Sodium bicarbonate, commonly known as baking soda, is a versatile substance with a wide range of uses across various domains, from health care to household maintenance. Here's a detailed overview of its properties and applications:

What is Sodium Bicarbonate?

Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) is a chemical compound consisting of sodium ions and bicarbonate ions. It is a white, crystalline solid, but it often appears as a fine powder. With a slightly alkaline, salty taste, sodium bicarbonate is commonly found in mineral springs and is a component of the mineral natron. In its natural mineral form, it is called nahcolite. It has a variety of uses due to its natural pH-regulating properties, making it a key ingredient in both medicinal and household products.

Common Uses of Sodium Bicarbonate

1. Health Benefits

• Alleviating Burns & Itching: Sodium bicarbonate has been used historically to treat burns, scalds, and allergic reactions, particularly to plants. Its ability to neutralise acid helps soothe the skin and reduce irritation.
• Neutralising Acidity: Its natural pH-balancing effect makes it effective in treating conditions like acid reflux, helping to neutralise stomach acid.
• Oral Health: Sodium bicarbonate is commonly used in toothpaste due to its ability to whiten teeth, neutralize acids in the mouth, and help with plaque removal.

2. Personal Hygiene

• Toothpaste Additive: Its inclusion in toothpaste enhances its ability to whiten teeth and provide a gentle abrasive action for cleaning, while also neutralising acids in the mouth that can cause bad breath and decay.
• Skin Care: In addition to treating burns, it can be used in skincare routines for exfoliation or to relieve itching and irritation caused by conditions like bug bites or minor rashes.

3. Household Uses

• Cleaning Agent: Sodium bicarbonate is a popular non-toxic cleaner. It can be used to scrub surfaces, remove stains, and eliminate odors. It's particularly effective at tackling tea and coffee stains in cups and mugs when mixed with warm water.
• Odour Neutraliser: Adding sodium bicarbonate to washing machines softens water and helps remove odors from clothing, making it a go-to product for freshening laundry without the use of harsh chemicals.
• Deodorising and Freshening: Its ability to absorb odors makes it a common ingredient in deodorizing products, from air fresheners to carpet cleaners.

4. Bath Products

• Fizzy Bath Bombs & Salts: Sodium bicarbonate is often used in homemade bath products, such as bath bombs and bath salts, due to its ability to effervesce when combined with acids, making for a relaxing bath experience.

Advantages of Sodium Bicarbonate

• Natural & Non-toxic: Unlike many household cleaners and personal hygiene products, sodium bicarbonate is natural, non-toxic, and free from harsh chemicals, making it safer for people and pets.
• Multi-purpose: Its versatility allows it to serve multiple roles, from personal care to household maintenance, reducing the need for numerous specialised products.
• Cost-effective: It's inexpensive and widely available, making it an affordable alternative to chemical-based products.

High-Quality Sodium Bicarbonate

When purchasing sodium bicarbonate, especially for medicinal or personal care uses, it’s important to ensure that it is of the highest quality. Look for:

• Food Grade & 100% Pure: Ensure that the sodium bicarbonate is food grade and free of additives or contaminants, which is especially important for health-related uses.
• Vegan & Gluten-Free: These certifications ensure that the product meets specific dietary needs.
• Aluminum-Free: Some lower-quality sodium bicarbonates may contain aluminum, which you may want to avoid for health reasons.

Conclusion

Sodium bicarbonate is a remarkable, multi-functional product that has a wide array of uses. Whether it’s used for medicinal purposes, personal hygiene, or household cleaning, its natural pH-regulating properties make it an effective and safe alternative to many harsher chemical products. For more information on its many uses and benefits, Dr. Mark Sircus’s book, Sodium Bicarbonate Nature’s Unique First Aid Remedy, is a great resource to explore its full potential.

  50+ Amazing Uses of Baking Soda.

Many components of the modern western diet – meats, fish, dairy products, most grains, sugars, alcohol and caffeinated drinks (in fact, almost everything except vegetables, millet, most fruits and, as we have just seen, apple cider vinegar) – contribute to one’s body becoming too acidic.

This, in turn, can open the door to a variety of problems, some of them (including arthritic complaints) potentially serious if this acidic condition persists for many years.

This is because your body will attempt to compensate by retaining alkaline salts in the bloodstream to offset the increase of tissue acidity. Since your body can only tolerate a small imbalance in blood pH (the acid-alkali balance), it will rob alkaline components from other places – including your body’s precious alkaline reserves – in an effort to restore proper pH equilibrium.

This can result in heartburn, digestive distress, stomach upset, fatigue and a multitude of other symptoms. Simple, inexpensive kitchen baking soda can fix this.

Very useful in keeping the body healthily alkalized is half to one teaspoon a day of baking soda in water. Don’t take it with or within an hour of meals, though, as the stomach needs to retain its acidity in order to perform its digestive functions effectively.

