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If you're going to live to at least 180 like I am, and you don't want to spend two and a half million dollars on the quest like I have, maybe this is a very affordable way to lower your risk of one of the big four killers. Today, you're going to go deep into one of the most misunderstood compounds in modern biohacking. It can support your mood, protects against Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and stroke. But it doesn't always work for everyone. That's why it has these broad effects in the body, which can mean it could be good for you or not good for you. You're likely to get very, very high blood pressure and that can put you in the hospital. But if you don't have a problem with Chondral transport, you probably don't need it. Two people can take exactly the same dose and have opposite effects. You shouldn't use as the first biohack you try. This is the world's first fully synthetic. You're listening to the human upgrade with Dave Asprey. Living longer than you're supposed to isn't about luck anymore. It's about who gets the right data first. That's why I built InsideTrack. It's my new private weekly newsletter that gives you the science before everyone else. Most of the advice you find online creates confusion, not clarity, because it's just echoing stuff that's been around for a long time. You deserve better. I want everything you do to work for you. Because we're not all the same. In InsideTrack, I cut through the noise and send you exactly what actually nutrition tech supplements and tools that pass the quote, unquote. Does this actually work? Test when you join today, I'll send you the beginner's guide to biohacking. Your first steps to taking control of your biology and your state. Right now, the truth is simple. The people who thrive and have resilience don't wait around for mainstream medicine to finally admit what their research has shown a decade ago. We take action while everyone else waits for permission. So if you care about your energy, your brain, your lifespan, don't sit this out. Stay informed and stay ahead. And maybe outlive your doctor. Go to daveasprey.com to join in Sidetracked today. Your brain is probably underperforming right now. No judgment. Most brains are. In fact, you're probably not thinking as clearly, sleeping as deeply, or performing as well as you could be. Braintap helps you unlock your full potential. It offers More than 2000 in app audio sessions and an innovative headset that together deliver light pulses, binaural beats, isochronic tones, guided visualizations and 10 cycle holographic music to rewire your brain for higher performance. In just 20 minutes, you can achieve deep brainwave states that would take hours through traditional meditation. It also helps regulate your sleep wake cycle, making it easier to fall asleep, stay asleep and wake up refreshed without drugs or dependency. This isn't just some trend. Braintap leads with tons of real science. They've conducted multiple studies proving this works. From enhancing memory and focus to accelerating cognitive learning, managing stress and deepening visualization, Braintap is a holistic tool for peak performance performance in work, creativity and daily Life. Go to BrainTap.com Dave to get $100 off the BrainTap power bundle. Today, you're going to go deep into one of the most misunderstood compounds in modern biohacking. Yes, methylene blue. I got into methylene blue back in about 2005 when the very first studies in esoteric longevity forums came up talking about it. And we didn't understand safe dosing at all. So we were doing very, very low dosing. It was very hard to get clean methylene blue. And since that time, it slowly made its way out as a cognitive enhancer and a mitochondrial enhancer. And I wanted to do this episode for you because methylene blue can boost mitochondrial function, it can support your mood and it can improve resilience under stress. But it doesn't always work for everyone. It's a precision tool and you can misuse it and you're in charge of your biology. And if your body doesn't like your plan because you think it should work, but it doesn't, your body is going to win. And since you are in charge of your biology, not your insurance company, not your doctor, not your employer and not your government, you are your own health daddy. So, without warning and that incredibly freeing responsibility that you have, let's talk about what methylene blue might do for you when you might not want to use it. And really, let's just learn about it. So at the right dose, you can expect your mitochondrial transport may work better and your mood could change because of neurotransmitter effects that are usually beneficial. And you might be able to handle stress better, especially things like altitude or just other rough days, because it acts as a hormetic stressor. But the wrong dose does have drawbacks and some of them can be really serious. So what is methylene blue? It's basically a synthetic Blue dye, and it's been around for a very long time and used in hospital settings quite a lot because it sterilizes things. It also lets surgeons see certain tissues because it dyes them. And it will sterilize your aquarium if you want it to. So it has effects on bacteria