J: I have been thinking about this lately and wanted to ask for professional opinion but regret that our resident biology and chemistry expert Ted has been near death's door with a blood clot in the brain and is now recovering.

But from a lay perspective your proposal seems appropriate and worth a try.

From what I've read Borax, Boron, and Borax are somewhat interchangeable. For more info read here http://www.health-science-spirit.com/borax.htm

Hi Johnyyyy. The thing to be concerned with, is if that capsule or tablet has fillers in it, that can block absorption of the boron. With the 20 mule, it has no fillers.

Hi Johnnnny...I'm not sure why you would want to take a pill containing boron instead of something like 20 Mule Team Borax powder containing sodium tetraborate as recommended by Ted on EC.

Awhile back, I checked some boron supplements in a health store just to satisfy my own curiosity. Boron supplements only contain 3 mgs to 6 mgs of boron and when I checked the labels -- they used sodium tetraborate, same as the cheaper store-bought borax powder. And the pills were much more expensive than a box of 20 MT Borax powder.

So why take an expensive pill that contains only 3 mgs or 6 mgs of Boron, when you could buy 20 MT Borax more cheaply?

When you take 250 mgs of 20 MT Borax powder in one liter on water per day, here's the amount of boron you get in your body:

Borax Molar Weight = 381.37

Boron Atomic Weight = 10.811

Borax Formula = Na2B407

% Boron in Borax = (4*10.811)/381.37 * 100(%) = 11.34 %

Amount of Boron in 250 mg Borax= 11.34/100 x 250 = 28.35 mgs

So if you take the 20 MT Borax 250 mgs dose the Boron dose is about 8 to 10 times more than any RDA Boron pill dose. Also remember that Borax has about the same toxicity profile as common table salt according to its Material Safety Data Sheet. So a Boron dose of 28.35 mgs per day is not a particularly large one.

So the differences between the store bought Boron dose and the 20 MT Borax dose that Ted recommends are that the store-bought dosage is both inadequate(too small to do you much good) and more expensive than the 20 MT Borax dose.

Taking the borax added to a half glass of water together with sodium bicarbonate will also be OK. See Ted's remedy combination advice here.

Also, Borax does other things than sodium bicarbonate. Bicarb is mainly used to alkalize the blood for homeostasis. Borax is alkaline but it will also help to cure arthritis, kills mycoplasma and fungus, controls bone formation and helps to regulate the hormones in the body. See this doc on Borax.

I had read that taking at least 12 mg of boron in the morning with breakfast helps to bring back the free testosterone back in balance so to improve my health. At 56, I have joint pain in the fingers, hips, knees. And a toenail fungus and my energy is quite low. I drink sodium bicarbonate and also take ACV. I have bought borax but I have not used it as yet.

I think the reason for not using the borax at this time is finding out what works and what doesn't work in supplement form.

I know borax will work because borax in the stomach change to boric acid which then kills parasites and other infections in the body.

But I do need to build up my free testosterone which is why I am using boron in the morning between 12 mg to 18 mg with breakfast only.