Borax Dosage in Milligrams
I have known people who have treated themselves succesfully with Borax. That is the reason I wanted to try it. The problem is that they all took different dosages. I simply wanted to follow an established protocol. What is 1/4 teaspoon in milligrams? The difference on this site has varied enormously. Experienced users! Please Help. Thanks.
(San Francisco, Ca, USA)
08/20/2012
For Taquir, I measured 1/8 teaspoon and 1/4 teaspoon amounts of 20 Mule Team Borax from the local grocery on a Precision Professional Digital Mini Scale ____ (This scale cost me about $30. retail in Florida, USA).
Since lumps in the Borax are compacted and Borax is a comparatively heavy substance, I mashed the lumps in the Borax powder loose before measuring (Clearly from the following measurements I must have missed a few tinies though). Since this Borax has about the same toxicity as table salt, I am sure the minute difference is negligible in effect.
My procedure was: Wack the lumps, fill the scoop, level off the scoop, then pour contents of the scoop into tare container and measure weight. The tare container was cleared of debris before each measurement.
Here are my measurement results:
- 1/4 teaspoon 20 Mule Team weighs .73 grams, or 730 milligrams
- 1/8 teaspoon 20 Mule Team weighs.34 grams, or 340 milligrams
So Bangkok Ted recommends 1/4 teaspoon Borax per litre of water for men, and 1/8 teaspoon Borax per litre of water for women.
Namaste, Linda
Borax Dosages
Please clarify the dosage for women. Some reviewers have stated there are discrepancies and I don't want to OD.
EC: Hi Cindy, you can read Earth Clinic's main article about borax for clarification. For women, it's generally 1/8 teaspoon of borax dissolved in 1 liter of distilled water sipped throughout the day, 5 days on, 2 days off.
Note: Some experience side effects the first week as they detox (upset stomach, headaches, etc), so you can start with less than 1/8th for the first few days. Also, for some people, 1/8th teaspoon isn't enough to help their symptoms so they increase slowly to the men's dosage.
(USA)
04/07/2023
(WI)
04/08/2023
Borax Dosages
In response to:
Posted by Isolda (Beaufort) on 04/24/2022
Hello, I did the 1/4 tsp in a litre of water first day loading but by the time I reached 3/4 of the bottle about 5-6 hours later I started to feel antsy and nervous. I was a little anxious. Later in the evening I felt anxious again. Like it had a second cycle in my body. Probably going through my liver. I have read that the dosage of the 1/4 tsp = 114mg is incorrect. Can you please confirm that it is correct?
I find a lot of people but especially women do not tolerate the recommended doses on this site initially. I start people out on 1/16 of a USA teaspoon in liter of water. I will have them do this 3 times a week the first week. If that does not bother them next week I have them do that 5 days and take a break over the weekend. If they are an average size man or larger I will have them jump to 1/8th teaspoon 3 days a week and build up again to 5 days a week. IF they are women I have them try 1/8th teaspoon on one day and stay at 1/16th the rest of the week. The idea is to sneak up on the full daily dose without negative side effects. If they get anything more than a mildly upset stomach I will have them take a day or two off and back the dose down. Your body has been deficient your entire life on this trace mineral. Not everyone can jump in at a high dose. The goal is to heal your body not make yourself sick and miserable.
My wife only takes it once a week at 1/8th teaspoon and that keeps all of her joints pain free. I have been taking 1/4 teaspoon per day for years and it only helped my joint pain the first month or so. It greatly improved my Vitamin D absorption though! I am upping my dose though to 1/2 a teaspoon of Borax and Backing soda to see if a higher dose helps.
I started my Dad on 1/4 teaspoon of Borax and 1/2 teaspoon of backing soda each night before bed. It stopped his kidney disease and reversed it one grade and improved his joints and all of his other health markers. It also cured his constipation. He takes a lot of medications that cause constipation but that is not a problem now. It has not done anything for my joints, tendons or ligaments but I am convinced that it along with vitamin D and K2 removed the calcium deposits from my heart valves.
Before taking Borax no matter how much vitamin D3 I took I was always deficient. So start slow this is not a race. Take what you can and titrate the dose upward as your body can handle it. Do not be afraid to stop it and let any side effects go away before restarting!
