Thank you for clearing that up, Sayer! I was taking this after reading an interview by Joe Mercola of another doctor who promoted MB (fortunately, it appears, I did not add red light when doing this); I've heard both sides of this and did not know whom to believe as both sides seemed authoritative, and the fact that "every ER has it on hand for emergencies" was what tipped the scale for me, but your report is clear; I will stick with my spirulina and chlorophyllin supplements!
Brilliant piece! Thank you for writing your perspective on methylene blue. Geoff Pain, the Australian researcher, has posted a very negative opinion about it with pictures of harmed organs. So even though I bought some years ago I haven’t used it internally.
"At the very doses being recommended online — 0.5 to 1 mg/kg — MB suppressed brain oxygen metabolism in living humans. "
That is a very large dose. For a 150 pound man that would be 34 to 68 mg. I take 1 to 4 mg depending on what I'm doing. For me it appears to enhance mitochondrial function, and the way I experience that is when I'm doing endurance exercise, I can go faster and go for a longer duration. It also affects my mood and cognitive function in a positive way. I take it once or twice a week when I'm planning to do a long endurance outing.
Could a substance derived from plants do the same thing? Of course! But I haven't found it yet. And I've tried a lot of "performance enhancing" substances.
Hi Pima — thank you for the thoughtful correction. You are right that the doses used in the PET study (0.5–1 mg/kg IV) are substantially higher than the very low oral microdoses many users report taking anecdotally for performance or cognition.
I revisited the math and updated the article to clarify that distinction. My broader concern remains that methylene blue is being widely promoted online as a benign “wellness” enhancer despite having complex dose-dependent pharmacology, MAOI activity, and limited long-term human safety data — particularly outside medical supervision.
Your point about dose range and route of administration is an important nuance, and I appreciate you adding it to the discussion.
thank you. I admit I also have concerns that there are no long term studies especially at the very low doses that I'm using. Even though I'm taking a really small dose and I do notice a beneficial effect on cognition and speech, I'm still not choosing to take it every day. I'm reserving it for my longer endurance outings.
I just scanned the article and did not find any reference to the dosage level. The effects of MB are very dose dependent. At low doses, less than 10 mg, it can enhance the electron transport chain in the mitochondria. At high doses, it does just the opposite! At high doses, it does act as a MAOI inhibitor, but not at low doses. His article needs to specify doses and reference studies where they have used low doses before he can come to the conclusions that he does in the article.
Here's one of the side effects he lists: Very common (10% or more): Skin discoloration (blue) (13%), hyperhidrosis (13%), sweating.
That one side effect alone leads me to conclude they were using VERY LARGE doses! Likely hundreds of milligrams in order to get skin discoloration. Also he mentioned these side effects:
Local [injection site] ---- they are INJECTING MB!! Likely a very very large dose!
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
The more I dig into this article the more it looks to be trash, written by someone who does not understand what MB is and how it works. He is fear mongering based on the effects of MB at very high doses.
Fair points regarding dose dependence and route of administration. I agree methylene blue appears to have strongly biphasic effects, and that low-dose oral use may differ substantially from high-dose intravenous administration used in some studies and adverse event reports.
My intention was not to imply that all methylene blue use is inherently neurotoxic, but rather to question the increasingly casual “wellness” framing around a pharmacologically potent compound with complex mitochondrial, serotonergic, and redox effects.
I’ve updated the article to better clarify the distinctions you raised. I appreciate the discussion.
My annoyance was not at you ;-) it was at the author of that article. I just wished it had been specific about dosages. I suppose I could dig into his reference material because the dosages ought to be described there.
The article is just a summary. He may offer more in the recording — not sure. Didn’t check to see whether he offered other references.
We’re not experts in methylene blue (or anything else for that matter ;-) Just wanted you to be safe and have more info if helpful.
Good luck.
