylene blue as especially “pure” and “strong” may sound good, but since methylene blue is a neurotoxin in the same class as the oldest so-called anti-depressant, Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs), purity and strength make it potentially far more dangerous.

Marketers may also claim the drug is being dispensed in small, safe doses, but that has no basis. First, people vary highly in how they react to low doses of neurotoxins. Second, if you are beginning to “feel good” or “energetic” or “highly focused” or “filled up with buoyancy and clarity,” your brain is already being made sick. It is being poisoned, and many poisons, especially those of a stimulant nature, make us feel good — and the better we feel the more our brain is being hyper-energized into a continuum of over-stimulation that can cause very bad judgement, disinhibition, anger and irritability, and eventually mania and violence, followed by crashing into depression and suicidality.

There are no drugs that interfere with your neurotransmitters without harming your brain and mind. Because psychoactive drugs cross the blood-brain-barrier, their effect is always widespread enough to reach the most elaborate or highest centers of your brain that control functions like love, reason, judgment, self-control, and overall sanity.

Methylene blue, which is considered a “potent” MAOI by the FDA, suppresses or breaks down the function of an enzyme called monoamine oxidase. The scientific process describes MAOI inhibitors as “degrading” the enzymes, making them ineffective in controlling these neurotransmitters, in effect unleashing four of the best-studied, most powerful, and stimulating neurotransmitters in the animal and human brain.

Monoamine oxidase is essential to the equilibrium system of the brain. It acts to inhibit at least four well-studied monoamine enzymes from becoming too active or energized: serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine.

Imagine the danger. With your first dose of an MAOI drug, your control mechanism over four potentially stimulating or activating neurotransmitter systems is inhibited or abruptly disrupted in your brain. Yes, in a flash, it may seem good, great, or extraordinary, but at considerable potential cost in terms of injury to your brain, mind, and life.

This destructive process involved in destroying the monoamines in our brains is called “modulating” neurotransmitter systems by advocates of the MAOIs. In fact, these neurotoxic agents are vastly impairing the natural, existing modulation system in the brain by inhibiting or destroying monoamine oxidase. To this day, continuing with the SSRIs and the SNRIs, this is the primary mechanism of action for many or most psychiatric drugs, especially the antidepressants and stimulants.15

Cocaine is another drug that causes hyperactivation of these same four neurotransmitters—serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine.16 Another is methylphenidate (Ritalin, Focalin, and other names), and others are methamphetamine (rarely used in psychiatry) and amphetamine (often used as Adderall). Textbooks of pharmacology put all these stimulants into the same chapter about stimulants.



Serotonin Syndrome as a Cause of Brain Damage and Death

The worst adverse effect of methylene blue is death from serotonin syndrome — a state of extreme central and peripheral nervous system excitation that can be lethal. I have considerable experience with this potentially deadly and brain-damaging syndrome because it can also be caused by the so-called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) antidepressants, such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro and Celexa and the selective serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) including duloxetine (Cymbalta), venlafaxine (Effexor XR), and desvenlafaxine (Pristiq).

With MAOI antidepressants, the serotonin syndrome is a particular threat (along with malignant hypertension). The following is from the Parnate FDA Full Prescribing Information:17

Manifestations of the serotonin syndrome may include mental status changes (e.g., agitation, hallucinations, delirium, coma), autonomic instability (e.g., tachycardia, labile blood pressure, dizziness, diaphoresis, flushing, hyperthermia; with possible rapid fluctuations of vital signs), neuromuscular symptoms (e.g., tremor, rigidity, myoclonus, hyper-reflexia, incoordination), seizures, and/or gastrointestinal symptoms (e.g., nausea, vomiting, diarrhea). Fatal outcome of serotonin syndrome has been reported…

Many years ago, I had a new patient come to me, a sophisticated health professional in his thirties named John, who was receiving an SSRI from his psychiatrist and getting worse as the psychiatrist increased his dose. John’s more astute therapist noticed that John was having a bad reaction to his medication and made the referral to me. I could tell John was cognitively impaired and very anxious, and he seemed physically ill. He did not seem overstimulated or sedated, but he mentioned that he felt jumpy and stiff, and that when he crossed his knees on one occasion the night before, one of his legs jumped oddly.

