What’s This New Borax TikTok Trend? Here Are The Dangers

People on TikTok are claiming that consuming borax can help treat different things, ranging from ... [+] joint pain to eye swelling to mouth swelling to menstrual cramps to even cancer. (AP Photo/Matt York, FILE)

Get a load of this. There is yet another social media trend encouraging you to put laundry detergent products in your mouth. A few years ago, it was the Tide Pod Challenge, which, as I covered for Forbes back in 2018, involved putting Tide Pods in your mouth. Now, it’s people on TikTok telling you to get on the so-called “borax train” and put borax in your mouth. Yes, borax, which is commonly used as a booster for laundry detergent. And what kind of spin is being used to boost this TikTok trend? Well, some have been claiming that consuming borax can help treat different things, ranging from joint pain to eye swelling to mouth swelling to menstrual cramps to even cancer.

Yes, you can see a compilation of TikTokers “training” you to do some not-so-right stuff with borax at the beginning of a video posted by Chem Thug on the popular social media platform. Here’s one such example:

From TikTok

Chem Thug then responded in his video with, “Y’all need to get off this train.” He then proceeded to say, “Don’t eat [expletive] out of the [expletive] laundry box, people.” Seems pretty straightforward. When something is in a laundry box or bottle, that typically means that it’s specifically for laundry.

And, folks, your mouth and the your gastrointestinal tract are not a freaking washing machine. No matter how dirty your mouth may be, you shouldn’t be putting either Tide Pods or borax in your mouth. Borax—otherwise known as sodium borate, sodium tetraborate or disodium tetraborate—is a combo of boron, sodium and oxygen. It typically serves as a household cleaner or a laundry detergent booster.

That means that unless you are a pair of dirty underwear, you should actually be limiting your direct exposure to borax as much as possible. That tends to be the case with laundry products and household cleaners in general. When people say that their hands are tied, that doesn’t mean that they are using Tide laundry detergent to wash their hands. Similarly, people shouldn’t be using bleach as aromatherapy.

The same applies for borax. Don’t deliberately rub it on your skin or inhale it. That can cause all sorts of irritation wherever the borax reaches. You shouldn’t be swallowing it either. That’s effectively saying, “Let’s see how many internal body parts you can irritate.” Swallowing borax can lead to unpleasant things like nausea, vomiting, throat damage or diarrhea. In fact, when consumed in larger amounts, borax can lead to kidney failure and shock—two things you definitely don’t want to have.

At the same time, let’s come clean about all these claims about the benefits of eating scoops of borax or mixing borax with your coffee or drinks. Unless the goal is to create more health problems so as to distract you from your current health problems, these health claims about getting on the borax train are all washed up, so to speak. There’s currently no real scientific evidence that eating or drinking borax can ease joint pain or any other ailments in any way.

Now, there have been studies on the use of boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) against rheumatoid arthritis and certain types of cancer. There have also been some studies looking at the relationship between dietary boron—which is present in fruits, vegetables, nuts and pulses—and bone health, brain function and immune response, as described in a Nutrition Reviews publication.

However, just because boron is present in borax doesn’t mean that consuming borax would be the same thing as using BNCT or eating boron that’s present in fruits and vegetables. That would be like saying that a cinder block with Nutella on it is okay to eat simply because of the Nutella. Or that a hydrogen bomb would be okay to put down your pants because, heck, there’s hydrogen in the air. BNCT, by the way, is when a boron-based reagent is first injected intravenously so that the reagent accumulates in particular cells of interest. Next, a beam of neutrons is administered to these cells. The boron within these cells then captures these neutrons, generating a nuclear reaction that may subsequently destroy these problematic cells.

If you think that getting on the borax train is going to help your ailments, listen to the 20 Mule Team Borax website that says the following about borax: “Do not take internally. If ingested rinse mouth with a large full glass of milk or water. Do not induce vomiting. Call a physician immediately.” Yeah, the borax train is not only going to be a train in vain, it could even be a train wreck.