Borax Side Effects & Safety Guide

I would be so grateful if Ted could address this question. I'm at the end of my second day of taking 1/8 tsp borax in 1 liter of water for treating rosacea and like some others experienced, beginning this morning I could feel slight kidney discomfort. I wouldn't say the kidneys hurt exactly, but they're making their presence known. In all other respects I feel fine. I tend to believe this is a sign my body is detoxing, but I don't want to be too little worried :) Could this be a sign of detox or is it a sign that I should stop immediately?

Last year I tried 1/8 teaspoon borax and sea salt in 1 liter of water to test if flouride was causing my health issues. After a couple of days I too experienced kidney pains. Since I had never felt internal pains like that before, even after trying many natural remedies and supplements over the years, I was quite scared. I stopped taking borax immediately. It didn't make sense to me that kidney pains would be a sign of detox. In conclusion, I no longer believe borax should be taken internally.

I also am having kidney pain today after having 1/8 tsp. in over a liter of water yesterday. Also curious to know if Ted has a possible scientific explanation for this as I really don't want to mess with kidney damage but I could really use the benefits borax is supposed to provide.

Upon further reflection and 3 total days in pain, I realize it was most likely intestinal pain (front) rather than kidney pain (usually manifests in the back). I fasted for a day and then upon eating the pain was significantly reduced.

Kidney pain is just the excess calcium being removed from the tissues and fluoride excretion passing thru the kidneys. Stop or slow down treatment for awhile.

J- ever been to a dialysis clinic? Kidney pain is never something to ignore!

today was my first try of the borax remedy. I was fine right until the end of the liter but around the end i developed what seems to me like pain in the kidney area. A couple other posters had reported this also. I will wait a day or so to see if it goes away and will try it again. Anyone know if this is transient, benign pain or is this dangerous?

I slowly went from 1/32 teaspoon to 1/4 teaspoon dose borax to remove fluoride from the body. I quit after about 2 days on the 1/4 teaspoon dose. I mixed it properly in pure water according to the directions that I found here. I had to go off of the borax due to aches and pains in the testicles, kidneys, and head. I was very frightened, especially about that kidney pains. Unfortunately, the pains indicated damage. I now, months afterwards, have pain in the kidneys every day, and I have actually LOST almost all of my sex drive. The pains indicated damage that seems permanent. Being prediabetic, perhaps I shouldn't have risked kidney damage!!!! But I miss my sex drive more. It's gone, and borax is not only as toxic as salt to me. Not by far.

This is a response to "David from Surrey, BC". And it is important for anyone trying Borax as a remedy.

No male should ever expose themselves to Borax or Boric Acid. David's symptoms (testicle and kidney atrophy) are classic case of Boric Acid poisoning -- just a few weeks of daily exposure to Borax is known to cause testicle atrophy and sterility in dogs and is suspected in sterility of humans that work with the chemical. It also damages kidneys and to lesser extent the liver. Please, people do not even let Borax touch your skin if you're a male. Look it up on Google and you'll find articles like http://www.peopleforcleanbeds.org/boric_acid_risks.htm

While there is a threshold below which Borax is fairly safe, if you go over that threshold it is quite dangerous. The threshold is very dependent on body weight -- definitely don't let Borax anywhere near an infant or a pregnant woman. So there certainly may be people who use it without noticeable adverse affect, it is not worth it to have some people seriously injured by it -- it is dangerous advice.

I understand your suspicion of flouride, but then you should be suspicious of all environmental chemical exposure -- why are you exposing yourself to a chemical with more proven risk than flouride?

According to Wikipedia "Borax is also easily converted to boric acid and other borates, which have many applications. Its reaction with hydrochloric acid to form boric acid is: Na2B4O7·10H2O + 2 HCl --> 4 B(OH)3 [or H3BO3] + 2 NaCl + 5 H2O"

There is enough HCl in our stomach so I expect borax is being converted into boric acid inside. Borax is not as rich in boron as boric acid is. Therefore I undestand receiving borax is equivalent to receiving lower doses of boric acid. I'm on day 5 of 1/4 teaspoon of borax solution daily (against mites) and my testicles started to hurt. Sometimes also feeling presence of my kidneys now. I'm terminating the remedy and hoping there was no irreversible damage made.

