Home » Misc » Cleaning with bicarbonate of soda

Cleaning with bicarbonate of soda


Cleaning With Baking Soda: Transform Your ENTIRE Home With One Box

 

Have you ever tried cleaning with baking soda? It's not just for baking cakes! A cheap box of baking soda (or bicarbonate of soda to some) can effectively clean your entire home. It's extremely versatile and can be used as a mild abrasive, scouring agent and deodoriser to dissolve dirt, tackle odours and cut through grime.

You’ll never spend on expensive cleaning products again once you find out the power of this multi-tasking product! Read on and discover our top cleaning hacks...

Editor's Note: This post was originally posted in May 2015 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness in June 2019.

Watch the video

There are so many ways to use it!

If you found our tips helpful, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive advice!

What is baking soda?

Do you have some in your kitchen?

Baking soda - also known as sodium bicarbonate - is a leavening agent that is normally used to help baked goods rise - think pancakes, cookies, muffins, and more. If you don't have some in your kitchen cupboards, we'll be surprised!  

You can pick up baking soda, or bicarbonate of soda, from your local supermarket. It's really inexpensive, and it makes a great natural cleaning product.

Clean your bathroom with baking soda

Get it spick and span, the natural way!

From the shower head to the toilet bowl, follow the tips below to get your bathroom sparkling with baking soda.

1. Replace your cream cleaner with bicarbonate of soda

Use a sprinkle of bicarbonate of soda on a sponge to clean any surface you would usually use a cream cleaner on. It'll work just as well to remove dirt and grime. It won't leave you with that harsh chemical smell either. Finish with a micro fibre cloth for an immaculate finish.

2. Use baking soda to clean your hairbrushes and combs

Your hair tools can get extremely gunky over time. Make sure they last a long time and remain in tip-top condition by giving them a good clean every few months.

Soak them in a mixture of 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 2 cups of warm water for an hour then rinse and dry.

3. Toothbrushes are not self-cleaning!

Keep them clean and germ-free.

Don’t pass on bad bacteria to your mouth - soak your toothbrush heads in a mixture of ¼ cup bicarbonate of soda and a ¼ cup of water overnight and rinse the next morning.

4. Use baking soda to make your own bathroom scrub

Mix a ¼ cup of baking soda with 1 tablespoon of liquid detergent and add some vinegar to give it a nice thick consistency. Use a sponge with a large dollop of this home-made cleaner on all your bathroom fittings and you’ll never need to buy bathroom cleaners again.

5. Whiten your grout

Baking soda is great for whitening teeth, so why not use it to whiten your grout? Clean grout is hard to maintain, but this trick will certainly help.

To make your own grout cleaner:

  1. Mix together two parts baking soda and one part hydrogen peroxide.
  2. Use a cloth or an old toothbrush to apply the mixture to the grout.
  3. Optional step: You can also place cotton wool pads on the tile to hold the mixture in place for longer.
  4. Leave to sit for between 10-20 minutes.
  5. Rinse the mixture away with clean water. 

Cleaning with baking soda in the kitchen

Ideally, you want to avoid using chemical-based cleaners in a place where you prepare food. They can be highly toxic, and natural cleaners do the job just as well. We've found some easy switches that you can make with baking soda. 

5. De-grease your oven door

Cleaning with baking soda has never been more effective than in the kitchen.

Cleaning the oven is a job we all hate to do but it needn't be a chore with bicarbonate of soda. This tried and tested method will leave your glass oven door sparkling:

  1. Mix 3 parts bicarbonate of soda to 1 part warm water to form a paste.
  2. Warm the oven for a few minutes and then switch it off.
  3. Wipe the glass with a damp cloth.
  4. Spread the paste on both sides of the oven door.
  5. Leave for 2-3 hours until the paste turns brown.
  6. Wipe both sides with a damp sponge cloth.
  7. Use a plastic car scraper to remove any excess.

