Pam (Ohio) on 05/14/2025
Ted's protocol says (for women) drinking 1/8 tsp in one liter of water daily provides about 56mg of boron.
Walter's protocol says consuming 1 tsp of his CONCENTRATE daily provides 3mg of boron.
Part of my confusion may be the terms BORON and BORAX, but unless I am not understanding things right, 56mg versus 3mg of boron is a big difference. Under Walter's protocol it says you can increase to 3 tsp of concentrate if your symptoms are severe and return to normal dosing once things level off. But still that would only be 9mg of boron compared to the 56mg from Ted's protocol.
I'm guess I'm just curious as to why there is such a big difference in the two. Again, if I am understanding right it seems like I should be able to have 18 tsp (18 x 3mg = 56mg) of Walter's concentrate daily to equal the same amount of mg in Ted's. I know the easiest remedy would be to switch to Ted's protocol but my taste buds are very sensitive and I don't know that I could handle the soapy taste of drinking one liter per day.
I'm sure there is something I am overlooking or probably making things more difficult than they need to be, but I don't want to consume too much borax that it's dangerous but I do want to increase my amount. Just wondering what the maximum amount to take daily to stay safe.
Please any insight you can give would be greatly appreciated!
Replied by Art from California on 05/14/2025
Hi Pam,For some people lower amounts of borax are ineffective for improving various forms of arthritis. When I tested Ted's dose for women to see if it would be enough to relieve my psoriatic arthritis (PA), it helped, but was not as effective as Ted's dose for men which I have been taking for the past 17 years to keep my PA in complete remission with zero pain. I also used a double dose of a glucosamine multi supplement that also had 3 mg of boron in it and the double dose brought it up to 6 mg of boron and it did absolutely nothing for my PA over a period of months.
We can now only guess as to why Ted chose the dosing levels that he did and my guess is that he chose a dose that he considered safe, but high enough to start to show results relatively quickly within the first month or less. The reason for this is because with many people if they try a remedy for a month and see no benefit, they may assume that the remedy doesn't work for them. So clearly, had I tried Walter last's remedy, I would have assumed that borax does not work and that would have been a horrible mistake as my PA was severe and the relief that Ted's remedy brought was for me, a miracle!
From reading on this forum for many years, it is clear that most people who use Ted's remedy see benefit within the first month and some see benefit within the first two weeks while some have reported benefit in the first week, but that is rare.
The doctor who actually discovered using boron/borax for various forms of arthritis, Dr. Rex Newnham, used a dose that was lower than Ted's, but higher than Walter Last's borax remedy. He found that in more severe cases it could take three to four months to obtain maximum benefit from his regimen, but some people did not respond to his regimen even after 4 months.
I think that Ted's dosing regimen has the best chance to work quickly for the most people, because apparently some people just require more boron/borax for whatever form of arthritis they have and there are many forms.
Borax/boron has other benefits such as fighting osteopenia and osteoporosis and potentially strengthening teeth. Both are also antimicrobials.
Art
Replied by Pam from Ohio on 05/14/2025
Hi Art, thank you for replying (I secretly hoped you would) because I knew you had said prior that you have been on Ted's protocol for many years. With Walter Last's protocol I have noticed mostly just a decrease in pain in my hand, most specifically my pinky finger where I have a large calcium deposit, I guess its what it's called. I can't really even bend that pinky finger except at the joint at the knuckle. So while I was hopeful that I was experiencing less pain, I guess I was wanting more...aren't we all!! I feel like I may have plateaued with just my one teaspoon of the concentrate because nothing else is changing other than probably the 75%, give or take, reduction in hand pain. And, while that is promising I will likely switch over, gradually, to Ted's protocol. I was hoping to see a reduction in the calcium deposits on a few of my finger joints that are pretty bad and maybe that will happen if I switch over to getting more boron per day. However, I may need to take stock out in lemons because I will probably only be able to drink it with lemon so I won't taste the soapy taste! Thanks for all your knowledge and contribution to not only me but everyone on EC...PamReplied by Art from California on 05/14/2025
Hi Pam,For further pain reduction in your hands, until the borax fully alleviates that last 25% of pain, melatonin lotion (ML) may help. Here is a link to what ML can do and how to make it :
https://www.earthclinic.com/supplements/melatonin-lotion.html
If you are certain you actually have calcium deposits in your hands, mag oil spray may be useful for that as well as offering some pain relief. Here is a link to a typical product :
Art
Replied by Pam from Ohio on 05/15/2025
Hi Art...I meant to tell you that I did make some melatonin lotion! I used only half the melatonin recommended. Shortly after I started using it, my sleep was horrible. Even though I only used half the melatonin, can this amount cause sleep issues? I would think it would help my sleep rather than hurt it and I'm not even sure my sleep issues were from that so I'm going to go back to using it, because I feel it really helped. I've even used it occasionally during the day, but didn't want to get too sleepy and plus I wash my hands a lot so I don't want to wash it away.Regarding my joints and if they are calcium deposits...in all honesty I don't know what they are. I guess I assumed that's what they are but not quite sure. Several of the joints in my fingers have that knobby look so maybe it's more of a cartilage issue from the OA.
