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Join Dr. B as he explains what Methylene Blue is, what its benefits are, and why having a blue tongue may be good... All this and more on The Real Health Podcast with Dr. B!
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What is The Real Health Podcast with Dr. B?
On a mission to share practical solutions to improve your wellbeing, The Real Health Podcast will equip you with evidence-based recommendations essential to achieving a healthy lifestyle. Join Dr. Barrett Deubert as he shares his passion for educating, inspiring, and empowering individuals to achieve “real health for real people”. Breaking down health topics such as: immunity, stress, real food, natural living, and much more to provide you with actionable steps to improving your family’s health.
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Health Podcast. Thanks for joining. This is part 2 of our series on photobiomodulation. Again, a mouthful, but really what we're talking about is light energy or photons from light and how they absorb in the body. Today, we're gonna talk about this enhancement of photobiomodulation, this little square I'm holding here.
Dr. Barrett:And if you don't know, we video record our podcasts. So if you're listening to this on audio, check us out on YouTube. And so let's talk through this guy right here, this little square I put in my mouth. And the first time I took it, I sucked on it, and then I chewed it. And as I chewed it, regardless to say, my whole mouth was blue.
Dr. Barrett:So I'm gonna go ahead and swallow it. Try to swallow it. Because if I don't, I'm gonna see patients here in a little bit, and my whole mouth will be blue. But you'll see that my tongue is absolutely blue stained. And so, you gotta see it because it's hilarious.
Dr. Barrett:I mean, the first time I took it, I walked up front to my team because I took it, like, mid shift, at my office. I said, hey. My mouth blew, and they just started cracking up because it was, like, all my teeth, all my mouth, and it was there for hours. So right now, I just left a little bit on my tongue, just enough to show the viewers what methylene blue, does. It's a stain.
Dr. Barrett:It's actually methylene blue was a textile stain that was used decades ago, and it started getting picked up in the medical world and experimented with and so they started using blue, the methylene blue as a dye in laboratory analysis. And then from there, it just continued to evolve from like textile dyes, and then it had they showed that it had an affinity. Like when they when they used methylene blue, to do staining in in the lab, it had an affinity for a certain part of the cell, and specifically, it had an affinity for the mitochondria. Now, this is something we talk about all the time, the mitochondria are the power plant of the cell. So they that's what actually makes ATP or energy.
Dr. Barrett:And a healthy human, a healthy cell is a is a individual that's making ATP efficiently. Okay? And if we look at any chronic disease and inflammatory process, we can always look to the mitochondria as being dysfunctional, and when it's dysfunctional, you're going to see that your inability to create ATP is at the core of the dysfunction of the cell. And, again, last episode, we talked about why that is, inflammatory process, toxicity, fueling issues. And even when we look at, like, Alzheimer's and dementia patients, cognitive health is directly related to how efficiently neurons are using or creating ATP, using energy, calories from fats and carbohydrates and amino acids and turning it into ATP or energy.
Dr. Barrett:And so, it's one of the reasons why, like, all Alzheimer's is is really type 3 it's called type 3 diabetes of the brain because the brain in essence is insulin resistant. It's unable to utilize glucose for energy, and it's why Alzheimer patients and dementia patients respond so favorably, to a ketogenic diet because it bypasses that insulin dependent system and it uses ketones as a primary source of fuel. But what does it do? What are ketones actually doing? Well, they're providing the mitochondria with energy to make what?
Dr. Barrett:ATP. So again, at the core of this, we're making energy. We're making ATP. So anything that improves your ability to make ATP is anti aging. If you can if you can continue to allow your mitochondria and your cells to efficiently create energy, ATP, you will live a long healthy life.
Dr. Barrett:And when the mitochondria start breaking down is when your body starts to develop disease. Now, interesting thing going back to methylene blue, back again early in the 1900s, we're talking about when this was, you know, starting to be used. Methylene blue has a really high affinity for the mitochondria. So that's what they started seeing in the stains. It would absorb in the mitochondria.
Dr. Barrett:And where do you think most mitochondria exist? So if we look at the body, where do you think most mitochondria exist? There's there's really 2 areas of the body specific to organ systems, and the first is the nervous system of the brain. And if you think about it, your brain burns more calories than any other organ in the body, and it's why what you eat directly affects how you feel cognitively. So there are a there are a ton of mitochondria and neurons or nerve cells in the brain, and there's a ton of mitochondria in the heart cells.