6. Unblock your kitchen sink

Look at it sparkle!

Pour half a cup of baking soda down your sink followed by two cups of vinegar (malt is fine) and watch as the alkaline in the bicarb reacts with the acidic vinegar to create a volcano of froth. Leave to settle and it should help dissolve any built-up grime.

If your sink needs extra help, mix 1 cup of bicarbonate of soda with 2 cups of washing powder (great for de-greasing) then follow with vinegar. Finish with a kettle-full of boiling water.

7. Remove tea stains from mugs

The crystals in baking soda can effectively remove stains in your mugs and help return them to their former glory. Just be prepared to put some elbow grease into it!

Sprinkle some bicarb on a clean scourer and get scrubbing. It should take around 5-10 minutes to lift stains and reveal a good-as-new mug.

8. Freshen up smelly sponges

If your sponges are getting a bit smelly don't be tempted to bin them.

Baking soda works wonders at absorbing smells - soak sponges in a bowl full of warm water with 4 tablespoons of dissolved baking soda. Let them air dry and they should smell like new.

9. Keep your fridge fresh

What does yours smell of?

Smelly fridge? Keep it smelling clean with baking soda!

Bad smells aren't just off-putting when you're looking for a midnight snack, they can actually ruin the taste of surrounding food.

Keep a small bowl of bicarb in your fridge to help neutralise smells. It works like a sponge to soak up any bad odours - just remember to change it every month or so. 

10. Remove stains from your Tupperware

Whether it was a leftover curry or spaghetti bolognese that did the damage, you can easily revive your old Tupperware or plastic food containers. If yours are stained, greasy or smelly, soak them overnight in a bowl of hot water with a sprinkling of baking soda to leave them spotless.

11. Use baking soda to clean your dishwasher

Scatter a generous amount of baking soda into your dishwasher then run an empty wash. It'll be clean and fresh again in no time.

12. Remove baked-on residue from pans

Even pan cleaning is easier with baking soda! Shake a generous amount onto any dirty pans or roasting tins, add hot water, a squirt of your usual cleaning liquid, and let sit for 20 minutes. The baking soda will help dissolve any stubborn build-up making it really easy to clean.

13. Clean the microwave inside and out

Get it spick and span!

Has your microwave been neglected?

A small amount of bicarbonate of soda on a damp sponge can effectively clean and cut through any grease in and on your microwave. If you've got a lemon and some vinegar to hand, you can give your microwave a deep clean.

14. Descale a kettle

It's magic!

Limescale is no match for bicarb! You can clean your kettle with it, too. Watch our video to see how it's done.  

Spruce up your living room with bicarbonate of soda

You can clean everything from the carpets to the windows with bicarbonate of soda. Keep reading to find out how!

14. Clean dirty rugs and carpets

Dirty carpet? Baking soda can be used for carpet cleaning. Liberally sprinkle baking soda on your carpet, wait at least 15 minutes then sweep as much of it as you can and vacuum as normal.

For the best results, leave the powder to settle overnight. Your carpet or rug should look brighter and smell good - a nice way to refresh your carpet naturally. Just think how much you could save instead of splashing out on expensive carpet treatments.  

15. Shine silver ornaments and fittings

Combine three parts baking soda to one part water, mix and rub onto and into your silver with a clean cloth or sponge. Rinse thoroughly then dry with a clean cloth – they’ll be sparkling!

16. Make your own version of Febreze

Get your fabrics smelling amazing with this clever hack:

  1. Fill an empty spray bottle with 3/4 hot water.
  2. Add 4 tablespoons of Bicarbonate of Soda.
  3. Shake well and allow to cool a little.
  4. Add a few drops of your favourite essential oil.
  5. Once cooled completely, give it another shake to combine the ingredients, and then spray on clothes and soft furnishings.

17. Remove smells from a sofa

It looks brand new!

