I decided to make this a separate post since there have been a few questions on the subject. This will make it easier to search for and find.
I have been taking borax for about a decade and it has kept my moderate to severe arthritis in remission during that time. My arthritis was such that I could no longer go for daily walks as it was just too painful. The arthritis affected my neck, shoulders, arms, elbows, hands& fingers, wrists, upper back, lower back, hips, right knee, ankles and feet. I can now walk as far as I like as often as I like. All joint pain is gone except my left thumb joint where it meets the wrist, but I don't think this is arthritis as I had a severe injury at that area many years ago and I think it is related to that injury. The effect of borax is fairly long lasting as if I stop taking it, it will take three or more weeks for the pain to start coming back, so I never feel bad about missing a dose.
Unfortunately, like many things we take for health, some people are not able to tolerate borax/boron. Borax is a laundry booster typically sold in the laundry isle at most markets here in the US. I take a level 1/4 measuring teaspoon (approximately one gram/ 950 ~ 1,000 mg) of it during each weekday with Saturday and Sunday off to get rid of any excess as borax passes through the system fairly quickly.
I add the borax to a quart or liter bottle of water, shake until dissolved and then sip throughout the day. I take one of these bottles each day of the week and then I take Saturday and Sunday off. Mixed this way, the water should have very little to any flavor.
It is important to note that My 1/4th teaspoon dose is based on using a baker's measuring spoon set from the USA since this forum has members from other countries and spoon measurements vary from country to country. The 1/4th teaspoon I use delivers approximately 970 mg of Borax and the 1/8th teaspoon delivers approximately 485 mg of Borax. To be exact, Borax is 11.36% boron so the 1/4th teaspoon delivers approximately 110 mg of boron while the 1/8th teaspoon delivers approximately 55 mg of boron.
Borax is mined from the ground in California and Turkey with these two as the main mining areas in the world. It is washed and then boxed for sale as a laundry booster to get your laundry cleaner, whiter and brighter. I first read about it many years ago as an arthritis supplement and there is a ton of information about arthritis and borax/boron on the internet. Borax has a fairly good safety profile at the dosing used for the purpose. Borax is slightly less toxic than table salt at equal dosing. Here are a couple of abstracts on the toxicity of borax.
Borax is very inexpensive at about $5 for a box that will last over 5 years at the dose I am taking and over 10 years at the lower dose. As you can see, at this price it is unlikely that there will be an over abundance of studies involving borax and arthritis as there is little potential to make big money off of it, however one supplement company has created a supplement that extracts boron/borax from plants. Where borax costs "less than a penny per dose/day" this supplement comes in around 92 cents/dose/day. Not a killing by any means at 90 times+ the price per dose, but a much more expensive way to obtain boron/borax than borax itself, but for those who can not get past the idea of taking a laundry booster as a supplement, it may be a viable option. It should also be noted that it would take more than the recommended dose of the plant based product to be equivalent to what I take in borax and that would easily push the per dose price to over a dollar.
Here is a study on the plant based product along side a weaker solution of borax. When you brake down the percentages the patients got a lot more boron from the plant based supplement because the borax supplement had signifcantly less boron per dose, so the plant based version is not only more expensive, it is less effective simply because it takes much more to deliver an equivalent dose of boron! It would have been nice to see how patients not on the biologic would have done with the borax based products by themselves, but it was determined that to use no biologic would have been unethical. In other words, they did not want you to see that borax or the plant based borax may have been as or more effective than the biologic which costs approximately $20,000 per year.
Borax is 11.3% boron and boron is noted for a similar anti-arthritic effect as borax, but boron supplements are typically only 3 mgs, a dose too low to have the desired effect. I took supplements with low dose boron like 6 mgs and it did nothing for my arthritis. Areas of the world that have high boron soil content, generally have lower rates of arthritis while areas with low boron soil content have higher incidence of arthritis.
This link takes you to a very enlightening 10 part video series, unfortunately you will have to find them on this page link and then watch them in the correct order.
That's it for now! If the above videos and studies have piqued your interest and you are considering the information, it is important that you contact your doctor or health care professional to get their supervision in case borax or boron is not compatible with any medications you are taking. It is also important to remember that anyone can have an allergic reaction to almost anything and if your doctor is aware of your borax or boron intake, they will be able to act accordingly. Better safe than sorry! Just because it works for me and many others is not a guarantee that it will be the same for you!
