Baking Soda Benefits and Uses

People generally think that baking soda just helps baked goods rise. But it’s not true because baking soda has many other household benefits and uses. For example, you can use baking soda to relieve certain health conditions including canker sores. Its scientific name is sodium bicarbonate or bicarbonate of soda. It is used as a popular baking ingredient to prepare a variety of food items including muffins, bread and cakes. It gives a fluffy and light texture to food. Its leavening properties help react with an acid like lemon juice or vinegar to raise the dough by producing carbon dioxide. However, besides cooking, baking soda is also known for several health benefits and household uses as well.

This article has brought possible health benefits and uses of baking soda for you so that you may add this amazing thing to your life.

Health Benefits of Baking Soda

Baking soda offers several health benefits, such as:

1: Help Treat Heartburn

Burning sensation in the upper region of your stomach that usually spreads into your thrust is known as heart burn or acid reflux. This sensation occurs when your stomach acid rises up to your esophagus, a tube that connects your stomach to your throat.

From ancient times, people used baking soda to help relieve heartburn. It actually neutralizes the stomach aid. You can try this to relieve acid reflux by adding one teaspoon of baking soda in a glass of cold water and drinking the mixture slowly. 

However, experts suggest that consuming high amounts of baking soda is not suitable for health. So you should avoid its excessive use as it can lead to several side effects, including:

• Muscle pain.
• Restlessness.
• Nausea.
• Vomiting.
• Headache.

Some studies also showed that continuous use of it can cause severe metabolic alkalosis, a condition in which your blood becomes overly alkaline leading to heart problems. Therefore, it is good to talk to your healthcare provider before using baking soda for heartburn relief,especially if you are experiencing another underlying health condition.

2: Soothes Canker Sores

Sometimes, due to acidity in your stomach, small, painful ulcers are formed inside your mouth. Although their structure and texture are similar to cold sore, they are not firmed outside your mouth i.e on your lips but just inside your mouth. They aren’t contagious. Some older research has suggested that mouthwash made of banking suds can help soothe pain caused by canker sores. However, the research is limited and is not enough to rely on but you can give it a try.

To try this, add half teaspoon of baking soda to half glass of warm water and rinse your mouth with this mixture. Repeat this procedure once a day for one week to heal the canker sores.

3: Improves Exercise Performance

Athletes use baking soda as an effective supplement to improve their physical performance.  Studies support the theory that baking soda helps you perform longer at your high efficiency level. It helps you work at peak energy especially when you’re doing anaerobic activities or sprinting or high intensity training. 

Recent research has revealed that sodium bicarbonate supplements are an effective source to control your body weight and muscle strength. However, it is suggested by the expats to use it after speaking to a healthcare provider. Reading and following the instructions written on labels of supplements also can help you use them carefully.

4: Relieves Sunburns and Itchy Skin

People with skin conditions like sunburn or psoriasis often are recommended to take a baking soda bath. Because baking soda helps relieve scaly, itchy and dry skin. It also helps soothe the rashes related to bug bites as well. 

To have a baking soda bath, you need to pass two cups of baking soda to a lukewarm water bath. Soak the affected area into this mixture. You can also make a paste of south baking soda and a bit of water to apply on a specific area. This may help relieve the skin condition.

5: Slows the Progression of Chronic Kidney Disease

Kidneys are the organs of the human body that perform the cleaning procedure of your blood. They help remove excess waste and water from your blood while blenching important minerals like calcium, sodium, and potassium. Chronic kidney disease actually affects the kidney function and it disturbs the cleaning of blood.

The research shows that taking baking soda supplements can help slow the progression of chronic kidney disease and also improves kidney function. 

Though the research is insufficient, you still need to talk to your doctor before ingesting baking soda for treating a kidney problem.

6: Improves Certain Cancer Treatments

Cancer is one of the most dangerous diseases of recent era. Often people can’t survive after a cancer diagnosis. They used to apply several cancer treatments but often results are negative.

However, chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer that is a chemical cocktail that helps slow down the growth of cancer cells in affected regions of the body. It can even completely stop the growth and division of cancer cells in some cases. 

Research suggests that adding baking soda to chemotherapy medicines can make it work more effectively by making the environment surrounding the tumors less acidic and more alkaline.

But the current evidence is not enough to prove it hundred percent correct. More human research is needed to rely on this finding. But if you’re a cancer patient and undergoing cancer treatment, you may ask your doctor to complement your chemotherapy treatment with baking soda. If they find it accurate, they may add it and get positive results.

also read: https://onlinehealthpoint.com/pea-protein-vs-whey-protein-which-is-better/

Household Uses of Sodium Bicarbonate

Basking soda, known as sodium bicarbonate is a popular all-purpose item due to its variety of uses in households. It helps you in a wide range of tasks from cleaning counter tops to managing your oral care. 

You can read the comprehensive list of household benefits of baking soda:

7: Mouthwash

Your oral hygiene directly affects your overall health. Mouthwash is a good source to support your oral hygiene. Mouthwash can easily reach the crevices of your teeth and corners of your mouth , gums and tongue during brushing. 

Adding baking soda to your mouthwash can freshen your breath and performs as an antimicrobial and antibacterial agent to maintain a good oral hygiene.