Ted, your experiences are interesting and welcome, however I was looking for more informations about boron which I'd like to share. There are many science papers about boron & rats. It was stated sterilization occurred on rats/dogs exposed to boron. 300 mg boron/kg BW/day is usually fatal to rats and around 600 mg/kg BW in single dose is fatal to rats. Based on accidental intake of boron by humans, lethal dose is guessed at 15,000 to 20,000 mg of boric acid, which equals to 3 000 mg of boron, which (70 kg person) is roughly 40 mg boron/kg BW. Looks like rat is more tolerant to boron by the ratio of 10 . Regarding to studies made, it was found that around 20 mg boron/kg BW/day is a level which does not affect testicles/health of rats. Higher boron intake leads to testicles atrophy either temporary or permanent, depends also on dosage. If 20 mg/kg BW/day is a threshold for rat, considering 10 ratio, it could be less than 2 mg/kg/day for human.

For 70 kg person, it is less than 140 mg of boron or 1400 mg of borax (safe for daily human intake). Now 1/4 teaspoon of borax is 5 ml/4 = 1,25 ml of borax or 2,000 mg of borax. Since measuring 1/4 tsp is not accurate in all cases and some people tend to take more the stuff to improve results of remedy, one can expect dosage can reach 4,000 mg/day or 2,500 mg boric acid/day. It is more than 10 % of dosage which is being lethal. It is 3 times more than safe level I guessed above. Therefore I've concerns this remedy/dosage is quite dangerous with strong damaging potential. It is also a fact people experienced side effects. Anyone can search Internet for document boron. Pdf, title 'Boron in Drinking-water', which is a comprehensive review of known facts about boron and laboratory tests on animals.

Interesting information Miroslav.. Thanks.. In my experience I found just a few sips (about 4oz) from a 1/4tsp, per liter solution before bedtime, had relatively strong effects, with increased night sweating and vivid dreams along with a calmness.. My intuition told me this was enough... So I would used up the bottle over a 4 or 5 days. Though I really did like the effect it seemed to wane on the following nights. I also need to hear more positive long term results do this for any legth of time..

Ted, I'm writing the same. Except one important detail: You assume doses for rat (per body weight) can be applied to human. But I'm confident we are not rats. Possible fatal intake for adult human was found at 15 to 20,000 of boric acid (or 40 mg boron/kg BW). And as I noted before, this value was established for a reason. Rat is more tolerant to boron intake likely by a factor of 10. So this is why I'm having concerns about dosage and this is probably the reason why people are reporting adverse effects. It is also worth to warn 1 tsp of borax is not 4 g, but rather about 100 % more.

I'm not a chemist, but in the calculations set forth on June 29, 2011 it seems the 2160 mg of borax which equals 1/4 tsp should be divided by 60 kg to get 36 mg/kg as the highest dose recommended by Ted. Which would seem to be only 1.38 % of the MINIMUM lethal dose of boron of 2.6-3.5 g which he stated. Really need to understand because I am dealing with so many health issues but really want to try to the borax regimen.

Yes, indeed, there are many shills for western medicine and disinformation artists out there. In addition, too many people breast fed on western medicine do not want to take responsibility for their own health. If you do not know your body well enough, and do not listen to the signals that your body gives you then how do you expect a 3rd party (aka: the doctor) to do any better than you at healing you? alternative medicine is ALL about taking responsibility for yourself. All I know is that my body doesn't respond well to any other person's idea about cookie-cutter medicine designed to mean "one size fits all"

In response to Joe from Atlanta, who wrote: "The density of borax is 1.73 g/mL"...

mL is a liquid measure and Borax is a powder so I don't see where you get this from. I weighed a level 1/4 teaspoon of Borax on a gram scale and it was less than 800 mg so it only has 88 mg of boron at the most, not 245 mg. Maybe some borax is more dense than mine, so if anyone is concerned they should weigh it in mg and multiply by 0.11 to find the boron content.