P.S. We like Zeta Aid. Seems to improve our energy with no side effects at the dosage the company recommends (we’re not athletes, but a mountain biker — Sasha Latypova — recommended it, as did A Midwestern Doctor).
thanks. I'm an athlete of sorts. I've been a student of endurance training for most of my adult life. And most of that time my motivation was to keep in shape for my mountain outings, hiking, backpacking, skiing. I'm old now, but I've gotten into trail "running" the past couple of years, which for me is mostly fast walking with a little bit of running thrown in. That's where I notice a huge boost from MB. I can get a pretty good boost from caffeine too, and I enjoy coffee and tea, but if I do too much it adversely affects my sleep. (and too much caffeine for me is more than 1 cup of coffee! I'm a caffeine lightweight.) MB can do that too, but only if I take more than 3 or 4 mg. so with MB I can get the boost without negatively affecting my sleep.
because of my age, I'm suspicious that the effects of MB are more noticeable for me than for someone much younger. Maybe it's helpful only for older folks and for younger folks who have less than perfect mitochondrial function, but for someone whose mitochondria are working as designed, they may not notice any benefit in which case better not to take it!
MAO inhibition from MB is dose-dependent and clinically dangerous only above roughly 2 mg/kg/day. For me that would be 118 mg/day (232 drops of the typical 1% solution). I take 60 drops/day (30 mg) which has helped greatly with my chronic fatigue.
wow, that's quite a bit more than I take. thanks for posting. Glad it's helping you.
By the way, I believe FLCCC has MB listed as one of their additional therapeutics for treating long covid and covid vax injury (which "long covid" is likely a euphemism for)
There is not really a clinically established “detox” protocol for methylene blue in the conventional sense. In most cases, the compound is metabolized and excreted naturally over time through normal redox metabolism, liver processing, and urinary excretion.
That said, because methylene blue interacts heavily with mitochondrial and cellular redox systems, one could reasonably hypothesize that supporting those pathways nutritionally may help the body recover from excessive exposure or oxidative stress related to it. Nutrients involved in NADH/NADPH production and flavoprotein function — such as riboflavin (B2), niacinamide (B3), magnesium, and glutathione-supportive compounds — may theoretically support those processes.
But to my knowledge, there is no formally recognized medical “methylene blue detox” protocol, and most people simply clear it naturally once use stops.
So if true about detoxing mb ones liver, skin, and digestive system etc. must be in working order to. Not everyone's is, therefore it is sketchy taking it in my summation. I currently have a compromised liver so I must be very aware of what I ingest, inhale and my inner state of being.
I stopped researching it when I looked into why it is used as an anti-fungal - it disrupts the mitochondria in candida !!!! I'd rather take black seed oil daily (the natural way to keep it under control), keep my vitamin D in the optimal range (and eat foods rich in it in my diet plus in the form of a supplement) which provides gut wall integrity and a balanced gut microbiome (plus optimal levels of bifidobacteria and akkermansia. Once you've healed your gut you have all the co-factors your mitochondria need!
It's been recommended to me for a few years now and at least once by a so called health product knowledgeable man. I just tell people no. It doesn't resonate as right to me. Therefore since I intuit it's off it will remain a no for me.
Many thanks for your continuing attention to the risks of MB. Because of one of your prior articles on this I switched over to taking phycocyanin/Blue spirulina. Since I knew MB was a synthetic I guess I instinctively never dosaged anywhere near the described therapeutic/nootropic levels. My levels were 1.5-2.5mg per day not per kg and I usually waited a couple days till the “blue symptoms” subsided before taking more. I’m not sure if that level ends up below ~10µM. I was taking about 4-5% of the mg/kg body weight levels. I always took it with ascorbic acid crystals to neutralize the color. I hope I got some of the low level benefits and none of the toxicity.
The statement that was one of the most concerning is, “The result: methylene blue significantly reduced cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen by 7.9% at 0.5 mg/kg and by 11.8% at 1 mg/kg. Cerebral blood flow dropped by 8.3–8.4% at both doses. The drug suppressed brain metabolism. It did not boost it .” That should be enough to convince anyone that high doses should be avoided.
The research you cite paints a pretty clear picture. Thank you!
