Lesson 32: Boron

What is boron?

Boron is a mineral that primarily regulates the activity of essential minerals. This nutrient helps “boost” the activity of calcium and magnesium, and boron also serves a variety of direct purposes within your body. However, it’s relatively hard to source enough boron from food, which makes many people choose to derive this nutrient from supplements.

Is boron water-soluble or fat-soluble?

Unlike many minerals, boron is water-soluble. Therefore, this nutrient absorbs into your tissues faster than most essential minerals.

Where can boron be found naturally? 

Boron is only present in food in very small quantities, but many different types of foods contain this nutrient. Apples, milk, and potatoes, for instance, all contain small quantities of boron. If you want to derive as much boron from food as possible, however, you should try eating lots of green, leafy vegetables like kale and spinach.

5 foods/drinks containing boron

1. Kale

2. Spinach

3. Beans

4. Apples

5. Dairy

What is the recommended daily value for boron?

While many different studies have determined that boron plays an essential role in human health, this substance has not been accepted as an “official” essential mineral. However, it’s still highly recommended that you consume a reasonably high quantity of boron in your diet.

Can you absorb enough of boron from food?

Since boron is only present in food in very small quantities, it can be hard to consume enough boron in your diet. Taking a daily dietary supplement that contains boron, however, will ensure that you’re fully covered.

Why is boron necessary for your body?

Boron mainly regulates the action of magnesium and calcium. Magnesium is a potent antioxidant that serves dozens of purposes in the body, and calcium is essential to bone growth and health. Boron works with vitamin D to improve your calcium absorption, and it also helps with the bioavailability of other minerals.

Functions of boron

Bioavailability enhancer: Boron helps your body digest and absorb minerals like calcium, zinc, iron, copper, and magnesium. These minerals usually have very low bioavailability.

Bone density protector: By improving the absorption of calcium, boron prevents osteoporosis and helps maintain proper bone density.

Antioxidant booster: By boosting the bioavailability of magnesium, boron helps fight back against free radicals and prevent oxidative stress.

Symptoms of boron deficiency

Since boron has not been named as an essential mineral, it isn’t technically possible to become deficient in this nutrient. If your body lacks boron, however, you might experience more inflammation and oxidative stress, and you may be more at risk of mineral-deficiency-related conditions like anemia and osteoporosis. People who don’t eat animal products are at even greater risk of mineral deficiencies, and boron helps boost the bioavailability of the minerals used in Feel multivitamins.

How long do you need to take boron to start experiencing its benefits if you’re deficient?

Since boron is water-soluble, the beneficial effects of this mineral should set in rapidly after ingestion.

How long does it take for your body to digest/absorb boron?

Boron is generally considered to have very high bioavailability. Therefore, this substance absorbs into your body very quickly, and it also has close to a 100% absorption rate.

How long does boron stay in your body after you take it?

Since this mineral is water-based, boron doesn’t usually stay in your body much longer than 24 hours.

Is boron an antioxidant?

Boron does not appear to be a direct antioxidant. However, it dramatically improves the bioavailability of magnesium, which is one of the most powerful antioxidants. Therefore, taking boron significantly improves your body’s antioxidant potential.

Can you overdose on boron? What are the effects?

Boron is toxic in extremely high quantities. However, it is very hard to consume enough boron to overdose. Potential effects of boron overdose include nausea, tremors, bleeding, and coma.

Does boron dissolve, flush out, or build up in the body?

Boron’s main function is to boost the bioavailability of other nutrients. Therefore, this mineral is excreted rapidly after use.

Can you take boron during a diet?

Boron does not interfere with dietary restrictions.

Are there synthetic forms of boron?

Most types of boron found in supplements are synthesised in laboratories. However, this point of origin does not appear to reduce the bioavailability of boron or cause any other unwanted effects.

Why might synthetic forms of boron be better?

Boron is very hard to extract from plants. Synthetic boron is much more economical.

Absorption rate of synthetic boron

Synthetic boron appears to absorb into your system at roughly the same rate as the boron found in food.

Why might natural forms of boron be better?

At this time, there is no reason to suspect that natural boron is superior to synthetic boron.

How to take boron

You can consume boron in food, or you can ingest this mineral in supplements. Vegans should consume boron supplements to make sure they don’t become deficient in other minerals.

Boron trends in medicine

A clinical study was recently facilitated that showed a clear link between boron and obesity prevention. While it’s possible that the ingestion of other nutrients may have also played a role, this study found that enjoying a boron-rich diet improved blood lipid profiles in obese patients and facilitated rapid weight loss and BMI improvements. This research underlines how little we truly know about boron and how this mineral behaves in the body.

Why everyone should be taking WeAreFeel supplements

The world of nutrition is anything but static, and the dietary recommendations of 50 years ago might no longer apply today. Boron is one of the most researched nutrients in the world, and every sign indicates that we’ve only started learning the truth about everything this mineral can do.

While many supplement manufacturers would be content to stick with the tried-and-true, we think that your health isn’t something you should risk. With our Feel Multivitamin, we’ve completely revolutionised our original supplement by incorporating promising nutrients like boron. That’s only the beginning of the amazing changes we’ve made to your convenient daily multivitamin — from lutein to reishi mushrooms to bioperine, we’ve pulled out all the stops to make the new form of our industry-reshaping supplement our even more legendary.