and biofilms and things like that. And it is a think of it like a multi tool for your mitochondria because your mitochondria are color sensitive and light sensitive. And this is a dye. It belongs in the phenothiazine family of molecules, which isn't going to mean much to you unless you're a biochemist. But these are flat, ring shaped molecules that look a lot like the ones our body uses to move electrons around in your mitochondria in the Krebs cycle, we make electrons and then we need to be able to transport them around via the electron transport chain. And so at low doses, methylene blue can be protective and restorative. But if you don't have a problem with mitochondrial transport, you probably don't need it. And it might actually make your mitochondrial transport less efficient, not more efficient. And at higher doses, methylene blue becomes pro oxidant, potentially toxic, and it can have much more side effects. So you don't want to overdose your methylene blue. It is also an old line MAO B inhibitor, which means it's an antidepressant. So if you take a high dose of methylene blue and say, oh, I feel so good, that's not your mitochondria. Now you're not depressed. And there are probably much more effective ways to affect that system. Like saffron would be the way to go. Instead of methylene blue. I like to think of methylene blue as like jumper cables for your mitochondria. The right dose, you get steady power. Wrong dose, you probably just short the system. Here's the origin story for methylene blue and it's kind of interesting. It was a dye and medicine took it over. And this started all the way back in 1876 by a guy named Heinrich Caro. And this is the world's first fully synthetic dye. And if you wanted bright blue clothes, you were incredibly rich. Because we didn't have very many bright blue dyes in nature. We had to get it from shellfish, if memory serves. So it was a huge pain in the ass. So he invented this thing that was incredible. And then in the 1890s, about 14 years after it was synthesized, it was an antimalarial agent that actually worked in the early 1900s, they started using it as an antiseptic, anti infective and for psychiatry. Then In World War II, Allied soldiers took methylene blue for malaria and they would pee blue just like you might today if you use it. And today it is FDA approved for a rare blood disorder called methemoglobinemia, which is something I have never said before out loud. But the fact that it's FDA approved for something means that at least they won't ban it because someone's making money from it, even though you can get it at a very reasonable price. Biohackers and longevity. People rediscovered this for mitochondrial enhancement, neuroprotection and stabilizing mood, starting back in like the mid-1990s when the very first stuff came out. And that was when I started playing around with it. So this is the rare compound that goes from blue jeans literally to brain tackle. Very old molecule with continued discoveries around what it does. Because we didn't understand what mitochondria were or very much at all about cell biology back when we started using this, we just knew it worked for malaria. And I want to be really clear, you shouldn't use methylene blue as the first biohack you try. There are plenty of other things that are likely to be more effective. Have adequate minerals in your body. It's amazing what happens when your body has the raw materials to do things. Get your fat soluble vitamins. Get your yes, I'm Talking about minerals 101 and vitamin D, the most boring but most broadly effective biohacking supplements you can get. Go to Sup Grade Labs Com. S P P Grade labs dot com. It's one of my companies. So these are basic. Get your B vitamins in order. Try some other nootropics. This is one of those frosting or sprinkles on the cupcake. It's not the cupcake itself, if you know what I'm saying. And if you're eating cupcakes, hopefully at least they're gluten free. So I'm going to teach you what methylene blue actually does inside the cell, how it supports your mitochondria. There's three different ways who should and shouldn't use it. And what's a red flag, not a blue flag. And how you can test it like a biohacker. And protocols you could use for stacking it, cycling it or just stopping it. Methylene blue acts like an alternate electron carrier. This means if you have blockages in complex 1 or complex 3 of the electron transport chain, methylene blue can Fill those in and carry electrons more cleanly, which means you get less inflammation and more power to the system. That's important, that's useful and that's beneficial. And if you've, like me, had issues with toxic mold, if you had chronic infections, Bartonella was one of my favorites to experience. If you've had things like lead or mercury poisoning, which I have had, and just incredible amounts of stress, which I've also had, you might want to look at methylene blue. And it feels like, actually feels like peace. Because having steady power in your system makes your body relax. Having spiky power or just not enough power when you need it makes your body stressed. And when your body's stressed, your mind says there's something stressful in the environment around you. And it's going to blame your girlfriend, it's going to