A great deal of tap water (or even store-bought spring water) is surprisingly acidic; filtration will remove toxins but will not affect the pH balance of the water. (Baking soda can be used to reduce the corrosion of acidic drinking water in municipal water supplies, therefore reducing the toxicity of the lead and copper, which are dissolved from the pipes.)

There also are interesting health benefits when you drink baking soda, which is alkaline, in water. Viruses and diseases such as colds, flu, cancer and even heart disease thrive in an acidic body, but cannot survive when your body is alkaline. The 2009 Journal of the American Society of Nephrology revealed a study of 134 patients with advanced kidney disease. Taking baking soda daily dramatically slowed down the progression of kidney disease, resulting in no need for dialysis.

To increase your body’s pH, take 1/4 tsp. of baking soda dissolved in a one-half glass of water on an empty stomach, once in the morning and again before bedtime. Acidity and alkalinity are measured by pH, which ranges from 0 to 14 with 7.0 being neutral; a pH above 7.0 is alkaline, and below 7.0 is acidic. Baking soda has the highest pH of 14. Create a healthy body by keeping your body’s pH between 7.1 and 7.5.

Drink the baking soda and water solution at the very beginning of cold or flu symptoms, such as a runny nose or sneezing, to help kill the viruses. Keep your body alkaline by increasing fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet.

If you’re an athlete, swallow sodium bicarbonate supplements with water to buffer lactic acid buildup and improve your exercise performance. Ingest 0.3 g of sodium bicarbonate per 2.2 lb. of body weight, one to two hours before the event, drinking plenty of water.

Drink a glass of water with a half lemon or lime squeezed into it twice daily if you are unable to take baking soda and water. Lemons and limes are acidic but become alkaline in your body, raising your alkalinity almost as well as baking soda.

You can purchase a pH testing kit for home use very cheaply, and if the water you usually drink is acidic (i.e. with a pH of less than 7.0) you could remedy this cheaply and easily by adding a pinch of baking soda to all the water you consume.

Baking soda is also effective for polishing teeth (without scratching the tooth surface) and fighting bad breath (sprinkle a little on the toothbrush bristles). It can even be tried for exfoliating skin when acne is a problem (add a little to a facial cleanser in place of using a commercial facial scrub).

When baking soda is added to bath water, sunburn sufferers often experience a notable reduction in pain. Place a cup (8 ounces) of baking soda under the running bath tap so it dissolves completely, and soak in a lukewarm tub for about half an hour. Such a bath will soothe the pain – and you won’t have to endure the stinging sensation of a shower. Adding baking soda to a hot bath at any time also helps wash acid wastes out of the body.

In addition, baking soda can be used in cool (but not cold) bath water to soothe other skin irritations and alleviate itching from prickly heat, bee stings, insect bites, and other minor skin ailments. A paste (made with just enough water to get the desired sticky consistency) placed on an insect bite or sting and allowed to dry is a time-tested approach for drawing out and neutralizing poisons.

People with skin allergies who tend to react to commercial laundry detergents might find that washing their clothing and bedding in baking soda is less irritating.

Simple baking soda may also weaken the desire for a cigarette as well as reduce the desire for sugar and sweets. It’s used in kidney dialysis to reduce the level of acids in the bloodstream and acts to prevent bacterial growth in food products. For general purposes of alkalinizing the body, quarter to half a teaspoon twice a day in the water is usually enough.

The medicinal and self-care uses of baking soda were recognized by the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) more than 150 years ago. For years, baking soda has been recommended because of its antacid effects, mainly to neutralize stomach acids that can cause heartburn, acid indigestion and related discomforts.

As it mixes with the hydrochloric acid in the stomach, baking soda triggers a chemical reaction, and its end products are salt (NaCl, or sodium chloride), carbon dioxide (CO2) and water. The water is harmless, and the carbon dioxide gets released as a gas, producing a familiar burp once the acid is neutralized.

However, commercial antacid products only lessen symptoms of over-acidity by blocking the production of acid and can often produce unwanted side effects. They alter your body’s ability to absorb protein and calcium, which can then create the need for a calcium supplement to compensate.

If it were not for the presence of sodium – which makes the tissue in the stomach highly alkaline – the lining would be destroyed by the hydrochloric acid in the stomach. The stomach, intestines, joints and ligaments are in constant need of natural food-source sodium. Naturally occurring sodium is not to be confused with the sodium from common commercial table salt, which is processed with extreme heat using many chemical and bleaching agents.

Potassium neutralizes acid wastes, and in combination with sodium, maintains a healthy acid/alkaline balance. Potassium and sodium are nearly always found together in the body and perform many of the same functions. Second only to breathing and maintaining a heartbeat the most important metabolic function our body performs is to maintain a balanced pH. Baking soda, in small amounts, performs this function.

source: http://www.21stcenturynetworker.com/articles/the-many-health-benefits-of-baking-soda/

Of all Things … Baking Soda?

