Can This Blue Chemical Really Boost Your Brain? Here’s What We Know.

The web is abuzz with tributes to a liquid chemical referred to as methylene blue this is being bought as a well being complement.

Over the previous 5 or 10 years, methylene blue has come to be touted on-line as a so-called nootropic agent – a substance that complements cognitive serve as. Vendors declare that it amps up mind power, improves reminiscence, boosts center of attention and dispels mind fog, amongst different intended advantages.

Health influencers, corresponding to podcaster Joe Rogan, have sung its praises. In February 2025, in a while prior to he was once showed as well being and human products and services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seemed in a video squirting a blue liquid extensively presumed to be methylene blue into a tumbler – although he by no means verbally recommended the substance.

As a researcher finding out irritation and most cancers, I examine how dyes have an effect on human well being. Claims about methylene blue are alluring, and it is simple to shop for into its promise.

But up to now, proof supporting its well being advantages is scant, and there are some severe dangers to the use of the substance out of doors of scientific apply.

What is methylene blue?

Methylene blue is an artificial dye that exists as a dismal inexperienced powder and takes on a deep blue colour when dissolved in water. My paintings and that of others counsel that many artificial dyes extensively utilized in meals and drugs can cause probably destructive immune device reactions within the frame.

But in contrast to often used meals dyes – one among which was once lately banned by way of the USA Food and Drug Administration – methylene blue isn’t derived from petroleum, often referred to as crude oil. Instead, it comes from a unique circle of relatives of dyes, which is not concept to have those well being considerations.

Methylene blue was once first synthesized in 1876 as a dye for textiles and was once valued for its intense colour and talent to bind neatly to materials. Soon after, German doctor Paul Ehrlich came upon its talent to stain organic tissues and to kill the parasite that reasons malaria — making it one of the crucial first artificial medication utilized in medication.

The chemical did not acquire well-liked use as a malaria remedy as it was once not more efficient than quinine, the usual treatment on the time. But within the 1930s, the dye discovered a brand new use in trying out the security of uncooked or unpasteurized milk. If its blue colour light temporarily, the milk was once infected with micro organism, but when it remained blue, the milk was once thought to be slightly blank.

This protection take a look at now could be in large part out of date. But it really works due to methylene blue’s chemical superpower, which is that its molecules can change electrons with different molecules, like a tiny battery charger.

How do docs use it these days?

That identical chemical superpower permits a few of methylene blue’s scientific makes use of. Most considerably, docs use it to regard a unprecedented blood dysfunction referred to as methemoglobinemia, wherein hemoglobin, an iron-rich protein in purple blood cells that carries oxygen, takes on a unique shape that may’t do the task.

Methylene blue restores hemoglobin’s serve as by way of moving an electron.

Doctors additionally from time to time use methylene blue to regard the consequences of carbon monoxide poisoning, septic surprise or toxicities from medication corresponding to chemotherapy. It may be used as a surgical dye to focus on explicit tissues corresponding to lymph nodes, or to establish the place tissue is leaky and due to this fact could also be broken.

How does methylene blue have an effect on the mind?

Methylene blue can input the mind by way of crossing the protecting tissue barrier that surrounds it. Researchers have additionally discovered that the chemical can offer protection to and reinforce mitochondria, mobile buildings which are incessantly described because the powerhouses of the mobile.

Methylene blue might lend a hand mitochondria generate power for cells to make use of. For those causes, researchers are finding out methylene blue’s impact at the mind.

So a ways, maximum of what is recognized in regards to the substance’s results at the mind comes from research in rats and in cells grown in a lab dish – now not in folks. For instance, researchers have discovered that methylene blue might enhance finding out, spice up reminiscence and offer protection to mind cells in rats with a situation that mimics Alzheimer’s illness.

Studies in rodents have additionally discovered that methylene blue can offer protection to the mind from harm from mind harm. Other research confirmed that methylene blue turns out to be useful in treating ischemic stroke in rats. However, no analysis thus far has tested whether or not it protects peoples’ brains from nerve-racking mind harm or stroke.

A handful of scientific trials have investigated the consequences of methylene blue in treating facets of Alzheimer’s illness in folks, however a 2023 assessment of those trials notes that their effects had been combined and now not conclusive.

A small learn about of 26 folks discovered {that a} unmarried low dose of the chemical boosted reminiscence by way of about seven p.c and higher mind job throughout pondering duties. Another learn about by way of the similar researchers discovered that methylene blue modified how other portions of the mind hooked up, although it did not enhance pondering abilities.

Although some research in folks have proven hints that methylene blue could also be recommended for some brain-related problems, corresponding to ache control and neuropsychiatric issues, such research thus far had been small. This means that whilst there could also be affected person instances the place methylene blue is recommended, researchers have now not but pinned down what the ones are.

Is methylene blue secure?

Methylene blue is most often secure when used underneath scientific supervision. However, the chemical has some severe dangers.

For something, it could actually engage with extensively used drugs. Methylene blue inhibits a molecule referred to as monoamine oxidase, whose task is to wreck down a very powerful mind chemical, serotonin.

Many often used medications for treating nervousness and despair goal serotonin. Taking the complement at the side of those drugs may cause a situation referred to as serotonin syndrome, which may end up in agitation, confusion, top fever, speedy middle charge, muscle stiffness and, in critical circumstances, seizures and even dying.

In folks with a unprecedented genetic deficiency of an enzyme referred to as G6PD, methylene blue may cause a perilous situation wherein purple blood cells spoil down too temporarily. At top doses, the chemical too can lift blood force or purpose middle issues. Also, it is thought to be unsafe for pregnant or breastfeeding ladies as a result of it should hurt the fetus or child.

Overall, whilst scientists have discovered hints of a few attention-grabbing houses of methylene blue, a lot greater, longer trials are had to know if it really works, what the appropriate dose is and the way secure it’s through the years.

Lorne J. Hofseth, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, College of Pharmacy, University of South Carolina

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