Robert,
There are no human studies to answer the question about ulcers and borax that you are asking. There are only animal studies and those studies show that borax can cause microscopic ulcers as discussed in this study :
Here is a relevant quote from the study :
' Conclusion: Both of low dose (150mg / kg BW) and high dose (300mg / kg BW) of borax exposure for 8 weeks cause microscopic gastric ulcer on rats. '
Of importance is human equivalency of the three doses they used in this study in the rats. The three dose were :
50 mg/kg
150 mg/kg
300 mg/kg
If you convert these to human equivalency approximations, they would look like this :
8.1 mg/kg
24.3 mg/kg
48.6 mg/kg
In the study, they said the last two doses, which are higher than the first dose, caused microscopic ulcers, but when you look at their data, the lowest dose also showed some issues. When you convert that lowest dose of 8.1 mg/kg to a human weighing 80 kg or roughly 176 pounds, the dose would be 648 mg per day and this puts the dose in between Ted's dose for women and his dose for men which are roughly 500 mg for women and 1000 mg for men.
Based on the above information, it sounds like you would be using a safer approach to first heal your ulcers before attempting Ted's borax regimen.
Regarding the ulcers, natural remedies aside, your doctor should be able to put you on an antibiotic regimen to cure them fairly in most cases.
Art
Borax Dosages
I've been reading on the second page of these posts that one poster said he felt Borax supplies 75 mg in a 1/8 tsp--but Dr. Newnham said "...40-60 grams was a dangerous dose and children had been killed with much smaller doses...... So I took 30 mg of borax twice daily, this was 6 mg of elemental boron a day and in a week the pain was less, in ten days the pain was less. In three weeks the pain, swelling and stiffness had all gone, so I stopped taking the borax. A year later the pain and swelling returned so I took more borax and in two weeks all was right again."
It seems that if 75 mg is 1/8 of a tsp, but Dr N. took 60, forgive my math (it's horrible) but wouldn't that mean you should be taking less than 1/8 to get 60 mg (his 30 mg 2x a day)??? So why is everyone taking so much more than he researched and recommended? Pls explain. I am all ears and I don't want to take too much or risk poisoning myself!! Tnx
(Eastern Ontario, Canada)
11/07/2021
Please! Do yourself a favour, and STOP TAKING ANY AND ALL SUBSTANCES until you buy a scale....
When weighing doses of any particular substance but ABSOLUTELY WITH NO EXCEPTIONS for drugs/medication, you NEED to be using a Calibrated Milligram Scale (so the units appear as 0.000g and in this case if you want 75mg you want it to read 0.075g when weighing out your dose.)
1/8th of a teaspoon is NOT a unit of measurement, maybe for flour or something that doesn't matter at all, but NOT for medications when the recommended doses are in the milligrams... JUST so we are clear, a milligram is 1000th of a gram, this is miniscule in comparison.. If you were to use this spoon method with a more harmful substance you would SURELY kill yourself! PLEASE be careful!
I write this for your benefit and ONLY with pure love, nothing else! ❤️
(NC)
11/07/2021
Borax is less toxic than table salt. In the case of Borax, I think the measuring spoon dosage is perfectly fine. A scale would be useful for perhaps things like Sodium thiosulfate.
(USA)
10/24/2022
Borax is not elemental Boron. So your example is a bit flawed. Now if they are purchasing pure powdered Boron reagent grade or higher than yes you are 100% correct.
The doses involved on this site do not require the precision that you are demanding. The mineral Sodium Boron is less toxic than Sodium Chloride and it's LD50 is much higher. No one would be alarmed at someone putting a 1/4 teaspoon of table salt aka Sodium Chloride in a liter of water and drinking it let alone using an accurate scale to measure out the amount wanted.
In fact in nature water supplies can have up to 300mg/L and soil 33mg per kilogram.
The LD50 for Borax is 3.16gm/kilogram so 3160mg per kg of mass. So a 150lbs. man or 68kg man would need to consume 214,880mg of Borax in a day to have a 50% chance of death. Now if talking about elemental Boron, not Borax, I think adults have died at 15,000mg to 20,000mg. So again a huge safety profile for the dose being recomended on this site and other sites.
You would really have to work hard to get to those levels. Most people get lose stool the first time they ingest 1/4 of a teaspoon in water I can not imagine anyone ever approaching a level that would be of true concern. Again it is less toxic than table salt!
Borax Dosages
My new borax protocol, working fabulously..
A pinch of borax in 4 ounces of water.