Oh Easilly I just love yr posts. I have a weird situation with Ra. I have very high Ccf and rheumatoid factor but no symptoms as yet. Does this work for ra too?? Thanks
Yes, as you read through those links you will see that borax/boron is said to treat many of the different forms of arthritis including OA, RA, JA and in my case PA to name only a few. I should mention that I did not actually find any reports for PA when I tested borax, but because I saw little downside potential compared to my other options for PA, I did. I won't be without it now!
A while back i read about the magic of borax, so i called 20 mule teams customer service 800 number to ask about it. Their response was that under no circumstances do they condone ingesting their product. Period! Very confusing since the research says it's miraculous. I do make a very effective ant killer with it though.
It's pretty simple for them, they are well aware of what their product is being used for other than as a laundry booster, but they neither need to condone or say anything at all because the people who are using borax for those "other purposes" are going to buy it and use it for their purpose no matter what! This is fine with 20 Mule Team, because they do not want to run afoul of the FDA by making medical claims for their product. I can't remember when I last saw one of their commercials, but when I was a little kid, their commercials were plentiful everyday. I guess with this "newer use" for borax, the users do all the advertising for them for free!!!
For myself, I would be in a world of hurt without borax!
Hi, I do not have PD. I am the 77 year old caretaker mother for my son who died May 4, 2017 from PSP.
I just wanted to share that for my arthritis I take Swanson's Full spectrum Chinese Skullcap, 400mg at night. It is wonderful for my arthritis. I do a 4 mile walk each morning, mon-Fri.
Yes, before I found borax, I tried a myriad of supplements to manage the pain. I used skullcap as one of the first effective anti-inflammatories for almost 6 months and it helped quite a bit with the pain. It came in a glucosamine multi (Move Free) I was using. Unfortunately the supplement lost effectiveness with time and so I ended up supplementing the glucosamine supplement with additional skullcap supplement and that brought my pain level back down again, but shortly after that, I started getting fairly severe stomach upset, so I stopped the additional skullcap and my stomach settled down again, but the pain came back and I had to stop altogether to find something to help. Actually, the timing was pretty good, because I came across the following study some years later that suggested that Chinese skullcap could be a little harsh on the liver and I definitely didn't need that!
I switched to another glucosamine multi (Osteo Bi-Flex) that had the AKBA form of boswellic acid extract from frankincense in it instead of skullcap. This worked well for me for a couple of years, but the arthritic pain eventually came back and that is when I finally started using borax!
Thank you, Easilly. I will keep your journey with arthritis in mind. I am grateful for the time you took to respond. I started with Osteo Bi-flex (purchased at Costco), but then decided to try TURMERIC. After 2-3 years on TURMERIC began to experience a quesey stomach. Subsequently I switched to Full Spectrum Chinese Skullcap (only about 10 weeks). I have a yearly physical and one of the blood tests is on the liver. I will keep in mind the borax...if need should arise.
Thank you for your condolences. It was kind of you. I DO MISS my son.
If the body is unable to get calcium out of the bloodstream into the bones you end up with a double whammy of hardening of the arteries and osteoporosis. There are four key ingredients needed to enable calcium transport. One of them is boron. The others are vitamins D and K, and the mineral silica. I have written extensively on this topic:
Vitamins and Minerals for Bone Health and Reduced Risk of Cancer
Details of the vitamins and minerals that improve bone strength, reduce fracture risk, prevent hardening of the arteries, improve cardiovascular outcomes, and reduce cancer risk.
What You Need to Know to Reduce Risk of Hip Fracture and Cardiovascular Disease
How Big Pharma pollutes the scientific record and propagandizes doctors.
Bisphosphonates (Fosamax, etc.) increase fracture risk and should not be on the market.
Statins are effective but dangerous.
Vitamins D and K and a couple of minerals improve bone strength, reduce fracture risk and prevent hardening of the arteries. In so doing they result in better outcomes than both bisphosphonates and statins.
Other hazardous meds and how you can protect yourself.
That was some really good information! It's kind of depressing though to think that the pharmaceutical industry would go to such lengths in order to discredit healthful supplements. I mean really, it's horrible that they would even consider creating skewed studies for that very purpose and then pay researchers to say it is their own writings! How sad is that? Major health issues are difficult enough all by themselves, but add in these kind of shenanigans and it just makes life harder for us! Thank you for posting that! It takes awhile to read through, but it's worth the time!
