watch: social media borax trend sets off alarms — but does boron really help with inflammation?
borax has plenty of uses: from laundry detergent, to insecticide, to making a slime that’s quite fun to play with. but not only is ingesting it dangerous, it’s also banned as a food additive in the u.s. and canada.
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social media influencers are saying they drink borax to help with inflammation and dietitians are slamming the practice, warning it can amount to poisoning. it’s a bit surreal, really. in one video, a self-proclaimed wellness influencer dips into a mason jar of white powder and sprinkles it into her water. she tells the camera she takes a little bit of borax this way every day, in order to reduce inflammation and help with joint pain. in another video with more than 24,500 views, a woman lists off a litany of what she claims the benefits of drinking borax are — from weight loss, to improved thyroid function, to improved libido.
borax is a household cleaning agent, commonly used to boost the effects of laundry detergent. an old home tip also includes mixing borax with sugar and placing in areas where ants congregate (but out of reach of children or pets), to kill the colony. so, when some tiktokers started claiming they were adding it to their drinks to help with inflammation, joint pain, and to improve bone health, health-care professionals became concerned.
“when i hear that people are consuming borax, it’s definitely a concern for me because it’s not meant for food consumption, it’s not food grade material,” says vandana gujadhur, rd. “ … it could be very dangerous.”
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borax is banned as a food additive in both canada and the u.s. while it is not classified as a human carcinogen, ingesting borax can cause acute poisoning, resulting in symptoms like abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. borax may also impact human reproduction and fetal development, although these studies were conducted on animal models, not humans. borax is also an irritant to the skin, eyes and nose and airway, so caution is recommended around the product to protect bare skin and prevent yourself from inhaling it.
massive ingestion of borate can cause severe side-effects, like seizures, central nervous system depression, coma and/or renal failure. less than five grams of borax can be lethal if ingested by a child, and 15-20 grams can be lethal to adults, according to the children’s wisconsin hospital.
and you don’t have to come into contact with a massive amount of borax in one shot to reap these nasty side-effects — there have been reports of chronic poisoning in people who have repeated exposure to the stuff.
does borax actually contain boron?
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borax, sodium tetraborate, is a naturally occurring salt from boron, the mineral that many of these tiktokers seem to be after. however, the there’s no need to seek out laundry detergent to make sure you’re getting enough.
boron is a trace element, gujadhur explains, meaning it is only required in minute amounts for an organism to survive. and even at that level, there’s not a lot of proof that we absolutely require boron to thrive.
“there are very few studies showing boron being needed for humans — there is no real biological function of it that we know of that we need boron for,” gujadhur says. “we could find some studies stating that boron could help in supporting immunity … but i wouldn’t say that you need boron in a supplemental form because there’s no real recommended amount of boron that we need per day.”
boron is a common component in the cells of plants. when a person consumes fruits and veggies, the boron is hydrolyzed into boric acid in the gastrointestinal tract, where it is then easily absorbed. it is not yet understood how or why the body absorbs boron, but it may play a role in bone formation, brain function, metabolism and immunity — although, if boron is integral to these functions is still unclear.
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but even taking into consideration the possible roles boron could play, with its wide availability in food and our bodies’ ability to absorb it, gujadhur says there’s not really a need to seek out boron supplements.
“if you are including a variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet, then you’re likely getting sufficient boron,” she says. “there is no known deficiency of boron that we have found so far.”
are there supplements that ease joint pain and reduce inflammation?
“anti-inflammatory foods are mostly plant sources, so fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains,” says gujadhur. “so, if you’re having a well-balanced and varied diet, you’ll likely include those anti-inflammatory compounds.”
to help with joint pain and inflammation, the arthritis society recommends the mediterranean diet, which focuses on whole grains, leafy green vegetables, fish, nuts and legumes. the dies also recommends staying away from saturated fats and processed foods, which are notorious for increasing inflammation and causing other not-so-nice side-effects. time and time again, research associates the mediterranean diet with reduction in inflammation as well as protective effects against various chronic diseases (like various cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obstructive sleep apnea) and even mortality.
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if you are looking for a supplement to add to your diet, boosting antioxidants like vitamin d, vitamin c or even egcg (found in green tea) has been shown to reduce inflammation in multiple studies. omega-3 fatty acids, commonly found in fish oil, also show promise. (as always, it’s a good idea to speak to a health-care provider before adding a supplement to your routine.)
but if you’ve started adding mediterranean elements or supplements to your diet and are still struggling with joint pain, gujadhur recommends speaking to a health-care practitioner, like a registered dietitian, who can help take a look at the whole picture and make recommendations on what you can change or add to support your lifestyle.
“[getting] the support of a registered dietitian could help, because then the health professional could help identify what are some other behaviours that a person needs to change to help with reducing the symptoms of inflammation.”
update 2023-08-15: a representative for tiktok has reached out to healthing communicating their policies on dangerous activities and medical misinformation, removing content that violates those policies.
emma jones is a multimedia editor with healthing. you can reach her at emjones@postmedia.com or on instagram and twitter @jonesyjourn.
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