Taken two times a day. By pinch, I mean if you were to reach into a salt jar and pinch just enough salt to sprinkle on an entree, about that much. (Don't ask me to count the granules!) I spent the past 10 years on and off doing Ted's 1/8 teaspoon of borax in 1 liter of water. However, a pinch 1-2 times a day seems to be the perfect amount for me. I do the first dose on an empty stomach in the morning. 5 days on and take the weekend off. I was inspired by the post on Earth Clinic in the borax cures section to try the pinch after reading where someone wrote about how they generously sprinkled borax on their food every meal. No side effects with this pinch dosage! Previously borax made me feel upset for absolutely no reason like other women have mentioned here and there on the site. With the pinch of borax, after less than a day I feel light on my feet and have no joint pain lingering after strenuous karate training.
What an amazing remedy.
Borax Dosages
Greetings all, I just found this site yesterday; however, I bought Borax when I first heard about using it for health purposes, but never used any because I had no pressing health issues at the time and did not realize it's benefits for detoxing. Now I thinking about starting to use it as a foot soak for swollen gums and detox. I got rid of the causal toothache with Oil of Oregano, but the swelling has persisted. Two questions if I may. I'm currently taking two droppers of Lugol's 2% per day and was wondering if starting the Borax soaks one day after stopping Lugol's seems OK? Also, any suggestions on a good starting point for how much Borax to use in the foot soak? From the side effects page I came away with, a pinch and up? Any input will be greatly appreciated. Mike
Borax Dosages
Hello, I want to point out that according to https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/weight-to-volume 1000 mg equalts 0.12 tsp or close to 1/8 tsp and not 1/4 tsp as mentioned "¼ teaspoon (940 mg ~ 1,000 mg) of borax" in your article. "The density of borax is 1.73 gram/cm^3. A gram therefore has a volume of 0.58 cm^3. However a teaspoon is 5cm^3. Therefore 1 gram of borax is about a tenth of a teaspoon. Or if you prefer: 1 teaspoon full of borax is about 9 gram" So 1/4 tsp should have approx. 226 mg of boron. Please advise if you agree. Thank you, Christine
(Vancan)
11/08/2019
How fine or coarse your borax is granulated would affect density in practice, I would think, negligible or not I'm not sure
(Liberty, USA)
01/29/2022
People, there is bad info out there giving wrong dosages. Check for yourself:
https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/volume-to-weight
Borax decahydrate [Na2B4O7 ⋅ 10H2O] Laundry Borax:
5 ml (5cc) Borax = 8.65g Borax X 11.34% (Boron in Borax) = .98g (980mg) Boron
+1 liter (1000ml) water = 980mg/l Boron Aq
Therefore a 1ml dose = .98mg/ml Boron
So...
5ml (tsp) = 4.9mg Boron Aq
1 Liter / 5ml (1 tsp) = 200 5ml Doses
So one 5ml teaspoon of Borax in a liter of water will give you 200 teaspoons of solution total, take as much as you need for the dosage you want.
Each 5ml teaspoon of the solution has approx. 5mg of Boron.
Borax Dosages
Hello, I was wondering if you knew how much elemental boron is in one teaspoon of borax powder? Or how much boron is in 6 grams of borax powder? I'm a little confused about the math. If one teaspoon of borax powder is about 6 grams, then how can you get multiple 3 gram doses of boron in the water concentrate recipe? If you start out with only 6 grams of borax powder, then you probably wouldn't have more than 3 grams of boron in the quart of distilled water "concentrate". Thanks, Tim
(Chiapas, Mexico)
08/07/2020
That's an easy calculation... if borax formula is Na2B4O7*10H2O, elemental boron is 11.33% of formula. Thus, 6 grams x 0.1133 = 0.6798
As an engineer/chemist, I prefee to do everything by weight than by teaspoons. Cheers.
Borax Dosages
RE: BORAX dosages Hi I just watched you video on how to prepare borax solution and cannot make sense of the dosages you have there. Here in front of me I have a precise scale for mg and cup to measure the ml. So 1tsp is about 5ml. One levelled teaspoon of borax is around 4g which is 4000mg. 1L of water is 1000ml which is 200 tsp serving. Thus 1tsp serving is 4000mg/200 = 20mg which is NOT 2mg. for the Ted's formula it is not 110mg but 1000mg. Can you please clarify? I wonder if it will make any difference if I take just 2mg when you actually reported the healing effect at 20mg. Thank you
(Switzerland)
03/23/2019
sorry for the confusion, just spotted that actually the boron is just 11% in the borax which makes your calculation OK. Regards Val
(Ann Arbor, MI)
02/26/2021
You're confusing Borax and boron. Boron is the element that makes up a part of Borax-the-rock that is mined.. Borax contains lots of other elements, such as oxygen, etc. When they give the approximate weight of Borax, it's always going to be a lot higher than the boron in it, because of all the other elements in Borax adding to its weight.
