Baking soda can clean your teeth, clear your complexion and act as a natural ant

[Guest guest]

Baking soda can clean your teeth, clear your complexion and act as a natural

antacid

http://www.newstarget.com/z021618.html

by Kelly Joyce Neff

 

(NewsTarget) Many components of the modern western diet – meats, fish, dairy

products, most grains, sugars, alcohol and caffeinated drinks (in fact, almost

everything except vegetables, millet, most fruits and, as we have just seen,

apple cider vinegar) – contribute to one's body becoming too acidic. This in

turn can open the door to a variety of problems, some of them (including

arthritic complaints) potentially serious if this acidic condition persists for

many

years. This is because your body will attempt to compensate by retaining

alkaline salts in the bloodstream to offset the increase of tissue acidity.

Since

your body can only tolerate a small imbalance in blood pH (the acid-alkali

balance), it will rob alkaline components from other places – including your

body's precious alkaline reserves – in an effort to restore proper pH

equilibrium.

This can result in heartburn, digestive distress, stomach upset, fatigue and

a multitude of other symptoms. Simple, inexpensive kitchen baking soda can fix

this.

 

Very useful in keeping the body healthily alkalized is half to one teaspoon a

day of baking soda in water. Don't take it with or within an hour of meals,

though, as the stomach needs to retain its acidity in order to perform its

digestive functions effectively. A great deal of tap water (or even store-bought

spring water) is surprisingly acidic; filtration will remove toxins but will

not affect the pH balance of the water. (Baking soda can be used to reduce the

corrosion of acidic drinking water in municipal water supplies, therefore

reducing the toxicity of the lead and copper, which are dissolved from the

pipes.)

You can purchase a pH testing kit for home use very cheaply, and if the water

you usually drink is acidic (i.e. with a pH of less than 7.0) you could remedy

this cheaply and easily by adding a pinch of baking soda to all the water you

consume.

 

Baking soda is also effective for polishing teeth (without scratching the

tooth surface) and fighting bad breath (sprinkle a little on the toothbrush

bristles). It can even be tried for exfoliating skin when acne is a problem (add

a

little to a facial cleanser in place of using a commercial facial scrub).

 

When baking soda is added to bath water, sunburn sufferers often experience a

notable reduction in pain. Place a cup (8 ounces) of baking soda under the

running bath tap so it dissolves completely, and soak in a lukewarm tub for

about half an hour. Such a bath will soothe the pain – and you won't have to

endure the stinging sensation of a shower. Adding baking soda to a hot bath at

any

time also helps wash acid wastes out of the body.

 

In addition, baking soda can be used in cool (but not cold) bath water to

soothe other skin irritations and alleviate itching from prickly heat, bee

stings, insect bites, and other minor skin ailments. A paste (made with just

enough

water to get the desired sticky consistency) placed on an insect bite or sting

and allowed to dry is a time-tested approach for drawing out and neutralizing

poisons.

 

People with skin allergies who tend to react to commercial laundry detergents

might find that washing their clothing and bedding in baking soda is less

irritating.

 

Simple baking soda may also weaken the desire for a cigarette as well as

reduce the desire for sugar and sweets. It's used in kidney dialysis to reduce

the

level of acids in the bloodstream, and acts to prevent bacterial growth in

food products. For general purposes of alkalinizing the body, quarter to half a

teaspoon twice a day in water is usually enough.

 

The medicinal and self-care uses of baking soda were recognized by the United

States Pharmacopoeia (USP) more than 150 years ago. For years, baking soda

has been recommended because of its antacid effects, mainly to neutralize

stomach acids that can cause heartburn, acid indigestion and related

discomforts.

 

As it mixes with the hydrochloric acid in the stomach, baking soda triggers a

chemical reaction, and its end products are salt (NaCl, or sodium chloride),

carbon dioxide (CO2) and water. The water is harmless, and the carbon dioxide

gets released as a gas, producing a familiar burp once the acid is

neutralized.

 

However, commercial antacid products only lessen symptoms of over-acidity by

blocking the production of acid and can often produce unwanted side effects.

They alter your body's ability to absorb protein and calcium, which can then

create the need for a calcium supplements to compensate.

 

If it were not for the presence of sodium – which makes the tissue in the

stomach highly alkaline – the lining would be destroyed by the hydrochloric

acid

in the stomach. The stomach, intestines, joints and ligaments are in constant

need of natural food-source sodium. Naturally occurring sodium is not to be

confused with the sodium from common commercial table salt, which is processed

with extreme heat using many chemical and bleaching agents.

 

Potassium neutralizes acid wastes, and in combination with sodium, maintains

a healthy acid/alkaline balance. Potassium and sodium are nearly always found

together in the body and perform many of the same functions. Second only to

breathing and maintaining a heartbeat the most important metabolic function our

body performs is to maintain a balanced pH. Baking soda, in small amounts,

performs this function.

 

 

Kelly Joyce Neff has an interdisciplinary degree in Celtic Studies which

includes work in cultural anthropology, history, linguistics, language, and

literature. She is a traditional midwife and herbalist, a reiki master, and an

active craftsperson. She lives in San Francisco.

[Guest guest]

I find some of these articles kind of funny because, growing up in the 50s and

60s, we used baking soda and salt instead of toothpaste and my mother always

used vinegar on my hair after she would wash it, kind of like a rinse. I still

use a lot of the concoctions my mother used.

 

surpriseshan2 wrote: Baking soda can clean your teeth, clear

your complexion and act as a natural

antacid

http://www.newstarget.com/z021618.html

by Kelly Joyce Neff

 

(NewsTarget) Many components of the modern western diet – meats, fish, dairy

products, most grains, sugars, alcohol and caffeinated drinks (in fact, almost

everything except vegetables, millet, most fruits and, as we have just seen,

apple cider vinegar) – contribute to one's body becoming too acidic. This in

turn can open the door to a variety of problems, some of them (including

arthritic complaints) potentially serious if this acidic condition persists for

many

years. This is because your body will attempt to compensate by