Borax
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Boric Acid vs. Borax: Which Treatment is Right for You?

| Modified on Dec 14, 2024
The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.

2 User Reviews


Posted by Lu (Tripoli, Libya) on 06/18/2023
★★★★★

I have just recently stumbled accross many videos about Borox having healing affects on arthritis and many other ailments. My only problem is I live in a country where Borox isn't available but I can manage to get Boric Acid. Is it possible to substitute Boric Acid and have the same benefits?

EC: Hello,

I know someone who takes boric acid in capsules with his wife for the past few years. He said borax turns into boric acid in the stomach so he thinks it's more efficient to take boric acid. They are in their seventies. They measure out the boric acid using a scale and put it in capsules... a bit time-consuming, he said.

I will email him to find how many mg per capsule and what size capsules they use and reply to your post when I hear back.

Deirdre

Replied by Art
(California)
06/18/2023
2338 posts

Lu,

Yes, boric acid(BA) can be used in place of borax. A little less may be required because the boron content of boric acid is a bit more than borax. Borax has approximately 11.34% boron and boric acid has approximately 17.48% boron.

So that would be about 300mg of BA (52 mg of boron)for a woman and about 600mg of BA (104 mg of boron) for a man.

By comparison it would be about 480 mg of borax for a woman and about 960 mg for a man to reach similar boron levels.

Art


Boric Acid Vs Borax
Posted by Mark (Breda, Nl) on 04/13/2016
★★★★★

Borax turns into boric acid depending on pH. If the pH is low (acid) like in your stomach, borax turns to boric acid, if the pH turns high again (alkaline) like in your intestines, most of it will be borax again.

Boric acid and borax are about equally effective.

I got this info straight from Walter Last, who wrote the article on borax.


Boric Acid Vs Borax
Posted by G. T. (A. P. India) on 01/14/2014

Hi. I'm just sooo gratefuld for EARTH CLINIC.

I couldnt find any Borax in my town, but only Boric Powder. There is no other informations on the box other than Bhavi Chemicals Bangalore, and; not for medical use. 100 Gms (TECH), tha'ts all. Can I use it as the Borax remedy in Earth Clinic pages? Much love and light to all.

Replied by Ashok
(Australia)
01/27/2014

Hi you can buy it from any pansari shop or shops which sell herbs etc under name "suhaga". It's available eveywhere.

Replied by Baldev
(Maharashtra, India)
01/28/2014
180 posts

Hi Ashok,

Are you sure Borax is Suhaga ? G.T from AP, you can ask any chemist in your place and he can get you. In Mumbai there is an area where number of shops are there who deal in chemicals and medicinal drugs in bulk, the name is princes street and one can get Borax there. Boric acid is completely different, a lot is written about it on this site and I won't suggest to use Boric acid in place of Borax.

Baldev


Boric Acid Vs Borax
Posted by Blenderlady (Satellite Beach, Fl) on 01/08/2013

Hello, I see the many warnings to use Borax and NOT Boric Acid - but I can't find any rational for this warning.

From another website on this topic it says, "Boric acid, if available, may be used at about 2/3 the dose of borax" http://www.health-science-spirit.com/borax.htm

I have Boric Acid, and am very eager to get this cleared up... Thanks in advance!

Replied by Francisanne
(Los Angeles, Ca, Usa)
02/27/2013

These warnings are unfounded. In other earthclinic pages where Boric Acid is discussed, extremist warnings post too. But also listed are links to informed books/sites. I give this: borax and boric acid are in all my antique and vintage Early Amer and German cookbooks as health remedies, food preservatives, other non-bug kill home uses. For fastest research: go to googlebooks, search 'household __', 'health and __', 'agricultural __', 'veteranary __', and 'medical __'. For 'boric acid and health' the quick hilites and 3 minutes told me volumes. I include 2010 in searches as govt info often takes 5-10 years to publish anyway. See pg 390 of Nat'l Institute of Health Issue 53-57 about boric acid facts for example. DO NOT listen to random shouts by warning bloggers. FIRST do your OWN research, just like earthclinic also advises top of each page. Boric acid is used heavily in mfg/food/agri to cover/fix tainted foods. But in tiny, sparse amounts, yes, many govt/med reports report doctors teaching patients how to make their own very small amounts med capsules. Borax and boric acid are potent, but can and do heal.

