Supplement Review:

Baking Soda

(Sodium Bicarbonate)

This is a record of my experience with this substance. This is not medical advice. I am not a doctor, thank God. I am also not in charge of your health. Do your research, speak with your healthcare team and make an informed decision about what is safe and effective for you.  

Helping the Body Balance Itself Using Basic Chemistry

By Clint Allsup

Published on 1 JAN 2023

Baking soda is one of the most powerful healing agents I am aware of due to its ability to balance pH levels in the gut, which in turn will help balance levels throughout the body. While it is important to understand that our bodies can become “too acidic” and that attempting to restore the balance of our body by using methods like breathing mediation, cold exposure and supplements to become “more alkaline” can be powerfully beneficial; it is also important to understand that our body is constantly trying to reach this balance itself and that we should be striving to aid our body in finding this balance, between acidity and alkalinity, and not attempting to override our autonomic biological processes and become totally “alkaline”. In short, we should help our body to balance itself, instead of trying to reach an arbitrary alkalinity state that we have been told we should be at without context.

 In the holistic healing community particularly, there is an unhealthy bias towards alkalinity as a perfect state and also the use of novel or rare treatments to achieve a goal that could be easier achieved by something common and time-tested. I encounter the “rare disease requires a rare treatment” fallacy often, if not stated explicitly. If used properly, baking soda will likely become one of the most powerful healing agents that you will ever use, and will likely make many (most?) of the expensive, rare and novel treatments you have been experimenting with completely unnecessary, regardless of whether you paid a lot of money or had to get a prescription for them. You will also not find a better way to increase your alkalinity levels (while remaining in balance) than baking soda. Although this is not the goal in absolute terms, it is true that our bodies are likely too acidic and thus we should aid them in returning to balance with regard to pH levels. While I love breathing mediation and cold exposure, and these certainly do aid in healing the body and keeping acid/alkaline levels in balance, these methods could simply never compete with a box of baking soda in terms of increasing system alkalinity.

Breathing meditation is a powerful tool, so is basic chemistry.

Both should be utilized to improve your health.

Acidity, Alkalinity and Balance

As stated, the holistic healing community is often overly biased towards alkalinity as a desirable state or emphasizing the goal of “becoming more alkaline” through various means in order to regain or improve the health of the individual. The assumption is that our bodies have become too acidic due to our modern (unhealthy) lifestyle and this has caused systems in our body to malfunction. Which, in turn, causes many of our modern health problems as a result. While I do agree with this assertion, and I agree that balancing these levels can fix many problems that have been labeled “unfixable” or the cause of which cannot be found, I will restate once more that this is about helping the body to balance itself and not getting to some arbitrary level of “alkalinity” that you were told is desirable without context.

 It is also important to remember that this is only one part of the process, and we cannot ignore things like the quality of our gut microbiome or our default state of mind simply because we are making headway on balancing our acidity levels. The goal in all healing should be to help the body heal itself, not attempt to override and maintain levels of anything for your body. Even if manually overriding systems which have been implemented and improved through eons of evolution did work, which it does not, you would have to do this 24 hours a day forever, which you would not be able to do. This is the same reason why masking hormonal problems by taking synthetic (or precursor) hormones to fix problems with things like thyroid issues or testosterone levels will never work as well as helping the body balance itself; You simply cannot manually do for your body better than it can do for itself, if it is given the resources it needs. While I am impressed with the results of modern hormone and pro hormone therapies in terms of how esthers and such have made them “long lasting” (i.e. harder for the body to break down), stabbing yourself with synthetic testosterone or taking levothyroxin indefinitely will never be the best method.  These new drugs may raise profile levels longer than previous drugs did,but it will always be best to make the body healthy enough to regulate itself. No needles and no pills will always be the goal for long term health.

“Create an environment where the body can heal itself, and it will. That is always the method and the goal.”

It is also important to understand that acid and acidity is not always a bad thing. You need acid in your stomach to digest your food. This, and the bacteria in your gut that help break your food down (your microbiome), is how you get the nutrients in the food that your body uses to survive and heal itself. If your stomach became too basic (alkaline), you would not be able to digest food properly and you would suffer terribly from this. The quest to find balance in the body is not a war against acid, it is a quest to restore balance. So why is your stomach, and thus the rest of your body, out of balance with regard to acid levels?

