Is Methylene Blue legal in the United Kingdom?

Methylene blue is an FDA-approved antidote for a rare blood problem called methemoglobinemia. Biohackers take small doses for energy and focus. The brain evidence is thin. It also blocks an enzyme called MAO, and taken with antidepressants it has caused serotonin syndrome, including a death.

Methylene blue is a dye and drug that has been around for about a century. At low doses it can help carry energy inside the cell's power plants, the mitochondria.

How it works: It passes electrons along the energy chain inside mitochondria, the cell's power plants. It also blocks two enzymes for a while.

Approval history: FDA-approved only for methemoglobinemia (ProvayBlue), a blood problem where the blood cannot carry oxygen well; other uses are off-label or unapproved

Licenses medicines for sale in the UK. A compound without a licence to be sold (a marketing authorisation) is an unlicensed medicine. The law only lets it reach people through a prescriber, under the specials scheme (unlicensed medicines made for one patient's needs). It cannot be sold as a research product.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency listings for Methylene Blue on the reviewed date. It is not a legal opinion. Rules change. Bringing a compound into the country, prescribing it and owning it can each be treated differently. Check with the agency before you act on anything here.

Check MHRA directly

Whether Methylene Blue is banned in sport is set by the World Anti-Doping Code and by military rules, not by its legal status in the United Kingdom. Before you compete or get tested, look up Methylene Blue by name on the Prohibited List, or look up a named product in Global DRO. Under the World Anti-Doping Code, category S0 bans, at all times, any drug-like substance that meets two tests. No other section of the List covers it. And no government health regulator anywhere has a current approval for it as a treatment in people. Many substances that are approved somewhere are banned by name in another section. So approval does not mean a substance is allowed in sport.

• WADA Prohibited List
• Global DRO (check a named product)
• USADA (US athletes)
• Operation Supplement Safety (US service members)

The rules you compete or serve under decide this, not this page.