Replied by Dori
(Santa Ana, Ca, Usa)
02/27/2013

For your reference, book titled 'Integrative Womens Health',

Best fastest easiest most informative book I ever read on Womens womens healthiness including vaginal was - Integrative Women's Health, 2010, by Victoria Maizes Executive Director & Associate Professor of Medici Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, Tieraona Low Dog Director of the Fellowship Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. It still costs usd40 or so. But its online free too (probably like a post said at googlebooks.

I saw the Warnings about boric acid for vaginal issues, so I'm suggesting all the women read this and teach the book to their girls too. At page 192 it says:

''In a double blinded RCT of 108 women with yeast, the boric acid cure rate was 92% at 7 to 10 days post-treatment and 72% at 30 days and that was significantly more effective than nystatin (Van Slyke 1981).... Specific diabetic women have higher cure rate in 14 days than 1 dose fluconazole, but at 3 months cure rates are same... Usual dose boric acid is 600mg in gelcap inserted in vag daily for 2 weeks with maintenance dose 2/weekly to prevent recurrence. There is LITTLE SYSTEMIC ABSORPTION with vag administration, but large amounts of oral ingestion are shown TOXIC. Also, it is inexpensive. DO NOT use during pregnancy.... Pap smear doesn't necessarily indicate Bacterial Vaginosis (BV)... "

Do ALL your research very well. Some professionals are interested in money or are limited by their bosses (their hospital or insurance group limits, or pharma's that fund them).

Replied by Cindy
(Illinois, Usa)
06/28/2020
527 posts

The chemistry of boron, boric acid and borax is extremely interesting, isn't it?

One of the components that borax breaks down into when exposed to specific kinds of acids - including stomach acid - is boric acid so, in a way, when you take borax you're taking - or, rather *extracting* the boric acid from it. Or, more accurately, your body is.

The "acid" aspect isn't what it sounds like as ACV is far more acidic than boric acid which is just to the acid side of the pH of water. A lot of tap water in the US is probably more acidic than boric acid so...

There isn't really any way to research these things because science makes up rules which they say are proven by exceptions and then just keep adding rules upon rules upon rules all the way back to the initial incorrect assumption rather than going back to the assumption and...fixing it. Every rule on top of another rule is an excuse for not doing that. And the writers of rules are perfectly willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary - including people's lives - to "save face". To preserve their social reputations. And not just scientists. Politicians do it, capitalists do it, industrialists do it - their standing in society, among their peers, in their professions and any number of subcultures or economic sectors is more important to them than the well-being of even children. Even their OWN children.

Boric acid shouldn't work for vaginal yeast infections - based on scientific assumptions and rules - yet it does. Most of the remedies here shouldn't work - but in a variety of circumstances, many of them do. Many illnesses are hyped up as horrific when they are no more deadly and no more difficult to treat than the sniffles.

We have capitalists and industrialists with hearts that are hundreds of times blacker than Hitler's and neighbors, political representatives, teachers, doctors and bosses whose are hundreds of times blacker than Manson's and if one's heart is NOT of the black variety, one truly is on one's own.

Do your own research. Don't dismiss anecdotal evidence because some black hearted marketing fan or expert claims it isn't evidence because the only reason they resent it is because they don't have any. Nobody goes onto social media singing the praises of marketing clients saying things like, "Oh, thank God! My liver is being destroyed, I'm probably going to die, spend all of my money on this poison they're giving me and still have my disease and feel like crap! Yeahh!! ". Don't believe all of the anecdotal stories - use your head. Or not - it's your choice.


