Borax Dosage Tips: Safe and Effective Use Guidelines

Ever wondered about the exact amount of boron you're consuming with each sip of Ted's recommended borax solution? We've got the insights you need! For a moderate sip, estimated at around 15 ml, you can expect to ingest approximately 1.7 mg of boron from the men's solution (mixed with ¼ teaspoon of borax per 1 liter of water) and roughly 0.84 mg from the women's solution (1/8 teaspoon of borax per 1 liter of water).

And just how many sips does a 1-liter bottle hold? The answer is about 67 sips. This breakdown helps you gauge your boron intake more precisely, ensuring you stay within Ted's recommended dosage, whether you're sipping throughout the day or planning your intake more strategically.

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!

There are two methods of taking this 20 Mule Team Borax powder. One is to put one teaspoon of the powdered borax in a liter of water and then use this by putting a teaspoon of this water in a glass of water once or twice daily. The second way is according to Ted's advice which is for men to put 1/4 teaspoon of the 20 Mule Team Borax into a glass of water once daily and drink the whole glass. He also recommended for women to put 1/8 teaspoon of the Borax into a glass of water once daily. I have read where it's according to your weight and that some women can use the man's dosage.

For me, I am a little heavier at 200 lbs and a woman and what works for me is I started with the 1/8 tsp in water, it worked well for me, I started slowly for a week or so and I also read to take a magnesium capsule once daily to offset any symptoms as this borax seems to work hand in hand with the magnesium. I take one 500mg magnesium capsule in the morning with breakfast. This works for me. After doing well with the 1/8 of a tsp of the 20 mule team borax I upped the dosage to where I take this two times per day in a hot large cup of coffee.

I have taken this for a month now and it seems to be helping me with the stiffness in my shoulder joints which I could not raise above my shoulder level without pain before and can raise straight up now, much stronger with very little pain if any and I run my rototiller about once a week, have a large garden and work daily on two acres, keeping it mowed and taken care of. Plus I am almost 70 yrs old. This has also been helping to dissolve my kidney stones and has helped my IBS very much. Helped my partner's arthritis in his knees a lot also. So for me this works well.

I've been drinking hot tea with 1/4 teaspoon borax. I use my tap water to make my tea. Can I use tea to mix with my borax, or only water? Does borax have to be taken with distilled water? Thank you, Debbie

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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!

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!

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.

Hubbard SA1.

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]

If you are unsure how much boron you are receiving from borax (sodium tetraborate, sodium borate, sodium tetraborate or even disodium tetraborate).

Here is how you figure it out:

Borax is: Na2B4O7.10H20

The atomic weights are:

Na = 22.98976928, B = 10.81, O = 15.999, H = 1.008

Therefore:

(22,9897*2)+(10.81*4)+(15.999*1*10)+(1.008*2*10)=381.3625 approx.

Total Boron is 10.81*4=43.24

Boron factor is 43.24/381.3625 = .11338

Boron factor is .11338 so the boron percentage is 11.338%. So regardless of how much volume of borax you use you need to weigh it and multiply the total weight of borax by .11338, this give you how much boron you are receiving.

This brings back memories of high school chemistry. ;)

Dear Earth Clinic,

Boron Consumption Update with Questions:

I have been taking 5 times the maintenance dose daily for some weeks, with a day or two break here and there.

I have seen an improvement in overall energy of the body, and aches and pains of the joints don't seem to last more then a short time.

Starting on a higher dose I notice a severe reaction (host flushes, numbness of face, disorientation) of 1/4 to 1/8 a teaspoon.

I still get the hot face feeling a little bit on the low dose, though I think I have found the amount that works for me.

A friend of mine in his early 70's has started on the same does that I have, though he splits his up into two cups of water a day.

The process for consumption; is using one of the teaspoon sets; like these
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Amco-Measuring-Spoons-for-Small-Amounts-/141301745022?pt=Measuring_Cups&hash=item20e63d857e&_uhb=1

the smallest teaspoons on there works out to be about 1/64 of a teaspoon. I weighed and calculated; 2 of these (in two doses) or one the size up from this is (1/32 of teaspoon size on that set, the second smallest teaspoon in the set), that 2 of the first, or one of the second; is equal to 5 times the maintenance dose of 3mg of boron a day.

I calculated the boron as 11% of the the borax molecule.

I think my calculations were such;
Having measured a heaped teaspoon of borax at around 6.5 grams,
then calculating that a liter of water is 202 teaspoons;
we end up with 1 teaspoons equaling about 33mg or 0.033g of borax content.

Thus working out that this has only 11% boron (of the the 33mg) we end up with 3mg content or 0.003g or boron in each teaspoon.

Thus working out that two of the 1/64th of 1 of the 1/32 teaspoons sizes *in the drop, pinch etc. set mentioned above. Calculated these to be 0.14g or 140mg. Thus boron content is 11% = 15.4mg of boron content; which is 5 times the maintenance does of 3mg a day.

Thus when the effects become clear and at completion one can go down to the maintenance dose by drinking the solution over 5 days.

* I found the idea of using a liter with a teaspoon, two difficult for my life style in the bush.

* I would suggest always using borax, as its alkaline, as apposed to boric acid which is mixed with hydrochloric acid and acidic already.

Note; make the solution with boiling water, add the amount then stir. Drink anytime afterwards (i usually drink it an hours or few hours later, or over a few days).

My question to ted; is about boron build up; should one even with small detox as here; have a day or two of a week; or can one stick through on the 5 times does; or its a personal decision? What are the effects of build up in the body.

P.S My friend has noticed a great improvement in his arthritis; though both he and I do take some magnesium as well (small dose)

P.P.S In Australia there is a company called blants; it can be ordered cheaply from there website; it comes from turkey, very good quality.

P.P.P.S The only other side affect that I noticed that if it is taken in the evening sometimes it can cause insomnia for several hours; (only happened to both me and my friend on one occasion each).

Kind Regards,
A Friend From Australia

THANKYOU MOST KINDLY FOR YOUR HELP :-) Peace