Progression of chronic disease appears to slow with daily tablet, study finds

Tuesday 21st July 2009: A simple cheap tablet of baking soda a day may slow the progression of chronic kidney disease, said Dr KK Aggarwal President Heart Care Foundation of India and Director IMAAKN Sinha Institute.
In  a study published in July issue of Journal of the American Society of Nephrology , 134 advanced chronic kidney disease patients with metabolic acidosis were randomly divided into two groups, one of which took a small daily tablet of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). The rate of kidney function decline was about two-thirds slower in the patients who took sodium bicarbonate than in other patients. Rapid progression of kidney disease occurred in 9 percent of patients taking sodium bicarbonate, compared with 45 percent in other patients.
Patients taking sodium bicarbonate showed improvement in several measures of nutrition, and, even though their sodium levels increased, there were no problems associated with higher blood pressure. These patients were also less likely to develop end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis.