I’m curious if you’ve gone down the chlorine dioxide rabbit hole. I had a friend who was doing it, but my hesitation about it is similar to the point you make in this article. What a substance does in a test tube is very different than its reaction in the human body.
Yes, I think your hesitation is very justified! Chlorine dioxide is in a completely different category from baking soda. At least bicarbonate is part of normal human acid-base chemistry. Your body has machinery for it, and if the experiment goes badly, stopping it usually lets the system settle back down rather quickly. Chlorine dioxide is a reactive oxidizing disinfectant. It oxidizes whatever it contacts, including human tissue. From a pro-metabolic lens, that makes very little sense to me: the goal is to support respiration and reduce unnecessary oxidative stress not swallow a disinfectant and hope it only attacks the bad stuff… With baking soda, there are at least narrow edge cases where it makes sense. With oral chlorine dioxide, I really cannot think of one. What was your friend taking it for?
I was always told to do exactly what you write about here to combat acid reflux. I always resisted. Reading this I’m glad I did. Glad you’re doing better.
What about using baking soda to fight the common cold? I've done that on occasion (but you need to measure, more is NOT always better.) thanks for taking one for the team
Thank you, Kurt! and it’s a good question. Occasional, measured use is a different category from the nightly wellness dosing I wrote about here. But I don’t think we have good evidence that baking soda actually “fights” the common cold in the way people claim.
The funny part is that the “research” people usually cite for baking soda and colds is a promotional booklet (from 1920s) from the Arm & Hammer Baking Soda company with a testimonial letter from one doctor. THere was no real methodology, no clear patient numbers, just marketing material with an obvious conflict of interest from the company selling the product.. so I would not treat that as proof that baking soda fights viral infections.
That said, I’ve never tried it for a cold myself, but if someone is measuring carefully, using it short-term for a specific symptom, and it’s helping, that is at least a different conversation. And yes, I agree with you on dose. More is definitely not better with this one.
Your experience was your experience. Doing a “PROVING” of sodium bicarbonate of course brings out both sides of the effects. Dangerous territory.
Doing that much baking soda while not treating a symptom or illness for the purposes of seeing what it will do is obviously your choice. But to extrapolate your experience and then apply a certainty to its affect on someone with an illness is also dangerous.
What some (cited) physiologists, researchers and experienced physicians think or postulate are the effects of baking soda can change regularly and it does. Not enough "cans” and “mays” in your write up. Disappointing.
What I find with any kind of medical research or papers (think COVID here) is that there is a huge range of competency and given the volume a clear ability to cherry pick. I never provide strong advice based upon them after 30 years of seeing the ups and downs of paper quality. They disappoint.
What I took from your piece is “ Kids don't try this at home" "Consider using this acutely and occasionally ", and "FFS never experiment on yourself like this and then take the conclusions and extrapolate them for someone actually treating something”.
I think you may be reading more certainty into the piece than I intended.
I’m not arguing that my experience proves what sodium bicarbonate will do to everyone, and I’m not applying my reaction to someone using bicarbonate in a specific illness under supervision. That was never the claim.
The protocol I tested was the casual bedtime dose I keep seeing promoted online as harmless “metabolic support”: half to one teaspoon before bed. That is very different from using bicarbonate acutely for a symptom, in athletic loading, in kidney protocols, or in supervised clinical contexts. I included those uses because I do think bicarbonate has a place.
My ER story was the reason I finally wrote the piece, not the entire case (obviously). The larger point is that the online wellness framing has turned baking soda into a broad daily tool for CO2, mitochondria, digestion, inflammation, cancer prevention, and everything else. That is where the claims get much bigger than the evidence.
I also do not think adding “may” and “can” to every sentence makes a piece more accurate. Sometimes it just makes it unreadable. I tried to be careful where the evidence is limited but I’m still going to make the main argument clearly: a narrow chemical action should not be turned into a universal wellness protocol without looking at what happens downstream.
So yes, “don’t casually experiment with this at home” is one takeaway. But the bigger takeaway is more specific: don’t confuse bicarbonate’s real chemistry with proof of broad metabolic benefit
That sounds horrible. Thanks for trying this so we don't have to! But please, don't hurt yourself.