I asked permission to give John a brief neurological examination — something most psychiatrists rarely or never do—and the first thing I did was to lightly tap one of his knees. Instantly, John’s entire body went into a spasm with arms and legs flexing uncontrollably. This was not a convulsion or seizure, but one enormous spasm of all his large muscles from over-stimulation.

Fortunately, I was able to arrange with John’s internist to admit him for examination and treatment on a medical ward — not a psychiatric ward — where my diagnosis was confirmed and he was quickly and safely given treatment for a serotonin syndrome. Because his psychiatrist had failed to diagnose him and continued his exposure to the SSRI antidepressant, John had a long physical recovery and wrestled with memory and concentration difficulties for years.

Serotonin syndrome can occur in varying degrees. Without going into a potentially lethal serotonin syndrome, you might have a fever, a sense that your mind is a little off, or feel your muscles stiffening. But if you had no idea that methylene blue was causing it, and if you then took more because you felt in more need of relief, your life would be at risk.

Hypertensive crises are another problem with MAOIs. They can become serious without being recognized if no one is taking blood pressure. If untreated, they can be fatal.

Recognition of the serotonin syndrome and hypertensive crises has greatly curtailed the use of MAOI antidepressants in psychiatry, making it more obviously egregious to spread them out into the community in the form of methylene blue with unlimited supplies and without any realistic warnings.



Documenting Adverse Reactions to the Oral Use of MAOIs Similar to Methylene Blue Through FDA Analyses of MAOI Antidepressants

Pages of adverse reactions are documented in the labels or Full Prescribing Information for MAOI antidepressants, including serotonin syndrome and hypertensive crises. Here are some especially relevant descriptions of adverse events for Parnate (tranylcypromine) tablets:18

Psychiatric disorders: excessive stimulation/overexcitement, manic symptoms/hypomania, agitation, insomnia, anxiety, confusion, disorientation, loss of libido Nervous system disorders: dizziness, restlessness/akathisia, akinesia, ataxia, myoclonic jerks, tremor, hyper-reflexia, muscle spasm, paresthesia, numbness, memory loss, sedation, drowsiness, dysgeusia, headaches (without blood pressure elevation)

Here are some warnings from the Nardil (MAOI) FDA Full Prescribing Information in the section on Adverse Drug Reactions:19

• Common (1% to 10%): Anorgasmia, hypersomnia, hypomania, insomnia, sleep disturbances
• Uncommon (0.1% to 1%): Agitation, behavioral changes, confusion, euphoria, frank psychosis, hallucinations, nervousness, vivid nightmares
• Rare (0.01% to 0.1%): Acute anxiety reaction, delusional parasitosis, manic reaction, precipitation of schizophrenia, toxic delirium
• Frequency not reported: suicidal behaviors, suicidal ideation

Withdrawal Problems with MAOIs

Making matters worse, after prolonged use over several weeks or a few months, withdrawal from drugs like methylene blue and all antidepressants can cause serious withdrawal reactions, and so stopping the drug requires cautious withdrawal.

Here are warnings from the Mayo Clinic about withdrawal or discontinuation symptoms from MAOIs:20

Stopping treatment with MAOIs

Talk with your healthcare professional before you stop taking an MAOI.

Typically, MAOIs are not habit-forming. But if you stop an MAOI suddenly, you’re more likely to have discontinuation symptoms. This is sometimes called discontinuation syndrome. These symptoms can include:

Restlessness, irritability, or anxiety.

Upset stomach.

Feelings of tingling or burning.

Flu-like symptoms, such as chills, sweating, feeling generally unwell, and muscle aches.

Trouble sleeping.

Sluggishness, tiredness, or sleepiness.

Headache.

Confusion.

Dizziness.

The Mayo Clinic warning on MAOIs continues:

You’ll likely need to wait two or more weeks after the use of MAOIs before starting other antidepressants. This will help you avoid serotonin syndrome, where you have dangerously high levels of serotonin. During those two weeks, continue food and beverage restrictions and don’t take medicine that can cause serious interactions with MAOIs.

Many Other Drugs and Even Foods Can Cause Fatal Adverse Interactions with Methylene Blue

The risk of enduring a serotonin syndrome — or most of the other adverse effects of methylene blue and other MAOIs — is that the risks vastly increase with accidental exposure to innumerable other drugs, including all those that stimulate any of the four neurotransmitter systems that are stimulated by methylene blue.

