The latest treatment to find itself attached to the Secretary of Health and Human Services is something called methylene blue, a Smurf-colored liquid embraced by influencers and biohackers for its alleged brain-boosting and longevity powers.
Below, all you need to know about the substance.
Another function arose in the 1930s, when methylene blue was first used to detect the purity of milk, as sufficient oxygen is what makes the chemicals turn blue; it’s still used for that purpose today.
As far as it being an antioxidant, meaning it neutralizes damaging free radicals that accumulate in the body, Schwarcz says that is “incorrect.” It’s actually the colorless version of methylene blue—which is reacted with glucose rather than oxygen—that is “indeed an antioxidant,” although it’s not available, and would require doing “some chemistry.”
He adds that there have been “some interesting experiments with Alzheimer’s disease,” which is characterized by a type of protein that gets tangled in the brain. There is some evidence that methylene blue can untangle those proteins, he says, “but that’s only in the laboratory, in a test tube. No one has ever shown any benefit in human clinical studies.”
So while Schwarcz finds it a “mystery” as to how biohackers have latched onto the blue drug, he suspects some have read the studies. “And of course, they misinterpret it, and they take two plus two and make it equal to five.”
“You develop what is called serotonin syndrome, and you don’t want to have that,” says Schwarcz, noting that it can cause agitation, increased heartbeat, hallucinations, and other unpleasant symptoms.
“So certainly, anyone who is taking SSRI should stay away from methylene blue,” he says. “But I think everyone should stay away from methylene blue, because there’s no reason to use it except in a medical setting.”
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