blame your mother in law, it's going to blame your car, your boss, it doesn't matter, it's going to find a story and you're going to believe it. So that like, oh, I finally have the energy that I needed to just be present. That's what it can do for you. And if you use it wrong or you don't need it, you could feel jittery, it could feel kind of noisy. Methylene blue also acts like a mood lever. A lot of people say it's an MAO inhibitor. And antidepressants work by affecting either MAO A or MAO B. And methylene blue affects MAO more strongly at lower doses and MAO B at higher doses. And normally this enzyme breaks down serotonin and dopamine and norepinephrine. Now serotonin can relax you, dopamine, it motivates you and norepinephrine gives you energy. And if you have stress, burnout or chronic infections, you're going to be low in norepinephrine, most likely low in dopamine and maybe lower, maybe high in serotonin. So if you inhibit this MAO enzyme, it could be beneficial for you as a mood lever. And when neurotransmitters hang around for longer cuz you're not breaking them down as much cuz methylene blue is clogging up the breakdown system, then you would get a subtle mood lift and you get a lot more at higher doses. And this can feel like ease and socially stressful environments if that stresses you out or just like emotional resilience. And it can mask problems and kind of blur your signals if you misuse it. And this is a very, very clear warning if you are using any psychedelic out there, do not use it with methylene blue because psychedelics affect your serotonin system. And if you use an SSRI and MAOB drugs, RSSRI's, you can have something called serotonin syndrome. So if you're thinking, I'm such a good biohacker, I'm gonna do a big dose of methylene blue and then I'm gonna drop some acid or I'm going to use some mushrooms. Even if you're using them for spiritual growth, don't do it. You're likely to get very, very high blood pressure, and that can put you in the hospital, raise your blood pressure so much that you blow a gasket, literally in a blood vessel in the brain. So serotonin syndrome is a dangerous side effect of combining MAO inhibitors, including some kinds of cheese, methylene blue, or SSRI drugs with psychedelics. So first warning, no methylene blue if you're going to party this weekend or you're going to go on a spiritual journey. Now, one thing that methylene blue also does is it enhances cytochrome C oxidase, which is called complex 4, in your mitochondria that improves your body's ability to use oxygen. Now, if you're on Mount Everest or you're on a long flight, this would be a time where it might be really, really helpful for you. And methylene blue will cross the blood brain barrier, which means it can accumulate in your neurons, especially in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. Those are areas that sport memory and focus. So that's a good thing. So which brain regions light up really matters. And since methylene blue supports the human thinking part of your brain and your memory, that could be really good for you. Now, this is a little bit nerdy, but you've probably heard on the show that your body runs on ox redox reactions. You need oxidation to live because we're burning calories, right? So methylene blue acts as a redox cycler. And when it's blue, it's oxidized. And when it's reduced leuko methylene blue, it's clear. So inside your body, it goes blue, clear, blue, clear. You're just not gonna see it that way. And that's what keeps ATP flowing or electrons flowing, even when your body's stressed or when your transport chains aren't working effectively because of toxins or eating the wrong stuff or stress or whatever. Problem is, when you have really high doses of methylene blue, it flips into pro oxidant mode, which means you could have more oxidative damage. So lower doses are probably better, but the right doses are perfect. Now, do we have medical evidence or clinical trials for this? In human trials, low dose methylene blue improves working memory and sustained attention. And this is back from 2012 in psychopharmacology, this is a real study. And in animal studies, methylene blue protects against Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and stroke. Hmm, that could be kind of helpful, because if you're going to live to at least 180 like I am, and you don't want to spend two and a half million dollars on the quest like I have, maybe this is a very affordable way to lower your risk of one of the big four killers from Superhuman, my big longevity bug. So Alzheimer's is one of the big four things that could take you out, so you want to avoid the things that are the most likely risks. And even if you look on an FMRI picture of the brain, methylene blue increases something called bold, which is blood oxygen level dependent signals and your memory circuits. So we can see it mechanistically. We see these observations in animal studies and we see this in human trials. So it's pretty rare for one molecule to show up in neurology, in psychiatry, and in longevity journals all at the same time. That's because mitochondria are behind pretty much everything that's interesting that happens in your body. That's why biohacking and my own view of longevity are very mitochondria centric. And