Studies in respected medical journals worldwide consistently support the use of a simple dirt-cheap product for reversing acidity — baking soda.  Since there’s no money in baking soda for drug companies, its excluded from the medical school curriculum and/or associated health training/education.

Odours:

As an interesting side-note, most odours we experience are bacteria related.  A simple test is to sprinkle a bit of baking soda in your stinky shoes and/or under your smelly arm-pits — odour diminishes readily.  Odour from areas of the body that stay wet and/or dark for awhile are a result of/or caused by bacteria and/or the symbiotic relationship it has with fungus.  Fungus (vaginal candidiasis or candida, jock itch, athletes foot, etc.) is odour-producing.  Cavities and bacteria (bad breath) are best-buddies, too.  Sugar creates an acidic environment in the mouth, thus, a reason why dentists recommend avoiding sugar-related foods.

And, stop using sponges to wash your dishes!  Sponges typically stay wet for extended periods which encourage bacteria to multiply exponentially within minutes (Discovery Science channel).

Athletes — Faster, Harder, Stronger

Lactic acid is a well-known by-product of the exercising muscle.  To a large degree, it is responsible for muscular soreness and premature fatigue.  Sports drinks do nothing to address the acid issue.  In fact, they add to the acid problem due to a large amount of sugar ingested — sugar drinks are basically acid drinks.  The same goes for fruit drinks (the actual sweet part of the fruit is replaced with sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup).  It’s no wonder regular exercisers have a hard time recovering from injuries — the injury is surrounded by acid.

Bananas, oranges, potatoes and melons are must-staples of athletes’ general diet due to their high potassium content.  Yes, they contain sugar, however, it’s in a complex carbohydrate form (less inflammatory) that is a longer lasting fuel for the exercising muscle.  They alkalize once consumed, however, baking soda water is a stronger and more direct alkalizing agent and may mean the difference between 1st and 2nd in an athletic event.

Bottom-line: 

As a general guideline, and based on personal research, the following is my recipe for adjusting acid-blood toward the direction of healthier alkaline-blood pH.  Below are two separate examples — do one or the other but not both:

Mix 1/4-1/3 teaspoon of baking soda in a 12-16 ounce glass of water and consume 1 glass in the AM and 1 in the PM and swish it in your mouth (cavity prevention) before swallowing daily.  In addition to, and at anytime when you experience heartburn, an extra glass may be necessary.

This following method is easy, convenient, and you’re more likely to be consistent with it.  If you drink distilled or reverse osmosis water daily as your main source of water (cleanest there is, but acidic), mix 3/4 to 1 teaspoon/gallon.  Tap and bottled waters are not as acidic (but very dirty) so you may want to adjust them to a lower 1/2 teaspoon/gallon.  You can make adjustments with pH papers below.

Refrain from consuming straight baking soda and/or strong mixtures of the same.  It can numb taste-buds and cause the skin from the roof of your mouth to peel, not painful, just bothersome.  In other words, strong alkalinity can burn you on its end of the scale similar to strong acids such as sulfuric or muriatic that burn on the acid side of the scale.

The above recommendation is for the non-exerciser and/or those who consume the average western diet.  Dedicated life extensionists (typically consume lots of minerals), vegetarians, vegans, and/or those who consume more fruits and vegetables than the average person, may want to use a bit less baking soda.  Their bodies tend to be a bit more alkaline than the average person.  Your barometer can be the consistent use of pH strips/papers.  They give you the information you need to make adjustments with the baking soda you put in your water.

Sodium (and Potassium) Concern:

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda contains 300 mg. (milligrams) of sodium — not much to be concerned about.  Most of us typically consume 2,000-3,000 mg. of salt (sodium chloride) daily.  Studies show the relationship between sodium and potassium to be high blood pressure culprit.  Generally, where there is high sodium in populations, there is low potassium.  Potassium-rich foods generally cost more than sodium-rich foods, thus, impoverished areas have a higher incidence of stroke and high blood pressure.  The scientific literature shows that if potassium is increased and sodium stays the same, the incidence of blood pressure and strokes drop.  A 2:1 ratio of potassium to sodium should be a strong consideration for anyone.  Raw fruits and vegetables are some of the best sources of potassium.  This is one of the few areas where food provides more micro-nutrients than nutritional supplements.

Measuring With pH Paper/Strips:

There are 2 easy ways to monitor your pH — urine and saliva.  Whether you test your urine or saliva, the pH value of either varies throughout the day based on many variables (food, liquids, stress, nutritional supplement intake, etc.).  Therefore, it is necessary to check it 4-5 times/day so you can establish an average.  Personally, I have found the urine method to be the most accurate.  If your average is still acidic (or, gets too alkaline) adjust the amount of baking soda accordingly.  You can use pH paper/strips or a pH meter.  I’ve always preferred the strips for convenience.