Lifespan Nutrition

Bill Sardi Health Blog

  • The Baking Soda Cure-All Redux

    It tastes salty.  It is in your kitchen.  And it’s dirt cheap.  And it’s threatening Big Pharma?  What is it?

    Just tell your doctor: “Hold the steroid shots, anti-inflammatory drugs and pain relievers.  I’ll take a quarter teaspoon of baking soda straight up with water.” Could Big Pharma be brought to its knees by sodium bicarbonate pills?

    After the LewRockwell.com website was overrun with viewers to read a recent article I wrote that was posted there about baking soda being a cure for almost every known malady, feedback received from readers confirm this alkaline powder may just be what the doctor (didn’t) order.

    Here is one report:

    I just wanted to share an email from my mother (age 76) forwarded below.

    I informed her of your Baking Soda article about 10-days ago because after taking 1/2tsp baking soda dissolved in ~12oz of water 1-2 X daily for ~4wks I was relieved of a persistent dermatitis I have had for over TEN years. T-E-N; not sort-of-itchy and I-can’t-remember-when-I-got-it, I distinctly remember watching HBO’s “Soprano’s” when they were still being made (2006-7) in the house-I-lived-in at the time & raking my calves with my fingernails until pain exceeded relief.

    I have had itchy scabbed claves ever since, my calves are mottled with scars.  A month of baking soda; 99% gone. (Diet & lifestyle remain unchanged for you nay-sayers)– Steve

    Here is another account:

    Between having to get up 7-8 times to pee, and bad lower back pain, a full night’s sleep is an illusion.  I now have a med for the pee problem, and with the baking soda calming the inflammation curse I have had a uninterrupted night’s sleep for 3 nights!!!!  Before now I wanted to nap after being up for not very long!  This is the first time I awake, get out of bed without being hobbled by pain and feeling able to welcome & tackle the day.

    And another:

    I finally listened to this past Saturday’s show about baking soda. I’ve been using that remedy for a few years. Every now and then I get psoriasis flare ups. Psoriasis is an autoimmune issue, as you know. I use a teaspoon of baking soda in a half glass of water. I drink it every couple of hours. After a several hours, the flare up subsides… Friends of mine that have autoimmune issues, I tell them that it works. It’s like banging my head against a wall. They wanna spend hundreds of dollars going to the ER, more money on the drug. People don’t wanna believe there is a cure for that stuff. I swear by baking soda.

    But there’s more.  Patients are taking over and telling their doctors. Here’s a letter written to the editor of Kidney International journal entitled:

    To the Editor: Goraya et al.1 have, in their interesting paper, shown that short-term (30 days) dietary acid reduction due to fruit and vegetable (F+V) or sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) consumption attenuated kidney injury in hypertensive chronic kidney disease (CKD; stadium II) patients undergoing therapy with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. The F+V diet reduced systolic blood pressure and body weight, but NaHCO3 did not affect these parameters. In a comment on this paper, researchers stated that F+V diets rather than NaHCO3 supplementation might be the key to halting CKD progression. The truth seems to lie somewhere in between in that simultaneous use of F+V diets and NaHCO3 is required. In this study, NaHCO3 caused greater aldosterone reduction than the F+V diet. Because aldosterone is involved in kidney injury, long-term NaHCO3 supplementation can be more beneficial than the F+V diet alone. Furthermore, the F+V diet reduces urinary sodium concentration. An epidemiological study reported that lower sodium excretion in healthy patients is associated with higher cardiovascular disease mortality. Because the Na+ cation seems more likely to increase blood pressure when combined with the Cl− anion than with HCO3− (ref. 4), providing sodium through bicarbonate rather than kitchen salt seems reasonable. Low long-term dietary compliance is another issue with the F+V diet. Therefore, it seems that CKD patients should use NaHCO3 supplementation as well as F+V diets.

    Then another astounding news headline (abridged):

    Baking Soda Could Cure Cancer

    Baking soda could help fight cancer by making cells easier to target, a study has found.

    Drinking the powder dissolved in water could make cells inside a tumor more active and easier for chemotherapy drugs to kill, according to researchers.

    As a tumor grows bigger it cuts off the blood supply of cells inside it, causing them to effectively shut down and hide away.

    Baking soda, however, could trick them into acting normally and becoming an easier target for chemotherapy drugs, which target active cells.

    ‘The concept is so easy,’ said one researcher. ‘It’s not some $100,000 per year drug. It’s literally just baking soda.’

    Because the cells are more active when baking soda – also known as bicarbonate of soda – is consumed, in theory they are more susceptible to cancer therapies.

    The ability of baking soda to neutralize acids is key to the success of this research.

    In solid tumors large numbers of cells have their oxygen supplies cut off – a condition called hypoxia – which causes their pH level to drop and they become acidic.

