fwiw, this guy is an expert on Vit C and seems to think MB is also very good for variety of health problems. Might be good to have this on hand, no need for IV.
https://www.peakenergy.com/articles/...Methylene-Blue
Resolving Colds to Advanced COVID with Methylene Blue
02/04/2023 by Dr. Thomas Levy
OMNS (Feb 4, 2023) Linus Pauling first coined the word "orthomolecular" in an article he wrote in the journal Science in 1968. Quite simply, ortho means correct or right, and molecular refers to the simplest building block of any substance. Dr. Pauling started the whole concept of orthomolecular medicine by pointing out that the only true way to prevent or treat any medical condition is to restore whatever important natural substances (nutrients, vitamins, minerals) that are depleted. And the corollary of this approach to healthcare is that no patient is sick because they have low levels of any synthesized agents (prescription drugs) that are not found in nature.
As a rule, a pharmaceutical agent impacts some metabolic pathway in such a manner that helps to alleviate a symptom without lessening the pathology causing that symptom to be present. With the rarest of exceptions, pharmaceutical agents reliably allow a disease to continue to evolve while one or more of the associated symptoms are chronically suppressed. However, when deficiencies of important natural substances are corrected, positive clinical results not known to (or acknowledged by) traditional medicine are consistently seen. Clinical improvement following the resolution of such deficiencies typically indicates that the underlying disease is no longer progressing and possibly even reversing. And depending on how chronic the condition was, an eventual return to physiological normalcy might also result.
Probably the most noteworthy of chronically depleted nutrients in a large majority of people around the world is vitamin C. The literature supporting its positive health impact when properly administered is massive and extending over 80 years now. [1] The benefits of vitamin C and many other important orthomolecular substances continue to be suppressed and even belittled in biased and sometimes frankly fraudulent medical articles. The patented drugs that are promoted relentlessly make knowing the benefits of an inexpensive natural remedy difficult for even sincere healthcare practitioners who want the best for their patients.
Such "education" on the "essential" role of pharmaceutical drugs begins in medical and osteopathic schools, and it never stops. Furthermore, without the endorsement of traditional medicine, many healthcare practitioners are reluctant to use such agents even when they are fully aware of the benefits. Also, as evidenced by the past three years of the COVID pandemic, it appears that a majority of pharmaceutical companies, along with too many hospitals and far too many physicians, place profits far ahead of patient welfare. The application of scientifically-based treatment protocols, many based on orthomolecular principles, continues to be ignored and even suppressed.
Methylene blue (MB), a powerful antioxidant with a clinical impact comparable to even vitamin C, is a major exception to the principles of orthomolecular medicine. It is not produced in the body, and it is not naturally present in any animal or plant. Nevertheless, its documented beneficial health effects rival that of any other known substance, whether normally found in nature or coming out of a laboratory. Just like vitamin C, the true benefits of MB in so many different diseases remain unappreciated and unused by most clinicians, even though it has been safely utilized in many patients for a much longer time than even vitamin C.
The parallels between vitamin C and MB are also reflected in the fact that administering them in either their reduced or oxidized form is comparably beneficial to the patient. This is because the dose of vitamin C or MB is less designed to give a one-time boost to the electron stores of the body than it is to make sure newly-assimilated electrons get optimally distributed throughout the body.
A quality nutrition program is the best source of new (versus recycled) electrons in the body. And the qualities of super antioxidants like vitamin C and MB serve to make sure those electrons are optimally distributed and repeatedly exchanged in redox reactions throughout the body, which is the essence of optimal health.
For those who appreciate metaphors, good nutrition is the product (electron) manufacturing facility, and the premier antioxidants (vitamin C, MB) are the trucks that assure the optimal distribution and delivery of those products throughout the body (country). While it is logical and correct that delivering the antioxidant in its reduced form brings even more electrons into the body, the oxidized form is also highly effective without those extra electrons since it is the distribution and repeated give-and-take of electrons throughout the antioxidant matrix inside the cell that is of greatest therapeutic value. A clear example of this is seen in animal studies where dehydroascorbic acid (DHAA), which is the oxidized form of vitamin C, readily minimizes brain infarct size from induced ischemic stroke, facilitating rapid recovery. In fact, these studies also show that there is a precipitous decline in reduced vitamin C in the ischemic brain which is reversed by the infusion of DHAA. [2]
However, the presence of elevated blood levels of DHAA reported in patients with infectious disease does not mean DHAA is toxic per se. Rather, such elevated levels are just a reflection of increased oxidative stress in such a patient, not the cause of it. [3] Furthermore, any negative impact that DHAA has been reported to have in some in vitro studies does not reliably predict the positive effect that DHAA has in the intact plant, animal, or human, as such test tube studies are not receiving an ongoing new intake of electrons from quality nutrition or sun exposure. [4] Like the ascorbic acid and DHAA forms of vitamin C, the powerful clinical impact of MB appears equal whether administered in its oxidized (methylene blue) or reduced (leucomethylene blue) forms.
