Methylene Blue

Methylene blue: wonder drug or just another health trend? Two doctors unpack what’s real vs. hype — from its 1890s origins and malaria use to modern claims about energy, cognition, mood, cancer, and even COVID photodynamic therapy. We explain how it works (electron shuttling in the mitochondrial chain), where evidence is strongest (e.g., methemoglobinemia), where it’s promising but unproven (depression/bipolar, memory, dementia, infections), and real safety issues (serotonin syndrome with certain antidepressants, G6PD-related hemolysis, GI upset, increased blood pressure, “blue” side effects). We also cover the “supplement paradox” — why big follow-up trials often don’t happen.

Educational only — not medical advice.

Chapters
00:00 Intro — hype vs help
01:15 Brief history — first synthetic drug, malaria, proto-chemotherapy ideas
03:10 Mechanism — electron transport “bypass,” ATP, aging & toxins
06:15 Photodynamic therapy — selective uptake, light activation, ROS
08:40 Mental health — small trials in depression/bipolar; why big RCTs are missing
12:05 Cognition — memory signal and limits of small studies/fMRI findings
14:30 COVID phototherapy — why an early positive signal wasn’t widely pursued
16:40 Safety — serotonin syndrome, G6PD hemolysis, GI upset, increased BP, “blue” effects
19:20 Access & regulation — “research use,” not general OTC medical use
21:00 Verdict — where MB makes sense today vs. claims needing larger studies

Twin medical doctors rate the latest health trends. In the modern information sharing era, we constantly encounter new diets, exercises, supplements, weight loss plans and medical treatments. It is hard to figure out what is real and what is fake as almost all of them claim they follow science. Our goal is to analyze the latest trends using our extensive medical and science backgrounds to tease out fact from fiction.

Jess Jones, M.D., M.B.A. spent a year doing neurosurgery research during his graduate studies at Columbia. He then went on to analyzing emerging medical technologies in the private equity world

Jackson Jones, M.D. is a Harvard trained orthopedic surgeon and has been in clinical practice for 10 years. He spent a year doing research in one of the top stem cell laboratories during his medical training.

References
• Wright RO, Lewander WJ, Woolf AD. Methemoglobinemia: Etiology, Pharmacology, and Clinical Management. Annals of Emergency Medicine. 1999.
• Clifton J II, Leikin JB. Methylene Blue. American Journal of Therapeutics. 2003.
• Schirmer RH, Coulibaly B, et al. Methylene blue as an antimalarial agent. Malaria Journal. 2011.
• Rojas JC, Gonzalez-Lima F. Methylene blue as a neurotherapeutic agent. Progress in Neurobiology. 2013.
• Wainwright M. Photodynamic therapy and the rise of methylene blue as a therapeutic dye. Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy. 2004.
• Alda M, et al. Adjunctive methylene blue in bipolar disorder: a randomized trial. Bipolar Disorders. 2017.
#MethyleneBlue #DoctorsRatingTrends #HealthEducation #EvidenceBased