Thank you, Alice! I’m recovering well! the mucosa bounces back quickly once you stop irritating it. This one needed to be tested :)
I’m curious if you’ve gone down the chlorine dioxide rabbit hole. I had a friend who was doing it, but my hesitation about it is similar to the point you make in this article. What a substance does in a test tube is very different than its reaction in the human body.
Yes, I think your hesitation is very justified! Chlorine dioxide is in a completely different category from baking soda. At least bicarbonate is part of normal human acid-base chemistry. Your body has machinery for it, and if the experiment goes badly, stopping it usually lets the system settle back down rather quickly. Chlorine dioxide is a reactive oxidizing disinfectant. It oxidizes whatever it contacts, including human tissue. From a pro-metabolic lens, that makes very little sense to me: the goal is to support respiration and reduce unnecessary oxidative stress not swallow a disinfectant and hope it only attacks the bad stuff… With baking soda, there are at least narrow edge cases where it makes sense. With oral chlorine dioxide, I really cannot think of one. What was your friend taking it for?
thank you for confirming what i also suspected.
anytime i drank it, same reaction.
now its just for the bath, cleaning and some cooking
🙏🏻
I was always told to do exactly what you write about here to combat acid reflux. I always resisted. Reading this I’m glad I did. Glad you’re doing better.
Thank you, Peter!
What about using baking soda to fight the common cold? I've done that on occasion (but you need to measure, more is NOT always better.) thanks for taking one for the team
Thank you, Kurt! and it’s a good question. Occasional, measured use is a different category from the nightly wellness dosing I wrote about here. But I don’t think we have good evidence that baking soda actually “fights” the common cold in the way people claim.
The funny part is that the “research” people usually cite for baking soda and colds is a promotional booklet (from 1920s) from the Arm & Hammer Baking Soda company with a testimonial letter from one doctor. THere was no real methodology, no clear patient numbers, just marketing material with an obvious conflict of interest from the company selling the product.. so I would not treat that as proof that baking soda fights viral infections.
That said, I’ve never tried it for a cold myself, but if someone is measuring carefully, using it short-term for a specific symptom, and it’s helping, that is at least a different conversation. And yes, I agree with you on dose. More is definitely not better with this one.
thank you.
Your experience was your experience. Doing a “PROVING” of sodium bicarbonate of course brings out both sides of the effects. Dangerous territory.
Doing that much baking soda while not treating a symptom or illness for the purposes of seeing what it will do is obviously your choice. But to extrapolate your experience and then apply a certainty to its affect on someone with an illness is also dangerous.
What some (cited) physiologists, researchers and experienced physicians think or postulate are the effects of baking soda can change regularly and it does. Not enough "cans” and “mays” in your write up. Disappointing.
What I find with any kind of medical research or papers (think COVID here) is that there is a huge range of competency and given the volume a clear ability to cherry pick. I never provide strong advice based upon them after 30 years of seeing the ups and downs of paper quality. They disappoint.
What I took from your piece is “ Kids don't try this at home" "Consider using this acutely and occasionally ", and "FFS never experiment on yourself like this and then take the conclusions and extrapolate them for someone actually treating something”.
I think you may be reading more certainty into the piece than I intended.
I’m not arguing that my experience proves what sodium bicarbonate will do to everyone, and I’m not applying my reaction to someone using bicarbonate in a specific illness under supervision. That was never the claim.
The protocol I tested was the casual bedtime dose I keep seeing promoted online as harmless “metabolic support”: half to one teaspoon before bed. That is very different from using bicarbonate acutely for a symptom, in athletic loading, in kidney protocols, or in supervised clinical contexts. I included those uses because I do think bicarbonate has a place.
My ER story was the reason I finally wrote the piece, not the entire case (obviously). The larger point is that the online wellness framing has turned baking soda into a broad daily tool for CO2, mitochondria, digestion, inflammation, cancer prevention, and everything else. That is where the claims get much bigger than the evidence.
I also do not think adding “may” and “can” to every sentence makes a piece more accurate. Sometimes it just makes it unreadable. I tried to be careful where the evidence is limited but I’m still going to make the main argument clearly: a narrow chemical action should not be turned into a universal wellness protocol without looking at what happens downstream.
So yes, “don’t casually experiment with this at home” is one takeaway. But the bigger takeaway is more specific: don’t confuse bicarbonate’s real chemistry with proof of broad metabolic benefit