Methylene Blue (MB): A Brief History
Methylene blue (MB) is the first drug to be tested and used in humans. Chemically known as methylthioninium chloride, it was first synthesized in 1876, and it was used as an industrial dye. It was later found to be an excellent dye for staining microbes and human tissues as well. In 1891 it was found to be very effective as an anti-malarial agent by Paul Ehrlich. Of note, Ehrlich first coined the term "magic bullet" to refer to how effectively MB targeted and accessed the nervous system. [5] It has since been established to have a selective affinity for the nervous system, although it is highly effective in reaching all cells in the body.
As a powerful antioxidant with the ability to target the brain, MB was used as an antipsychotic drug for 50 years before phenothiazine became the first "official" antipsychotic drug. [6] It continues to be used as a dye for the staining of biological tissue specimens as well as a diagnostic tool in surgical procedures. [7] It has also been established to have numerous and very significant therapeutic purposes for a wide range of medical conditions. Some of the more significant conditions to be consistently and successfully treated by MB include the following:
- Infections, from minimal to life-threatening, including those having progressed to septic shock. Also, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and hypoxemia secondary to COVID or any of multiple different pathogens [8,9]; also used for disinfection of plasma to be used for transfusion [10-12]
- Mitochondrial dysfunction [13-15]
- Depression, dementia, psychosis, impaired memory, as well as multiple acute and chronic neurological conditions [16]
- Methemoglobinemia, in which the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood is critically depleted. [17] MB has FDA approval as a first-line therapy for this condition. [18,19]
Antioxidant Extraordinaire
An ideal antioxidant is one that is equally stable chemically in either its reduced or oxidized state, while having physical access to all the oxidized biomolecules in the body. Such a quality allows the continued giving and taking of electrons throughout the cellular and extracellular spaces, as that molecule does not resist being either reduced or oxidized. This redox (reduction-oxidation) property helps to conduct electron flow inside the cells. This helps to generate and sustain the microcurrents (a current is literally an electron flow) that have been identified inside cells, which work to maintain healthy transmembrane voltages. A sick cell always has a low transmembrane voltage, which directly reflects a redox balance skewed toward oxidation, with a limited influx of new antioxidant (nutrient) molecules available to deal with any new pro-oxidant (toxic) molecules. Normal transmembrane voltages are critical in maintaining healthy ion channels, transporters, pumps, and enzymes in the cell. [20] They are also critical for the optimal synthesis of ATP. [21]
A toxin always works to cause oxidation wherever it is found, or ends up. It is always pro-oxidant in its chemical impact, as it seeks to oxidize a biomolecule and then keep the electron it has "robbed." The electron it acquires makes the toxin much more stable chemically, and such a reduced toxin will not give up the electron again to another oxidized, or electron-depleted, biomolecule. This means that the electron-sated toxin will never re-donate its electron to an oxidized biomolecule, as would occur with an electron-sated, or reduced, antioxidant molecule.