Anyone taking psychiatric drugs, opioids, and alcohol is at risk of a bad interaction. And because methylene blue is likely to be unknown to your own doctor, you need to tell him or her that it is a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) like the older and relatively dangerous MAOI antidepressants. As mentioned earlier, these are phenelzine (Nardil), tranylcypromine (Parnate), selegiline (Eldpryl, Emsam, Zelapar), and isocarboxazid (Marplan). Even St. John’s Wort can interact negatively with MAOIs.21

Here’s a warning from Drugs.com that specifically addresses the vast numbers of dangerous drug interactions, specifically for methylene blue:

Many drugs can interact with methylene blue. Tell your doctor about all your current medicines and any you recently stopped using, especially: alfentanil, fentanyl; buspirone; digoxin, digitalis; dihydroergotamine, ergotamine; phenytoin; pimozide; quinidine; warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven); an MAO inhibitor – isocarboxazid, linezolid, phenelzine, rasagiline, selegiline, tranylcypromine, and others; an “SSRI” antidepressant – citalopram, escitalopram, fluoxetine, paroxetine, sertraline, Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, and others; an “SNRI” antidepressant – desvenlafaxine, duloxetine, levomilnacipran, milnacipran, venlafaxine, Effexor, Cymbalta, Pristiq, and others; other antidepressants – bupropion, clomipramine, mirtazapine; or medicine to prevent organ transplant rejection – cyclosporine, sirolimus, tacrolimus.”

Drug Facts and Comparisons was a pharmacology book I frequently used until it went online as an expensive business product. The last edition was in 2017. It had a special section on methylene blue.22 Going through three pages of fine print, I counted more than 100 dangerous drug interactions listed and many of those were for large numbers of drugs in a single category. Here is a selection of dangerous interactions listed alphabetically: Amphetamines, Analgesics (opioids), Antipsychotic agents, Blood glucose lowering agents, Cannabinoid-containing products, Cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril)’ Dextromethorphan (cough medicine), Epinephrine, Fentanyl, Hydrocodone, Levodopa, Methylphenidate, Potassium chloride, Reboxetine, Thiazide and Thiazide-like diuretics, Trazodone, Tricyclic antidepressants.

The current massive promotion and distribution of methylene blue is in many ways worse than the massive distribution of prescriptions. Methylene blue is promoted with incredibly unrealistic claims for cognitive improvement, high energy, and profound feelings of well-being — all of which are really danger signs of brain dysfunction from over-stimulation of four key neurotransmitters in the brain. In respect to methylene blue, there is little or no informed consent, and hardly anyone realizes they are taking a highly toxic neurotoxin at least as dangerous as the worst prescription antidepressants and worse than most.



Conclusion

Our freedom and health freedom movements are surprisingly involved in the promotion and use of methylene blue. Is this sudden prolific marketing and use of methylene blue one more aspect of the assault on our movements? I know that this definitely is not the intention of many who promote it. If anything, they are looking for relief from their strenuous efforts for truth and freedom.

Remember, all psychoactive drugs impair our higher mental functioning, easily and quickly rendering us unable to care about or defend our human rights or to make the best decisions on behalf of ourselves and others. That robs us of our own personal sovereignty and adds to the defenselessness of our society and nation against oppression. And further remember, you may be the last person to realize what happens to you under the “influence” of drugs, so pay attention to when trusted friends or family members tell you about the negative impact on your mind and behavior. When you are temporarily feeling your best, you may be suffering from a euphoria or “high” caused by drug-impaired brain function, and that can lead to mania, psychosis, violence, or suicide.

I began this effort to publicize the dangers of methylene blue in my regular guest hour slot on the Tamara Scott Show on Worldview TV, where her moral and ethical insights added greatly to my presentation.23 This May 6, 2025, video of the show may be a useful way for people to learn about the risks of methylene blue. In the closing remarks, my friend Tamara declared I had really dropped a bomb when I declared, “I think this is a CIA program,” and went on to explain how the CIA would want to destroy the Health Freedom Movement, and how the drug company Eli Lilly found a way to make tons of LSD and began giving huge amount to the CIA for its experiments on unwitting, involuntary people and also sold it into large crowds of Americans. The documentation is in an endnote from a CIA document from December 23, 2024, a book about the CIA and MKUltra, and from two of our radio interviews with a physician who survived CIA drug-involved abuses as a child.24

If you feel that your well-being is dependent on psychoactive drugs, except for the judicious use of prescribed opioids for pain of physical origin, you are probably taking your life in the wrong direction. The good feelings you are getting are a sign that the drug is actually interfering with your natural brain function and that your brain is being compelled to make compensatory changes that will harm your functioning as well. In fact, as a medical expert, I have found that “feeling great” after starting an antidepressant such as an MAOI, an SSRI, or an SNRI is often a signal of impending mania, depression, or delirium that can lead to suicide or violence.

