About

Borax Train or I Hopped On the Borax Train, also known as the Borax Trend, refers to a purported TikTok trend in which users are encouraged to ingest borax, a natural mineral often used in laundry detergent and cleaning products, to supposedly help reduce inflammation. Borax has been supported as a holistic medicine throughout the 2000s, and while some studies suggest there are benefits to ingesting borax (including a decrease in inflammation at certain doses), borax has many known negative side effects, including kidney failure, infertility and digestive problems, resulting in many experts stating that it should not be ingested. The trend started to spread on TikTok as early as March 2023 by holistic medicine influencers and became increasingly popularized in July, leading TikTok to delete many videos relating to it and health experts warning against eating the substance.

Origin

A common consensus in the medical community is that borax should not be ingested.^[15] It can purportedly cause a wide range of negative side effects, including infertility, digestive problems, kidney failure, irritation and death.^[1] However, throughout the 2000s, the benefits of Borax have been touted as holistic medicine, often for use in reducing inflammation and upping your boron levels. Boron, which is given to humans through certain foods, is not considered an essential nutrient, as research has not found a clear biological function for it.^[6] Borax is sometimes purported as safe because it is a naturally occurring mineral.^[2]

In 2011, SagePub^[5] published an article on the possible benefits of borax, specifically for curing arthritis. In 2013, Walter Last^[3][4] published a paper titled "The Borax Conspiracy: How the Arthritis Cure has been Stopped" where he discusses the negatives of insufficient boron intake, including suggesting that boron deficiency can encourage tumor growth and that boron has "anti-cancer" properties. He mainly purports that taking borax can help treat arthritis due to its anti-inflammatory properties. He then suggests that borax has been labeled harmful by medical professionals because arthritis is a big money-maker for doctors, writing:

Arthritis in its various forms and its close relative osteoporosis affect about 30% of the population in developed countries. Osteoporosis is responsible for more long term hospital care than any other individual disease. This is due to the very high incidence of fractures, and especially the protracted nature of hip fractures. This is a main source of income for the medical-pharmaceutical system. If the boron-magnesium cure for these diseases should become widely known, this vital income stream would dry up and the system collapse. As this is the biggest and most profitable industry in the world, this cannot be allowed to happen.

Borax Train Trend

Videos about the supposed benefits of borax began going increasingly viral on TikTok throughout 2023, often posted by holistic medicine TikTokers. One of the earliest available examples was posted by TikToker^[7][8] @wholesomeholistics on March 28th, 2023, followed by a second part on March 30th, garnering over 62,000 views on the former and 226,000 on the latter in four months (shown below, left and right).

Spread

TikTokers continued uploading videos about the speculative benefits of borax over the following months, as well as videos about the "borax conspiracy." Some of these videos were notably removed by TikTok. On June 22nd, 2023, TIkToker^[9] @cultiv8.elev8 posted two videos about the conspiracy, claiming that fluoride causes arthritis and osteoporosis and borax is the cure and telling the story of Dr. Rex Newnham,^[10] a doctor who was purportedly giving borax to his patients to cure arthritis and was charged for allegedly selling poison in Australia, garnering over 1.6 million views in a month (shown below).

Soon, TikTokers began posting videos saying they "hopped on the borax train," meaning they started taking borax, often explaining why and the purported benefits in their videos. Many of these videos have since been deleted, including an upload by TikToker^[11] @befreewithmaryb3.0, who posted a video on July 14th about how her videos were deleted and being "censored." On July 17th, TikToker^[12] @chem.thug posted a video replying to several of these videos, first playing a compilation of them and then going into why it's dangerous to ingest borax despite it having some medical benefits, garnering over 1.9 million views in four days (shown below).

Over the following days, publications including Forbes^[13] and the New York Post^[14] published articles warning against ingesting borax due to the presence of the videos on TikTok, calling borax ingestion a "TikTok trend."

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References