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Raise your hand if your mom always had baking soda in the house. (Everyone raises both hands.) While statistics are a bit superficial, an unofficial estimate of the number of moms who like baking soda is about 95%.
(Okay, we just threw that number out there. But it’s probably very close to the truth!)
Baking soda is one of those miracle substances that can handle any and every task in the kitchen or beyond.
Baking soda, edible soda (chemically sodium bicarbonate) has been used for so long. It works as a natural home remedy for various purposes.
Just half a teaspoon can ease or cure an acute case of heartburn. Need to whiten your teeth? Make a homemade toothpaste from soda!
Nowadays people are rediscovering baking soda. They praise it as “an inexpensive and safe way to fight autoimmune diseases” including arthritis!
Study
Researchers from the MCG Department of Physiology at Augusta University claim that baking soda helps support the proper pH balance in the body.
Now let’s forget the scientific lectures for a moment. Let’s say it’s enough for us to know that “pH” indicates acidity levels in the body.
Even more important is that health experts and other scientists believe that balancing pH levels in the human body is essential to achieve and maintain good health. Including keeping inflammation under control.
Now back to the science. Dr. Paul O’Connor, a physiologist and co-author of many studies, says that consuming sodium bicarbonate helps normalize pH values in the human body.
Baking soda helps this by supporting the production of stomach acid. This ensures proper digestion of ingested food, making it less likely that a person will suffer digestive problems or stomach pain. And of course, it reduces inflammatory processes.
Besides softening the digestive process — which is a key aspect in limiting the symptoms of diabetes — consuming soda also exerts its effect on the spleen.
There it serves as a kind of cache. Dr. O’Connor says that “with absolute certainty it is so that drinking a baking soda solution affects the spleen. The field of our view this occurs through cells.”
To verify the effectiveness of these healthful characteristics, Dr. O’Connor carried out an experiment involving rats as well as people.
(Rats are used in many medical experiments because on a genetic and biological level, but also in terms of behavior, their characteristics in some aspects apparently resemble those of humans. Well, who knows?)
O’Connor and his team administered a baking soda and water solution to each study group for two weeks. After that time and after performing a series of tests, the scientists found changes in the immune cells of the tested subjects.
Specifically, sodium bicarbonate caused immune cells to suppress inflammatory responses. This occurred both in the cells of the rats and in the cells of people who had inflammatory problems prior to this experiment.
How baking soda works
Dr. O’Connor’s study clearly demonstrates the strong anti-inflammatory properties of soda. It does so in two ways. First, it is clear that sodium bicarbonate encourages steady production of stomach acid, which is necessary for proper digestion of food.
The body’s ability to digest food and absorb nutrients is decisive for keeping inflammation under control.
Secondly, baking soda acts on both the stomach and the spleen. The spleen is part of the immune system, so thanks to the action of soda the immune response calms down, as well as the strengthening of the anti-inflammatory reaction — if the proper conditions are ensured.
Cells of the stomach and spleen perform two functions. That means the immune system is not attacked, and therefore at the same time it “turns off” already activated inflammatory markers.
Closing thought
Michelle Neilly, a nutrition specialist, says the following: “Although there is no ‘all-fixing miracle’ that cures everything, there is certainly a reason why homemade remedies, for example apple cider vinegar and baking soda, have been present in households for ages. It could really help … patients with inflammation.”
Convinced? Baking soda proves to be an effective alternative treatment for arthritis.
As already mentioned, a damaged immune system and symptoms of rapidly progressing inflammation cause arthritic pain.
Considering the relatively low price at which baking soda can be bought, you have nothing to lose by giving it a chance. You can only gain. Especially compared to prescription arthritis medications, baking soda deserves that you at least try it.