The instructions read "take x amount of Borax dissolved in x amount of water. Then take a teaspoon (or whatever amount) of that water/Borax mix, and you'll end up having ingested 113 mg. or so of the BORON that's contained in the Borax. Reading a lot of these posts, know that you're not guaranteed an accurate amount with these tips. For some people, a few sprinkles a day mixed with your table salt works well. For others needing to know the precise amount of boron they're taking, might be better to get a boron supplement in capsule or tablet form.
Borax Dosages
I don't understand the confusion in how much borax to take? I use an old glass ACV bottle = 32oz to this add a 'heaping' teaspoon of '20 mule-team' borax then fill with 'distilled' water, this formula is the borax CONCENTRATE! This should be 30mg of borax / 3.3mg of boron.
Shake the bottle to dissolve and then let rest in refrigerator overnight. Next morning take 1 teaspoon of the CONCENTRATE and add to whatever amount of water/liquid you want.
I have been taking, up to 3 doses a day, this for about 4 years, with occasional 'breaks' of 1 to 5 days a month, without side-effects or gastric distress.
When starting out used 1 teaspoon on 8oz 'well-water' once per day, followed this for 6 months prior to increasing to 2 then 3 dose per day. Now I just add 1 teaspoon of CONCENTRATE to about 2 ounces of 'well-water'.
If you don't have a good source of 'well-water', then I would use 'distilled' water, to make the CONCENTRATE.
The following website is what I based my CONCENTRATE on;
http://www.health-science-spirit.com/borax.htm
I hope this helps the confusion. Blessing and peace to all.
Borax Dosages
Just a very important note:
The suggested borax doses are very inaccurate! They are based on the premise that a teaspoon of borax is 4 grams. The weight of Borax is NOT 4gm per Teaspoon, it's actually 8.65gm per metric teaspoon, which means you're taking more than double the stated 113mg and 56mg.
In actual fact,
1/8 tsp = 119mg of boron
1/4 tsp = 238 mg of boron
(BORON, not BORAX)
Please don't just cut and paste information without verifying its accuracy!
Rob,
It is my understanding that borax contains 11.36% boron. I use a "level full" 1/4th teaspoon bakers measuring spoon (USA) to measure my borax. The 1/4th spoon, when measured with a digital scale, shows on average, 970 mg of which 11.36% is boron. If I multiply 970 mg x .1136 (11.36%) = 110.192 mg of boron in my 1/4th teaspoon or about 110 mg per 1/4th teaspoon dose and about 55 mg of boron per 1/8th teaspoon dose. These are the two doses recommended by Ted on this website.
Based on this, I do not understand how you arrived at the figures in your post showing more than double what I calculate for these two doses. I get that different types of spoons from around the world may vary in their accuracy or actual size, but If I am also using a digital scale in conjunction with the spoon for verification, how can I be that far off? What am I doing wrong?
Https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1205&context=pss_notes
Art
Based on the fact that measuring spoons can vary depending on where you are in the world, it may be more accurate to describe Ted's Borax protocol in terms of milligrams per dose instead of in fractional teaspoon measurements. The 1/4 teaspoon dose delivers approximately 970 mg while the 1/8th teaspoon dose delivers approximately 485 mg. While the 1/8th and 1/4 teaspoon doses work fine here in the US, people from many other country's come to EC and their measuring spoons may be significantly different than ours!
Based on the known toxicity of borax, both of these doses fall well below that toxicity level.
Art
(Botswana)
08/31/2018
(Tasmania, Australia)
09/16/2018
Hi Rob. I just weighed 1 tsp of borax obtained from Blants on my commercial scale and it weighs between 4 and 5 grams.....
Borax Dosages
I'm curious about the dosage to be taking, the doctor's office directions said to mix 2 TBSP Borax with 1 Liter of water and gulp morning and night. To me that meant 1 swallow in the morning and night. I did that for several days and then saw the video from you guys and now I am questioning their directions for dosage.
(Oh)
06/01/2018
Ted suggested taking 1/8 teaspoonful in one liter of water and drinking that throughout the day, for women. 1/4 teaspoonful borax for a man in one liter water, consumed throughout the day. I believe someone figured out that this was still a fairly potent amount of boron, so 2T seems very high.
EC: Ted's 1/8 teaspoon in liter of water for women dosage amounts to 55mg of boron per day and the 1/4 teaspoon in liter of water for men dosage amounts to 113mg of boron per day.
