![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/expert-warning-as-dangerous-tiktok-trend-has-people-drinking-cleaning-product/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/0_Borax-in-container-chemical-analysis-in-laboratory.jpg&description=Self-styled health and wellness influencers have boasted about the so-called health benefits of borax - a household cleaning substance - on social media, but experts have dubbed the trend a 'dangerous' fad Experts have hit out as people on TikTok venture to extreme lengths for their health - by drinking a substance typically used for cleaning. Health nuts on the app and across social media claim to be ingesting borax as part of the latest wellness fad, claiming without evidence the crystals can help inflammation, arthritis and even auto-immune conditions. Videos show self-styled wellness influencers dissolving the substance - which contains boron, a natural mineral - in glasses of water and downing it. But scientists have lambasted the new trend as "potentially dangerous", warning others not to try it. Nathan Kilah, a senior chemistry lecturer at the University of Tasmania, says there is "no evidence to support the latest claims" and that borax could leave some people seriously unwell. Writing in The Conversation journal, he said: "This is yet another hoax 'remedy' in a long list of false hope products. Alternative therapies are often touted as being 'natural' and therefore supposedly non-toxic. But while borax is naturally occurring, this isn't a guarantee of safety." Originally used as a food preservative in the early 1900s, borax is a salt formed from the chemical elements boron, sodium, oxygen and hydrogen. It's now regularly used as a cleaning product as well as in contact lens solution and as a pestkiller. If you have kids, you may see it regularly used in slime-making kits, too. But while great as a household essential, there is no scientific evidence it should be used as a health supplement and, in fact, it's actually considered unsafe to eat or drink. A poison squad investigating its use as a preservative in the early 20th century found many people ingesting it would experience headaches, nausea, vomiting, gastric discomfort and more. Borax is also classed){kind=link}
Self-styled health and wellness influencers have boasted about the so-called health benefits of borax – a household cleaning substance – on social media, but experts have dubbed the trend a ‘dangerous’ fad
Experts have hit out as people on TikTok venture to extreme lengths for their health – by drinking a substance typically used for cleaning.
Health nuts on the app and across social media claim to be ingesting borax as part of the latest wellness fad, claiming without evidence the crystals can help inflammation, arthritis and even auto-immune conditions.
Videos show self-styled wellness influencers dissolving the substance – which contains boron, a natural mineral – in glasses of water and downing it. But scientists have lambasted the new trend as “potentially dangerous”, warning others not to try it.
Nathan Kilah, a senior chemistry lecturer at the University of Tasmania, says there is “no evidence to support the latest claims” and that borax could leave some people seriously unwell.