In addition to increasing the numbers of oxidized biomolecules, this retention of electrons by toxins also impedes/decreases electron flow (microcurrents) since the newly acquired electrons are tightly held and never again released in the manner of an antioxidant that is continually giving and taking electrons. An antioxidant like vitamin C decreases the total number of oxidized biomolecules and supports optimal microcurrents, and a toxin does the opposite. [22]
It is the antioxidant properties of MB that results in the impressive clinical impact it has on so many conditions. In this regard, there is a striking parallel in what MB can do in the body with what vitamin C can do. Both vitamin C and MB are small molecules, and they effectively reach every cell in the body. However, MB requires no active or passive cell wall transporters as does vitamin C, and it has both lipid-soluble and water-soluble characteristics. Because of this, MB passes easily through lipid-rich cell walls, after which it disseminates throughout the water-based cell. [23,24] Also, while both MB and vitamin C access the brain, MB has been found to have a brain concentration up to tenfold higher than in the serum as quickly as one hour after intravenous administration. [25] Uptake is very rapid in the other organs as well. [26]
MB also has well-documented antitoxin properties like vitamin C, but the studies documenting them are much less prolific than those showing the similar effects of vitamin C on pro-oxidants and other poisons. MB helps protect the kidneys against the toxicity of the chemotherapeutic agent, cisplatin. [27] MB has also been shown to protect the brain against the toxicity of another chemotherapeutic agent, ifosfamide. [28,29] It also was shown to effectively treat the encephalopathy induced by ifosfamide after it had developed. And even though there is not an abundance of articles demonstrating the ability of MB to neutralize toxins and repair toxic damage, multiple researchers recommend it be routinely available as an emergency antidote for general use. [30,31]
Many toxins also inflict harm in some individuals by the formation of methemoglobin with a reduction of oxygen delivery to the tissues. Such toxin excesses or poisonings can be effectively treated with MB, as it is already the treatment of choice by many clinicians for methemoglobinemia. MB is always a good partner to be administered along with vitamin C for any toxin excess or overdose. [32,33] The addition of magnesium with MB and vitamin C to overdose patients offers additional protection against the development of fatal arrhythmias that can occur before the MB and vitamin C can resolve and block further toxic impact. [34]
Ideal Shock Therapy
Methylene blue is exceptionally beneficial for both infections in general and for hypotensive shock. This makes it a particularly optimal therapy for the very common cause of intensive care unit death around the planet: septic shock.
Refractory septic shock, a state of disseminated infection with vascular collapse and hypotension often unresponsive to all traditional measures, consistently responds positively to MB therapy, sometimes saving the patient from otherwise certain death.
As with vitamin C and many other non-traditional treatments, nearly all clinicians simply will not take the "leap" from clear-cut positive results in the literature to the application of those results in their patients. At best, they use these non-traditional therapies almost like a final gesture that they have done everything possible to save the patient, even though those therapies have little to no toxicity and should not be relegated to the last option in a treatment protocol. And, of course, this only applies to the clinicians who are even remotely aware of the existence of the data showing how effective and nontoxic these non-traditional therapies are. The many pearls in the medical literature remain completely unharvested by most clinicians. And many more clinicians are very diligent in doing everything possible to maintain the "mainstream status quo" to the point of ignoring and even suppressing anything that might threaten it.
An experienced and honest clinician will tell you that just one dramatic case report that is accurately reported has enormous value. When a patient is on the verge of death despite all that has been done, and one single intervention quickly stops the clinical deterioration and starts a clear recovery, the alert clinician does not need a large prospective, double-blind, and placebo-controlled clinical trial to take such a clinical response seriously. Such a trial would be unethical when the placebo group is not being given the benefit of some inexpensive, nontoxic, and highly effective agent. Especially in the setting of an advanced and rapidly progressing infection with unresponsive shock secondary to sepsis, seeing the patient normalizing only a short time after a treatment is administered compels serious attention.
A clear example of such a case report was reported on a 38-year-old male patient who presented with bilateral pneumonia that subsequently worsened and resulted in bacteria (Klebsiella pneumonia) being released into the bloodstream (septicemia). Lethargic with low blood oxygen when admitted to the hospital, he was given IV fluids with insulin and antibiotics. The oxygen levels continue to decline with increased difficulty breathing, and he was then intubated and supported on a ventilator. Hypotension requiring vasopressor infusion ensued. Broader antibiotic coverage was added. Metabolic acidosis with declining renal function followed, and a few hours later he had a cardiac arrest. Four hours after regaining a heart rhythm and only 25 hours after initial presentation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support was started. Nevertheless, critically low blood pressure unresponsive to multiple vasopressors continued.
At this point in time, a 172 mg IV bolus of MB was administered, and an infusion of MB at 0.51 mg/kg/hour was maintained for the next 10 hours. Blood pressure quickly improved and vasopressor support could be decreased. At the conclusion of the infusion, the clinical status stabilized for another 22 hours, but fever with a dropping blood pressure unresponsive to combinations of vasopressors at the highest doses returned. The MB infusion was restarted and blood pressure again responded promptly. This time the infusion was continued for 54 hours, and about seven days after this longer infusion was completed the patient was fully recovered and discharged from the hospital. [35] Another impressive case report on a clinically similar patient showed that MB had to be continually infused for a full 120 hours to prevent repeated clinical relapses, after which the patient stabilized and was eventually discharged. [36]
These case studies, in which the patients effectively serve as their own controls, showed clear improvement on MB when severely ill, clear deterioration back to a life-threatening point after MB discontinuation, and prompt improvement with complete clinical resolution when the MB was restarted and continued for a long enough period. No sincere and competent clinician giving his/her highest priority to patient welfare would ignore the importance of such a clinical response when treating similar patients in the future. And this is especially the case when it is realized that MB, dosed appropriately, has an impeccable safety profile, just like vitamin C. Also, like vitamin C, MB also enhances antibody production in the body. [37] This begs the question: Why not use MB first in such situations, rather than last, or never?