But before i use my liposomal MB bottle for dying fabric… What about the popular claim: "every ER has it on hand for emergencies". Several doctors say administering MB immediately after a stroke or heart attack can significantly reduce the damage. Any thoughts or research?
I've had MB recommended to me by several doctors and other friends that take it. It just never resonated with me esp after I saw a pic of a post-mortem, blue brain. I cannot unsee that - ever! Thanks for the well-written, factual article. Much appreciated.
Hello Ji, I was introduced to methylene blue as the only existing therapy (along with chelation of heavy metals), for interrupting synthetic biology introduced by covid shots and, later, shedding, as well as syn-bio that has been found in many pharmaceutical injectables and, of course, smart dust. My internal medicine doctor found the information in declassified Darpa papers, which I saw and which did explicitly state the fact that MB was the only substance known to counteract the growth of "smart dust" inside the human body. Evidently, smart dust is primarily polymers that are programmable in the presence of certain heavy metals. They were designed to travel to the brain and mold into axons which could shadow your own axons while not harming them (?) and transmit data to the cloud as well as transmit data from the cloud back to the brain.Sounds crazy right?
However, I recently learned that DOD contracted with University of Washington (my home state) back in 2018 to partner with them to monitor smart dust experimentation. Fast forward to 2021 and suddenly these programmed polymers are showing up in COVID vaccinated people, discovered through dark field microscopy which the Darpa papers identified as the only way to actually see it.(and you can see it- AND you can see much less of it after the therapy. By 2023, every one who came into my doctor's clinic had it in their blood which was dubbed shedding or other exposure (think geoengineering). It looks similar to heavy pollen but here's the thing- I've lived here for 70 years and I've NEVER seen pollen in the air in winter. It just doesn't happen. And pollen doesn't "grow" into threads when there's moisture in the air. But this yellow dust so common in our air does. I don't know if UW is still involved but Space Command most certainly is. Their testing grounds are right above me and I live in elevated foothills of the Olympic Mountains. They are using ice nucleation all along the Olympic Range and I watch each morning as the clouds work their way down from the mountains to the sea. I know when the smart dust is in the mix because it turns my whole world into a yellowish haze and everything outside is covered in fine yellow dust.
Let me get back on track. So, I tried Methylene Blue during one 3 day chelation Therapy session. I knew right away there was no way I could afford to continue these iv treatments because I am not wealthy. I bought some MB and EDTA some time later so I could continue to detox this crap. It went well for a while but after a couple of months I developed a blockage in my small intestine. I assumed that I had melted too much of the polymers too quickly and they clogged up my gut so I nixed the MB. It took months to right my gut and, truth be told, it's still not great. The blockage is gone but my gut has never returned to its normal state. Hard lesson. I don't think any of the MB pushers are operating in a malevolent way. I think they are human, trying to help people and make it pay so they can keep helping I guess. I am pretty shocked that my own highly educated doctor decided to use it in her protocol but I think all of humanity is still operating on fear and lack of options. No one wants to actually believe what's happening to us. We just want to live our lives.
Your description of the electromagnetic potential playing out at the mitochondrial membrane reminded me of this research done at the University of Buffalo using MB to power batteries.
Thank you for clearing that up, Sayer! I was taking this after reading an interview by Joe Mercola of another doctor who promoted MB (fortunately, it appears, I did not add red light when doing this); I've heard both sides of this and did not know whom to believe as both sides seemed authoritative, and the fact that "every ER has it on hand for emergencies" was what tipped the scale for me, but your report is clear; I will stick with my spirulina and chlorophyllin supplements!
Brilliant piece! Thank you for writing your perspective on methylene blue. Geoff Pain, the Australian researcher, has posted a very negative opinion about it with pictures of harmed organs. So even though I bought some years ago I haven’t used it internally.
Thank you for this very clear piece! I needed to see this. You are a gift to all.