I have been on youtube many times, but never to look at statins! The list just keeps scrolling and scrolling because there are so many posts on the subject!!!
Consequently I was not able to find that video.
On a related note there are many natural ways that I am aware of to lower cholesterol of which I have tried two and both worked. One is food grade diatomaceous earth / not pool grade as it is toxic .
It should also be mentioned that none of these come with the bad side effects of statins, but they do come with the potential for other health benefits and they are all relatively inexpensive, but I can see where those trillions of dollars generated by statins might have an effect on how much they get promoted over very good alternatives!
That's great, park_bear! More proof that statins are not the only way to lower cholesterol. Your method is also very affordable and again, likely healthier than statins!
glad i saw this video...thanks for posting...my dr has been trying to strong arm me into taking statins...i was able to drop my #s by 15% in just two months which brought #s into normal range. i did it my eating oatmeal w/ honey everyday for breakfast and i stopped eating beef and added more eggs to my diet...1-2 a day. i had heard about the side effects of statins and did not want to touch them.
Yes, I was fired as a patient by a doctor over 30 years ago for refusing statins. Just say no to bad drugs ; -)
There was a big study done not long ago that showed eating one egg a day did not adversely affect the cardiovascular system.
I very much enjoy my morning oatmeal - I include sunflower seeds, cranberries, and wheat bran, all simmered gently in almond milk. I add a few frozen berries at the end to cool it to a comfortable temperature.
Details of the vitamins and minerals that improve bone strength, reduce fracture risk, prevent hardening of the arteries, improve cardiovascular outcomes, and reduce cancer risk.
What You Need to Know to Reduce Risk of Hip Fracture and Cardiovascular Disease
How Big Pharma pollutes the scientific record and propagandizes doctors.
Bisphosphonates (Fosamax, etc.) increase fracture risk and should not be on the market.
Statins are effective but dangerous.
Vitamins D and K and a couple of minerals improve bone strength, reduce fracture risk and prevent hardening of the arteries. In so doing they result in better outcomes than both bisphosphonates and statins.
Other hazardous meds and how you can protect yourself.
Dang- that’s incredible information. I am stunned in disbelief for Borax to be ingested intentionally! Great research references- must read but 1st who turned you onto this and the protocol?
I think I first started reading about borax about 15 years ago from different websites. It was just one of those things I kept in the back of my mind, never thinking I would ever take it because it just seemed too strange to take a laundry booster as an oral supplement! About 12 years ago when my psoriatic arthritis continued to worsen and the supplements I had been using to control it started to fail, borax moved back into my forward thinking and I went and bought a box at my local laundry aisle thinking I would start as soon as I got home, but that laundry booster idea just kept putting me off from starting it. That box sat on my shelf for about three months before the pain just got too bad to handle anymore and I didn't want to try the biologics because of the known serious side effects. During those three months I read studies about borax and boron a lot and watched many videos and visited many websites. I finally decided that the toxicity level was plenty low enough that I would try it. It didn't work over night, but very similar to the length of time that the glucosamine multi s I had used previously had taken to work. The effects were like a miracle for me and have remained since starting over a decade ago!
As far as the dose I used, I just chose the simplest one I found on the web that I thought I could follow easily and that also made sense based on everything I had learned from reading about it. I did try going to the lower 1/8th teaspoon dose recommended for women and smaller people and it worked for me also, just not as well as the 1/4 teaspoon dose.
While a $5 box will last for years, I do use borax for many other things!
Yeah, it blew me away too when I started to realize how well it was working when I first started! I think my over a decade of use adds credence to its durability. I know that we are all different and what works for some may not work for others or we may be allergic to it, but it is the same with the super expensive biologics also. Like thiamine, I tried it because of the very good safety profile, because at that time there was not as much information available. In the one study that used borax in combination with a biologic, they turned out to be compatible, so for people who are not getting enough benefit from their biologics, it may be something for them to ask their doctor about.
The really sad part is when you consider how many people do not have medical insurance and can not afford the available medical treatments, but could potentially find relief from from something that only costs less than a penny per day! Given the nature of the way our drug discovery process works, borax is destined to remain relatively unknown for the purpose.
Ah, the uninsured could benefit “the most”. I think we need to ‘sing it from the mountain tops’. For those seeking information, where do you suggest they “begin”? Maybe post it as a separate thread on HU? Too good to keep “between us” so to speak.