Over time your sofa may become a bit whiffy. Sprinkle some baking soda onto a dry sofa and let it sit for 10-20 minutes before hoovering or brushing off.

Use bicarb to clean your clothes

From dull whites to dull jewellery, baking soda will refresh and restore your whole wardrobe!

18.

How to brighten whites with baking soda

Are your whites looking a bit dull? Try cleaning with baking soda!

Add 1 cup of baking soda to your next load of laundry along with regular liquid detergent. They’ll emerge much cleaner and brighter than before!

Use this little trick to whiten up the kids' school shirts and polos.

19. How to clean jewellery with bicarbonate of soda

Clean and shiny. 

Make a paste using three parts bicarb and one part warm water until it resembles fondant icing. Then, using a cloth or old toothbrush, apply it to your jewellery. Rinse carefully and dry with a clean cloth.

 

Q&A

Where can I buy baking soda? 

Most supermarkets will sell baking soda or bicarbonate of soda in the baking section. It can come in different packaging, including tubs or boxes. 

Are there any other uses for baking soda? 

Yes! Baking soda also has a whole range of health and beauty benefits.

Is baking powder the same thing as baking soda? 

Baking soda and baking powder might sound like the same thing, especially given that baking soda can also go by bicarbonate of soda, but they're very different.

Baking powder is baking soda but with an additional acidic ingredient. Because of the additional acidity, baking powder is not suitable for use in any of these beauty treatments. 

Is washing soda the same as baking soda? 

Although the two are very similar, they are not to be confused for the same product. Washing soda is sodium carbonate with additional cleaning ingredients.

You can make your own washing soda by heating baking soda. Simply spread onto a shallow baking dish and heat at around 200 C. Once cool, you can keep it in an airtight container. 

 

Thanks for reading! Do you have any clever uses for Bicarbonate of Soda? 

 

Please let us know in the comments section below!

21 ways to clean with bicarbonate of soda

It's cheap, eco-friendly and it can help you out with all sorts of cleaning jobs — what's not to love about bicarbonate of soda? If you enjoy baking, you'll probably already have this household staple (also known as baking soda) tucked away in your cupboards somewhere.

We're no stranger to a spill or a stain here, and bicarb is often the first thing we reach for. Here are 21 cleaning problems you can solve with bicarbonate of soda, so make sure you stock up!

21 cleaning problems you can solve with bicarbonate of soda

1. Stained and smelly plastic food containers

Lunchboxes and food containers are easily stained, especially if tomato is involved! To freshen your containers, wipe with a clean sponge sprinkled with bicarb. Or erase tough stains by soaking in a solution of 4tbsp of bicarb and a litre of warm water.

2. A foul-smelling fridge

Nothing's worse than opening the fridge and being hit with an unpleasant odour. A small pot of bicarb left in the fridge will absorb strong food smells so they don’t linger or affect the taste of nearby foods.

3. Unrinsed fruit and veggies

After a trip to the farmer's market, mix some bicarbonate of soda with water to remove dirt and the waxy coating from your produce.

Catherine Falls CommercialGetty Images

4. A filthy kitchen

Nearly every dirty spot in your kitchen can benefit from the bicarb treatment. Mixed with water, use it to clean countertops, stainless-steel sinks, microwaves, range cooker hoods and cooking utensils.

5. Extra greasy dishes and pans

Give baked-on food the heave-ho by boosting the power of your washing-up liquid with bicarb.

6. Stale-smelling sponges

Soak these kitchen staples in bicarb and water to freshen them up so you can use them for a little longer.

7. Musty upholstery and carpets

Deodorise the soft, cushy places around your house by sprinkling with bicarb, letting it sit for 15 minutes, then vacuum it up.

8. A smelly pet bed

The same goes for Fido's favourite spot! Sprinkle, wait 15 minutes and vacuum.

