Boron, Arthritis And Noodles

I recently find out that Borax - a compound containing 9% of boron is added to some noodles (to improve the texture) in SE Asia. Boron deficiency is strongly correlated with arthritis... What's interesting is Rheumatoid arthritis world map showing that arthritis rates in SE Asia are very low.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... HO2004.svg

It could be many factors, but I guess there is some correlation.

Would expect Turkey to be way down if this was the case as it's basically a boron mine.
However, excess boron has been implicated in fertility issues, for example
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21424392
but then deficiency and excess can sometimes mimic the same symptomatology.
Maybe excess boron would promote osteo pathology??
The old way of supplementing boron was to touch tip of licked little finger in borax powder.
Not very scientific or measured amount but some old timers swore by it for their osteo symptoms.
And there were no fillers to worry about. (Although borax powder latterly might not now be 100%)
Sheila

Daimyo said:

I recently find out that Borax - a compound containing 9% of boron is added to some noodles (to improve the texture) in SE Asia. Boron deficiency is strongly correlated with arthritis... What's interesting is Rheumatoid arthritis world map showing that arthritis rates in SE Asia are very low.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... HO2004.svg

It could be many factors, but I guess there is some correlation.

Click to expand...

I mentioned this to a friend at a party last night. He has a noodle factory. He tells me that they used to use borax, but since the Philippine FDA has forbidden its use as a preservative, they use caustic soda now.