since methylene blue works on your mitochondria, that's why it has these broad effects in the body, which can mean it could be good for you or not good for you. One of the things that makes me really happy is when supplements kick pharmaceuticals ass. And I've got something for you. It's called C15 from a company called Fatty 15. And it's more effective than metformin or rapamycin. In fact, scientists are calling this newly discovered essential fat the longevity nutrient because it's the first essential fat to be discovered in the last 90 years. C15 is unlike anything else out there because it's a true geroprotector, meaning it actually slows biological aging in studies. How does that work? By strengthening your cell membranes by 80%, activating AMPK and MTOR, which you've read about in my books. That means less inflammation and a reduction of oxidative stress by 45%. Scientists have found over 36 clinically relevant health benefits from fatty 15. Public estimates are that 1 in 3 people have low C15 levels in their bodies and if you don't have enough C15, you have fragile cells and you age more quickly. Fatty 15 supports your cells better than omega 3s or fish oil with three times more benefits for your cells. I use both. In clinical studies, 72% of fatty 15 users reported deeper sleep, better mood, healthier joints and better energy improvement in 16 weeks. It's a pretty incredible story and it's real. Better yet, they're giving you 15% off their 90 day subscription starter kit. Just go to fatty15.com Dave Alcohol hits your body hard, even though it's fun. And there's something you can do about it. It's called Zbiotics Pre Alcohol Probiotic. It's the world's first genetically engineered probiotic and that's a very good thing. PhD scientists invented it to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works. When you drink, your gut converts alcohol into a toxic byproduct. Then it builds up and it's that buildup, not just dehydration, that you can blame for rough days after drinking zebiotics. Pre alcohol produces an enzyme that breaks that toxic byproduct apart so that it doesn't torture your cells. All you've got to do is remember to make pre alcohol your first drink of the night. And yes, drink responsibly. Remember, alcohol is not good for you, but you're probably going to drink it. You might as well not take the hits and then you'll feel better tomorrow. I don't drink alcohol very often, but when I do, I have Zebiotics pre alcohol before. In fact, I put it out at parties. If someone brings tequila that way I know I'm going to wake up the next morning feeling good and so will my guests. This is even more important in the summer when people tend to drink more and you sweat more. So use Zebiotics pre alcohol and you will feel the difference. Go to zbiotics.com Dave that's Zedbiotics. If you're not from the US and you can learn more and they'll give you 15% off your first order with code. Dave Zebiotics will give you 100% money back guarantee. So if you are unsatisfied for any reason, they'll give you your money back. Now, if you have high blood pressure, this probably isn't the right thing for you. You should address that. You address it by fixing insulin resistance. Increasing hydration and strangely, more sodium can lower your insulin resistance and stop the bad fats and stop the too much sugar and all the other metabolic things that we've talked about on the show. I mentioned this already, but I'm going to mention it again. Psychedelics and methylene blue do not mix. I've been with people who've had serotonin syndrome and they needed intravenous benzodiazepines in order to drop their blood pressure from 180 plus down to normal ranges. And thankfully that person had healthy vascular system and didn't have a problem. But you don't want to experience that it is life threatening and don't use it in babies and kids and pregnancy because we just don't know what's going on there. Now, if you're on an SSRI medication, there are probably reasons that you'd want to fix underlying problems and maybe with your doctor's support, figure out the way to change your lifestyle, your nutrition. Oftentimes you have some genetic blockages and address those so that the SSRI isn't necessary. And for some people it is. But if you're on an SSRI and then you take a higher dose of methylene blue, which is going to give you even more inhibition, this might not be a good thing for you. So I would steer clear of methylene blue if you're on an ssri, unless you're using it to help you lower your dose, in which case it's not a very effective MAO inhibitor compared to the SSRIs out there. And I would point you specifically to saffron, which is saffron extract, which is a very potent thing that's shown in multiple studies to work as well as most SSRIs. I'm going to do an episode for you on saffron because it's such an interesting compound for biohacking. In the meantime, go to daveasprier.com saffron to find the brand that I actually use and to find a link to the episode as soon as it comes out. After all the warnings, Methylene blue isn't that dangerous, except maybe with psychedelics. And we've been using it for 100 plus years. So it's unlikely to just break you at low doses, but it just may not be very beneficial and increasing oxidative stress in