Nothing Boring About Boron

Found this and thought I should share it. This shows boron supplementation has beneficial effects on Vitamin D like Vitamin-D Deficiency, Improve the Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation in “Nonresponders” , Anti-inflammatory Effects etc . I apologize if it has been discussed already.

Prevention of Vitamin-D Deficiency
Boron has been shown to increase serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25[OH]D3) in animal studies4,24 and of vitamin D–deficient individuals in human studies.25,26 In a clinical trial25 in which middle-aged men and women (n = 15) were placed on a low-boron diet, which was also marginal in magnesium and copper status, for 63 days (0.23 mg B/2000 kcal), 25(OH)D3 rose significantly after boron supplementation (3 mg/d as sodium borate) for an additional 49 days. Levels of 25(OH)D3 rose from an average of 44.9 nM after the 63 days of boron deprivation to 62.4 nM after the 49 days of boron repletion, a 39% increase.

Boron May Improve the Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation in “Nonresponders”
Responders also had lower baseline levels of DNA methylation in the promoter region of CYP24A1, a 24-hydroxylase that degrades vitamin D, than the nonresponders had, 13% versus 32%, respectively. This finding possibly indicates a balance in responders’ ability to both activate and then degrade vitamin D. Although nonresponders’ levels of DNA methylation of CYP24A1 were greater, it is unknown whether the 24-hydroxylase enzymes that they produced had a higher-than-average rate of activity. Boron was not included in this investigation, but it would have been germane to have assayed subjects’ boron intake and serum levels because boron inhibits the activity of 24-hydroxylase.

Anti-inflammatory Effects

A number of papers have indicated that boron reduces levels of inflammatory biomarkers.20,36,37 In a recent human trial involving healthy male volunteers (n = 8), a significant increase in concentrations of plasma boron occurred 6 hours after supplementation with 11.6 mg of boron, coupled with significant decreases in levels of hs-CRP and TNF-α. One week of boron supplementation 10 mg/d resulted in a 20% decrease in the plasma concentration of TNF-α, from 12.32 to 9.97 pg/mL, and in remarkable decreases (approximately 50%) in plasma concentration of hs-CRP, from 1460 to 795 ng/mL, and of IL-6, from 1.55 to 0.87 pg/mL.

Is boron adequacy important? Consider that elevated hs-CRP is associated with an increased risk for breast cancer,38 obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in children,39 atherosclerosis, unstable angina, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes,40,41 nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD),42,43 metastatic prostate cancer,44 lung cancer,45 adult depression, depression in childhood and psychosis in young adult life,46,47 coronary heart disease, and stroke.4851

Anti-inflammatory Effects in Osteoarthritis

Human clinical evidence for boron’s use in the treatment of OA patients was first provided by a doubleblind, placebo-controlled supplementation trial conducted in Australia, in which a significantly favorable response to a supplement of 6 mg of boron per day (sodium tetraborate decahydrate) was seen in 20 subjects with OA; 50% of subjects receiving supplemental boron improved compared with only 10% of those receiving the placebo.61

other benefits

Protection Against Malathion-induced Oxidative Stress

Brain Activation and Psychological Function

Heavy-metal Toxicity