A study authored by Dr. Kalani Raphael of the University of Utah, published in the Clinical Journal of American Nephrology, claims that elderly individuals with low levels of bicarbonate, or simply baking soda, have a 24% higher risk of dying early. Dr. Kalani said, ‘What we found was that generally healthy older people with low levels of bicarbonate had a higher risk of death.’
The kidneys and the lungs cooperate by manipulating the levels of bicarbonate and carbon-dioxide in the blood in a process called homeostasis. While the former is a base, the latter is an alkali- the manipulation of the quantity of bicarbonate in the blood stream, thus helping the body regulate its pH levels in an optimum range for cells and organs to function.
According to the study, patients with severe acid-base abnormalities have a very low probability of surviving their ailment. What remains unclear though is whether changes in the acid-base balance would affect healthy elderly individuals. Scientists analysed data from 2,287 participants in a study. The focus was on healthy black and white elderly people between the ages of 70 to 79. The study began in 1997 and lasted until 2014. Participants were analysed for 10.3 years on average.
People with normal or high bicarbonate levels had a similar risk of dying, during the course of the study, while those with low levels of bicarbonates faced high levels of early death.
Dr Raphael said: ‘Adding the pH measurement into the equation didn’t change the results, which is important because pH is not routinely measured.’ Bicarbonate concentrations, on the other hand, are already commonly measured – and it might allow doctors to identify people who are at a higher risk of premature death.
The scientists believe that those who suffer from low bicarbonate levels may benefit from eating more fruits and vegetables, and other foods that produce bicarbonate in the body.
You’d better put down that box of baking soda though. Correlation is not causation- this study might have only determined that people who were dying were simply no longer able to regulate their own blood alkalinity levels via homeostasis (because of the failure of say the lungs or the kidneys). Not because they were eating insufficient bicarbonate-producing foods.
Regardless, doctors could always use another method to detect whether a patient is on the cusp of death, and the researchers believe that it could help identify diagnosed kidney problems. It should be noted that the effects of binging on baking soda when you are already in the healthy range, is as yet unknown.
“We don’t know for sure if raising low bicarbonate levels into the normal range with baking soda or taking baking soda if your bicarbonate levels are normal improves health,” Raphael said. “People with kidney, heart, lung and liver diseases, and women who are pregnant, should never self-medicate with bicarbonate or baking soda.”
Sources: Daily Mail, Live Science
This Article (Study Finds Link Between Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) Levels and Death) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author(CoNN) and AnonHQ.com.
Bitch please.
We have been eating baking soda since your mom was little.
One study prove nothing.
Come back when there are 10 saying the same
I use soda, be careful “baking soda” is not a clean soda worldwide, for cleaning my teeth once a week ^^ but not as an integrate into water to change my ph levels.
The problem is well known, most people eat the false stuff, all food is either acids or alkali, the chinese know this since thousands of years, they just call it different.
In western nations, acid is the base of most foods, change this to a balanced one or to alkaline food, and you become way more healthy as your body goes back to the designed PH.