the body. You could do that with french fries as well. And there's some other little nuances. Methylene blue interacts with the way your body uses iron and it interferes or maybe enhances hemoglobin function. So high doses maybe not the way to do it. And yes, you might have blue Pee and blue pea is actually very beneficial if you're a guy and you have good handwriting and it's snowing, if you know what I'm saying. And if you don't know what I'm saying, that's probably for the best. And you might have a blue tongue. And I just want to say I have friends who make troches. It's kind of fun to have a blue tongue and tell your friends that you kissed a Smurf. It is not necessary to have methylene blue in your mouth unless you're disrupting biofilms or something like that. I usually like to put it in liquid form or in a troche or a pill in the very back of my throat, and then I swallow it. So I don't have a blue tongue. Although for this episode, in retrospect, I probably should have dyed my tongue blue. Now, if you are of African, Mediterranean or Asian descent or have some of those genetics, you could have something called G6PD deficiency. And G6PD means your red blood cells handle stress differently. About 400 million people globally have this. So as a percentage of the population, it's pretty small. But if you're in one of those genetic populations, you should get a genetic test and see if you have this, because you don't want to take methylene blue if you have a G6PD deficiency, because that could be really bad for you. And this can mean that methylene blue pops your red blood cells like balloons. So you should know if you're a G6PD carrier anyway, if you're from one of those populations. Now, let's talk about something called pharmacokinetics of methylene blue. What that means is how does it hit and how long does it last in the body? If you take it orally, 70 to 80% of it goes into the system, which is pretty high. And depending on the dose you take, it can stay in your body from anywhere from 5 to 24 hours. If you microdose it daily versus pulsing it, you feel different effects. It's kind of smoother if you do a daily microdose, but if you do a larger pulse dose, you get more of a sharper, hormetic hit. It can sometimes feel jittery or sometimes it just feels smooth, like, ah, I needed that. In which case you probably have a problem with one of your mitochondria. One of the other things to understand about methylene blue is that there are circadian things that affect when you should take it, because it crosses the blood brain barrier and it modulates mitochondria output in the neurons in your brain. You might not want to take it late in the day because it might feel like clean focus, but it may push out your desire to go to sleep. And earlier dosing supports performance during the day. Evening dosing probably will keep you up late, but if you have really bad mitochondria, it could enhance your sleep and normally morning, early afternoon. And I don't like it within six hours of bedtime unless you've tested it a couple times and you look at your sleep score and it doesn't affect your sleep. If you wanted to get extra benefit, your body really likes red light or sunlight with methylene blue. So when you wake up, you can take some methylene blue and go outside. And if you do that just a brief walk, it's going to enhance your circadian clock. If using red light therapy, using it before red light therapy could give you additional benefits. Here's a sign that methylene blue isn't right for you before bed. If you get less deep sleep when you take it in the evening. If your sleep latency lengthens or if you wake up at 3 or 4am, move your dose earlier or take a lower dose or just don't use it. And if you find that your heart rate variability drops at night, you're using too much methylene blue or using it too late and you should back off or take a break. So I'm going to get into specific doses that we use in a little bit. But just understand, like a lot of pharmaceuticals and a lot of nutraceuticals, methylene blue follows an inverted U shaped curve. That means if you take just a little bit, it can work really well. If you take too little, you might not notice much. But if you take too much, it starts becoming not beneficial and you lose the good things. So the middle zone is your Goldilocks zone. Now if you're into biohacking, you probably have a red light device. You may go to upgrade labs and use our super high powered red charger bed. And lasers or LEDs move electrons and so does methylene blue. So when you stack them right, they work really well. Methylene blue, as we mentioned, it improves electron flow and complex for efficiency. And it turns out that infrared light or near infrared light and red light can energize cytochrome C oxidase, which is where methylene blue has its effects. So if you were to do red light therapy or just sunbathe and have methylene blue in your system, it could amplify ADP output. And how would you do that? Well, take methylene blue first and then either get in the sun or apply a laser or an LED device to this specific target. It could be your brain, could be muscle, could be a joint, and do within 30 to 90 minutes of taking methylene blue. And the clinical grade, relatively expensive laser that I use