Jody Trappe PhotographyGetty Images

9. Grimy toys

Fight the effects of your little ones' grubby hands naturally by wiping toys with a sponge dipped in a bicarbonate of soda and water solution.

10. A crayon-covered wall

When your kid’s artistic efforts end up all over that wall you just repainted, scrub lightly with a damp sponge sprinkled in bicarb.

11. Dusty stuffed toy

These cuddly dust-collectors will be easier to clean if you place them in a large plastic bag with 100g bicarbonate of soda – secure the top, take the bag outside, and shake well. The bicarb helps draw out dust. After you remove them from the bag, vacuum any residue away.

12. Dingy laundry

Both whites and colours will come out of the washing machine brighter if you add 200g bicarb to your load. Combined with liquid detergent, it helps balance the pH levels to get clothes cleaner.

13. Mildew in your bathroom

Mildew has met its match! Scrub your tub, tiles, sink and shower curtain with a damp sponge and bicarb. Rinse to reveal gleaming surfaces.

Halfpoint ImagesGetty Images

14. A clogged drain

Clear a stubborn drain by pouring down 125g of bicarb followed by 125ml vinegar. Cover with a wet cloth to contain the science fair-like effects (remember DIY volcanoes?). Wait five minutes, and then flush with hot water.

15. Smelly trainers

Freshen up after your spinning class by sprinkling some bicarb inside your shoes – and your gym bag, while you’re at it! Just tap it out before you use them again.

16. Rubbish bin smells

Place some bicarb in the bottom of your bin to fight odours.

17. An oil spill on your garage floor

Got an offending spot on your concrete? Sprinkle over a little bicarb and scrub with a wet brush to make it disappear.

18. A messy BBQ grill

Combat a summer’s worth of grime by sprinkling some bicarb on your grill-cleaning brush before you scrub your grill.

19. Dirty patio furniture

Before you pull out your plastic garden chairs, give them a wipe-down with bicarb and water. And before you put them away at the end of the season, place bicarb inside the cushion pads’ storage bags to keep them fresh.

20. A dank linen closet

Just like in the fridge, an open box of bicarb placed near your sheets and towels can fight musty smells.

21. Dull jewellery

When your sterling silver stops shining, get rid of tarnish by making a paste (three parts bicarb to one part water). Apply it with a lint-free cloth (not a paper towel, which can scratch), and rinse.

Love what you're reading? Enjoy Good Housekeeping magazine delivered straight to your door every month with Free UK delivery. Subscribe now to save on the shop price + get instant digital access to the latest issue!

SUBSCRIBE

Soda blasting

Soda blasting is an innovative surface cleaning method using particles of sodium bicarbonate (soda) that are forced under pressure with compressed air through a special blasting machine. Although this technology is similar to traditional sandblasting, it has a significant advantage in cleaning surfaces, as it does not harm the treated surface and is completely safe for human health and the environment.

Sodium bicarbonate is water soluble and environmentally friendly. The technology easily removes paint, grease, petroleum, oil, glue, surface corrosion of a variety of metals, alloys, plastics and compounds without damaging the cleaned surface. This cleaning method is so effective that it is able to remove almost any contamination from any kind of surfaces.

