Opinions - Methylene Blue

Hey Lyme Group,

Is Methylene Blue safe? Is it helpful? I am genuinely asking opinions on it as my doctor suggested it today for Bartonella-like flare I am experiencing

Thanks!

i am using it

there was some debate over safety - mainly because originally in the 40's and 50's when it was invented some animal trials showed some cause for concern - but then later trials in humans do not seem to show the same effects

this is not uncommon as animals react differently to humans with many compounds - eg dogs and chocolate

there were large and fairly long term use trails in human in the 50's and 60's for malaria at doses in the range 400-600mg / day and other than urinary tract discomfort these were largely without incident

Dr H - of ILADS and "how can i get better" book fame - uses it at high doses in his high dose pulsed dapsone protocols - approx. 600mg a day - he has recently published a paper describing it as a useful anti-persister drug

it is also used long term in the care of geriatric populations in the 50-100mg a day dose range presumably for its nootropic effects

i had to start on very small doses - around 10mg a day - and gradually work my way up as it seemed very powerful in my case - i then settled on 120mg a day long term - which seems fine

i hope this helps

all the best !

pretty good summary

thanks for posting

i have been using it alongside herbs without issues for some time now -
Dr MR also advocates using herbs and abx together.

the main issue to watch out for with it is its potential to interact with Psych drugs and cause serotonin syndrome - mainly those that upregulate serotonin

it can be pretty powerful even at these low doses - some people report very strong herx reactions to it - so perhaps go slow at first 1/4 of normal dose - less if you are sensitive

Makes sense to start low and see how you tolerate it

yes - that's a common approach and exactly what i did - i was able to step the dose up approx. each 3 weeks

as we often do not know exactly which infections we are dealing with - and since some can form resistance - its usually best to ensure we take more than one strong anti microbial at a time to be on the safe side
borrelia have not been shown to develop resistance - but other organisms in the co-infection group are known to be able to.

of course you have to be able to tolerate the treatment - so you may need to start one before the next - but perhaps something to discuss with your practitioner

I understand

MB can be combined with antimicrobial herbs - as well as pharmaceutical antibiotics - typically sida acuta and houttuynia - especially for bartonella
( the research on MB is mainly focussed on Bartonella - but it likely has some activity for lyme and perhaps Babesia to a lesser degree )

Dr MR has protocols on his website that take that approach

it could also be combined well with clarithromycin if you felt like trying that approach

it has some antifungal properties which could help with candida blooms - along with a low carbohydrate diet
often LLMD's use an antifungal a few days a month to keep candida from being a problem

in any case the idea would just be to not try to use it on its own as sole antibiotic / antimicrobial
the doses for that to be effective are very high - around 600mg range
so its best combined with other antimicrobials

I did order some Japanese Knotweed and Cryptolepsis also as Japanese Knotweed has probably been most effective for me and my doc wants me to try Crytolepsis for Mycoplasma infection I can't seem to shake. I always test positive. I have for almost 10 years whenever they test me for it.

Thankfully right now anyways my Fibronigen has come back at a normal level (in the 200's). I wouldn't mind taking bromelain again though. That's always wonderful stuff. I think i've done at least one of the other 2 in the past too.

I can ask the doc about that