Borax: Unlocking the Health Benefits of a Natural Compound

I use boron as a skin exfoliant. It leaves the skin so soft and lovely.

Get yourself some good quality castile soap, some 20 Mule Team borax, and some good quality epsom salt (not the cheap stuff from the pharmacy) mix it together to form like a paste and lather up really good in the shower head to toe then scrub and rinse off. Biofilm and greasy buildup on the skin will be gone. this could also be helpful for those with morgellons and heavy metal toxicity.

I have been using borax in water 5 days on/2 days off - for about 3 weeks... I feel rather tired which I attribute to possible detox.

However, my skin looks better and I can tell my feet appear to be shedding a bit of old fungal skin which is nice. I take 1/8 tsp in water a day and usually make a match tea with it in the morning. I sometimes will take a hot bath with 1 cup of epsom salt and 1 tblsp of borax and it does make my skin feel good, yet a bit dry... it does seem to be helping with healing.

BETTER BUT WITH SIDE EFFECTS

For a long while now, my skin has been dryer than I think it's ever been in my entire life. I suspect I have some vitamin deficiencies (and/or thyroid issues) I need to address to get to the heart of the problem; but in the meantime, I decided yesterday that maybe I should start taking a little better care of my skin that I've been doing, so I decided to try washing my face with borax.

I had read about the many benefits of borax a couple of years back but didn't decide to try it until now. I was hoping it'd help exfoliate and perhaps even aid in fighting off any fine lines or wrinkles I'm beginning to develop (I'm 27); and though it's too early to tell with the wrinkles, I can say for certain that not only has exfoliated and made my facial skin extremely smooth and baby soft - but it has also unclogged so many of my pores! I still have some blackheads; but I suspect that those, too, will be gone, so long as I continue with the borax.

Before I get into what side effects I'm experiencing today, I'd like to also add that this morning I test exfoliated a patch of skin on my upper arm that's covered in dry skin and keratosis pilaris, and holy cow at the difference! There are still red spots (however, I'm interested in seeing if they'll disappear with continuous use), but I can't remember the last time anything ever made the skin on my arms this smooth!

Anyway, so that's all of the good things I've noticed in a two day period of time; but there is something has me a bit concerned - and that's that after using the borax on my face again this morning, I noticed that my usually clear, spotless cheeks were covered in red splotches and teeny, tiny little bumps!

(Side note: This isn't totally uncommon for me, as much of the time, when I wash my face with just about anything, it tends to bring out similar kinds of blemishes but in much lesser amounts - so I do NOT think that what I've experienced today is the result of an allergic reaction.)

At first, I was a bit horrified, lol. I wondered if I had over-exfoliated my skin. Perhaps two days in a row is a tad much, but not only that ... maybe I had scrubbed too hard (which feels very easy to do with borax)? Or maybe my skin is purging? But if purging is to blame, then why, in less than an hour, did most of the irritation subside? My cheeks look ALMOST clear again! So... where did those itty bitty bumps go, and what were they? I don't think they were blisters; they didn't look anything like blisters, and I think some of them even had little white heads on them. (Gross, I know.) How could my skin just reabsorb them in such little time?

I'll let it be known that I do suffer from an overgrowth of candida, and I'm curious if that may somehow have something to do with all of this. Like, is the borax sucking any bad "yeasties" out of my skin? Haha, I don't know! It didn't itch or anything, and I'm just making guesses based on things I've read; but I am really hoping that someone out there might be able to tell me what could be going on with my skin. Thanks! :-)

UPDATE (6/8/2015): I haven't used the borax on my face again quite yet, as I thought that'd be a bit too soon, considering I may have over-exfoliated yesterday. I've kept it moisturized with coconut and castor oil; and before I go out or if I start to feel too sticky, I simply rinse with water. I haven't needed to wash with borax or reapply any oils since yesterday morning, and my face looks so soft and dewy - I love it! The only thing is that my face looks sunburned! ? It doesn't hurt or itch; it feels and looks completely normal and even healthier than usual, other than the redness. Might anyone know what could be causing this? Is it the over-exfoliation alone, or is it some other side effect of using the borax?

Sandy, suicide does not seem like the answer nor does vodka to clear up your skin issues. Personally I have been at wits end many times with my psoriasis. My take is before you do anything irrational, try doing a veggie juice cleanse for awhile or even better a water fast under the care of a licensed Naturopath. My guess is you have Candida. Best of luck. Hope this helps.