"At the very doses being recommended online — 0.5 to 1 mg/kg — MB suppressed brain oxygen metabolism in living humans. "
That is a very large dose. For a 150 pound man that would be 34 to 68 mg. I take 1 to 4 mg depending on what I'm doing. For me it appears to enhance mitochondrial function, and the way I experience that is when I'm doing endurance exercise, I can go faster and go for a longer duration. It also affects my mood and cognitive function in a positive way. I take it once or twice a week when I'm planning to do a long endurance outing.
Could a substance derived from plants do the same thing? Of course! But I haven't found it yet. And I've tried a lot of "performance enhancing" substances.
Hi Pima — thank you for the thoughtful correction. You are right that the doses used in the PET study (0.5–1 mg/kg IV) are substantially higher than the very low oral microdoses many users report taking anecdotally for performance or cognition.
I revisited the math and updated the article to clarify that distinction. My broader concern remains that methylene blue is being widely promoted online as a benign “wellness” enhancer despite having complex dose-dependent pharmacology, MAOI activity, and limited long-term human safety data — particularly outside medical supervision.
Your point about dose range and route of administration is an important nuance, and I appreciate you adding it to the discussion.
thank you. I admit I also have concerns that there are no long term studies especially at the very low doses that I'm using. Even though I'm taking a really small dose and I do notice a beneficial effect on cognition and speech, I'm still not choosing to take it every day. I'm reserving it for my longer endurance outings.
Psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin is very concerned about use of methylene blue and clearly explains why. See article and podcast here:
Methylene Blue is highly neurotoxic to your brain and mind
Peter Breggin MD & Ginger Breggin
May 17, 2025
https://www.americaoutloud.news/methylene-blue-is-highly-neurotoxic-to-your-brain-and-mind/
I just scanned the article and did not find any reference to the dosage level. The effects of MB are very dose dependent. At low doses, less than 10 mg, it can enhance the electron transport chain in the mitochondria. At high doses, it does just the opposite! At high doses, it does act as a MAOI inhibitor, but not at low doses. His article needs to specify doses and reference studies where they have used low doses before he can come to the conclusions that he does in the article.
Here's one of the side effects he lists: Very common (10% or more): Skin discoloration (blue) (13%), hyperhidrosis (13%), sweating.
That one side effect alone leads me to conclude they were using VERY LARGE doses! Likely hundreds of milligrams in order to get skin discoloration. Also he mentioned these side effects:
Local [injection site] ---- they are INJECTING MB!! Likely a very very large dose!
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
The more I dig into this article the more it looks to be trash, written by someone who does not understand what MB is and how it works. He is fear mongering based on the effects of MB at very high doses.
Fair points regarding dose dependence and route of administration. I agree methylene blue appears to have strongly biphasic effects, and that low-dose oral use may differ substantially from high-dose intravenous administration used in some studies and adverse event reports.
My intention was not to imply that all methylene blue use is inherently neurotoxic, but rather to question the increasingly casual “wellness” framing around a pharmacologically potent compound with complex mitochondrial, serotonergic, and redox effects.
I’ve updated the article to better clarify the distinctions you raised. I appreciate the discussion.
just to clarify, my annoyance was NOT at your article. it was at the article at the link that big E posted, the one at americaoutloud.news
Sorry our post annoyed you, PimaCanyon. We were just trying to help, not annoy in any way.
no problem! I actually appreciate the info.
My annoyance was not at you ;-) it was at the author of that article. I just wished it had been specific about dosages. I suppose I could dig into his reference material because the dosages ought to be described there.
The article is just a summary. He may offer more in the recording — not sure. Didn’t check to see whether he offered other references.
We’re not experts in methylene blue (or anything else for that matter ;-) Just wanted you to be safe and have more info if helpful.
Good luck.
P.S. We like Zeta Aid. Seems to improve our energy with no side effects at the dosage the company recommends (we’re not athletes, but a mountain biker — Sasha Latypova — recommended it, as did A Midwestern Doctor).