Borax Dosages
Ok so for those having issues with Borax. I took 1/4 teaspoon in an 8 once glass of hot water about the temp you would make tea at. It was incredible each day pain seemed to melt away. About 3 weeks into this I started to get diarrhea. So I droped my dose from 1/4 teaspoon a day to 1/8 teaspoon a day and everything was good. Did improvements slow? Yes. Did my pain come back? No. I figure after a few months I will try moving back to 1/4 teaspoon a day.
Oh I am 44 years have had 3 ankle surgeries, a knee surgery, have diabetes, a leaking heart valve and a whole in half my sacrum from spinabifida. I have been terrible pain since age six and was told I would never walk again, never play sports again blah blah....Since I had the right knee of a 90 year old man at age 12 I played sports, lifted weights, climbed mountains etc.....
Oh I forgot about my broken spine and arthritis in multiple joints including my left hand. Slowly but surely I am reversing my type ii diabetes with diet and exercise. I am reversing my many issues with nutrients including Borax. I know what it is to go from squatting over 700lbs. bench pressing 475lbs. to barely being able to get out of the way of one's own shadow.
So just keep in mind that if a dose of Borax is too high and causes you side effects do not give up on it just cut the dose until the side effects go away. You can always build up but if you give up well all is lost! Take each day one day at a time. Think in terms of weeks, months, years, decades. You did not end up where you are instantly so it will likely take some time to turn things around.
As a fellow American I know we are short on patience as a Nation and want Instant Results but life does not work that way usually! Stay focused on the dream and just take one step towards it each day a marathon is not a huge intense sudden effort rather it is a series of moderate efforts repeated over and over and over again until you get to the end!
Be blessed!
-Sincerely, John.
(Pipe Creek, Texas)
01/03/2021
John, thank you for your sensible response. Yes, I do also know about using Borax for many things, too. My health intuitive started me on it it years ago. Unfortunately I got out of the habit of drinking it. But I will.certainly ask her about dosages again and resume. Appreciate your candid answer.
Blessing back at you,
Marky (short for Margaret, Dennis the Menace 's Nemesis, remember?).
Pipe Creek, Texas
(Mystic ct)
05/19/2023
Thank you so much for your guidance! I just started this Monday and had to cut back Thursday. your words have given me so much courage to take one day at a time on the path to healing We are in charge of our health and since autoimmune will never get cured by medicine we can stop the insanity and figure this out! I cannot thank you enough!!
Borax Dosages
Judging by the percentage of negative results on Ted's regimen, and the positive results my family has experienced, I would say it's probably safe to assume this dose is too high for the average person.
My family hast been taking only at most a 1/2 tsp in 5 gallons of water daily - there are 4 of us - we put it in our 5 gal dispenser along with some other minerals (favorite being Himalayan pink salt for its 88 minerals). My husband and I are over 50 and have no aches or pains caused by arthritis or rheumatism - and we have had our share of bone injuries in the past. Can't say it has helped the Candida on my part, I could probably stand to up the dose from here. This is the dose I started my husband and kids on and no problems at all - good benefits I can see. I hope you will try this to get your daily Boron, just start low, low, low. Good luck and God bless!
(Omaha, Ne)
04/04/2017
When you look at boron vitamin supplements, the amount is almost always around 3 mg. so I would think 56-113 mg. is way too much. A friend of mine always said just a pinch a day; which would make a lot more sense. If 1/8 tsp in 1 liter = 56mg. then use 10 liters instead to get it down to 5.6 mg.
(Omaha, Ne)
04/04/2017
Jen,
My daughter got rid of candida by using Yst Management. I did not misspell it, that is how it is spelled.
(Ohio)
11/25/2017
I thought the same thing I am reading online upper tolerable limit for boron is 20 mg a day, I broke out my smidgeon (1/32 tsp) measuring spoon and filled it about a third full..probably about 7 mg..if my calculations are right..
(Brisbane, Australia)
03/27/2018
1/2 teaspoon between 4 people per day is 1/8 teaspoon each - which is what Ted recommends. So you are taking his dose.
(TX)
04/08/2023
Himalayan pink salt is radioactive.
EC: Himalayan pink salt indeed contains trace amounts of naturally occurring radioactive elements such as uranium, radium, and polonium. However, the levels of radioactivity in Himalayan pink salt are so low that they are not considered harmful to human health. The amount of radiation exposure from consuming Himalayan pink salt is negligible and comparable to the background radiation that we are exposed to in our daily lives.