Ted, I get confused easily. I keep reading about the borax, peroxide remedy and have read different mixtures at different messages.

I have mixed a liter of spring water with 1/4 teaspoon of borax, and a capful of peroxide, I drank on this all day yesterday and then today added 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. I did this to drink on all day. I don't know if this is correct since I later saw this was after meals.

I have lots of black places that look like freckles that have came up and I know age brings some of this but I see black specks in the tub. Lots of burning skin so bad I have tried to commit sucide three times and was put in the mental hospital. I can't take this skin burning and also my eyes are full of thick stuff. If I use anything on my face like even water I get a lather like it has soap on it this has gone on for over three years.

I have lost almost all hope. I did use all the things I have on hand in the house like the lavender and mixed it with too much vodka at first, it did help with the pain. I saw the mixture for skin and used it all day but got to dried out and had to stop the second day. It has been hard to even wear clothes that touched my skin. I need to keep it simple so help with cleaning is something I need to know.

This is urgent for me since I don't feel there is anything left. I have xylitol and wondered about using it with the chocolate to make something tasty. Or can I mix a vodka drink to make it a little stronger for pain?

Please help!

I want to comment on the borax as a face wash. I have been using borax now for a couple of weeks. After reading some of the comments, I wanted to start slow. I have to say, it works for me. My skin loves this stuff! My face is softer, smoother and brighter. I'm not at the ingesting stage yet because I can't wrap my head around drinking something that I wash my clothes with. Next, I'll try it in the bath. Thanks Earth Clinic. I get a lot of great natural remedies from this site.

YEA!!!! Love BORAX my husband and I have been using it as scrub for months, no soap, still use shampoo though, But skin has never felt better. Cant wait to take shower it feels so GOOD! Just get wet, Turn off water, Get a palm or two full and scrub, FEELS GREAT! RINSE, then MAYBE a little VCO, sometimes, WOW! BABY SOFT!

After five months of use I feel I qualify to respond. Before the use of borax my skin was always dry, tight, red and itchy. The powerful scents and perfumes of regular shower products could be smothering. I now have no desire to use anything but borax in the shower and on my face. Also I have always had an itchy scalp but no longer. Washing the hair with borax is alot like washing it with beach sand (not very nice :))but the results were undeniable for me, no more itch. Unlike other EC posters I am not pleased with the results of using borax alone so after a good scrub and rinse with borax I do shampoo with a regular shampoo. Overall I give borax a big YEA, I am sure my husband will give it a thumbs up also. Although he has the most beautiful skin his only skin issue is back acne which has easily improved by 90% since using borax in addition to regular products (he likes the smelly stuff). Thank you to everyone.

For those who are nervous about using borax, it may interest them to learn that borax is used in most Bath Salts -- that's why I already had a package of the laundry borax, was because years ago I tried making Bath Salts, and the borax is one of the main ingredients.

I also learned that when I soaked in baths containing either borax or epsom salts, that I was prone to bouts of diarhhea -- so I stopped putting together Bath Salt Recipes -- I hadn't realized how readily I seem to absorb anything placed in hot bath water.

I'm pointing this out, because this past week I read someone somewhere online caution to never put any borax on one's skin because allegedly it's so absorbable -- but that doesn't make sense, because not only do most laundry detergents contain it, & thus our clothes have residues of it, it also is found in diaper rash formulas, and anybody who likes to add mineral salts to the bath tub has probably soaked in borax on many occasions.

I have to tell you I am quite shocked. I've been doing 30 mg worked up to 110 mg a day of borax past few months. I started it for my 2 knee arthritis which it has helped I still have pain but it's not the light me up screaming pain when I move it the wrong way. It's also helping my Candida overgrowth which I'm overjoyed about. But what really sets borax apart for me is I haven't read this from anybody yet.… Are you ready for this? Skin tag Yep that's right. I never get skin tags but about 10 years ago I got a skin tag in a private area. And it was a good quarter inch long. It's been there like I said for about 10 years. Well two months into doing the Borax and guess what the skin tag is almost all gone from taking borax orally! I am so happy this stuff is amazing I'm doing 110 mg and I am a woman, but this is a treatment dose, sure I will end up with the maintenance dose once everything feels better.