Boric Acid Vs Borax
Posted by Tamis (Paris, France) on 10/26/2011

I just bought some borax from a local drugstore and was given a plastic bag with "borate na" written on it. Having read that some drugstores have given some boric acid instead of borax I asked the vendor if he was sure it was borax and not boric acid and he told me it was labeled "borate na" in his storage room.

Now I'm a cautious guy and I want to make sure this is indeed borax and not boric acid.

Is there a way to test this at home ? Like adding my powder to vinegar and see if it fizzles or not ?

I found out the The ph of Borax is about 9. 5 (so I guess it should fizzle in vinegar), boric acid has a ph of 3. 7 (http://www.merck-chemicals.com/boric-acid/MDA_CHEM-100765/p_HXeb.s1Lb5QAAAEW9.AfVhTl) (so I also guess it should not fizzle in vinegar).

Am I right about this?

Replied by Maria
(Gippsland, Australia)
10/26/2011

Hi Tamis, I have not found that it has any fizz when adding it to cleaning mixes, but of course they are diluted. Anyway I have just added borax to ACV and there is no fizz, have also added it to cheap white vinegar and no fizz. You may have to test it with a ph meter, I got mine for about $15 (AU) including postage via ebay. Good luck.

Replied by Misty
(Somewhere, Indiana, Usa)
07/04/2012

Boric acid's chemical formula is H3BO3; there is no sodium (Na) in boric acid. The chemical formula for borax is Na2B4O7·10H2O or Na2[B4O5(OH)4]·8H2O. Other names for borax include sodium tetraborate, disodium tetraborate, and sodium borate. Thus, you have gotten your hands on an oddly named version of borax :)


Boric Acid Vs Borax
Posted by Rosie (USA) on 06/01/2009

I hope this message finds you very well. May I suggest you to change the heading underneath the BORAX remedy in your website: Boric Acid is not a synonym of Borax! It took me 2 days to find out my mistake: I have been drinking a solution of Boric Acid instead of Borax and I even made my husband to drink it... There is Sulfuric Acid added to Borax, then it is not a synonym for Borax.

We feel all right but please change your heading. I was a bit stupid and despaired and I didn't verify that information. The trouble is stupidity and despair is sadly common nowadays.

Kind Regards, Rosie

Replied by Ted
(Bangkok, Thailand)
06/01/2009
392 posts

A borax has a pH of 8.6 and is alkaline, but boric acid has a very acid pH! I hardly make any mention of boric acid except as a warning not to take it!

Ted

Replied by Rosie
(Daylesford, Victoria Au)
11/19/2013

Hello Deirde:

About 4 years ago I sent you an email about the possible confusion between boric acid and borax. As I had some boric acid in my paint tool box and read about the borax cure in your so precious website, I was confident to give this boric acid to my husband. So he took it and probably had a healing crises that I didn't recognize as such at the time and I decided to research a bit more about boric acid. Too quickly I came across with the (not so accurate) wikipedia website and read that boric acid is toxic if ingested. That is why I wrote that email to you and I was probably in a state of fear and guilt of thinking that I could have poisoned my husband. Then you put the warning mentions on the borax page. A couple of days ago I went back to the borax page on earthclinc to prepare an article about borax as my husband and I continue to take it regularly and we want to spread the word about its fantastic ability of healing. There a saw some comments of people upset about the warnings of Boric Acid on the Borax page. Then I felt that those warnings were there only because of my experience which was only based on my lack of research and state of fear at the time...my stupidity.

Like the authors of those comments, I would like to ask you to remove those warning signs as it creates confusion that is detrimental to the perfectly safe use of borax and boric acid for healing.

Thank you so much in advance if you can do it and thank you a thousand times for the wonderful site that you have created.

Kind regards, Rosie