Would Boron Work Instead of Borax?

Posted by Mary (Port Orange, Florida) on 08/17/2008

I am a little leary of using the borax laundry soap and was wondering if using a boron supplement would give the same result? What is found in the health food store is Tri-Boron Plus, made by Twinlab. Each capsule has 1.5 mg of boron, with serving size being 2 capsules. It also has magnesium, calcium, vitamin D and a couple others. If this will work, how many mg per day of the boron do you suggest? Thanks, I'll be looking for your response.

Keep up the good work, your site provides a wealth of information!

Replied by Ted
Bangkok, Thailand
08/17/2008
391 posts

Dear Mary:

Most manufacturing process of products I do call and check factory was whether any additional inert ingredients or other ingredients was added in a laundry detergent, or a generic borax product. Most of my problem I encountered is the consumer products rather than products people assumed to be unsafe, that is assumed to be as safe but it killed people, such as aspartame for example.

Or some product that people thinks it promotes good health but is really dangerous (in serious conditions) such as yogurt if it was consumed by people with a cancer metastasis that leads to rapid blood clotting and acted as an anti-nutrient as casein milk protein (in yogurt and cow's milk product) renders nearly all anti cancer supplements (indole 3 carbinol, lysine, etc.) useless as it covers whatever that was consumed and reduced bioavailability to almost zero.

This is why hospitals used milk for food poisoning, or that milk is prohibited whenever antibiotics are given. Even something as innocuous as a children's playground has toxic levels of arsenic, cadmium and mercury as the source of children's metal toxicity. So most of the problem I encountered from poisoning are the ones people don't expect.

Many sickness I also encountered (as heavy metals are common in tap water, filter or unfiltered in nearly 3/4 of homes I investigated, including the house i live in) resulted in worsening of health. Even common household goods such as paint thinner is another one. What is more disturbing is the fact that certain pipes filling to reduce chlorine in showers add to the problem of worsening health crisis, such as a special devices that releases copper to neutralize the chlorine, creates copper poisonng in unsuspecting victims trying to avoid chlorine. It creates a Catch-22 situation.

Locally at least here, a chemical supplier I bought sold me pharmaceutical grade borax, or sodium tetraborate. This is the route I prefer. In some places I buy borax from a drug store which is often a pharmaceutical grade, such as USP, or BP grade being the common identifier. As to how many milligrams of borax I used that is roughly equivalent to 1/4 teaspoon in a per 1 liter solution, a conversion therefore is necessary. But a lower dose of 1/8 teaspoon of borax also needs a formal conversion.

So the accept conversion for a teaspoon contains 5 mL or 5 cc of any given substance. 5 cc or 5 mL for one teaspoon is equivalent to 5 grams or 5000 mg of the substance. Since I used a straight powdered from a 1/4 teaspoon would equal to 5000 mg/4 or a low dose of 1/8 teaspoon is equivalent to 5000 mg/8, which is 1250 mg for 1/4 teaspoon and 625 mg for 1/8 teaspoon.

Before figuring out how much Tri-Boron is needed, here is the labeling information:
Tri-boron Plus Ingredients
Boron (from boron citrate, boron aspartate - boron glycinate) - 3mg*, Calcium (from calcium citrate - calcium carbonate) - 1000mg - 100%, Magnesium (from magnesium asparate - magnesium oxide) - 500mg - 125%, Vitamin D-3 - 400iu - 100%, Zinc (from zinc picolinate - histidine complex) - 15mg - 100%, Manganese (from manganese gluconate) - 5mg*, Copper (from copper gluconate) - 500mcg - 25%, Betaine HCI (betaine hydrochloride) - 324mg*
[%U.S.RDA]
[* NoU.S.RDA established]

I really have a problem against aspartate, boron aspartate or any supplements that has the name aspartate as it is an excitotoxin that works in similar ways as the artificial sweetners as aspartame, which causes metabolic acidosis. So I would not personally consider this for a couple of reasons. I contains boron aspartate, magnesium aspartate. And I have some issues about hydrochloride, such as Betaine Hydrochloride, since it is an acid forming product. So it is back to square one, things people consider as safe is usually not safe. But assuming that it IS safe and another boron supplements were found without aspartate or other amino acid excitotoxins and hydrochloride acid forming product, and we try to figure out how many capsules are needed in a 3 mg of boron products.

So in a product such as Tri-Boron, which as 3 mg, will require 625/3 = 208 capsules. This is then dissolved in a one liter of water. Which would not make practical sense. I worked out all these problem long time before and this is why supplements company stands to make a huge amount of profits. In my opinion it won't have the therapeutic dose.

So all products I have to investigated, I have found unsuprisingly that at least a local laundry detergen (borax) I have bought years ago had less heavy metal impurities then the supplements by 99%. It seems that the more it is processed the more contaminants they are introduced. So a laboratory analysis can offer assurances of the product in question or I would at least demand a "technical specification" or "purity analysis" from the manufacturers or chemical suppliers. For me it is much easier if I just get a BP grade and USP grade, and I might ask them for purity analysis sheets while I am at it. Sometimes the situation is even more strange, that a non graded product turns about to be more pure than the USP grade. That's because the company didn't formally register for USP grade.

Therefore things do not appear what it is really. This is problem of the labelling syndrome when people should investigate further what is behind all surface information we are given. There is an old one movie I watched, The Wizard of Oz, when the Wizard gave the cowardly lion a medal of courage, and a degree to a scarecrow with no brains, and medal of purple heart to the robot with no heart. It is just a label. Just because a wizard give these labels won't change the fact that they still intrinsically don't have courage, knowledge or bravery.It's a placebo effect, at the very least, but at its worse, we may be only fooling ourselves.

Ted

Replied by Pep
Madrid, Spain
09/11/2009

I think there is an error: "So in a product such as Tri-Boron, which as 3 mg, will require 625/3 = 208 capsules" is incorrect because 625mg of Borax has only 17.69mg of Boron, what is 17.69/3=6 capsules (aprox.) . You should fix the error.

Replied by Pep
Madrid, Spain
09/11/2009

Sorry, there are 70.88 mg of Boron in 625 mg of Borax. So: 70.88/3=24 capsules aprox.

Replied by Causes Not Bandaids
London, Uk
03/30/2011

Hi, I have a question regarding this. Am I correct that the active ingredient in the Borax doing the 'work' is the Boron? And if so, does it follow that taking Boron would work, if you took the right doseage? Would it need to be pure (ie only Boron - if you can get that! ) and would capsules or liquid be needed?

Also, I read on here about Baking Soda (or Baking Soda with ACV) - does that do the same thing as Borax?

Many thanks in advance.

Replied by Spirit Bear
Minto, N.b Canada
04/30/2011

Boron is Borax :-)... The chemical name is sometimes Calcium or Sodium Borate (If I recall correctly) and it's usually labeled Boron (mineral supplement) or Borax (the all natural detergent). I personally think it's a tad safer to use Boron supplements to avoid any possible contaminants from Borax.. But sometimes Boron is unavailable and Borax is a very cheap source of this essential mineral (it's a fairly large box), plus the high dilution makes for insignificant health risk in relation to it's benefits... The LDF for Borax (point at which it becomes dangerous) is actually higher than sea salt, so it's quite safe assuming the dose is not too high (1/4 teaspoon to one litre of water). It shouldn't have any fragrance added, as I have seen before. But yes, Boron is definately Borax.

Replied by Ala
Poland
10/19/2021

Boron is not equal borax. While the body needs boron as a mineral, it doesn't contain boric acid. Boric acid is what is considered “toxic” in borax. On the other hand, boric acid, not boron, works against fungus.


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