The answer, per usual, is our modern diet, lifestyle and environment. Essentially, our environment and the way we now live and eat serves to keep our minds and bodies perpetually out of balance. Things like coffee, stress, processed foods (“foods”), alcohol, many pharmaceuticals, highly acidic things and other factors specifically throw off your bodies ability to balance itself (which it is constantly trying to do) and keep you in a state where your body cannot heal or repair itself. As I have written before, all healing begins in the gut. Your gut is the first victim in the war for your health and fixing it (and keeping it healthy) is the first step to fixing your health. This step cannot be avoided or substituted. If your gut is out of balance, either the bacteria you have in there or your pH level, you simply cannot be fully healthy. If you have bad bugs or an overgrowth of yeast in your gut, your acid levels are too high and you have a permeable gut lining (leaky gut), then it is likely you now have a systemic problem instead of just a localized one. I have written extensively about leaky gut, you can find the method I use to fix it here. One of the main causes for leaky gut is acid levels being too high. One of the main reasons for persistent or recurring candida overgrowth is the pH level being off (too acidic) in the gut. Remember that yeast is a living thing that works constantly to change its environment (your gut, in this case) so it can stay alive and propagate (by making your stomach more acidic). Helping your body balance the pH of your gut is as integral as making sure that the right bacteria are in it. Candida and the bacteria that causes SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) require a specific pH to proliferate, thus they modify their environment to thrive at your expense. When we bring levels back into balance then these terrible maladies cannot survive in your system. Yes, it takes time, but once you experience the magic of true health you will never want to go back to the way you were before.

It should also be noted that if you go to the doctor because you are suffering from something caused by your stomach acid being too high (often the first symptom is a cough or heartburn) then you will likely be given a medication that turns off the acid pump that produces the acid. These drugs are called proton pump inhibitors and omeprazole is one I have been prescribed in the past. I personally would never take such a medication again, as I do not think halting my body’s ability to properly digest is the answer for the pH of my stomach being a little off. I also do not believe that everything will just return to normal the second I stop taking such a powerful medication. I have told doctors before that I treat conditions like heartburn with baking soda and I was told that they will not recommend this because they cannot tell me “how much to take”. While this problem is ostensibly insurmountable for the medical community, I have solved it by listening to my own body and taking a small amount daily over the course of several days until the problem resolves, adjusting up or down as needed. My bodies ability to digest food properly remains intact and I no longer need to go to the doctor or seek help in solving this problem. While I always appreciate it when a doctor admits they don’t know how to do something, I refuse to suffer with acid reflux because of it.

So What If I Overdo it and Make My Stomach Acid Too Low? Or My Stomach Acid Is Too Low To Begin With?

Some people do not produce enough stomach acid and this can, ironically, also cause acid reflux. If you are a person who did not produce enough I would suggest enjoying a glass of the miracle that is apple cider vinegar with some frequency. This will also help you to drop weight and clear toxins. Or you can also have a glass of lemon juice. Or eat raw garlic. Or drink a cup of coffee, if tolerated. Getting more acid into the system is very, very easy and can have cascading positive effects if the right method (like ACV or lemon juice) is used to do it. It can also be done by ingesting terrible food and have cascading negative effects.

If you have experimented with adjusting and feel as though you have made a mistake or need to stop, then just stop. It may be best to just let your body settle on its own and try again in a few days or weeks when you have returned to (whatever your) normal was before you began.

Remember that our modern lifestyles have likely caused a problem that needs correcting  but it will almost certainly take more than a few seconds of experimentation to figure out what works best for you. Again, the body will adjust its levels on its own, it just may not be to a level that is truly healthy, at the moment.

*It should also be noted that I have observed baking soda will kill candida outright when I take it, not just by changing the pH of the stomach but directly. This is remarkable and incredibly helpful. Also, when the candida is killed and the pH is balanced in my gut by using baking soda I notice the candida does not return as it normally would if I took Candex/Fluconazole/etc.

So what do I use baking soda for? And how do I dose it? Since I am only speaking from my experience with this article, I will list the things I have used baking soda for and how I use it now.