Comparison parameters Soda blasting Sandblasting
Removable contaminants Rust, scale, soot, paintwork, oil and grease, dark oil products, soot, soot, graffiti, mold Rust, scale, soot, paintwork, oil and grease, dark oil products
Workpieces All types of metals, wood, plastics, glass, various facing materials, natural and molded stone Hard metals, concrete, some woods, some types of stone
Metal surface oxidation resistance Several days after treatment. Does not require additional degreasing before painting. Corrosion appears a few minutes after treatment. Requires immediate application of a primer.
Influence on metal structures No effect Weakening of bearing capacity
Effects on the human body and the environment Environmentally friendly Harmful effects on the environment and the human body due to the high content of free silica in the dust emitted during processing, which leads to the disease silicosis.
Water application Both the dry method and the water method are used. Water is used to localize the dust cloud, it does not require special parameters and high consumption. p.4.1. Sanitary and epidemiological rules SP 2.2.2.1327-03 of 2003 prohibits the use of sandblasting using dry sand.
Cleaning agent Mohs hardness 2.5 - 2.7 from 7
Reagent consumption 25-35 kg/h from 500 kg/h
Work performance The difference in productivity is not significant when working on even flat surfaces up to 2 m high and amounts to 10-20 m2 per hour. However, when working on surfaces with complex geometry, as well as working at heights, traditional methods are significantly inferior to the “Soft blasting” technology due to the more versatile operator equipment, shorter cleaning agent loading cycles, as well as more technological and systematic organization of the work site.
Secondary waste 200-300 kg per shift from 4 tons per shift
Reliability and continuity The unique design of the equipment prevents clogging and blockage of the reagent supply channels Possible clogging and plugging of reagent channels
Work in hazardous areas Allowed Absolutely not allowed due to the formation of a spark when the applied reagent hits the cleaning surface
Surface material Soda blasting Sandblasting
Hard metals (chrome, steel, cast iron) No effect, slight roughness Matting, heavy roughness
Soft metals (copper, bronze, aluminum) Matting, slight roughness Significant roughness, partial destruction
Concrete No effect Significant roughness
Brick Matting Complete or significant destruction
Granite No effect Significant roughness
Marble Slight matting Complete or significant destruction
Gloss stone tiles Slight matting Heavy matting
Glass No effect Matting
Plastic (plexiglass, polycarbonate, etc. ) Slight matting Significant matting, partial destruction
Wood Slight destruction of soft fibers Complete or significant destruction

The cost of work is calculated for each customer individually. The calculation depends on the type and size of the object, the types of contamination, and whether the object will be cleaned on our premises or the cleaning will be carried out on the customer's premises.

How they treat us: baking soda

Is it necessary to “acidify” and “leach” the body, why baking soda was included in the list of the most important and most effective medicines, why a space doctor suggested treating cancer with it and what does mushrooms have to do with it, and also save whether soda from plaque, pesticide poisoning and mosquito bites, read in the new issue of the heading "How we are treated."

Quarantine encourages experimentation. Finding a supply of soda on the kitchen shelf that does not run out for years, you can think about its non-trivial uses, for example, for the treatment of diseases. Well, Internet forums will helpfully slip you thousands of stories of happy home healing from all ailments. We tell you what science thinks about soda and how not to pave your way to the hospital with good intentions.

From what, from what

Food, or drinking, soda is sodium bicarbonate (or bicarbonate) with the formula NaHCO 3 . In this article, we will sometimes refer to it simply as soda - remember that we do not mean other varieties. It is the sodium acid salt of carbonic acid. It would seem that there is nothing more to write about in this section, but the chemical properties of this substance give rise to a lot of simple applications.

At a price, baking soda is affordable for everyone and at least not poisonous in small quantities (it is not in vain that it is used in cooking), so, of course, it attracts to participate in experiments. You never know, you have a miracle cure lying around on your kitchen shelf, and you didn’t know about it?

In fact, most of the effects of baking soda on the body can be reduced to simple chemistry. So, with an excess of hydrochloric acid in the stomach and heartburn, soda is sometimes used, and it looks like this:

NaHCO 3 + HCl → NaCl + H 2 O + CO blood, is also due to its properties, which we all studied at school in the lessons of inorganic chemistry. Watch your hands: low pH is extra hydrogen ions (protons). In the blood, soda dissociates into Na + and HCO 3 − . As a result, the second ion attaches excess hydrogen, turning into carbonic acid H 2 CO 3 . And it does not remain stable for a long time, decomposing into carbon dioxide and water. For the same purpose - to increase the pH of the solution - soda can also be useful in local anesthesia.