is@daveasprey.com laser. You can use any red light therapy device that you have access to, or you can use sunshine. But if you want to use what I use, there you go. And if you feel just lit up, you're like, yes, I did methylene blue, I did red light therapy on my brain or something and I just want to go take over the world. Don't go out there, take a handful of nootropics, some modafinil and do a heavy lift because you're not going to understand what the effect is. So if you feel great, enjoy the great day, and then after you've got the signal, then on another day, go do something else so that you understand what is causing what effect. Now, if you do those things and you get pressure in your head, you feel like jittery, unfocused, or you can't sleep after you do red light and methylene blue, you overstimulated yourself. And this is something a lot of biohackers are good at doing. So you either wouldn't do it again, reduce the dose, or do less red light therapy. It's entirely possible when you're using quality devices on your brain to do it for 10 or 20 minutes and just be like, I am so tired, I just need a nap. It's like your brain is benefiting, but you're gonna have to have a reset time where the brain just recovers and then it's much better. But if you wanted to do that and then go to work, you might not like that day. Now there's another thing. There's tons of cheap methylene blue out there and only some of it is pharmaceutical grade. The rest of it is aquarium cleaner grade and it has metals in it. So watch out for USP or compound formula formulations. Those are the ones you want. And USP means United States Pharmacopoeia Standards and Compounding. Pharmacies are going to test their small batches and it's more expensive that way, but it works well. And if you just get cheap chemical methylene blue, you're going to get heavy metals and a lot of them. This is not a sponsored episode, but if you want to learn which brand of methylene blue I use. Go to daveasprey.com NB and again, you don't have to buy anything. But everyone asks me, dave, what do you use? And I know the comments are going to be full of it. So I just put those links in place because it'll save you some money, save you some time. You don't have to use any of those to learn from this episode. So how much would a person use in the biohacking range? About 0.5 milligrams to 2 milligrams total per day. This is not per kilogram of body weight. That's total per day. And the medical ceiling is way higher. It's basically up to 4 milligrams per kilo of body weight. That is a mega massive dose and you just don't need to be doing that. So most biohackers are around, you know, 2 milligrams per day. They're far under the medical dose. And if you're just getting going, you gotta know what it feels like. So you start at 0.5 to 1 milligram per day and just track your energy, your mood, your clarity, your sleep. And if you have low blood pressure or high blood pressure, measure it so you can see what changes. If you have normal blood pressure, you probably don't have to worry. But if you have a blood pressure cuff, you could try it and go up from there. If you feel good on it, right. And if you have calm focus, that's a good sign. If you're wired, it's probably not working for you. Most people are going to feel best around like 1 milligram. Some people 2 milligram and few people. But not a lot are going to need more. If I was self experimenting, I would do up to 4 milligrams for travel. I've actually done up to 10 milligrams. If I'm like on a long international flight or something and my pee is really blue. But that's quite a lot. I don't think it's a good idea to take super high doses on multiple days unless you're working with a doctor and you're tracking things. If you have Lyme disease, you're working on something in your gut and you're working with a doctor, the doses can be much higher. But we're talking about using for cognitive enhancement and longevity, not for treating medical conditions. And here's something interesting. Two people can take exactly the same dose and have opposite effects. Well, the person with a mitochondrial bottleneck is going to feel wow, I really like this. I just feel like things are smoother and the other person, like, actually, I don't really feel much at all, or I don't feel quite as good. And that's because their mitochondrial transport worked fine and methylene blue was less efficient than their existing system if it didn't have a block. Here's why methylene blue is getting even more interesting. We already had some longevity things, but it looks like there's an effect from proteostasis and on maintaining telomere length. That data is preliminary, but it is data, which means it's more than we had before. And when it comes to vision, low dose methylene blue protects retinal cells from oxidative stress in early studies. So protecting your vision as you age is an important thing. And for me, the most interesting is effects on neuroplasticity. Methylene blue increases dendritic spine density, at least in animal models, but humans are animals and that suggests it could improve your learning capacity. So if you want to have the ability to learn things like you did in your 20s, increasing dendritic spine density and increasing BDNF via other biohacks