Baking Soda: Not Just for Regular Everyday Use

Here is a very interesting story on how sodium bicarbonate, which is more commonly known as baking soda seems to have the ability to preserve kidney function. Here are some things that the sciencedaily.com article has to say.

The study included 134 patients with advanced CKD and low bicarbonate levels, also called metabolic acidosis. One group received a small daily dose of sodium bicarbonate in tablet form, in addition to their usual care. For this group, the rate of decline in kidney function was greatly reduced—about two-thirds slower than in patients. "In fact, in patients taking sodium bicarbonate, the rate of decline in kidney function was similar to the normal age-related decline

[...]

Rapid progression of kidney disease occurred in just nine percent of patients taking sodium bicarbonate, compared to 45 percent of the other group. Patients taking sodium bicarbonate were also less likely to develop end-stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring dialysis.
Patients taking sodium bicarbonate also had improvement in several measures of nutrition. Although their sodium levels went up, this didn't lead to any problems with increased blood pressure.

I wonder how much of an effect it really has. It definitely has some merit as I have spoken to a number of transplant patients who used sodium bicarbonate when their native kidneys were failing and they did say that their kidneys did last quite a bit longer than what their doctors expected.

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