Multiple studies have demonstrated the benefits of MB in stabilizing and even resolving septic shock, which is the worst stage that any infection can reach before the inevitable progression to death. No reports of MB worsening the overall clinical status of septic patients could be found. The studies consistently show that MB always improves hypotension when appropriately administered. Furthermore, it has been shown that MB improves survival in shock of all causes (vasodilatory shock), including the shock of advanced sepsis. [38]
The refractory hypotension in septic shock is consistently seen in the setting of excessive nitric oxide production, which causes too great a decrease in vascular tone. [39] MB promptly counteracts this in restoring normal blood pressure. [40] Furthermore, over 120 years of MB use has clearly established the lack of significant toxicity. Toxic levels exist, as with nearly every other agent (including water), but the amounts needed are far beyond the recommended dosing in established treatment protocols. [41-43]
An open-minded clinician reviewing the literature for the first time to learn about the best treatment for septic shock would certainly utilize methylene blue as a first-line agent. Even low doses of MB and one-time boluses of MB consistently show clear benefit in septic shock. However, the clinical response is much better and consistently achieved with a properly-dosed continuous infusion. [44,45] Septic shock still claims a lot of lives regardless of the therapy, and some clinical studies add MB seemingly as a last-ditch afterthought, after which MB is then reported to be ineffective for improving survival. And even now, some of the most recent clinical research continues to assert that "more studies are needed" on the impact of MB in septic shock, even though the very positive research on MB and septic shock now spans decades. [46-55] MB infusions in hypotensive neonates have also been shown to increase blood pressures rapidly and safely. [56-58]
The impact of MB on septic shock was addressed above in some detail since a patient cannot really be much sicker than having severe hypotension with massive infection and enormously increased oxidative stress throughout the body. However, it is important to realize that MB has also been shown to be very effective in treating different types of hypotensive shock that are unrelated to advanced degrees of infection. [59] Shock with unresponsive hypotension secondary to the ingestion of multiple drugs has responded rapidly to MB infusions, allowing the weaning of other vasopressor agents. [60,61] Shock secondary to anaphylaxis also responds well to MB. [62] One patient with profound refractory hypotensive shock following a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker overdose only responded positively to MB infusion and was eventually discharged. Prior to the MB infusion, no improvement in blood pressure was seen with saline infusion, several doses of calcium gluconate, glucagon, various vasopressor agents, and even high-dose insulin euglycemic therapy over a period of several hours. [63] Another type of hypotensive shock, cardiac vasoplegia, is also sometimes seen following cardiac surgery. This is effectively treated by methylene blue as well. [64-66]
All forms of hypotensive shock should be treated with MB, and it should be part of the treatment protocol at the outset. It should not just be held back as a last-ditch intervention to save the patient. [67] Regarding ARDS secondary to COVID, a massive production of pro-inflammatory agents known as a cytokine storm typically precedes imminent death if not effectively terminated and neutralized. [68,69] MB has been uniquely shown to inhibit the production of all three of the major classes of pro-oxidants involved in the cytokine storm clinical picture (reactive oxygen species [ROS], reactive nitrogen species [RNS], and cytokines). [70-72] And as a potent antioxidant, MB is highly effective in neutralizing the wide array of pro-oxidants that have already been produced in the ARDS lungs. MB also combines well with other antioxidants in providing clinical benefit. MB combined with vitamin C and N-acetyl cysteine was very effective in treating advanced COVID. [73]
Furthermore, patients who were severely ill with COVID but showing a steady clinical recovery still greatly benefit from MB. Very many "recovered" COVID patients have significant neurocognitive problems that are lessened or even blocked with adequate dosing of MB. With the known antioxidant properties of MB along with its predilection for targeting increased oxidative stress in the nervous system, it should be part of any COVID treatment, regardless of how well the infection is responding to other therapies. [74,75]
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