The new anti-ageing wonder drug
To be clear, a disclaimer is necessary here. I am not taking methylene blue, nor am I financially intertwined with any company that sells this substance. It’s not endorsed by the TGA and you won’t find it in any health food shop in this country. But I recently attended a conference of the medical eclectics where all the subterranean buzz was about the protean benefits of methylene blue. Also, one of my more avant-garde patients has been importing this potion and concocting his own formulation in his home laboratory (he is a Mensa). This is why I’ve decided it was time I got jiggy with the science of this new “longevity wonder drug”.
Methylene blue’s first iteration was as a textile dye in 1876. Since then, it’s morphed into an omnipotent drug with a wide range of applications: to stain surgical slides; medicate malaria; operate as an antiseptic; treat cyanide poisoning; and manage a condition called methemoglobinemia, a rare ailment that alters the capacity of haemoglobin to deliver oxygen to our tissues, which is reversed once this substance is administered. In the anti-ageing arena, it’s surfaced as a master antioxidant capable of neutralising free radicals, those supposed principal instigators of bodily degeneration, which is thought to be a major boon for our brains where free radicals are generated at a rapid rate as oxygen is utilised to generate energy.
Although scientists are still uncovering the mysteries that surround the origins of Alzheimer’s disease-damaged mitochondria, our cellular batteries, where oxygen cycles through a progression of biochemical pathways to make energy, and the accumulation of potentially destructive proteins called amyloid beta and tau are possibly the prime drivers of this disorder. Research suggests that methylene blue — by corralling free radicals and ramping up the elimination of amyloid beta and tau protein — can help to salvage mitochondrial function, which might go a long way to preventing Alzheimer’s.
In 2008, a clinical trial was conducted showing that a group of patients who exhibited features of mild cognitive impairment, a pathological condition presaging the transition into Alzheimer’s, characterised by increasing forgetfulness and the inability to function at work, had an 81 per cent reduction in cognitive decline over a 50-week period after they took a low dose of methylene blue. Another trial has demonstrated diminishing brain atrophy in mild Alzheimer’s sufferers after a similar treatment for nine months. In rats, methylene blue can slow the evolution of Parkinson’s disease by preserving the production of dopamine, the brain neurochemical whose increasing absence leads to the crippling march of this decimating disorder.
For those who simply want to enhance their cognitive function, there is some evidence that it can enhance memory and slow down brain ageing. It has even been used to successfully treat covid infestation, an outcome that has not been widely publicised.
Compared with vitamin C and retinol, skin cells treated with methylene blue demonstrated a greater capacity to proliferate and had reduced signs of ageing, but this hasn’t yet translated to methylene blue being incorporated in topical anti-ageing formulations.
It’s considered safe when taken in low doses at <2mg/kg per day. What we do need is more mainstream research to substantiate its advantages. But because it has been around for so long and has yet to be embraced by the wider scientific community, this initiative appears doubtful. At the moment, experimenting with the potential benefits of this formulation appears to exist at the extreme edges of the anti-ageing community, among those chemical bungee jumpers who delight in exposing their bodies to the outer limits of biochemical enhancement.