Zeta Aid details here: https://zetaaid.com/
thanks. I'm an athlete of sorts. I've been a student of endurance training for most of my adult life. And most of that time my motivation was to keep in shape for my mountain outings, hiking, backpacking, skiing. I'm old now, but I've gotten into trail "running" the past couple of years, which for me is mostly fast walking with a little bit of running thrown in. That's where I notice a huge boost from MB. I can get a pretty good boost from caffeine too, and I enjoy coffee and tea, but if I do too much it adversely affects my sleep. (and too much caffeine for me is more than 1 cup of coffee! I'm a caffeine lightweight.) MB can do that too, but only if I take more than 3 or 4 mg. so with MB I can get the boost without negatively affecting my sleep.
because of my age, I'm suspicious that the effects of MB are more noticeable for me than for someone much younger. Maybe it's helpful only for older folks and for younger folks who have less than perfect mitochondrial function, but for someone whose mitochondria are working as designed, they may not notice any benefit in which case better not to take it!
thanks! I'll check it out.
MAO inhibition from MB is dose-dependent and clinically dangerous only above roughly 2 mg/kg/day. For me that would be 118 mg/day (232 drops of the typical 1% solution). I take 60 drops/day (30 mg) which has helped greatly with my chronic fatigue.
https://robertyoho.substack.com/p/420-peter-breggins-methylene-blue?r=e0jy&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
wow, that's quite a bit more than I take. thanks for posting. Glad it's helping you.
By the way, I believe FLCCC has MB listed as one of their additional therapeutics for treating long covid and covid vax injury (which "long covid" is likely a euphemism for)
Having a discussion with friends who have taken MB and the question came up if you should detox from MB. And if so how?
Hi Bob,
There is not really a clinically established “detox” protocol for methylene blue in the conventional sense. In most cases, the compound is metabolized and excreted naturally over time through normal redox metabolism, liver processing, and urinary excretion.
That said, because methylene blue interacts heavily with mitochondrial and cellular redox systems, one could reasonably hypothesize that supporting those pathways nutritionally may help the body recover from excessive exposure or oxidative stress related to it. Nutrients involved in NADH/NADPH production and flavoprotein function — such as riboflavin (B2), niacinamide (B3), magnesium, and glutathione-supportive compounds — may theoretically support those processes.
But to my knowledge, there is no formally recognized medical “methylene blue detox” protocol, and most people simply clear it naturally once use stops.
So if true about detoxing mb ones liver, skin, and digestive system etc. must be in working order to. Not everyone's is, therefore it is sketchy taking it in my summation. I currently have a compromised liver so I must be very aware of what I ingest, inhale and my inner state of being.
Thank you I will pass it on to them.
I stopped researching it when I looked into why it is used as an anti-fungal - it disrupts the mitochondria in candida !!!! I'd rather take black seed oil daily (the natural way to keep it under control), keep my vitamin D in the optimal range (and eat foods rich in it in my diet plus in the form of a supplement) which provides gut wall integrity and a balanced gut microbiome (plus optimal levels of bifidobacteria and akkermansia. Once you've healed your gut you have all the co-factors your mitochondria need!
It's been recommended to me for a few years now and at least once by a so called health product knowledgeable man. I just tell people no. It doesn't resonate as right to me. Therefore since I intuit it's off it will remain a no for me.
Sold by Peter McCullough who also sells Tamiflu, which causes suicidal ideation.
Didn't Robert Malone recommend Tamiflu for Covid-19 prevention? LOL
Not that I recall, do you have a link to that?
It was actually famotidine, which is in Pepcid, that Malone recommended for C-19. He changed his mind on that later.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert-Malone
Many thanks for your continuing attention to the risks of MB. Because of one of your prior articles on this I switched over to taking phycocyanin/Blue spirulina. Since I knew MB was a synthetic I guess I instinctively never dosaged anywhere near the described therapeutic/nootropic levels. My levels were 1.5-2.5mg per day not per kg and I usually waited a couple days till the “blue symptoms” subsided before taking more. I’m not sure if that level ends up below ~10µM. I was taking about 4-5% of the mg/kg body weight levels. I always took it with ascorbic acid crystals to neutralize the color. I hope I got some of the low level benefits and none of the toxicity.
