Borax is used as a versatile household cleaner often used as a laundry detergent or as a pesticide for ants or cockroaches. However, this helpful versatile household cleaner has been circulating around social media as a questionable medical treatment for humans. 

Several influencers and Teens on TikTok have promoted that adding a pinch of borax into the drinking water and ingesting it would possibly help treat inflammation, joint pain, kidney stones, chronic fatigue, and erectile dysfunction. And some are claiming that bathing with a pinch of borax could “detoxify” the body. However, medical officials such as Timothy Caulfield of Canada Research, and Dr. Ruddy Rose of VCU Health’s Virginia Poison Center have claimed that these viral “treatments” are indeed false health fads that could possibly lead to severe medical symptoms and conditions. 

Borax, sodium tetraborate decahydrate, is a chemical compound made of combinations of boron, sodium, oxygen, and hydrogen and has been banned from food products in several countries including Canada and the United States. If the versatile household cleaner is ingested, it can lead to serious convulsions, gastrointestinal tract problems, heat burns, and kidney damage. 

As the world becomes more active and connected through social media, people are often more likely to be influenced by it in their daily lives. This sensation can lead to a positive impact, but it can also often lead to false fads just like this one. Now that we are connected through social media, we, as teens, should be more alert to spread the positive impacts, instead of the false fads/news. 

#TikTok #health #Borax #medical #viral #trend 

Gena Lee (gleeanna0807@gmail.com)