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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Arwa Mahdawi

Did RFK Jr really drink fish medicine? He definitely has weird ideas about ‘making America healthy again’

Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Biohacker … Robert F Kennedy Jr. Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

Robert F Kennedy Jr is many things, but he is not a tropical fish. Someone should probably tell him this because he appears to be guzzling fish medicine. Last week, a video of RFK sitting on a plane and putting a strange blue liquid into his glass of water went viral. It’s not clear what he was taking, but online sleuths are convinced it was methylene blue, which is used to treat parasites in fish as well as aquatic ailments such as swim bladder disease.

To be fair, methylene blue does have human uses – in the US, it is FDA-approved to treat a rare blood disorder. Over the last few years, however, it has been touted as a miracle drug in wellness circles and people have been using it off-label in the hopes of staving off everything from jet lag to ageing. “Looks like RFK Jr is in on one of the best-kept secrets in biohacking – methylene blue,” wrote one prominent wellness influencer after the viral video. “When used correctly, it’s a gamechanger for mental clarity and longevity.”

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