Baking Soda Prevents Kidney Disease, Renal Failure and Kidney Dialysis

Saturday, August 08, 2009 by: Melanie Grimes
Tags: baking soda, health news, Natural News

(NewsTarget) A recent study discovered a new use for common household baking soda. The Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN) reported that a daily dose of baking soda could prevent kidney damage and chronic kidney disease (CKD) in a study entitled, Bicarbonate Supplementation Slows Progression of CKD and Improves Nutritional Status. Baking soda prevents kidney disease and dialysis.

Baking soda is made of sodium bicarbonate. It is used in many households for cleaning. It is known to take the smell out of refrigerators and as an abrasive. Baking soda is used in baking, in soft breads, brownies, cookies, and other non-yeast baked goods. Other health uses for baking soda have already been discovered. It can be used internally to treat sunburns, or internally to aid acid indigestion. Some people brush their teeth with baking soda, and dentists are known to use it to clean teeth. Baking soda helps heal mouth sores and apthae ulcers, too.

The study investigated the use of baking soda in individuals with metabolic acidosis. This is a condition in which a person accumulates too much acid in the bloodstream, due to acid indigestion. Low bicarbonate levels contribute to a number of health conditions, and are an indicator of an underlying health problem. A group of 134 patients with this condition were given a daily dose of sodium bicarbonate in tablet form. Over the two year period of the study, participates had two-thirds less decline in their kidney function, compared to the control group. Only nine percent of the group showed any progression of their disease, compared to 45 percent in the other group. Because of this, those on sodium bicarbonate were less likely to develop renal failure and require kidney dialysis.

Because the study was not double blind, further research will be needed to validate these findings. In fact, the doctors knew which patients were taking the baking soda tablets and there was no control group.

Baking soda has no known side effects and is an inexpensive treatment, especially compared to the costs of kidney dialysis or kidney replacement. "This cheap and simple strategy also improves patients' nutritional status, and has the potential of translating into significant economic, quality of life, and clinical outcome benefits," said Magdi Yaqoob, MD, one of the study's organizers.

Simple foods and substances around the home are used for medicine around the world. These old folk remedies are finding newfound use, now that science can validate their healing abilities with modern research.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/554149...
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/768268...
http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec12/ch157/ch157c...
http://jasn.asnjournals.org/

About the author

Melanie Grimes is a writer, award-winning screenwriter, medical journal editor, and adjunct faculty member at Bastyr University. She also teaches homeopathy at the Seattle School of Homeopathy and the American Homeopathic Medical College.
A trained homeopath, she is the editor of the homeopathic journal, Simillimum, and has edited alternative and integrative medical journals for 15 years. She has taught creative writing, founded the first Birkenstock store in the USA and authored medical textbooks.
Her ebook on Natural Remedies for the Flu is available at:
http://melanie-grimes.blogspot.com/2009/04/b...
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