The statement that was one of the most concerning is, “The result: methylene blue significantly reduced cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen by 7.9% at 0.5 mg/kg and by 11.8% at 1 mg/kg. Cerebral blood flow dropped by 8.3–8.4% at both doses. The drug suppressed brain metabolism. It did not boost it .” That should be enough to convince anyone that high doses should be avoided.
The research you cite paints a pretty clear picture. Thank you!
But before i use my liposomal MB bottle for dying fabric… What about the popular claim: "every ER has it on hand for emergencies". Several doctors say administering MB immediately after a stroke or heart attack can significantly reduce the damage. Any thoughts or research?
I've had MB recommended to me by several doctors and other friends that take it. It just never resonated with me esp after I saw a pic of a post-mortem, blue brain. I cannot unsee that - ever! Thanks for the well-written, factual article. Much appreciated.
Hello Ji, I was introduced to methylene blue as the only existing therapy (along with chelation of heavy metals), for interrupting synthetic biology introduced by covid shots and, later, shedding, as well as syn-bio that has been found in many pharmaceutical injectables and, of course, smart dust. My internal medicine doctor found the information in declassified Darpa papers, which I saw and which did explicitly state the fact that MB was the only substance known to counteract the growth of "smart dust" inside the human body. Evidently, smart dust is primarily polymers that are programmable in the presence of certain heavy metals. They were designed to travel to the brain and mold into axons which could shadow your own axons while not harming them (?) and transmit data to the cloud as well as transmit data from the cloud back to the brain.Sounds crazy right?
However, I recently learned that DOD contracted with University of Washington (my home state) back in 2018 to partner with them to monitor smart dust experimentation. Fast forward to 2021 and suddenly these programmed polymers are showing up in COVID vaccinated people, discovered through dark field microscopy which the Darpa papers identified as the only way to actually see it.(and you can see it- AND you can see much less of it after the therapy. By 2023, every one who came into my doctor's clinic had it in their blood which was dubbed shedding or other exposure (think geoengineering). It looks similar to heavy pollen but here's the thing- I've lived here for 70 years and I've NEVER seen pollen in the air in winter. It just doesn't happen. And pollen doesn't "grow" into threads when there's moisture in the air. But this yellow dust so common in our air does. I don't know if UW is still involved but Space Command most certainly is. Their testing grounds are right above me and I live in elevated foothills of the Olympic Mountains. They are using ice nucleation all along the Olympic Range and I watch each morning as the clouds work their way down from the mountains to the sea. I know when the smart dust is in the mix because it turns my whole world into a yellowish haze and everything outside is covered in fine yellow dust.
Let me get back on track. So, I tried Methylene Blue during one 3 day chelation Therapy session. I knew right away there was no way I could afford to continue these iv treatments because I am not wealthy. I bought some MB and EDTA some time later so I could continue to detox this crap. It went well for a while but after a couple of months I developed a blockage in my small intestine. I assumed that I had melted too much of the polymers too quickly and they clogged up my gut so I nixed the MB. It took months to right my gut and, truth be told, it's still not great. The blockage is gone but my gut has never returned to its normal state. Hard lesson. I don't think any of the MB pushers are operating in a malevolent way. I think they are human, trying to help people and make it pay so they can keep helping I guess. I am pretty shocked that my own highly educated doctor decided to use it in her protocol but I think all of humanity is still operating on fear and lack of options. No one wants to actually believe what's happening to us. We just want to live our lives.
I'm very grateful for this information.
Your description of the electromagnetic potential playing out at the mitochondrial membrane reminded me of this research done at the University of Buffalo using MB to power batteries.
https://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2018/08/026.html
The fact that MB appears on page 4 of the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines likely is a signal for many that it has merits.
Thank you, Sayer. I've had a bottle for two years unopened and had a gut feeling not to take it. Glad I didn't.
Excellent article and much appreciated.
THANK YOU for the phenomenal work you do for the benefit of all humanity. You are truly legendary. God bless you and your family.
i take it for the serotonin boost but all other points- granted! thanks