Things I Have Used Baking Soda For:

1. To Rebalance pH levels in the gut and keep candida in check

Like so many people in the chronic illness community, and society at large now, I have suffered from recurring candida overgrowth in the gut. I have used baking soda to kill the candida outright and also to balance the pH levels of the gut. This has also had the secondary effect of adjusting my system wide acid/alkaline levels and allowing me to relax and feel at peace in a way that I really haven’t felt since I was very young. It is crucial to understand that the brain, mind and gut are linked in a way that is much more significant than with most other parts of the body. If there is an issue with the gut that prohibits the brain from getting what it needs, the brain (physically) and mind (psychologically) WILL suffer for it.

Conversely, if your gut is healthy and properly balanced then your brain and mind will likely be also. We can make things more complicated than “your mind can only be as balanced as the gut that feeds it” but we really don’t need to. Instead, if we balance the gut we will have won a massive victory against nearly every physical and psychological problem we face or can face, and will be well on our way to solving others now and in the future.

My method for using baking soda to rebalance typically involves taking a very small amount (about one quarter of a tablespoon) once a day in water to gauge tolerance. I will do this for several days to weeks to see how I am progressing. If I feel I need to, I will increase my dosage to two or three ¼ tablespoons a day, but this is very rare. I will typically do this as far away from meals as I can so that I can ensure that the food I eat is broken down properly. I drink plenty of water (baking soda is a salt) and I monitor my blood pressure. If my blood pressure becomes too high I will typically use Stephania Tetrandra, raw garlic or hawthorn to bring it down. Remember that Stephania is a powerful calcium channel blocker so it is important to understand the method by which it reduces blood pressure and the interplay with sodium levels if used. If my sodium levels become too high and my blood pressure rises because my kidneys cannot balance the sodium and potassium levels I will take vitamin K2 (a form of potassium) once or twice a day as needed to rebalance. This seems to do the trick every time. Taking K2 before bed also seems to lower my blood pressure to the point I sleep like a baby, also.

While using this method I monitor my tongue throughout the day (any white on your tongue first thing in the morning almost always means candida overgrowth). Initially this will likely cause frequent trips to the bathroom as things get balanced out. Also important to note is that if you ingest something highly acidic while taking the baking soda you will possibly have a “high school science project volcano” reaction in your gut. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it should be kept in mind while going through this process. For many this may actually be a good thing as it will expedite the removal of toxins via this route. During the adjustment period it is important to remember that your sense of smell and taste, and sensitivity to smell, will likely increase. This is primarily due to the candida no longer blocking your taste buds.

Avoid Rebound Reactions

It is also very important to understand that the body does not like rapid, drastic change. When taking baking soda I have noticed that if I take too much, half a teaspoon or more, I will not receive the same benefit as the body will overcompensate to return levels to where they were before. This will basically set my progress back and add the unnecessary stress to my gut of the levels adjusting rapidly to one state and then another. There is a “rebound reaction” to drastic changes in the gut, much like in many other parts of the body. It is best to go slow and low and not overdo it. This is also further evidence that, generally, lower doses for longer are better than mega doses for a short duration (I do not pulse because it does not work) and that real change is accomplished by consistency and not intensity when it comes to healing.  

I will know this method is working when I feel much more relaxed (better toxin removal, better acid/alkaline balance, etc) and my tongue appears to be pink and healthy longer between ingestion of the baking soda. Once I feel I am at optimal levels (can take days or weeks depending on how long and how severe I have been out of balance), I go to a maintenance schedule where I only ingest the baking soda when I feel I need it. This can be daily depending on how bad my diet has been. For instance, if I have had a large coffee (!) and a big salad with Italian dressing for a couple of days in a row it is likely I will need to rebalance myself to atone for my transgressions.

Alternative: Alka-Seltzer Gold

It should also be noted here that Alka Seltzer Gold (“Alkaline” seltzer) is viewed as a solid option to aid in alleviating a herx reaction in the Lyme community. This is  because Alka Seltzer Gold is essentially baking soda with a small amount of citric acid to counter balance the basic sodium bicarbonate. It also has potassium so the sodium and potassium levels aren’t thrown off too dramatically and thus put a greater strain on the body (kidneys) to balance. The cleansing effect via the baking soda and the two other components to counter balance is also one of the reasons Alka Seltzer generally helps hangovers. If baking soda cannot be used for any reason, one to two Alka seltzer gold tablets can be substituted. The intent seems to be that the tables are “pre balanced” for pH before going into the body so they may be better suited to someone who cannot tolerate a faster change or needs less adjustment to regain balance. Regular Alka Seltzer should be avoided due to the aspirin being very hard on the gut and kidneys (even though it does lower blood pressure).