In 2018, a study found that baking soda used as mouthwash can increase the pH of saliva that helps lower oral bacterial growth significantly. Researches suggested that it helped inhibit bacterial growth in the mouth. Therefore, you can add half teaspoon of baking soda to half glass of warm water to make an amazing mouthwash.

8: Teeth Whitener

Pale teeth affect your overall personality. People judge your personality when you talk with them while showing your pale teeth. This is an embarrassing situation when someone pinpoints that your teeth are yellowish. 

To resolve this problem, you can use baking soda as it is a popular home remedy for teeth whitening. According to research, when you use toothpaste containing baking soda, it help;s plaque on your teeth and helps whitening them. This is because baking soda is well known for its abrasive properties. It easily breaks bonds of molecules that stain your teeth. Its antimicrobial and antibacterial properties also help fight against harmful bacteria found in your mouth.

9: Deodorant

Human sweat is naturally odorless but in the case when bacteria break it down into your armpits, sweat trains a bad odor that is unbearable often. The bacteria convert your sweat into a waste product that makes it smelly. 

Therefore, deodorant contains baking soda as a basic component as it helps absorb odor. You can also use it as a natural deodorant to eliminate your sweat odor. It makes your sweat less acidic and makes it odorless. There is not enough research to verify the concept but using this strategy always helps.

To try the strategy, pat baking soda onto your armpits. You also can make a mixture of coconut oil, Shea butter or cornstarch with baking soda to prepare a natural deodorant at home.

10: Refrigerator Odor Neutralizer

If you’re offended by the smell coming from your refrigerator, baking soda is for your help. It helps freshen a smelly fridge by neutralizing the bad smell. It doesn’t help mask or absorb the odor but it actually eliminates the odor particles that leave to manage smell.

To try this method, you need to fill a cup with baking soda and place it at the back of the refrigerator. The trick will work and odor will vanish.

11: Air Freshener

Many air fresheners are available in markets that work temporarily because they don’t eliminate the foul smell but just release some fragrance molecules that mask the odor. 

In addition, some air fresheners also suit certain ingredients that cause health or breathing problems for you, especially if you’re sensitive to fragrance or chemicals found in air fresheners.

In such situations, baking soda comes to mind as a safe alternative to commercial air fresheners. It is free of industrial chemicals and easily neutralizes the odor particles as well.

You can prepare natural air freshener with baking soda at home by taking:

• A string or ribbon.
• A small jar.
• A piece of cloth.
• Around 10 drops of your favorite essential oil.
• Half cup of baking soda.

To prepare natural air freshener, add oil and baking soda in the jar. Use the cloth to cover the jar and place the string in it. Put the jar in your room, kitchen, bathroom. The smell coming from the jar will fade the bad odor of that place. 

12: Helps in Laundry as Whitening Agent

You may often come across with a problem of  pale or faded colors of clothes. Baking soda can help you tensile the issue. It helps whiten the laundry as it is an alkali. It acts as a soluble salt that removes stains and dirt from clothes. Alkali has the amazing ability to integrity with acid in stains when dissolved in water.

You can try the trick by adding half cup of baking water to your regular amount of laundry detergent. It also help;s turn hard water into soft water leading to the need of less detergent than usual.

13: Kitchen Cleaner

Whenever you think about cleaning your kitchen, baking soda comes as a solution. A mixture of baking soda with lemon juice or vinegar is used as a kitchen cleaner as it helps clear all types of mold, bacteria and control growth of other microorganisms.

Applying the paste of baking soda, a bit of water and lemon juice on the desired surface cleans the grease and germs. Scrub the surface thoroughly with a sponge to give a bright look. 

More examples of kitchen appliances that can be cleaned with baking soda include:

• Counter-tops.
• Grease stains.
• Clogged drains.
• Ovens.
• Stained marble.
• Stained coffee mugs.
• Microwaves. Kitchen tiles.
• Tarnished silver.

14: Garbage Odor Eliminator

Decaying waste in trash bags causes a putrid odor because the microorganisms carry out the decomposition in that waste matter. The foul smell coming from trash spreads in your kitchen and causes irritation. 

Baking soda is a good option to eliminate the garbage smell. It neutralizes the acidic molecules that cause bad odor.

15: Carpet Stain Remover

Carpet stains are very stubborn and you may experience the difficulty of cleaning stains on your carpet. For this purpose, you can try the mixture of vinegar and baking soda. The mixture is considered best for removing carpet stains. 

Stooges show that the combination of vinegar with baking soda creates a carbonic acid that is commonly used in cleaning products like detergents and dish-washing soaps. The chemical helps break bonds between tough stains. 

Conclusion

Baking Soda is a well-known ingredient that is used for many purposes beside cooking food. People commonly use it for cooking purposes but the interesting facts about baking soda tells you that it can also be used as a cleaning agent for kitchen items, stained utensils, ovens and counter-tops. 

In addition, baking soda in the mixture firm is used to eliminate the bad odor of trash and clean  the stains of carpet. Various health benefits of baking soda include booting exercise performance, whitening your teeth, eliminating mouth odor and relieving heartburn.