I do take magnesium supplements...is it still okay to use the mag spray?
Thanks!
Replied by Pam from Ohio on 05/15/2025
Hi Art...I'm sorry to bother you again but I have a few questions that maybe you can answer. I was doing some searching on EC to verify the dosing for Ted's protocol and came across a thread from 2022 where you had responded to someone and gave some links to some of Ted's previous posts/articles. They were regarding hand arthritis and how Ted says to start with 1/8-1/4 tsp of borax only once or twice a week and then increase to 3-4 times a week maximum. I was thinking the current dosing was 5 days on, two days off.He also mentioned something about fluoride. I'm a little confused by it...should the water I drink be completely fluoride free? I have a 5-gallon water dispenser and I use reverse osmosis water but I think there is a disclaimer that reverse osmosis water may still have traces of fluoride in it. Does fluoride interfere with the borax (that you know of)?
There were also comments from Ted about things like taking Vitamin C sodium ascorbate, chlorella, green tea, tannins, minerals, etc. Additionally, he states to take 1/4 tsp baking soda and a 1/4 tsp citric acid in a half glass of water two times per day or 8 tsp fresh lime juice plus 1/2 tsp baking soda twice per day. I thought I saw somewhere on EC that taking baking soda is also good for arthritis but can't remember where I saw it and if it's ok to take while on the borax protocol. Do you know, are these things necessary for the borax to work? I don't recall seeing this info on the dosing page for the borax.
Here's what I'd like to do with switching over to Ted's protocol. My plan is to take the women's dose of 1/8 tsp of borax and put of pinch of it in my coffee in the morning. Then another pinch later when I have a breakfast smoothie and then the rest throughout the day with my water with fresh lemon juice. I would think this would still give the same results as diluting in one liter of water and sipping throughout the day. Do you have any thoughts on this?
If it's not obvious, I'm a little nervous and scared to switch over to the higher dose. I know with time, this will all ease away but having someone to run my thoughts and questions by really helps!
Again, thank you for your time...Pam
Replied by Art from California on 05/15/2025
Hi Pam,When you go back and look through Ted's writings, you notice that he always updated his protocols as he learned more and imo that's how it should be in order to stay up to date with the current science. Consequently his dosing schedules for borax were updated until he reached 5 days on with 2 days off. This also made it easy to keep a schedule as it meant the weekends could be the two days off and the weekdays could be the five days on.
Borax has worked fine for me for many years all by itself and has been compatible with all supplements I have tested over the past decade and a half.
As far as dosing, my preference is to keep it as simple as possible and Ted's remedy was about as simple as it gets. It doesn't have to be complicated to work.
As far as being fearful about taking borax, I understand. My first box of borax sat on the shelf for about 3 months as I tried to get up the nerve to take it. I finally decided that I would pay attention to how my body reacts to borax and if I had a problem, I would just stop taking it. I never had a problem so I am still taking it at a 1/4 teaspoon in a liter of water each weekday with Saturday and Sunday off for the past 17 years.
Art
Replied by Art from California on 05/15/2025
Hi Pam,If the following link to images of osteoarthritis is what you mean by "knobby look", then that is likely osteoarthritis and borax should help. A friend of mine with osteoarthritis found that her swollen joints significantly reduced in size using the combination of borax and melatonin lotion and her hand pain went away.
Yes, mag oil spray can still be used on your hands, but if it is osteoarthritis, the borax and melatonin lotion should be enough.
Art