I read the link you provided and I notice it is mostly about Boric Acid which I heard shouldn't be confused with Borax. I used Boric Acid to kill very very aggressive cockroaches and can understand how it may be very toxic to the human body. Nonetheless, I am giving Borax a go to see if it is beneficial.

Hi, I've been using 1/8th teaspoon of borax with 1/8th teaspoon of sea salt in 1 liter of water and drinking it 5 days a week for the last couple of weeks. I'm now experiencing what I would call a hive like breakout on my face, neck, chest and arms that lasts for about an hour and then fades away. It started randomly about a week after I started taking borax, but now it's almost a daily occurence. I don't know if I should quit taking it all together or if something else could be causing this. I use to have it happen after drinking certain wines years ago, or after a workout...but now it's happening while I'm at my desk at work and it has my co-workers freaked out. I haven't told them what I'm doing because they aren't into alternative medicine as I am and they already make fun of how many supplements I take a day. Please help. Thank you.

I tried drinking at the suggested rate. I found that my hair started falling out much more than normal. A friend told me that that hair falling out is a sign of kidney problems. I stopped drinking and my hair stopped falling out at such a drastic rate.

I will bath in it. I bath my kids in it too. I think your body absorbs things from baths-magnesium, boron. I haven't found any harm in bathing with it. I put about a 1/4 to a 1/3 cup in the water.

In laundry, if you wash colours in hot with laundry soap and about 1/4-1/3 cup of borax the colours come out remarkably bright. The water has to be hot, not warm.

Hi Misty, you admit you have so much yeast that it is obvious, most people have yeast problems that don't even know it, so this proves to me, along with your constipation that you have a big problem with yeast and other related things, microbes, fungus, parasites etc. then you admit that you drink 2/3 of a liter of the solution, that is WAY to much when you are loaded with things living in your body. I wonder what your salt intake is???

Do you understand what the relation to stomach acid, salt and yeast is ? Sse tiny amounts of this natural cleanser borax and allow it a chance to plus your body of the dead yeast etc. and get your stomach acid right, by giving yourself the raw materials to make HCL chloride!!! Himalayan salt is good. then you will not allow things to grow inside anymore. That is what yeast is.

Shawn

That doesn't sound like hives, it is candida die-off. Candida die-off or sometimes called "candida rash" is a by product of almost every successful detox. I got it about a month after I began eating organic produce and using the Borax remedy and ACV. Mine was all up and down the inside of my arms, but cleared up quicker than yours. The candida is just more concentrated in those areas you speak of.

Borax is used for chelating metals and eliminating flouride. You may want to try chlorella for a while to see if you like that better. If you're wanting to address pH balance, try Ted or Bill's alkalinizing remedies. That will also encurage candida elimination. ACV/baking soda at bedtime will also counteract overnight acidity.

Boron/Borax have been known to work at normalizing the thyroid. This might be what is happening. You did say you are a vegetarian. Vegetarians are known for having unstable thyroid levels due to the lack of animal protein in their diets. If you are uncomfortable with the Borax, try Boron supplements from the health food store. They are made for human cosumption.

I tried Borax remedy for my persistent fungus problem in my mouth. I tried Borax internally because Nystation didn't get rid of it ( only partly it did). I used store brand Borax, 1/8 tsp in one liter of distilled water. The first day I experienced a nasty headache all day long and at the second day, my kidney started hurting. So I had to stop taking Borax and I'll never try it again. The pain persisted 5 day after I stopped taking it. It was really scary! I read Ted's comment stating that he uses the store brand Borax when he can't find pure grade Borax. I have read most of user comment and Ted's email before I decided to try Borax remedy. I would like to post my experience about using store brand Borax so that people can least expects what can happen.

Thank you Ted and Earthclinic for such wonderful information! I have a question for Ted: I started the Borax cure 8 days ago to treat fluoride poisoning and candida. I've been taking 1/8 tsp. Borax in 1 liter of purified water every other day. On day 4 I started manifesting flulike symptoms--extreme chest congestion (very, very thick mucous) and cough, extreme fatigue, all over body aches, mild fever. Today I'm still sick but I am slowly getting better. Would you classify this as a normal detox reaction or did I probably get a virus on top of detoxing?