    If these dormant cells are cancerous and are not reached by treatment, they may reactivate after the original tumor is removed and make the cancer grow again.

    However, baking soda is good at neutralizing acid so drinking it could reduce the acidity of a tumor and bring the dormant cells back to life, the study suggests.

    Therapy could target hard-to-beat cancer cells

    The findings – published today in the science journal Cell – are important because dormant cells cannot typically be killed by chemotherapy.

    Said the lead researcher: ‘In tumors grafted into mice, we see [cell] activity in spotty places where there’s oxygen. ‘But if you add baking soda to the drinking water given to those mice, the entire tumor lights up with activity.

    Baking soda may also help with arthritis

    Research published earlier this year claimed baking soda could help arthritis sufferers by reducing inflammation.   After two weeks of drinking water with baking soda, people produced fewer immune cells that drive inflammation and more that dampen it down.

    The study author said: ‘The shift from inflammatory to anti-inflammatory is happening everywhere. We saw it in the kidneys, we saw it in the spleen, we see it in the blood.

    ‘[Drinking baking soda] is potentially a really safe way to treat inflammatory disease.’ The concept is so easy,” he says. “It’s not some $100,000 per year drug. It’s literally just baking soda.”

    So everyone wants to know it baking soda works.  Here is an excerpt of a report I recently wrote:

    BAKING SODA (SODIUM BICARBONATE) FOR MACULAR DEGENERATION & AUTOIMMUNITY

    When white blood cells attack the tissues in the human body rather than invade and kill off bacteria and viruses an AUTOIMMUNE REACTION is said to occur.  The primary white blood cell that launches a “body against itself” attack is called a macrophage (ma-kro-faj).

    These macrophages emanate from monocytes, which you will find listed in a complete blood count.  Macrophages literally digest or engulf pathogenic microorganisms.  When too many macrophages arrive at the site of inflammation they bang into each other, releasing iron, which in turn creates tissue-destructive oxygen free-radicals.

    There are two types of macrophages called M1 and M2.  The M1 macrophage generates inflammation that kills off tissue damaging bacteria and viruses.  M2 macrophages are wound healing and tissue repair white blood cells.  A balance between M1 and M2 macrophages is needed for health.  An imbalance between M1 and M2 macrophages is called macrophage polarization.

    Researchers now realize macular degeneration involves macrophage polarization.

    An astonishing simple way to quell autoimmune reactions throughout the body is to use BAKING SODA (sodium bicarbonate).  A half-teaspoon of baking soda (not baking powder) with a half-a-glass of water taken on an empty stomach immediately thrusts the digestive tract into an alkaline state.  Normally the digestive tract is very acidic so we can digest foods and break down nutrients so they can be absorbed.

    The alkaline baking soda forces the digestive tract to rebalance towards acidity.  In turn this is a trigger for nerve cells in the spleen to send an anti-inflammatory signal throughout the body.  The spleen is a small organ that stores, recycles and removes old blood cells in the body.  When you exercise and get a stitch or cramp in your side that is your spleen squeezing down to supply more blood cells to your circulatory system.

    Autoimmune reactions commonly occur in kidneys, lungs, liver, thyroid, skin, joints, eyes and other organs and tissues.  Out of balance macrophages incite a wound healing response that involves growth factors.  An abnormal amount of growth factor in the circulatory system (called vascular endothelial growth factor) can trigger the outcropping of new blood vessels that invade the visual center of the eyes (the macula) and destroy light receptor cells.  This occurs in the advanced form of macular degeneration.

    Fortunately, drugs directly injected into the eyes that block the production of this growth factor can successfully quell inflammation and save vision.  Repeated injections are often needed.

    However, it is obvious if there is a way to inhibit autoimmune reactions throughout the body it will help put a halt to vision loss and many other autoimmune problems.

    The baking soda remedy for autoimmunity is something simple you can do each day at home.  Use a ½ teaspoon of baking soda in a glass of water for at least two weeks to fully evaluate its effectiveness.  Don’t take baking soda with meals as the digestive tract needs to be acidic to properly absorb nutrients like calcium, magnesium, B vitamins and vitamin C. Daily baking soda use is safe.  The sodium (salt) in baking soda will not raise your blood pressure.  Elevation of blood pressure is associated with table salt (sodium chloride).  Chloride is derived from chlorine.  Only recently has it been realized it is the chloride and not the sodium that raises blood pressure.  Sea salt and table salt are mostly sodium chloride.  Most salt substitutes provide potassium chloride, which could also be problematic.  Mrs. Dash is a chloride-free salt substitute.

    A lot of people, especially folks with poor vision or arthritis, have difficulty serving up the right dose of baking soda (1/2 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate).  For folks who can’t stand the salty taste or have difficulty holding a spoon and don’t want to overdose, I had some convenient 1 gram sodium bicarbonate capsules bottled and they are dirt cheap.  Happy bicarbing.