Dr. Barrett:So when we look at methylene blue absorption, which is now being absorbed I did a dose in the morning. I just did another dose, just now. If we look at, where this methylene blue is being absorbed, it is staining my brain, and it is staining my heart. So right now, my brain and my heart have a lot of blue stain to it. Now my urine does too because you'll see it When you do methylene blue, ingestion, you will see it in your urine.
Dr. Barrett:So you you pee it out. If your urine is not blue, you didn't take high enough dose, and so it will turn everything blue, your gut microbiome, your digestive system. I mean, everything is literally staying blue. And so so we're gonna we're gonna kinda bridge this gap between photon energy, light energy, right, so like red light energy, infrared light, and methylene blue. We're gonna marry those 2 because we can use methylene blue, and we can use infrared light, and we can combine them to maximize mitochondrial health.
Dr. Barrett:At the core, this is really what, like, antiaging, is all about, is enhancing the energy systems of the body. Methylene blue, going back to it, when it was used, it was actually used to treat urinary tract infections. So that was the, like, original intended use, and that was the way it was prescribed. And it's actually still used for that today. It's very effective for UTIs.
Dr. Barrett:You can look at any medical research on methylene blue and ability to treat gut infections, stealth pathogens. So it's a very good antimicrobial. So one of the benefits to to methylene blue is it kills it kills infections. It's an antibacterial. It's an and a and a generalized antimicrobial, so it can help create a, like, a healthy immune system and, in essence, be like an immune supportive product.
Dr. Barrett:It can help you, in essence, from getting sick. It's very similar. It's a father compound to actually hydroxychloroquine, which if you hear going back to, like, the COVID days, you know, so far ago, the hydroxychloroquine was something that was communicated a lot to be used. So methylene blue is really a father compound to even hydroxychloroquine which we've talked about in the past as well. And so how is methylene blue, like, how is it best absorbed?
Dr. Barrett:And there's a lot of different ways to take it. You can take it as a liquid, on the on the on the tongue, but again, that gets really staining to the mouth. So I take it as these, like, blue squares. And so these blue bars, these methylene blue bars that I'm dropping everywhere. These are, you can you can, like, cut them down in, like, half dosing.
Dr. Barrett:There's about 40 milligrams per bar. The recommended dosing is 1 gram per kilogram of body weight, 0.5 to to 1 milligram per kilogram. So if you weigh, let's just say, 200 pounds, that's 90 kilograms. So you can you can do anywhere between 45 to 90 milligram dosing. So that's the typical dose recommendation.
Dr. Barrett:But that's the way I take it is in this bar form and just swallow it. There's IV. You can do it in an IV. You can do it in a what's called like a like a, suppository. So you can do it that way.
Dr. Barrett:So those are the main ways, but it is very well absorbed orally. So that's how most people will consume it, and so I'll just consume it in, like, a in a in a, like, a hard form to swallow so it doesn't obviously stain. It doesn't stain my teeth. So the cool thing with methylene blue, getting back to it, it really what it does to the body is it is a it it's at the core of it. It's called a redox agent.
Dr. Barrett:That's a fancy chemistry term, so let me kinda help you process what it actually does. It serves as an antioxidant, so it donates electrons or receives electrons. It balances this whole oxidation antioxidant system. And so it can be both an oxidizer and an antioxidant. So it's a really cool product in the sense that it works within your body to do whatever your body needs it to do, and this is probably the wild thing.
Dr. Barrett:If you wanna learn more about Methylene Blue, I'd highly suggest listening to all of Doctor. Lima's work with Methylene Blue. He's the forefront expert in it. He's super fascinating guy, out of Texas. And so doctor Lima will talk about its ability to to kind of regulate your antioxidant system.
Dr. Barrett:Too many antioxidants is actually a bad thing, and too few antioxidants is a bad thing. So oxidation is when you leave a banana out, what color does it turn? Brown. Right? Or if you leave your meat the meat out, red meat out, turns brown.
Dr. Barrett:That's called oxidation. And then you have a lot of, like, food products that they put antioxidants in, vitamin c, for instance, antioxidant. And it keeps that food from spoiling. Well, if your body has too many antioxidants, which is not typically the situation, it can actually create harm and havoc to your body. And so Methylene Blue actually can can create a redox reaction to antioxidants can kind of quench the excess antioxidant system.