might be a really good strategy to just have a really young brain that has the wisdom of years and the learning capacity of youth. That's cool. Now, here's something that's really interesting. Around sexual function and methylene blue and around fertility. You might have heard me say we're kind of running out of population, because throughout every developed nation, including all of Europe and the us, we are not having enough babies to replace the population. And it is that really bad situation, like empty cities in 25 years kind of situation. And so improving fertility for those of us who want to have kids would be a really good thing. And improving the health of your offspring is even more important if you're going to have kids, because you want to have really strong and powerful kids. So mitochondria, they power your brain, your muscles, all that, they also power reproduction. And when your energy drops, fertility is one of the first systems to go. So if you're having a hard time with fertility, fixing your energy system could improve your fertility. In fact, that was my very first book in 2011 was how to Do that. So methylene blue might help indirectly on any mitochondrial dependent cells in your body. That includes eggs and sperm. We do know that low dose methylene blue sports mitochondrial respiration, reduces oxidative stress, and we know that healthier mitochondria mean you make hormones better, repair cells better, and your reproductive signaling works Better. And there's some early preclinical evidence that supports this, because methylene blue protects sperm motility and it protects DNA from oxidative stress. These are animal models, but sperm swim the same way as human sperm. And methylene blue improves mitochondrial membrane potential in oocyte research models. So, hmm, we're starting to see signs of this. I don't think you should be on it if you're pregnant, but if you're trying to get pregnant, you have mitochondrial dysfunction. Could be a good thing to do. Work with your fertility specialist, if they're functional. Anyway, this isn't something that's been done in large human fertility trials. It's worth keeping an eye on. And if you've already tried a bunch of fertility stuff and it's not working, this might be worth doing. It turns out fertility and libido are different systems. So libido controls desire and mood. And methylene blue does help you have more energy, which puts you in the mood, and it helps neurotransmitters, which also put you in the mood. So there's an argument that says methylene blue, by making your system more peaceful and smoother, means that you're probably going to want to go to the bedroom. Methylene blue is not going to fix full hormone imbalances. It's not going to make you recover from poor sleep or not having enough minerals or getting a lot of microplastics or endocrine disruptors from that stinky tree in your Uber. And methylene blue doesn't work as a vasodilator like nitric oxide. It's not a PDE5 inhibitor like Cialis. So there's a lot you can do around fertility and around libido itself. So, basically, methylene blue is not a fertility supplement, but it's a mitochondrial supplement, which means, indirectly, anything that helps mitochondria could help fertility. And I wouldn't go there first, but it's worth going there now if you're a biohacker. You want to know, should I use methylene blue with any of the biohacks I use? Well, intermittent fasting or fasting is an interesting time to use methylene blue, because methylene blue amplifies mitochondrial stress response pathways, which means if you're going to skip breakfast, have some methylene blue and see if you like it. And methylene blue buffers the oxidative stress you get from cold shock, which means you could be better adapted to doing cold plunges in ketosis if you have ketones present. Wow, you're going to have way more effective ATP production. And it could absolutely clear brain fog you've dealt with for years. So that means fasting, cold plunges or ketosis pair very well with methylene blue. And as I mentioned a little bit earlier, red light and your infrared light work really well with methylene blue. And creatine would be also really helpful because creatine increases ATP formation and methylene blue keeps the electrons moving. So they're perfect partners. Get@daveasobay.com creatine I'll tell you the stuff that I use, and definitely you should be on Coenzyme Q10 or Ubiquinol, which is another form of CoQ10. Anyway, if you're into mitochondrial enhancement or longevity or cognitive enhancement. But CoQ10 helps in complex 1 and 2, and methylene blue helps you bypass any blockages you'd have. You should be on an NAD booster if you're into biohacking, cognitive function, longevity, mitochondria, health, all that stuff. There's a lot of evidence for NAD boosters. Go to daveasprey.com nad and I'll hook you up with the one that I use. Caffeine itself is usually synergistic with methylene blue, unless methylene blue is really stimulating for you. So you don't want to overdose by having three cups of danger coffee and then having a big dose of methylene blue. Unless that's what works for you. You might want to consider taking some DHA or Krill oil or maybe even some fatty 15. Go to daveaspreeer.com fatty15 to learn about that