I have fibromyalgia, chronic fatique and other co issues. Eliminating my Candida overgrowth that I've been fighting for 20 years is just a blessing. This stuff is amazing I started my own Facebook group to give people support we all talk about how great it's been using borax thank you for all you do we use a lot of your videos to encourage people. I just haven't found anybody talking about borax and skin tags again this was orally, I did not apply it to the skin tag that's what really trips me out. I bet if somebody put it on a cotton ball and held it on their skin tags it would work even faster! God bless keep up the good work.

Borax should be taken with a Magnesium supplement of 400-600mg per day. This helps the effectiveness, as well as minimizing the side-effects.

Please check out a full article on The Borax Conspiracy & dosage by Dr. Newnham who discovered its healing properties at site below (scroll down till you see actual article) : http://educate-yourself.org/cn/boraxconspiracy03jul12.shtml

This is my first contribution, but because borax was so instrumental in helping me control my systemic fungal infection that I wanted to put in my 2 cents to lend clarity to some of the posts. The borax that I bought was from 20 mule team and had no scent. If you look at the ingredients, there is only one ingredient and that is Sodium Tetraborate. Sodium Tetraborate is listed as a natural mineral. If there are any added scents to it, it would have to be listed also. Just make sure you only get the 20 mule team product.

I had Pneumonia when I was a baby and have had a systemic yeast infection my whole life. A friend made me a Hulda Clarke basic zapper and I was surprised at how effective it was. As time went on, I got a stronger one... I think it was a Bob Beck device. At that time you could purchase a kit at Electronic City in Burbank and put it together yourself. It seemed to work also. Then I loaned it to a person who had cancer and never got the device back. Meanwhile, my yeast problem got worse. I then got a don Croft Terminator. I was so determined to get rid of this yeast infection that I zapped every day for months.

Then one day, I woke up with my entire buttocks covered with watery hives. When I would scratch them, all the blisters would break. I didn't know what happened then later, I realized that the zapper was acting just like antibiotics. It would aggressively killed the yeast, fungus or bacteria, but not completely, leaving resistant ones to proliferate. I didn't know what to do, go back to a doctor? I was in this condition because of doctors to begin I t then returned with a vengence. This time my entire body was covered with the weepy, itchy blisters. That was when I found out about Borax.

Within two days of taking the Borax solution, all the blisters had cleared up. I've been on it for about a year now and though I'm much better, I still do have eruptions of pimples here and there in different parts of my body.

It seems to be happening more often now and I'm wondering if anyone has noticed a recurrence of their infection and if anyone knows of any information on these microbes developing a resistance to Borax?

Curious to know why borax is one of the most important remedies to kill fungus and nano-bacteria? Us too! We asked our independent contributor Ted from Bangkok for clarification on why borax is an important home remedy to consider in certain cases like dog mange, lupus and rosacea.

Ted's replied: "There are a lot of evidence why borax is effective against nearly all forms of fungus, whether they be mycoplasma found in lupus, rosacea, dog mange, interstitial cystitis plasmodium parasites, Morgellons disease, or even pneumonia. I think borax medicine is one of the medicines most ignored, misinformed or even suppressed in our present society. The authorities have done it so well that very few know that the toxicity of borax is about equal to that of simple table salt.

I have seen almost daily, people dying of pneumonia (James Brown died a couple of days ago), a Thai actor got his brains eaten by a plasmodium, for example. The possible cure is relatively simple: borax. Every time I see people dying, borax always come to mind, and you probably see why. Even health experts such as Dr. Batmanhelidj (Your Body Cries for Water) got pneumonia, as so did Bob Hope and Buddy Ebsen (Beverly HillBilly). I think pneumonia kills just as many people, it's just that cancer and heart disease take greater billboard area. Because of the way the medical system is structured, heart disease and cancer is more profitable, and a simple magnesium and pH may have helped both problems in prevention and possibly cure (I have seen this on many occasions) for a lot less cost.

Below is one of the many interesting articles concerning borax, which mentions the use of borax against fungus, a well known fact amongst microbiologists but totally unknown to the public.

The second article mentions about the use of borax against the dreaded an incurable plasmodium related organism, a common parasites in human. Never mind about its own effectiveness when combined with hydrogen peroxide in the use of dog mange! Ted"

PIONEER MAGAZINE
Borax Versus Killer Fungus
January 1994

Conifer forests are threatened all over the northern hemisphere by the tiny, ubiquitous spores of a naturally occurring fungus called Heterobasidion annosum. This disease, better known as Fomes, has reached epidemic proportions in Scandinavia, and is a growing menace in the managed forests of Canada, United States, Britain, and Russia. Fomes rots the roots and heartwood of growing trees. It could be called the acid rain of the fungus world.