Dr. Barrett:Most people are depleted though. Most people don't have enough antioxidants, and so the way methylene blue works is it actually donates energy. We call them electrons. And there's this super complex system called Krebs Cycle, so if you know anything about like chemistry, biochemistry, you know, going all the way back to college days, the Krebs Cycle is within the mitochondria, and the Krebs Cycle is is part of something called the electron transport chain, and in essence, it's ATP. You know, you're you're going through this cycle of creating ATP, and this energy system of ATP creation is from electrons.
Dr. Barrett:So donating electrons to your body actually helps drive energy systems. And so one thing that it does really, really well is it helps improve your antioxidant system, donating electrons and allows the mitochondria to work more efficiently. Now when you look at this, like its effects on the body, and knowing that it's cellular, knowing that it's mitochondrial based, and knowing that it's ATP based, where does red light come in? So red light or infrared light is what we talked about in our first episode. It is just photon energy.
Dr. Barrett:And so when your body is stained with blue light, it actually has a higher absorption. So that blue that blue color that is inside your body staining every organ, cell, and tissue, and stating the mitochondria, it now absorbs infrared light and red light way more abundantly. So you're actually getting a greater absorption of photon energy or infrared lights or light energy, whether it's red or infrared, you're absorbing it at a much higher rate, thereby improving even more photon energy. You're getting greater light energy. And I and I think it would be like a when we think about photon energy, the best way I can kinda kinda describe it is is when we look at just plants.
Dr. Barrett:And if we think about plants, they they have something called chlorophyll, and they absorb the sun. It's called photosynthesis. Again, getting kinda sciency, but here's what happens. Plants need light, light energy, need water in order to thrive, and plants, when they have more light energy and and nutrition, they grow bigger, stronger, and faster. That's why during the wintertime, things kind of go dormant.
Dr. Barrett:So think about your body being now spring summer, you you have a beautiful sunlight, you're absorbing all this light energy, and you are supporting it with healthy hydration and nutrition through methylene blue, and now it's allowing your body to create energy come alive and grow and develop. And in essence, that's really what's happening. We'll maximize your body's ability to create energy, and at the core of that, it allows every process in the body to work better, more efficiently, less inflammation, less oxidative stress, less free radical damage. Right? And through this process of and it's not just a one time thing.
Dr. Barrett:Through this process where we're staying consistent with healthy nutrition and sleep habits and moving our body, we are able to slow down the aging process. Aging is directly related to oxidative stress. The higher your oxidative stress, the higher your free radical load, the more you will age. The more inflamed you'll feel, the more achy your body feels, less energy you have. Reducing oxidative stress should be at the forefront of your health protocols.
Dr. Barrett:But reducing oxidative stress is not as simple as just taking a bunch of antioxidants. You can't get healthy that way. You have to get to the core of the problem. Methylene blue is great because it acts as an antioxidants so you check that box, but it's not at a dosage that would ever put you in danger or harm. There are some adverse reactions that are possible, so it's always important to consult a medical professional before doing anything that I ever recommend so we know if it's effective for you and what strategy and what dosing.
Dr. Barrett:But I do wanna just kinda open your mind up to this idea that I think I think we've we look so quickly at all these machines and devices to get us healthy, but the reality is, like, just even even if even if these last two episodes just kind of teaches you one thing, I think it should teach you this, that the Sun and the earth in and of itself is a place to heal. We're so disconnected from nature that we are in plastic and foam shoes and plastic and metal cars and everything's concrete and asphalt, that rarely do we actually connect with nature. And your body actually heals in nature, very similar to what we're talking about today. It's called grounding and we absorb electrons from Earth and it's called sunlight. We absorb photon energy from the light from sunlight.
Dr. Barrett:And we're able to heal actually through connecting with nature. So whether you wanna biohack your way through there or maybe these last two episodes just help you process, I need to get out more. Regardless, let's think through this and just make a step. Hey, what am I doing next? What's my next step?
Dr. Barrett:And if you wanna biohack, cool. Methylene blue, light energy, red light, infrared saunas, awesome. And if you just wanna start simple, and maybe it's just you as a mom getting some kids, hey, just get outside, get some vitamin d from that sun, absorb some light energy, walk barefoot on earth, and you'll live a healthier, happier life. So, hey, that concludes our 2 part series on photobiomodulation. As as any episode, we'd love for you to share, like, our podcast, whether that's on YouTube or Instagram, or on Spotify.
Dr. Barrett:Thanks for listening to the Real Health Podcast.