A Daily dose of baking soda preserves kidney function.

An upcoming study in the journal of the american society of nephrology (JASN) has shown that a daily dose of baking soda typically used for such mundane tasks as baking and cleaning slows the progression of some forms of kidney disease.

The study which is yet to be published consisted of 134 patients with advanced CKD and high levels of acid in the blood a condition known as a metabolic acidosis. Metabolic acidosis is one of the complications of chronic kidney disease that directly leads to organ dysfunction and may cause death via suppression of cardiac activity if severe.

It had been postulated previously but never quite proven that the presence of acidosis by itself may cause further damage to the kidney in addition to whatever disease process was also present.

This study is important because rapid progression of kidney disease occured in only 9 percent of patients in the group taking sodium bicarbonate as compared to 45 percent of patients in the placebo group.

Of all the drugs that we currently have available for slowing the progression baking soda is definately the cheapest.