Baking soda: A safe, easy treatment for arthritis?

By Maria Cohut | Medical News Today

Baking soda, also called sodium bicarbonate, is a kitchen staple commonly used as a raising agent for cakes.

That being said, it has also made a name for itself as a home remedy for various conditions. Half a teaspoon of baking soda is often taken to ease heartburn or acid reflux, for example, and this substance is also used to whiten teeth.

In a new study, whose findings are now published in The Journal of Immunology, researchers from the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University reveal exactly how drinking a solution of baking soda could prime the immune system against inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Paul O’Connor, a renal physiologist at Augusta University, and colleagues tested the effects that drinking a baking soda solution would have, first on rats, and then on humans.

Their experiments tell a complex story about how this salt provides a signal to a special kind of cell called “mesothelial cells,” telling them that the body is fine and not under attack, rendering an aggressive immune system unnecessary. Thus, harmful autoimmune responses are averted.

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