I posted the borax information on a psoriatic arthritis forum that I used to belong to about 5 years ago and one poster kept complaining about it to the moderators. The forum claimed to be open to "all" natural and prescription treatments, but they ended up removing my post which had grown significantly in a very short time. When I asked why, they said the reason was because their, "health adviser" had deemed it unsafe. I asked what were the qualifications of their health adviser to make such a decision and that was the end of the conversation, they would not answer my questions any more. That was my last post on that forum because when it came to prescription drugs that have killed people, they never removed those posts. I unsubscribed right then and there.
On the other hand, I posted similar information on a small colloidal silver forum and many members got great results from trying it and were very glad I had posted it!
Art
I just wanted to add a post that I pulled from another forum where I post where the individual had tried borax for his arthritis and found very good benefit! Here is a copy of that post:
'I recall the borax/sugar ant killer thread. IIRC, it was long and in some posts a little convoluted. I get lost in threads such as that, can only absorb so much into the gray matter.
So both boric acid and borax have a low level of toxicity in humans/mammals. Interesting, and of course multiple countries are banning the stuff.
I can state one thing as fact, taking borax every day since July of 2016 has made a huge difference in my joint pain. It is gone, completely gone. After the snow & ice we got a few weeks ago I would have been a wreck. Clearing it was not easy.
But not now, there were no repercussions to the physical labor required & taken. None. Before then I would have been in pain for weeks, mostly the shoulders but also the elbows and knees.
'
Argentum
P.S. Inside of every old guy is a young guy asking "what happened?" Yea, I'm there.
I mentioned this in another post but it seems more appropriate to this thread. One of my sisters started taking borax for her arthritis in mid to late December of 2018. At about two to three weeks in, we talked and she told me the borax was not helping with her arthritis yet and she was in considerable pain, but she said she had gotten a few other benefits from the borax. I told her to start using mag oil for the pain while she was waiting for the borax to have an effect on her arthritis. I talked to her this past weekend and she told me the borax had finally started to kick in and the mag oil was helping her for any pain, but especially for an injured shoulder that has bothered her for years with pain relief of 8 to 9 hours per each mag oil application. I think this injury is from years of playing tennis.
So although the borax took about a month to start to have an effect on her arthritis, it finally did and she is doing much better for the new year! Even her voice over the phone was more vibrant and alive! One of the other benefits that she noticed was an improved mental state or mood and that was before the arthritis pain had started to diminish. Two other benefits she mentioned were weight loss and and increased energy, all before her arthritis started to noticeably improve! I am constantly amazed at the variety of "other benefits" that people taking borax for their arthritis, report!
I think that in milder cases of arthritis, benefit can be seen in two weeks. Another consideration is actual damage caused by the arthritis. If there is significant damage, pain may fade more slowly until the damage has healed. I know in severe arthritis of long standing, maximum benefit may not be seen until the third or fourth month into borax.
Borax can be called by several names such as sodium tetraborate, sodium borate, sodium tetraborate decahydrate and disodium tetraborate. California and Turkey are the largest producers / miners, that I am aware of. Given your proximity to Turkey, seems like there should be a way for you to get it. Chemical suppliers will have it.
I looked on Italian Amazon and they show "Borax Sustitute" which is not the same, so don't use it!
If you look at the last item on the first page, there is a product called Borax from Germany. I would need to translate the writing to be sure it is the correct ingredient of which there is only one ingredient or should be only one ingredient because borax is mined, cleaned and then packaged. Here is what our product here in the States looks like :
Thanks Art, I think that the boron is a completely missing element in any diet and also in any supplement. You might think that a diet based on fresh vegetables replenishes all the boron necessary, but in modern intensive agriculture it is not integrated with fertilizers in adequate quantities, especially in greenhouses.
Ah, the boron is what makes tomatoes tasty 🍅 does this tell you anything? Noo? Then you forgot the true taste of tomato.
I wanted to update this thread, I would like to mention one of my brother in laws had severe arthritis (osteo) and an unusual complication where his fingers would pull out of joint with just using his hands as most people do. He talked to his doctor about it and he said it was caused by the arthritis and there was nothing he could offer him to reverse or repair it. He said he could prescribe pain relievers for the pain, but he told my brother in law that it would only continue to worsen and he would eventually lose the use of his hands! I was thinking he could hardly use his hands as it is and it is going to get worse?
