How One Pantry Staple Helps Fight Acid, Inflammation, and Disease

Aug 24, 2025 - 09:58 Updated: Aug 23, 2025 - 17:35

How One Pantry Staple Helps Fight Acid, Inflammation, and Disease

Baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate, is a staple ingredient in kitchens everywhere, but its uses extend far beyond baking.

Our bodies use sodium bicarbonate to help regulate their delicate acid-alkaline balance. This balance is vital to many processes essential to life.

Understanding Body pH and Bicarbonate

All chemical reactions occur within a specific pH range, which in the human body is primarily around 7.35 on the pH scale. pH stands for “potential of hydrogen,” and measures the density of hydrogen ions within a substance. The pH scale measures the acidity or alkalinity of a solution, ranging from zero to 14, with seven being neutral. Anything less than seven is acidic, and anything above seven is considered alkaline or basic.

Peter Dingle, a scientist, researcher, former associate professor, and author with a doctorate in environmental toxicology, spoke to The Epoch Times about sodium bicarbonate and its significance in the body. The body needs to maintain a slightly alkaline state for us to remain healthy and avoid disease.

“Every chemical reaction has a unique pH range where it works optimally, particularly in biochemistry,” he said.

Sodium bicarbonate has a pH of approximately 8.5 and plays a crucial role in maintaining the body’s pH balance, which varies depending on the location within the body.

Some examples are below:

Stomach acid is highly acidic, with a pH ranging from 1.5 to 3.5, which enables digestion.
The skin has a slightly acidic pH, ranging from 4 to 5, which helps protect against microbes. However, areas like the armpits and groin tend to be more acidic than others, such as the face and hands.
Vaginal fluid is acidic, with a pH of less than 5, which also has a protective function.
Cells and tissues each have an optimal pH range they need to maintain to function correctly. Disruptions in this balance can interfere with cellular processes, enzymatic activity, and overall tissue health.
Body fluids like saliva, digestive fluids, and urine each have specific pH levels. Deviations from normal levels can indicate disease or contribute to its development.

Although the body tightly controls the pH of the blood within a narrow range, acidity in other parts of our bodies can contribute to problems and put unnecessary stress on vital organs and systems.

“Your body is always producing acid. When you metabolize anything, you’re producing acid,” Dingle said.

Our bodies produce acid through various metabolic processes and from digesting certain foods, but have multiple mechanisms to maintain a balanced pH.

When our pH is out of balance, different organs step in to help bring us back to equilibrium.

The Bicarbonate Buffering System

The body naturally produces sodium bicarbonate as part of its bicarbonate buffer system, which involves the pancreas, kidneys, and lungs working together to regulate pH levels.

The pancreas secretes bicarbonate into the small intestine to neutralize stomach acid, while the kidneys excrete excess acid and reabsorb bicarbonate to maintain balance. The lungs help by exhaling acidic carbon dioxide. Since metabolism constantly produces acid, the body works continuously to maintain a slightly alkaline blood pH of 7.35 to 7.45.

“The bicarbonate buffering system is the body’s way of maintaining optimal pH in the blood in order to allow the proper functioning of various enzymes and metabolic processes needed to sustain life,” Dr. Emily Chang, a nephrologist and assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Kidney Center, told The Epoch Times.

The kidneys play a crucial role in maintaining the body’s acid-base balance, Dr. Ryan Song, an assistant professor of nephrology at the University of Chicago, told The Epoch Times.

“Almost all of the bicarbonate that is within our body is encountered by our kidneys, which must reabsorb virtually all of it in order to maintain that delicate acid balance,” he said.

“The kidneys also must produce additional bicarbonate in order to replace any bicarbonate that has been used up in the neutralization of acid within our body,” he added.

Baking Soda for Health

Baking soda is inexpensive and highly versatile, with many applications that some experts claim can benefit health.

“Baking soda is like the Swiss Army knife of the home remedy world,” Alan Mandell, a chiropractor and health educator whose popular self-help videos include using baking soda to improve health, and whose YouTube channel (motivationaldoc) about natural healing has almost 10 million subscribers.

It works wonders for occasional heartburn, bug bites, and minor rashes, as a gentle mouth rinse to freshen breath and to clean and whiten teeth, he told The Epoch Times.

“It’s simple, versatile, and effective when used wisely,” he said.

Occasional Heartburn or Indigestion

Baking soda is a natural antacid and has been used for generations as a home remedy for acid reflux.

“For occasional heartburn, the classic remedy is about half a teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in a glass of water—sip it slowly!” Mandell said.

Studies have also shown that sodium bicarbonate offers heartburn relief.

In a 2023 trial published in BMJ Open Gastroenterology, participants drank either 1.5 liters per day of bicarbonate-rich mineral water or a placebo for six weeks. The researchers found that the mineral water with bicarbonate was superior to conventional mineral water for relieving heartburn, in addition to improvements in health-related quality of life in patients with frequent heartburn episodes.