Living a mentally and emotionally good life takes self-understanding, ethical principles, and conducting ourselves on the basis of reason, love, and devotion to higher ideals including a loving God. All psychoactive substances impair the highest human functions required for living life as best as possible and methylene blue is among the most dangerous.


By Peter R. Breggin MD

Published first on AmericaOutLoud.news May 16-17, 2025

End Notes

1 All stimulants from caffeine to Ritalin (methylphenidate) and on to methamphetamine and cocaine, and including MAOIs, can produce subjective feelings of improved concentration or memory, and some short-term studies show a brief improvement. This is caused by obsessive-compulsive mental focusing and is driven by a narrowing of general awareness and judgment. No FDA-approved stimulants, for example, have been proven to help cognition or academic performance, and all harm the brain long-term. Here is as study that is negligent in its claims and its lack of warnings about methylene blue that may have encouraged the current epidemic use: https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2016.pp8a5 I have researched these issues in multiple scientific papers and books, including Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex, second edition (2008). For an easily accessible, comprehensive look at stimulant drug effects, also see my free resource center on children and stimulant medications: https://breggin.com/Childrens-Resources-Center

2 Drug Safety Communication: Serious CNS reactions possible when methylene blue is given to patients taking certain psychiatric medications | FDA and FDA Drug Safety Communication: Updated information about the drug interaction between methylene blue and Drug Safety Podcasts > FDA Drug Safety Podcast for Healthcare Professionals: Updated information about the drug interaction between methylene blue and serotonergic psychiatric medications (methylthioninium chloride) and serotonergic psychiatric medications | FDA and much more comprehensive coverage of methylene blue adverse effects with special warnings for professionals can be found at Methylene Blue Monograph for Professionals – Drugs.com

3 Half_a_century_of_antidepressant_drugs_-20151101-21548-vmvosk-libre.pdf. Also see Methylene Blue: The Long and Winding Road From Stain to Brain: Part 2 – PubMed and Methylene Blue in the Treatment of Neuropsychiatric Disorders – PubMed; and Iproniazid | Antidepressant, Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor & Mental Health | Britannica; Methylene Blue: The Long and Winding Road From Stain to Brain: Part 2 – PubMed; Monoaminergic neurotransmission: the history of the discovery of antidepressants from 1950s until today – PubMed. These cover the fascinating history of MAOIs and Methylene Blue.

4 The currently approved MAOI antidepressants are phenelzine (Nardil), tranylcypromine (Parnate), selegiline (Eldpryl, Emsam, Zelapar), and isocarboxazid (Marplan).

5 Breggin, Peter. “The Psychophysiology of Anxiety.” Journal of Nervous Mental Diseases, 139, 558-568, 1964 and Breggin, Peter. “The Sedative-like Effect of Epinephrine.” Archives of General Psychiatry, 12, 255-259, 1965.

6 Especial see these books by Peter Breggin: Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex, second edition (2008). Springer Publishing Company; Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide and Crime (2008). St. Martin’s Press; Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families (2013). Springer Publishing Company.

7 Microsoft Word – Peter-R-Breggin-MD-resume-121024.docx. For actual descriptions of many of my legal cases, see Medication Madness: The Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide and Crime (2008) in the index under “cases” and for additional earlier cases, see Breggin, P. and Breggin, G. Talking Back to Prozac (1994) in the index under “Prozac case studies/testimony).”

8 Methylene Blue Side Effects: Common, Severe, Long Term

9 According to Mayo Clinic, “Hypoxia is low levels of oxygen in your body tissues. It causes symptoms like confusion, restlessness, difficulty breathing, rapid heart rate, and bluish skin. Many chronic heart and lung conditions can put you at risk for hypoxia. Hypoxia can be life-threatening. If you are experiencing symptoms of hypoxia, call 911 or go to the nearest ER. Hypoxia: Causes, Symptoms, Tests, Diagnosis & Treatment

10 The order of the list of adverse effects has been changed to put some of special interest or relevance nearer the top, including psychiatry and neurology. The brackets contain my explanatory notes and the parentheses from the original.