Supporting the UK's Forestry Commission, Borax Group scientists Kieran Quill and Jeff Lloyd are fighting back against Fomes, and discovering how to do so with maximum effectiveness and economy. Their principal weapons are Tim-bor (disodium octaborate tetrahydrate) and the analytical capacity of the Borax Research laboratories.

Fomes cannot live freely in soil nor can it infect live trees except through root contact or wounds. Its spores however can colonize freshly cut stumps - both the "thinnings" which are essential as forests mature and the stumps left when the crop is finally felled.

The spores are produced by hoof-shaped fruiting bodies near ground level at a daily rate of about six million per square centimeter. Because these spores can be dispersed over distances of at least 300 miles, Fomes can be considered ubiquitous in most managed forests. Once established the fungus can remain viable in a stump for decades, posing a continuous threat to any conifer growing or planted near it. Fomes can survive both extreme cold and extreme heat.

But how are healthy trees infected? Fomes spores germinate on the stump surface, whence the fungus gradually colonizes the root system of the felled tree. From there it enters the root systems of living trees that are in contact with the stump's roots, causing both roots and heartwood to decay, eventually killing the tree.

The fungus is almost impossible to eradicate, except by the removal of all stumps soon after felling - an expensive and rarely practicable option. However, germination of spores on the surface of stumps can be stopped by chemical and biological agents. In the past, this has been carried out manually by the tree feller, but now with increasing mechanization, the requirements have changed. Today a material is needed that can be sprayed automatically onto the stump while the harvesting machine is actually severing the tree. The material must give value for money, be easy to obtain, have low mammalian toxicity, be non-corrosive and environmentally benign.

Among several fungicides tested, borates have consistently given good control. Tim-bor (known as Tim-Bor® in North America) and borax are the only chemicals to have EPA approval for the control of Fomes in the U.S. However materials that are effective over large areas of North America may behave differently in northern Europe where rainfall, climatic conditions and forest management techniques could result in a completely different set of disease and control characteristics. In the light of this, the UK Forestry Commission and the Borax Group have carried out trials in Scotland with the object of determining borate efficacy. What is the threshold at which Tim-bor becomes toxic to the fungus? How little will do the trick?

Undiseased Sitka spruce near Peebles, Scotland were felled and their stumps were treated with Tim-bor at four percent, two percent, one percent, 0.5 percent, or with water. Twenty-four hours later Fomes was applied dropwise by hypodermic syringe.

The stumps were left to mature for a year, during which time samples of wood were regularly extracted with a core borer for borate analysis. At the end of a year, the amount of stump colonized by Fomes was measured on a one inch thick disc cut from a standard depth. Each disc was incubated at 10°C to 15°C for ten days.

During incubation, fruiting structures of the fungus emerge from infected wood. These can be seen quite easily under a dissecting microscope, and allow any diseased zones of the stump to be mapped. A comparison of the measured diseased areas on the sample discs provides a means of judging the success of a particular treatment.

All analytical work for the project was carried out at the Borax Research laboratories in Chessington (UK).

The results from this experiment indicate that at a borate concentration of around four percent, the mean area of infected heartwood was reduced from 22 percent to less than 0.5 percent. This represented less than one square centimeter, an insignificant inoculum. However, at concentrations of two percent and below, no significant control occurred. In an earlier experiment it was found that a concentration of five percent totally prevented infection. So a working concentration of four to five percent of Tim-bor is indicated for full disease control.

As a result of this research, Tim-bor is being assessed for full commercial application by the UK Forestry Commission, and has aroused widespread interest across Europe."

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PIONEER MAGAZINE

Of Cabbages And Things
February 1999

Plasmodiophora brassicae are nasty little beasts of uncertain origins. They may relate to the protozoa, single celled organisms which are neither plants nor animals, and are only a few thousandths of a millimeter wide and long. Most of their relatives in this microscopic world are harmless, but some distant cousins are Plasmodium species, which cause malaria in humans and Amoeba species which cause dysentery. Plasmodiophora brassicae's parasitic way of life is to attack vegetables of the brassica family, causing the debilitating clubroot disease. Now, evidence is emerging that boron might play an important part in keeping its effects in check.