(Not) listed

The PubMed international database of medical scientific articles is full of references to soda, but despite the large number of experiments and individual clinical cases, very few randomized controlled trials have been conducted on patients and there are practically no useful uses for soda succeeds.

Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled method is a method of clinical drug research in which subjects are not privy to important details of the study being conducted. “Double-blind” means that neither the subjects nor the experimenters know who is being treated with what, “randomized” means that the distribution into groups is random, and placebo is used to show that the effect of the drug is not based on autosuggestion and that this medicine helps better than a tablet without active substance. This method prevents subjective distortion of the results. Sometimes the control group is given another drug with already proven efficacy, rather than a placebo, to show that the drug not only treats better than nothing, but also outperforms analogues.

Indicator.Ru

Help

There is no evidence that baking soda helps with itching in mosquito bites. But there are descriptions of individual cases where itching was treated with soda baths - however, with very variable success. Almost all articles were published in the late 1980s and now, alas, scientists have abandoned even researching this topic, apparently having decided this issue for themselves once and for all. Despite a half-century history of use, for newborns with metabolic acidosis (increased acidity of the blood), intravenous administration of a soda solution is an outdated and useless method of therapy. The lack of data to support that baking soda solutions in intensive care reduce neonatal mortality is also noted by the authors of the Cochrane Review. For newborns with reduced body weight in the first day of life, there are no data at all.

The Cochrane Library is a database of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international non-profit organization involved in the development of World Health Organization guidelines. The name of the organization comes from the name of its founder, the 20th-century Scottish medical scientist Archibald Cochrane, who championed the need for evidence-based medicine and the conduct of competent clinical trials and wrote the book Efficiency and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Public Health. Medical scientists and pharmacists consider the Cochrane Database one of the most authoritative sources of such information: the publications included in it have been selected according to the standards of evidence-based medicine and report the results of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials.

Indicator.Ru

Help

There were suspicions that solutions for peritoneal dialysis with soda are better than with lactate, but they were not confirmed. But solutions with soda may be more suitable for blood purification than lactate solutions: they can reduce the number of cardiovascular complications and increase blood pressure. True, how this affects life expectancy, or at least the length of stay in the hospital, has not yet been clarified. Preliminary studies show that sodium bicarbonate solutions help manage pesticide intoxication that causes acidification of the blood, but this needs to be confirmed in more rigorous, large-sample trials.

Elevated blood potassium levels in adults should not be corrected with baking soda: there is little evidence to support that this is a safe and effective approach. There is no clear evidence yet that baking soda would help manage the acidity of the stomach in patients with acid fibrosis (and it is not clear whether it is safe for them).

You can learn how to understand medicines on your own in the author's online course "How they treat us" from the editor of Indicator.Ru Ekaterina Mishchenko: https://clck. ru/Pnmtk

Treatment according to Neumyvakin

Despite this, a solution of drinking soda, according to many couch experts, can work wonders, saving from hypertension, arrhythmia and tachycardia, gout, arthritis and arthrosis, cancer of the first and second stages, candidiasis, prostatitis , skin lesions (up to trophic ulcers), any kind of intoxication. It is also advised to save soda from dehydration, excess weight and age-related changes.

This idea (without any clinical substantiation) was actively promoted by Professor Ivan Neumyvakin, who was engaged in space medicine. From afar, he can be mistaken for an outstanding specialist: an employee of the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the author of hundreds of scientific papers and a doctor of medical sciences. However, firstly, soda was clearly not part of his area of ​​\u200b\u200bspecialization (providing medical care in space), and secondly, he is known for many very dubious achievements.

Among them are membership in the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (home to many suspicious figures) and belief in bioenergy informatics, which implies supernatural "information interactions" and other extrasensory miracles and goes hand in hand with torsion fields, PSI phenomena, dowsing, ufology and non-traditional healing methods . By the way, this is the same Neumyvakin who invented Phenibut - a sedative with a not very proven effect. The drug is popular in Russia and is also used by some as a nootropic, but in Western countries it is either prohibited or not taken seriously as a regular dietary supplement. In general, it is not difficult to draw the correct conclusion about Neumyvakin.