Also using baking soda as a substitute to toothpaste will cause some to make its way to the gut. This can be used if only a small adjustment to stomach pH levels are needed.

2. To remove toxins from Herxheimer (“die off”) reactions and balance hormone levels as a side effect of treatment

I have used baking soda to reduce the negative effects of toxin buildup from treating Lyme and its coinfections. I have also used it to help my body clear excess estrogen when using (miracle) herbs like Japanese Knotweed. This works in a somewhat indirect method, but essentially this substance helped improve my bodies ability to clear toxins and excess hormones that reached a critical mass as a byproduct of treating Lyme and Co. Your liver, for example, not only clears fat soluble toxins and excess vitamins from your body, but it also clears excess hormones as well. Should you have a buildup and your liver cannot effectively clear things like this, you will likely have a buildup of old and new problems at the same time.  

Baking soda cleared my “Lyme rage” (a condition almost always caused by an overloaded liver form die off from Lyme and from the herbs used to cause the die off) entirely, as well as a significant overload of estrogen in my system from using Japanese Knotweed. “Lyme rage” is typically a build up of toxins and other bad actors in the brain due the liver being overloaded. Japanese Knotweed is an herb that can almost single handedly defeat Lyme and Bartonella (however it is probably best to take a lower dose of it and add in some secondary herbs) but is intensely estrogenic. Baking soda “cleaned things up” in my system and not only eliminated some of the side effects of treatment, but some of the major symptoms as well.

Remember that you should always take bitters to protect your liver (valerian, milk thistle, dandelion if you also want to clear out your kidneys, etc) but you cannot rely on them alone to keep things running optimally. Baking soda worked better to keep my body free of toxins than liposomal glutathione, ALA, NAC, bitters and combinations thereof. I do not believe there is a substitute for it and I do not believe that we need one. As with using methods like meditation and baking soda to increase system balance, I do use bitters and baking soda together for optimal health.

3. As a Pre-workout supplement to neutralize lactic acid build up during exercise

Lactic acid is an acid. The “burn” you experience when you work out is from lactic acid build up. Ingesting baking soda before a workout will help you retain fluids (from my experience) and will also help reduce lactic acid build up by causing the body to regulate your levels differently. The baking soda you put in your gut does not directly go to the body part that you are exercising when you are working out, but it does indirectly cause a decrease in lactic acid build up, allowing you to work harder and longer.

Before supplements stores and pre/intra/post workout supplements were popular, some old school boxers and athletes I know would put baking soda in water and either swish and spit or swallow it. I was very fortunate to be taught this at a young age, and I have used it effectively. This was  decades before I knew anything about pH levels or gut health.

4. To whiten my teeth

I brush my teeth by either putting baking soda on my toothbrush or baking soda and tooth paste on my brush, then brushing normally. Most good toothpastes will have baking soda already in them, I just don’t use regular toothpastes often due to my preference to keep fluoride levels low. I will not go further here, but read the warning label on your toothpaste.

Fluoride is the reason it has that label.

The longer the baking soda stays on your teeth the whiter it will make them. This also works for your clothes if you add baking soda when you do laundry. When you do this, some of the baking soda will travel down your throat and get into your gut/system. As stated previously, this can also be a good way to get the benefit over time if you cannot ingest larger amounts of it due to blood pressure or other issues.

*Friends of mine have told me that this is how people used to brush their teeth. My estimation is this is one of many, many reasons why people used to be healthier than they are now.

Is this natural? Why would I need this?  

I believe that, like MSM, sodium bicarbonate would be available in higher levels in our food if the food we were able to buy and ingest actually had proper nutrient levels. I also believe that, as stated, our modern lifestyle has kept us psychologically and physically out of balance long enough to create a negative spiral that exacerbates the problem the longer we go without aiding our bodies in becoming balanced. In a perfect world you would get your nutrition solely from food and salts like sodium bicarbonate and magnesium (another salt that we are essentially all deficient in without supplementation) would not need to be taken as a supplement. However we simply do not have access to healthy food and our environment is more toxic than it has been in the past, therefore we must make minor adjustments like taking baking soda/magnesium/etc to achieve and maintain optimal health.

