Baking Soda Is A Panacea For Many Ailments

Many years of experience using this tool in cooking, medicine, and everyday life have shown that baking soda is a panacea for many ailments.

Many years of experience using this tool in cooking, medicine, and everyday life have shown that baking soda is a panacea for many ailments.

Many of us have heard about the benefits of baking soda since childhood. We are used to gargling with its solution during colds, making compresses against itching after insect bites. Some relieve heartburn attacks with soda. Housewives use it as a leavening agent for baking, as a means for cleaning dishes. Due to the properties and availability of soda, it is widely used for medical purposes at home.

Properties of baking soda

Baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, is a white powder that is soluble in water. It is extracted from table salt.

Reacting with acids, sodium bicarbonate forms salts and carbonic acid, which immediately decomposes into carbon dioxide and water. An aqueous solution of soda acts as a weak alkali. It is non-toxic, therefore safe for animals and plant tissues. But when it gets on the mucous membranes, soda causes their irritation. Constant inhalation of air contaminated with sodium bicarbonate dust threatens to irritate the respiratory tract.

The use of soda in medicine is based on its antibacterial and acid-neutralizing properties, as well as the ability to break down sputum in the bronchi.

Application in "home" medicine

As an antiseptic, baking soda is used in the form of a strong or weak aqueous solution in the following cases:

• For gargling sore throats (also helps reduce inflammation)
• For inhalations for colds
• To get rid of throbbing pain after an injury and a cut on the finger
• With conjunctivitis (a weak solution for washing the eyes)
• With fungal diseases of the feet (lotions from a weak soda solution)
• For treating insect bites.
• As a mucolytic, a weak soda solution is used to relieve cough. It helps to thin phlegm.

• As an antacid, contributing to the normalization of acid-alkaline balance,
• To combat heartburn (neutralizes hydrochloric acid in the stomach). It has side effects
• To fill fluid loss during diarrhea, vomiting (soda-salt solution is used)
• For the prevention of caries (neutralization of acids that destroy tooth enamel)
• To eliminate the smell of sweat (neutralization of acids secreted by bacteria, which are sources of unpleasant odor).
• In the treatment of arrhythmia and hypertension (soda solution helps remove excess salts and fluid from the body).

Soda also has a mild abrasive effect, so it is used for cleaning and whitening teeth at home. Warm baths with soda help to soften the horny skin on the elbows and feet.

Contraindications and side effects

One of the most popular ways to use baking soda is to combat smoking in the esophagus. Once in the stomach full of acid, the soda solution neutralizes it, forming water and a large amount of carbon dioxide. As a result, heartburn passes, but intestinal bloating occurs.

In addition, when using soda as a remedy for heartburn and pain in the stomach, an "acid ricochet" occurs. This means that the production of acid increases after the end of the remedy. Therefore, modern medicine does not recommend using, and even more so, abusing soda as a remedy for heartburn.

With prolonged contact with the skin, soda causes irritation. Therefore, compresses with its solution cannot be left on the skin for a long time.

Getting powder or a strong solution of soda into the eyes causes a burn. If this happens, immediately rinse them with plenty of water.

And one more thing: never use baking soda unless you're sure it's food grade. There are many industrial sodium compounds. Violation of the rules of their use threatens with severe burns and irreversible consequences for health.