A fascinating topic, and very well researched! Methylene blue has been on my radar in the last many months, but I didn’t know much about it before. What excites me most about it is its potential as a mitochondrial support. I’ve long known that mitochondria are (at least potentially) at the core of nearly every metabolic/chronic illness, but that only gets us so far. Mitochondria make ATP, the body’s energy currency, and any tissue lacking adequate ATP will limp along with subclinical or clinical dysfunction, unless the body gets the signal to destroy that cell (or that mitochondrion) altogether and make a brand new one. The only way I really knew of before to trigger the latter was with fasting, which of course isn’t a long-term option in most cases (with the exception of intermittent, though that too has limited usefulness from my experience.) Mitochondria can easily become poisoned by various environmental or biological toxins, but… then what? Most mitochondrial support I’m aware of gives building blocks needed to potentially help them work better, but if the problem isn’t the lack of that building block, but rather a toxin, now what? Detoxification also requires ATP to be efficient, so now you’re in a bit of a catch-22.

Methylene blue, apparently, offers an alternative pathway for the mitochondria to make the same amount of ATP it would if it were perfectly healthy, bypassing the toxic impediments, while at the same time stimulating the body to make new mitochondria. That’s astounding. There are some drawbacks to be aware of (mostly that the medicine is bright blue, but there are a few others too), but I’m excited about the therapeutic potential!

The reason I only gave the book four stars, though, is because the author tends to be rather bombastic in his writing style. I can appreciate this to a certain degree (he reminds me of a few people I know, and it’s probably quite endearing in person), but it means that sometimes he leaps to extreme conclusions on topics which I happen to know something about. I suspect that if he were a practicing clinician himself, he might be more circumspect–but this tends to make me question his conclusions on topics that are less familiar to me, as well.

My rating: ****

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