Unlike some toxins, methylene blue doesn’t make harmful free radicals in brain cells after they’ve been starved.

After brain cells are starved and then get oxygen and sugar back, methylene blue helps them make more of their main energy molecule.

When brain cells are starved of oxygen and sugar and then get them back, giving them methylene blue right after helps more of them survive.

Giving methylene blue while brain cells are still starved makes things worse — it only helps if you wait until oxygen and sugar are restored.

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

Methylene blue makes mitochondria produce more hydrogen peroxide, but if you block a specific part of the energy chain (Complex III), that extra production stops—meaning methylene blue needs that part to work.