A tiny amount of methylene blue helps heart cells make energy better, but too much actually hurts them — it’s a classic case of 'less is more'.

Adding a tiny amount of methylene blue to heart cell power plants makes them use oxygen more efficiently, no matter what fuel they're burning.

In a lab test with mouse brain cells, a chemical called methylene blue makes the energy-producing parts of the cells work harder without using energy to make ATP, while another chemical called azure I doesn’t do anything. This suggests methylene blue might be messing with how the cells normally control their energy production.

Methylene blue makes heart cell power plants produce more harmful molecules when using one fuel (glutamate/malate), but less when using another (succinate), showing its effect depends on what the cell is burning.

Methylene blue helps brain cells use oxygen more efficiently to make energy after they’ve been starved.

The more methylene blue you add, the more hydrogen peroxide the mitochondria make—up to 25 times more at the highest dose tested.