Alkalinity and Cancer

There is a school of thought in the holistic healing community that believes that most cancers are caused by a lack of oxygen to tissue and high acidity levels. While I think this was never 100% true as it is an oversimplification, I believe there is truth to it in some circumstances. It is probable that a lack of oxygen to tissue and high acid levels would cause a “misread” in instructions by the body and uncontrolled cell proliferation could be the result. These days, however, I believe this statement is even less true as the advent of complicated environmental toxins, even more complex gene therapies, and other things have broadened the cause of many ailments and opened the door to many more. I also believe this view will become less true the longer time goes on as “advancements” in medicine are made. In short, this is the cause of some cancers, but I do not believe it is the cause of all of them.

Another school of thought basically blames parasites for everything and believes that killing them will fix every conceivable health problem within the body. Again, another gross oversimplification.

Achieving a balanced system that can (and will) heal itself is and will always be the goal. There will be novel pathogens, novel treatments (some of which are basically pathogens themselves) and many other things that complicate the goal of being completely healthy. If we employ a variety of methods to enable our body to heal itself, we will succeed no matter what comes our way. Gross oversimplifications that narrow thought and action are as big as enemy as the actual pathogen/imbalances themselves.

Baking soda is not the sole answer, nothing is, but it is an incredibly powerful tool in the fight against current and future ailments. I would never ignore it or its benefits when optimizing my health.

Verdict

Mission critical for restoring balance in the body given modern conditions. Sodium bicarbonate levels should likely be higher in our diets but are not, due to various reasons. Also the modern diet shifts the balance so far to the acidic side of the scale that the body becomes unable to find balance itself for most. Baking soda is cheap, effective and can easily be employed to dramatically improve the health of most people who supplement with it, once optimal intake has been established through experimentation. It is not pretty, new, shiny or interesting, but it is extraordinarily powerful in its ability to balance the human body. Also the likelihood of negative side effects is so low and the likelihood of benefit is so high that it would likely be appropriate for it to be tried before other things that come with far greater risk and far less potential reward.

Amount of Time I Have Personally Used This Herb

As a pre-workout: about 20 years off and on

To fix acid indigestion: 15 years

To balance pH and combat candida: 4 years

Primary Indications

• To reduce acid reflux, kill candida and aid in system detoxification by restoring normal and healthy pH levels in the body.
• As a pre workout supplement.
• As toothpaste that will whiten teeth.

Side Effects

• It is sodium. The potential for high blood pressure is similar to other forms of sodium. Still ingesting this substance is nowhere near the danger of ingesting fast food or similar on a regular basis.
• Almost certainly GI symptoms as it kills candida and bacteria that need a high acid environment to survive.

Effectiveness

I am not aware of a similar substance that will work as well as this one. 

Dose

Either:

1. One quarter tablespoon in water once a day for 3 days to 2 weeks between meals. Drink plenty of water and monitor blood pressure. Can be increased if necessary to two to three times a day but this will increase the likelihood of high blood pressure.

If too much is taken (might increase blood pressure too high and often feels like food is not being digested or stomach is too calm) then cease taking for several days. Also taking ACV before or after meals or having a lemon water with meals can aid in digestion if it seems as if enough acid is not present.

OR

2. Take one quarter, one half or one whole tablet of Alka Seltzer Gold instead of the baking soda. Can be increased to two tablets if needed. Can be used very similarly to regular baking soda.

Contraindications

If you already have low stomach acid it would likely be unwise to use baking soda. In that case stomach acid could be easily raised by raw garlic, coffee, apple cider vinegar, lemon water or a host of unhealthy modern lifestyle behaviors I do not recommend to anyone.

Precautions

• If you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol then I would not take baking soda or any supplemental sodium. I would also be wary of other salts like magnesium. Since you should never begin taking a supplement or herb without consulting your doctor and care team first this should be identified by them as an issue before you begin taking this (or anything).
• Some people believe that there is too much aluminum in most commercially available baking soda products. You can order aluminum free baking soda from Amazon if this is a concern for you.

Typical Cost

99 cents on Amazon at the time of writing.