Treatment "under the mushrooms"

This view was supported by a number of other representatives of alternative medicine, such as Tullio Simoncini, who called for treating cancer with baking soda. He substantiated this very interestingly: a close relative of our old friend, the fungus Candida albicans , allegedly causes oncological diseases.

The American Society for Research on Cancer even issued a special statement advising patients not to do this: “No peer reviewed (assessment by experts in this topic before publication - approx. Indicator.Ru) articles that would support the theory that cancer is caused by a fungal infection. Peer-reviewed peer-reviewed medical journals state that baking soda cannot be the cure for cancer.”

But justifications are not necessarily related to the fungus. In RuNet it is easy to find recommendations for treating almost everything with soda, because it “leaches the body” (and the cause of all troubles, respectively, will be its “acidification”). However, this is not always the case: urine can be slightly acidic (with a pH value of 6, for example) without any harm to health, and the acidity of saliva is a bad indicator at all, because it is also affected by reflux (reflux of acid from the stomach into the esophagus during heartburn) .

Not to mention that the very approach “treat the tests, not the patient” is erroneous: the level of your individual norm can be different, and blindly using medicines without clinical reasons and doctor’s supervision, it’s easier to upset the balance in the body, how to improve it. And according to a review of the Cochrane collaboration, there are only a few limited studies that somehow confirm that it makes sense to correct acidification of the body in violation of kidney function. “There may be some improvement in protein and bone metabolism” is a so-so argument for those who like to experiment with their health. The authors of another review find no data on the benefit of baking soda in acidification from acute kidney problems.

Indicator.Ru recommends: if used, then locally

If the pH of the blood (rather than urine) is lowered, doctors can add soda to solutions that are administered intravenously. For this purpose, soda is included in the list of the most effective and important medicines for health. True, for newborns, such therapy is recognized as outdated and useless, there is even evidence of its harm. Soda is also used for various intravenous solutions used for dialysis, hemofiltration and other purposes. A soda solution may go better than a lactate solution (but this is not certain). But let the doctors in intensive care take care of this: it is life-threatening to repeat this at home. Research is also underway to answer the question whether the introduction of soda will improve the well-being of athletes whose muscles must recover from excess metabolic products after exercise.

It is easy to find recommendations on the Internet to treat with soda the increased acidity of the body, which is terribly harmful and arises from the consumption of certain products. In reality, the relationship between the acidity of food and the acidity of the blood is not at all so simple (and not even the fact that it exists). Moreover, not only acidification of the body (acidosis), but also its alkalization (alkalosis) is dangerous for health. The second scenario can be triggered by applying a baking soda solution internally. With alkalosis, blood flow to the heart muscle and brain is reduced, and breathing is disturbed. The patient begins convulsions, dizziness, fainting, a drop in blood pressure.

But the main danger of treatment with soda is not even in this. Convinced by adherents of alternative (and unsubstantiated) methods, patients may abandon conventional methods of treatment in favor of soda. Therefore, severe chronic diseases can simply kill them, since the body does not receive the necessary help. Not without reason, Edzard Ernst, a former professor at the University of Exeter who studies the evidence base of traditional and alternative medical methods, called soda treatment “one of the most unhealthy methods of alternative medicine” in his long time.

However, topical soda can be tried: at least it is safe and available. Lubricate mosquito bites with soda, add to toothpaste (to whiten and reduce plaque), rinse your nose or treat eyes with blepharitis, use it as an antiseptic - in principle, it is not forbidden. It is unlikely to be harmful, although usefulness is in question.

Historically, baking soda has long been used as an antacid for heartburn, which is directly explained by a simple chemical reaction to neutralize acid in the composition of gastric juice.

Learn more