Baking soda is considered by some to be a natural remedy that can help treat kidney problems.
Long considered a help for everything from cleaning house to a variety of health applications, the potential to use baking soda to treat patients with chronic kidney disease was backed by at least one medical study.
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A 2009 British study, published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, found that 134 patients who received a daily dose of baking soda in tablet form showed that their kidney decline
rates were slowed, ScienceDaily reported.
It added that those who took the baking soda, or sodium bicaronbate, pills were "less likely to develop end-stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring dialysis."
The study, while small, also found nutritional improvements in its participants, ScienceDaily said.
"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," Dr. Magdi Yaqoob of the Royal London Hospital, who co-authored the study, said in a release. "A simple remedy like sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), when used appropriately, can be very effective."
On PubMed Health,
a website of the National Institute of Health, one report indicated there were three small studies regarding the effects of baking soda on dialysis patients. "In all three trials, acidosis improved in the intervention group though there was variation in achieved bicarbonate level," the site indicated, while also cautioning that the studies were small and more research is needed. "There was no evidence of effect on blood pressure or sodium levels. Some measures of nutritional status/protein metabolism (e.g. SGA, NP NA) were significantly improved by correction in the one trial that looked in these in detail."
WebMD reported that baking soda pills change the acidity of urine, which makes it less likely for uric acid kidney stones to develop.
Baking soda is a common remedy recommended by alternative or
natural health sites like HealYourselfAtHome.com, which noted that the dosages in the study published in JASN were the equivalent of approximately 600 mg of baking soda (taken three times daily by tablet.)
It added as a home remedy: "600 mg is equivalent to 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda powder, which can be taken dissolved in a small glass of water or juice for consumption."
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