11 Drug Safety Communication: Serious CNS reactions possible when methylene blue is given to patients taking certain psychiatric medications | FDA

12 The discussion of compensatory reactions is under the subheading “The Brain Resists the Impact of SSRIs, “ pp. 175-178) and “Causing Brain Dysfunction and Shrinkage,” pp. 178-182).

13 Especially see, P. Breggin. Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families (2013). Springer Publishing Company.

14 Methylene Blue: The Long and Winding Road From Stain to Brain: Part 2 – PubMed and Methylene Blue in the Treatment of Neuropsychiatric Disorders – PubMed

15 Monoaminergic neurotransmission: the history of the discovery of antidepressants from 1950s until today – PubMed

16 Epinephrine is often overlooked in scientific papers about cocaine, because there is less of it in the body than norepinephrine, but it is also activated by cocaine. Intravenous cocaine increases plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine in humans – ScienceDirect

17 PARNATE® (tranylcypromine) tablets, for oral use

18 PARNATE® (tranylcypromine) tablets, for oral use

19 Nardil Side Effects: Common, Severe, Long Term under the term adverse effects.

20 An option if other antidepressants haven't helped.

21 Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) – Mayo Clinic

22 Drug Facts and Comparisons, pp. 587-589, small print, double spaced. The subject heading is specifically for methylene blue. It is from the 2017 edition (its last book form).

23 https://worldviewtube.com/tv/video/medical-monday-tamara-scott-dr-peter-breggin-5

24 Here are some documents pertaining to CIA abuses using drugs: The book is Stephen Kinzer (2019). Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control, see its index for LSD as a start. The CIA document is CIA Behavior Control Experiments Focus of New Scholarly Collection | National Security Archive. Our interviews with Juliette Engel, MD, are Surviving CIA/MKUltra and overcoming pure evil: the story of Dr. Juliette Engel and https://gingerbreggin.substack.com/p/surviving-ciamkultra-and-overcoming?r=ae2lk. The CIA document says that Eli Lilly may have donated the LSD but the book says the CIA paid them $400,000. For more about Eli Lilly, I was appointed by consortium of lawyers and confirmed by a federal judge to the single scientific expert on discovery from Eli Lilly in what was supposed to be innumerable trials eventually but Elli Lilly literally fixed the first trial, as determined by the Kentucky Supreme Court, and that dissuaded dozens of unwitting attorneys from continuing to pursue the cases or to take minimal settlements. It was only later that the Kentucky Supreme Court gave its opinion condemning the drug company and lawyers. See my book, Medication Madness, “The Infamous Wesbecker Case,” in Chapter 18: Drug Companies.

 

[SummerLite]

I've been hoping for more information on Methylene Blue since its suddenly all the rage and is being promoted. The first warning I heard was from Dr. Lee Vliet who is working with the authors of the article posted by Chu. I heard a few testimonials of people saying how great it made them feel within minutes of taking it and how it boosts their energy level. Great, another neurotoxin added to peoples brains.

Here is an interview with Dr Vliet explaining the properties of MB and its harmful affects which starts at the 21.32 point. At the beginning she talks about her experiences during covid.

Blubrry PowerPress Player

 

[Breo]

Session 16 September 2017
A: The studies used to back this claim have to do with disease conditions. If you read carefully, you will note that the benefits accrue to those with pathology and not so much to normal controls. Further, MB raises blood pressure and can destroy beneficial biomes. So, extrapolating results to justify ingestion is irresponsible.

Since I read the C´s warning on Methylene blue, I searched for critical voices and research on it. Instead I came across more and more professionals (functional doctors, holistic pharmacists) only praising the seeming benefits of MB. Lately I learned of a national functional medical health congress, where a key note speaker will lecture on the benefits and protocols of MB in combination with CDL (Chlorine Dioxide), teaching others "how to successfully administer Methylene blue and Chlorine Dioxide (CDL) against fighting infections."

Through the C´s and the forums further research, we were maid to pay attention: these are both toxins. (Here is a post on several articles on the the dangers of Chlorine Dioxide/CDS/CDL/MMS.)

Thank you @Gaby for the continuous research! I hope, there are still some professionals to be found, that keep scientific thinking, whom I will be able to forward the above article to. Sadly, there seem to be less and less.