He would wear those yellow playtex gloves during his waking hours to help hold his fingers in joint and he would cut the fingertips off of the gloves so his hands didn't get too sweaty. They looked very odd on him, but they did help hold his fingers in joint! If a finger came out of joint, he would reset it himself which he said was quite painful. I have never heard of this problem with arthritis before and have not since, but his doctor told him it happens now and again.
I asked my brother in law if he would be interested in trying borax orally and he said absolutely not! So I left it at that. My sister (his wife) asked me if I would make a pain relieving lotion for him to help him to function during the day. She also said she was hoping it would allow him to sleep at night because the pain was keeping him awake and making him very irritable. I made him a pain relieving lotion and she would massage it into his hands when he would wake up and again before he went to bed. I didn't tell either one of them that I had added borax to the lotion along with a pain reliever because he wouldn't have used it had he known. Borax is not well absorbed through the skin, but I was hoping that the daily application might deliver some borax to the hand joints since she was massaging it in twice daily.. Hopefully enough would be absorbed to offer him a bit of relief.
I didn't see them for about a month and a half and when I went to visit them, I noticed he was not wearing those yellow gloves and I asked him why not and he told me the strangest thing happened and I asked him what he meant. He said that for some reason his fingers stopped pulling out of joint and on top of that, he said his hands didn't hurt either and he started wiggling his fingers all around to show me how well they worked again with no pain! He said he no longer needed to wear those yellow gloves! He said he didn't understand how this could happen because his doctor told him it would only get worse with time. I just told him that was really great, but I did tell my sister about the borax at that point. Neither of us told him about the borax because he would have just gotten mad and I certainly didn't need that drama. He never wore those yellow gloves again and I didn't feel so bad about my lie by omission!
I didn't think the lotion would work on his larger joints like knees or hips, but it seems worth trying for the many people who would never try oral borax to see if enough can penetrate to get to those larger joints.
Here is what I made for my brother in law for his arthritic hands with fingers that easily pull out of joint. This repaired his hands in less than two months and his hands were pain free and his fingers no longer pulled out of joint.
16 oz. hand lotion of your choice (I use Cetaphil)
2 tablespoons of borax ground up into a very fine powder
10,000 mgs of ibuprofen (white type) ground up into a very fine powder
I use a "bullet type" blender to grind the dry ingredients into a very fine powder, otherwise the lotion will be gritty.
I haven't updated this post in some time, but I just read an article suggesting that arthritis and osteoporosis may be more common in PWP than the general population and both can ultimately cause upper and lower back pain as well as pain in multiple other areas of the body such as the neck and most joints. All common complaints in PWP.
Based on that, it seemed worth updating this post again with that information. I can only speak for myself, but for me it has put my severe arthritis in remission for well over 12 years!
"In the 1960’s Rex Newnham, Ph.D., D.O., N.D, developed arthritis. At that time he was a soil and plant scientist in Perth, Western Australia. Conventional drugs did not help, so he looked for the cause into the chemistry of plants. He realised that plants in that area were rather mineral deficient. Knowing that boron aids calcium metabolism in plants he decided to try it. He started taking 30 mg of borax a day, and in three weeks all pain, swelling and stiffness had disappeared.
He told public health and medical school authorities about his discovery but they were not interested. However, some people with arthritis were delighted as they improved. Others were scared to take something with a poison label on the container and meant to kill cockroaches and ants. Eventually he had tablets made with a safe and effective quantity of borax.
Within five years and only by word of mouth he sold 10,000 bottles a month. He could no longer cope and asked a drug company to market it. That was a major mistake. They indicated that this would replace more expensive drugs and reduce their profits. It so happened that they had representatives on government health committees and arranged that in 1981 Australia instituted a regulation that declared boron and its compounds to be poisons in any concentration. He was fined $1000 for selling a poison, and this successfully stopped his arthritis cure from spreading in Australia."
Its been several years years since I wrote this post when I was known as "easilly" on the forum.
I wanted to let the forum members know that borax is still working for me to keep my severe arthritis in "complete remission" for over 13 years with no problems. My dose remains the same as the day I started. Borax has been one of the most effective supplements I have ever taken where the results are crystal clear, unmistakable and costs me less than a penny a day.
Just a reminder that not everyone can tolerate borax/boron, but for me it has been a lifesaver and I wanted to update my experience! Still working!
I have also reduced my dose by one day, I take one quarter level full teaspoon in a quart of water each day, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I take Friday, Saturday and Sunday off from borax to allow my body to rid itself of any excess amounts of borax/boron as it passes through the system fairly quickly.
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