A DAILY dose of baking soda could help with kidney disease, top doctors have discovered. Common-or-garden sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, can help slow down the progress of chronic kidney disease, a pilot study of patients in East London has found

By Gemma Collins

A DAILY dose of baking soda could help with kidney disease, top doctors have discovered.

Common-or-garden sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, can help slow down the progress of chronic kidney disease, a pilot study of patients in East London has found.

The simple baking ingredient could help prevent the need for dialysis treatment which takes over the function of the kidneys.

AMMONIA

Researchers at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel who’ve been carrying out the experiments found baking soda stops kidney inflammation because of a chemical reaction which limits the ammonia in the organ.

Prof Magdi Yaqoob carried out the tests involving 134 patients with advanced kidney disease and low bicarbonate levels.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “A simple remedy like sodium bicarbonate, when used appropriately, can be very effective.

“This cheap and simple strategy also improves patients’ nutritional wellbeing and has the potential to improve quality of life as well as a clinical outcome that can remove the need for dialysis.”

TABLETS

Baking soda is not a drug, he added, so this study has never been tried before.

One group of patients in the experiment had a small daily dose of sodium bicarbonate in tablet form, in addition to their usual care.

His researchers found the rate of kidney decline over 12 months was two-thirds slower than in other patients.

The results, published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, shows rapid progression of kidney disease occurring in just nine per cent of patients given baking soda, compared with 45 per cent of the non-treated group.

Those taking the tablets were also less likely to develop end-stage renal disease which needs dialysis.

Their sodium levels rose, researchers found, but did not increase their blood pressure.