(Canada)
04/09/2023
Exactly. Walk around with your cell phone in your pocket all day...more radiation than sea salt! Internet blaring in your house, tv on, laptop on, phone near you, earths natural radiation on top of that, yeah a little or a lot of sea salt ain't gonna make no difference!
Borax Dosages
Ted and many others here including myself have mentioned Borax as a very effective arthritis remedy that is readily available and is dirt cheap. Borax is just over 11% boron so if you use Borax at the doses that Ted has previously mentioned of 1/8th teaspoon for smaller people and 1/4th teaspoon for larger people, you will be getting about 55mg or 110mg of boron respectively.
For me it takes the larger dose to completely control arthritis, but each person is different and starting lower and working your way up makes good sense......why use more than you need to get the desired health benefit. Dr. Rex Newnham, Ph.D., D.O., N.D, who discovered and popularized the use of Borax and boron in the 1960's said that some people found benefit with as little as 10 mg per day and for people who's condition was more severe and or of longer duration, it could take more Borax or boron and it could take up to 3 or 4 months to get the full benefit.
Studies on boron show that it offers many health benefits to people that goes well beyond just arthritis and osteoporosis, two common uses for it. Below is a short abstract from PubMed that lists some of those health benefits of which there are more than what is listed.
For those who are concerned about the safety of Borax and boron, as you should be, there is an abstract below the first one that explains this in clear language and Ted's dosing does not even come close!
Art
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26770156
Integr Med (Encinitas). 2015 Aug;14(4):35-48.
Nothing Boring About Boron.
Abstract
The trace mineral boron is a micronutrient with diverse and vitally important roles in metabolism that render it necessary for plant, animal, and human health, and as recent research suggests, possibly for the evolution of life on Earth. As the current article shows, boron has been proven to be an important trace mineral because it (1) is essential for the growth and maintenance of bone; (2) greatly improves wound healing; (3) beneficially impacts the body's use of estrogen, testosterone, and vitamin D; (4) boosts magnesium absorption; (5) reduces levels of inflammatory biomarkers, such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α); (6) raises levels of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase; (7) protects against pesticide-induced oxidative stress and heavy-metal toxicity; (8) improves the brains electrical activity, cognitive performance, and short-term memory for elders; (9) influences the formation and activity of key biomolecules, such as S-adenosyl methionine (SAM-e) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD(+)); (10) has demonstrated preventive and therapeutic effects in a number of cancers, such as prostate, cervical, and lung cancers, and multiple and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; and (11) may help ameliorate the adverse effects of traditional chemotherapeutic agents. In none of the numerous studies conducted to date, however, do boron's beneficial effects appear at intakes > 3 mg/d. No estimated average requirements (EARs) or dietary reference intakes (DRIs) have been set for boron-only an upper intake level (UL) of 20 mg/d for individuals aged ≥ 18 y. The absence of studies showing harm in conjunction with the substantial number of articles showing benefits support the consideration of boron supplementation of 3 mg/d for any individual who is consuming a diet lacking in fruits and vegetables or who is at risk for or has osteopenia; osteoporosis; osteoarthritis (OA); or breast, prostate, or lung cancer.
PMID:
26770156
[PubMed]
PMCID:
PMC4712861
[Available on 2016-08-01]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10050929
Biol Trace Elem Res. 1998 Winter;66(1-3):343-57.
Comparative toxicology of borates.
Author information
Abstract
Inorganic borates, including boric acid, Na, ammonium, K, and Zn borates generally display low acute toxicity orally, dermally, and by inhalation. They are either not irritant or mild skin and eye irritants. Exceptions owing to physiochemical properties do occur. Longer-term toxicological studies have been reported mainly on boric acid or borax where the properties are generally similar on an equivalent boron (B) basis. The critical effects in several species are male reproductive toxicity and developmental toxicity. The doses that cause these effects are far higher than any levels to which the human population could be exposed. Humans would need to consume daily some 3.3 g of boric acid (or 5.0 g borax) to ingest the same dose level as the lowest animal NOAEL. No effects on fertility were seen in a population of workers exposed to borates or to a population exposed to high environmental borate levels. There is remarkable similarity in the toxicological effects of boric acid and borax across different species. Other inorganic borates that simply dissociate to boric acid are expected to display similar toxicity, whereas those that do not dissociate simply to boric acid may display a different toxicological profile.
PMID:
10050929
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
(Phoenix)
04/23/2023
