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.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/100...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/265...
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 what I use:
Here is the plant based product :
amazon.com/Joint-Advanced-R...
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.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
Borax is said to be effective against multiple forms of arthritis and anecdotal evidence would tend to confirm this.
Here is some information on the toxicity of borax/boron:
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/100...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/265...
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.
Here are some articles and videos on the subject:
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
growyouthful.com/remedy/bor...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/164...
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.
youtube.com/watch?v=1QvFLWm...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/814...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/150...
rexresearch.com/newnham/new...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/127...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/199...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/259...
cheflynda.com/2015/03/the-i...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/211...
health-science-spirit.com/b...
Borax and boron are also well noted for their effects on improving osteoprosis! Here is another Dr. Flechas video that discusses that important point:
youtube.com/watch?v=1-QHgRn...
Lastly, no discussion about borax / boron would be complete without this link.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
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!
Art