Crops of the brassica family are of enormous worldwide importance. Arguably they are second only to cereals in their contribution to human diet and welfare. They range from the cabbages, cauliflowers, calabrese and brussels sprouts familiar in the western world, to a wide array of leafy and root vegetables widespread in India, China and Japan. The Chinese cabbage, for example, is one of the most important foodstuffs of the Orient. Much of the world supply of vegetable oil comes from rape and mustard seed, while swedes (rutabagas) and turnips are important animal fodder crops in Europe and North America.

There wouldn't be much of a problem hosting a parasite like Plasmodiophora if it didn't have such rampant and dire side effects. In clubroot disease, the plant roots are distorted by massive galls, which inhibit water and nutrient uptake. The grossly deformed roots sap carbohydrates from the leaves and deprive developing flowers. The foliage turns bluish-green, then yellow and then wilts: the plant is past the point of no return and nothing can restore it to health.

Not surprisingly, this is responsible for drastic crop losses and poor quality. It is also virtually impossible, certainly in intensively-farmed regimes, to eradicate the parasite from the soil in which it spends much of its lifecycle.

When Plasmodiophora spores germinate in the soil, the tiny organisms swim around and as soon as they meet a root hair they attach and inject their own cell contents into the root. The genetic material multiplies inside the plant, and it is believed that this presence upsets the host hormone metabolism and leads to uncontrolled cell growth - almost a plant cancer. Once established and now mature, the parasites release billions of new spores back into the soil. It is a very robust lifecycle which is almost impossible to break.

There are clues too that Plasmodiophora may incorporate DNA from the host - perhaps a reason why biological control methods or genetically- induced protection methods have not yet been found. The traditional ways of controlling Plasmodiophora, either heavy liming (that is, adding quantities of calcium), alternative crop rotations or better soil drainage, similarly have only limited effect.

This is where boron comes in. The element is an essential plant nutrient, and it is well known that boron-healthy plants are better able to resist disease-causing organisms. In the case of brassicas, the important thing is to give the plant a head start, and certainly enough boron to begin with can help it resist clubroot.

But this doesn't fully explain why crops which enjoy good boron availability seem to be able to resist clubroot significantly better. Researchers, led by Professor Geoffrey Dixon of the Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, UK have been looking into this puzzle.

They started out with three possible ideas. Does boron somehow reduce the potency of the clubroot invader directly in the soil? Might it encourage the growth and activity of soil microbes which then prey on the Plasmodiophora before they attack? Or does it actually fight the invasion or its effects within the plant itself?

The team now suspects it is actually the latter. For boron, which contributes so much for so little to plant metabolism, seems not to do the same for the parasitic protozoan. Indeed it works in the opposite way and actually slows down the lifecycle.

What boron and, less strongly, calcium (from heavy liming) seem to do is to reduce the rate at which the invaders mature inside the root and turn into secondary sporangiophores - the ones that cause the damage - whose mission is to release new generations into the outside subterranean world. Boron apparently doesn't stop the initial invasion, but puts the harmful metamorphosis into slow motion.

Whether boron is altering the biochemical environment inside the root to make it Plasmodiophora-unfriendly, or is encouraging the plant to retaliate is not yet clear. But the effect is the same. Brassicas are given more, and often enough time to mature and establish effective roots before clubroot tumors wreak their damage.

A 15-year long series of experiments conducted by the Strathclyde team has convincingly demonstrated that a specific application of boron to the seedlings at transplanting does indeed reduce the onset of clubroot symptoms and hence protects crop yields to a significant degree.

Species by species, brassicas vary in their susceptibility to boron deficiency, but generally they are rated as vulnerable to low boron levels for general growth and health: boron supplementation is, then, important anyway.

But the new message for growers is that, in the right amount and at the right time, it keeps clubroot in check.

Maybe 10 years ago I discovered Borax on this site for detoxing metals. An unexpected side effect was my TMJ disappeared within the first week. I'm surprised that after 10 years, I still don't see TMJ listed as something else borax cures, so I'm adding it here myself! TMJ is basically untreatable through conventional methods so to be able to open my mouth fully again with no pain or even tightness is a miracle to me! I hope others will find relief too.

I follow Ted's Borax protocol of 1/8 tsp in 1 liter of distilled water 5 days a week for 4 weeks. I've had to repeat the protocol a few times over 10 years.