Baking Soda: A Real Antacid and a Real Kidney Drug, Wrapped in Dangerous Myths

Summary

Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) has two genuine, unglamorous uses — a fast, cheap antacid for the occasional bout of heartburn, and a real, physician-supervised role in slowing chronic-kidney-disease progression by correcting metabolic acidosis — but almost everything else sold under its name is wrong or lethal: you cannot "alkalize your body" (blood pH is homeostatically pinned near 7.4 and diet barely moves it), "baking soda cures cancer" is refuted quackery with a manslaughter conviction and documented deaths attached, over-ingestion causes severe metabolic alkalosis and even spontaneous g