one. There's a whole episode on it. And this is because membrane fluidity is really important in neurons and methylene blue, it's gonna work better if your membranes are fluid. So all the stuff that I've said so far, is there actual research to back this up? Yes. For neuroprotection, there are studies showing, or at least a study showing, that low doses methylene blue improves memory and cognition in healthy adults, and it slows decline in Alzheimer's models for mood support. Back in 1986, Naylor found it was an adjunct in bipolar and depression therapy, which is an important thing. And from 2008, there's a study that shows that it increases cellular respiration and ATP production. So all of these are longevity or cognitive benefit pathways that you'd expect from something that increases electrons, at least in people who need it. So a few questions. Why is your urine blue sometimes, not others? Well, if you took enough of it that your Body didn't use all of it. Your urine will be blue. It's totally normal. If you take a low dose, it may not be blue. If you take a higher dose, you'll be blue. Means your methylene blue levels are up there. Is it going to stain your teeth? Not really. It might briefly stain them, but they're not going to be blue for long periods of time. You might have blue gums, you might have blue teeth and a blue tongue. It could last for up to eight hours, probably. And if that happens, tough luck. Just tell people you made out with the Smurf. It'll all be good. How do you store methylene blue? You want airtight glass, away from light. It degrades in sunlight. It usually comes in an amber bottle. And you're very unlikely to get a blue tint on your skin that lasts for very long unless you spill it on your skin or something. There are studies showing that methylene blue increases collagen synthesis in the skin. So you could put a couple drops of methylene blue in whatever facial stuff you use and mix it in. However, you might need a higher dose that would cause a little bit of blue on your skin. I do have methylene blue on my face right now. It's just at a low dose. Is it. Was it working? I don't know. Maybe. But I put it in my skincare stuff. So what's the future hold for methylene blue? Well, there are clinical trials underway right now about neurodegeneration, and I would predict that they're gonna be beneficial, but we shall see. Certainly for sepsis or septic shock, they're looking at it. There are about a hundred compounds, most of them nutritional or herbal or antioxidant, that stop sepsis in its tracks. Yet sepsis kills a lot of people in the hospital because it's almost like doctors don't know about all of these studies and really interesting traumatic brain injury. They're studying methylene blue for that. Now, if I took another titanium knee to the head at high speed, which happened to me a few years ago, I had a bleed and a pretty serious traumatic brain injury. If that happened now, I would do all the things I've talked about in my books and whatnot, but I would also take methylene blue and I would make sure that I used my laser on the part of my brain that was injured after the bleeding stopped. And I would do that because I want to fix the mitochondria there. And we have a lot of evidence that injury to mitochondria is part of what happens there. People are also looking at derivatives like Azure B, which is a metabolite, a downstream metabolite in methylene blue that could be more selective and more potent. And some people are saying, well, it's a synthetic chemical and I just want to be straightforward. Whether something is synthetic or natural means pretty much nothing. Natural compounds are mostly not good for you. If you don't believe me, lick a scorpion or go out in the forest and eat any plant. Unless you selected an edible plant on purpose, you're probably going to have a terrible biological effect. So lots of natural compounds are bad for us. Lots are good for us. A lot of chemical compounds are bad for us. Some of them are just fine for us. So it's more likely a natural compound will be bad for you. But a lot of chemical compounds come with side effects. So methylene blue, it's a chemical compound, but we understand it for more than a hundred years. But if you still want to try something more natural, blue green algae, the pigment from that, you can buy it separately. And it does degrade faster in methylene blue, but it activates many of the same pathways. So you could try a blue green algae, just make sure it doesn't have any contamination from toxic blue green algae. I've tried both. I think methylene blue works better. So to summarize, methylene blue might be good for you, it might not be good for you. Don't use it with psychedelics. Start with a low dose. You already got all the dosing recommendations that are backed by the way people use them online and lots of functional medicine. And just track your sleep. Look, if it's overstimulating you and it's okay to use it and not use it, I do not use it every day. I don't think it's probably a good idea to use it every day unless you get really strong benefits from it. I use it a couple times a week when I get around to it. If you enjoyed this episode, drop a comment. I appreciate the feedback. See you next time on the Human Upgrade Podcast.