Oral Health

Studies have shown that sodium bicarbonate improves oral health by helping to reduce plaque and bleeding gums, neutralize acid, and disrupt bacterial biofilms.

A randomized clinical trial found that brushing with a fluoride toothpaste with 20 percent baking soda over three months significantly reduced plaque and bleeding gums versus the fluoride-only toothpaste.

In an article in the Journal of the American Dental Association, Sebastian Ciancio, a professor and chair in the Department of Periodontics and Endodontics, University at Buffalo, noted several points about the use of baking soda for oral health based on research:

The low abrasivity of toothpastes containing baking soda makes them especially suited for safe daily use in oral hygiene regimens.
Microbiological studies have shown that baking soda products have significant bactericidal activity against oral pathogens, which explains the benefits demonstrated in clinical studies on plaque biofilm and gingivitis reduction.
Baking soda toothpastes favor patient compliance because they have stain-reducing and whitening properties, a feature that motivates patients to brush as instructed by their oral care practitioner.
Neutralization of plaque acids by baking soda supports cavity reduction and promotes remineralization of developing carious lesions.

Athletic Performance

Studies have shown that sodium bicarbonate has an ergogenic effect, meaning it enhances energy, performance, and recovery during physical activity, particularly high-intensity power and endurance.

Multiple studies have found that baking soda increases athletic performance.

A 2021 umbrella review analyzed the effects of sodium bicarbonate on exercise performance. Based on eight reviews, researchers concluded that baking soda quickly improved a person’s ability to perform short bursts of very intense exercise. They did mention, however, that most of the research subjects had been men, and that more research is needed in women to ensure the benefits apply equally.

Additional Benefits

Baking soda is often used in medicine, particularly in patients with kidney disease.

“Commercial baking soda is basically sodium bicarbonate. It is a cheaper and readily available alternative than prescription bicarbonate, which is commonly prescribed by doctors to replace the bicarbonate lost in kidney disease,” Song said.

“Ingestion of sodium bicarbonate or baking soda in the GI [gastrointestinal] tract helps neutralize any acids that may be absorbed in the diet (and thus reducing total acid load from the digestive tract), and it can be absorbed by the body to be used as bicarbonate,” he added.

A 2019 study found that sodium bicarbonate can be beneficial for slowing the progression of chronic kidney disease.

The study included 740 patients with metabolic acidosis due to severe chronic kidney disease. Sodium bicarbonate significantly delayed kidney disease progression and improved patient survival without affecting the patients’ weight or blood pressure.

While there is some evidence that correcting the body’s bicarbonate may slow the progression of kidney disease, the conclusions are not yet definitive, Chang, who is also a member of the American Society of Nephrology, said.

Baking soda has shown promise in treating other conditions.

A study published in 2018 found that baking soda could be a safe and inexpensive way to combat inflammation, which is a hallmark of many autoimmune illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis.

“It’s potentially a really safe way to treat inflammatory disease,” Dr. Paul O'Connor, a renal physiologist at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, and the study’s corresponding author, said in a press release.

Safety Considerations

Before considering baking soda supplementation, there are some safety concerns and contraindications to be aware of.

Baking soda comes in different grades—food-grade and industrial-grade, Mandell said.

“Always stick with food-grade—the kind you find in the baking aisle—if you’re going to ingest it or use it for personal care. Avoid anything labeled for cleaning or found in the hardware store, as those can contain impurities you definitely don’t want in your body,” he added.

Some may wonder if there are risks to taking baking soda daily.

In general, baking soda is well-tolerated, but it can cause digestive discomfort like bloating and diarrhea, Song said.

“In the typical healthy population, small amounts of baking soda are safe to ingest, and the kidneys will help with regulating the amount of bicarbonate in the bloodstream. That being said, too much baking soda can overwhelm our kidneys’ excretory capacities and can lead to derangements in acid-base, where we have too much alkaline in the body, which can lead to very harmful effects such as electrolyte abnormalities, breathing issues, and dangerous heart rhythms,” he added.

As with anything in life and health, balance is key. Healthy people can typically manage to keep their pH balanced through the body’s natural mechanisms.

Whether you decide to supplement with baking soda or not is a personal choice. However, if you do want to take baking soda internally, remember to do so under the guidance of a physician, especially if you have health conditions or are taking medications.

Tips for Maintaining pH Balance

There are other ways we can support the kidneys and maintain a balanced pH.

Song says diet is crucial.

“Diet contributes heavily to our daily acid generation and the amount of work our kidneys have to do to counteract acid. Animal proteins break down into acidic products, whereas plants such as fruits and vegetables are metabolized into alkaline products. Healthy diets—higher in plant-based foods and low in processed foods—can help offload the work our kidneys have to do to neutralize acid.”

Chang concurs.

“The most important thing is a balanced, healthy diet with fruits and vegetables.” For those with kidney problems, she added, a doctor or specialist can offer more specific recommendations.