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Baking Soda, the Immune System and the Flu

Baking soda alkalizes the body and may prevent disease:

“In 1918 and 1919 while fighting the ‘Flu’ with the U. S. Public Health Service it was brought to my attention that rarely any one who had been thoroughly alkalinized with bicarbonate of soda contracted the disease, and those who did contract it, if alkalinized early, would invariably have mild attacks.

The article below by Mark Sirius, OMD who has written a book on sodium bicarbonate,  is drawn from the booklet that Arm and Hammer wrote on baking soda and disease.  It also includes information on when best to take it.  I suggest taking the baking soda on an empty stomach, as most people over the age of 30 have low stomach acid, even if they think they get acid reflux or acid stomach (which has the same symptoms but is worse with antacids.)

Mercola suggests using Bob’s Red Mill Aluminum-Free Baking Soda instead of Arm and Hammer.  According to the product ingredients, only bicarbonate of soda is included in any baking soda.  (Baking powder does sometimes contain aluminum salts.)

Mercola’s site also contains articles referencing baking soda as a

Few people realize that baking soda also has potent medicinal properties. Taken internally, it helps maintain the pH balance in your bloodstream without resorting to taking calcium from bones. This is likely the basic premise behind its recommended uses against both colds and influenza symptoms, and even cancer.

Alkalinized water is also suggested as a way of alkalizing the body as is eating a diet high in vegetables and fruits.  But if you don’t get enough and can stomach the taste, then using baking soda is an inexpensive idea.

Bicarbonate Treatment for Swine Flu (1924)

Using Bicarbonate Against the Swine Flu

by Mark Sircus, OMD

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Over 150 years ago Dr. Austin Church formed a business to produce and distribute Baking Soda. ARM & HAMMER® Baking Soda is derived from a natural occurring mineral called trona. It is 100% pure, safe, and natural. Baking Soda (also known as sodium bicarbonate) is a substance that is found naturally in all living things. Its purpose is to maintain pH balance in the bloodstream, which is necessary to sustain life. Due to its chemical and physical properties, sodium bicarbonate has unique medicinal capabilities that every healthcare practitioner, doctor and patient needs to know about.

The only problem is that Arm & Hammer Baking Soda can replace many more expensive medicines and this does not make the medical industrial complex happy.

In today’s modern world of medicine the FDA just will not let companies that sell products make medical claims about them unless they have been tested at great expense and approved as a drug. But this was not always the case and as we can see in the information in this chapter, which is from a 1924 booklet, [1] published by the Arm & Hammer Soda Company. On page 12 the company starts off saying, “The proven value of Arm & Hammer Bicarbonate of Soda as a therapeutic agent is further evinced by the following evidence of a prominent physician named Dr. Volney S. Cheney, in a letter to the Church & Dwight Company:

“In 1918 and 1919 while fighting the ‘Flu’ with the U. S. Public Health Service it was brought to my attention that rarely any one who had been thoroughly alkalinized with bicarbonate of soda contracted the disease, and those who did contract it, if alkalinized early, would invariably have mild attacks. I have since that time treated all cases of ‘Cold,’ Influenza and LaGripe by first giving generous doses of Bicarbonate of Soda, and in many, many instances within 36 hours the symptoms would have entirely abated. Further, within my own household, before Woman’s Clubs and Parent-Teachers’ Associations, I have advocated the use of Bicarbonate of Soda as a preventive for “Colds,” with the result that now many reports are coming in stating that those who took “Soda” were not affected, while nearly every one around them had the “Flu.”

Recommended dosages from the Arm and Hammer Company for colds and influenza back in 1925 were:
During the first day take six doses of half teaspoonful of Arm & Hammer Bicarbonate of Soda in glass of cool water, at about two hour intervals.

During the second day take four doses of half teaspoonful of Arm and Hammer Bicarbonate of Soda in glass of cool water, at the same intervals.

During the third day take two doses of half teaspoonful of Arm and Hammer Bicarbonate of Soda in glass of cool water morning and evening, and thereafter half teaspoonful in glass of cool water each morning until cold is cured.

“Well the sodium bicarbonate cure for colds and sore throats.
A friend called as I was reading about it, I told her to try it.
She is rapt! Relief in a few hours, and she went to work the
following day! And she was miserable and could hardly talk,
[2]
had just woken with it full on, and was planning on missing work.”

In order to secure the best results with Arm & Hammer Pure Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda) when taken internally, certain simple rules must be observed. Materia Medica, pharmacology and Therapeutics (Bastedo, Page 88) clearly outlines these rules to follows:

“The effect of an alkali in the stomach will vary according to the nature of the stomach contents at the time of administration. In the resting period (after food is digested) sodium bicarbonate merely dissolves mucus and is absorbed as bicarbonate into the blood, to increase its alkalinity directly.

“In the digestive period it reduces the secretion of gastric juice, neutralizes a portion of the hydrochloric acid, liberates the carminative carbon dioxide gas, and is absorbed as sodium chloride.

“In cases of fermentation or ‘sour stomach’ it may neutralize the organic acids and so result in the opening of a spasmodically closed pylorus (the opening between the stomach and the small intestine); while at the same time it acts to overcome flatulency (accumulation of gas in the stomach and bowels).

“The time of administration must, therefore, be chosen with a definite purpose. Usually for hyperchlohydria (excess of acid) one hour or two hours after meals will be the period of harmful excess of acid.

“In continuous hyperacidity and in fermentative conditions a dose an hour before meals will tend to prepare the stomach for the next meal; or sometimes a dose will be necessary immediately after eating, because of abnormal acid or base having been present at the commencement of the meal. (For the average person one-half hour after meals is recommended).

“A dose at bedtime tends to check the early morning acidity, or a dose on arising cleans the stomach of acid and mucus before breakfast.”

Whenever taking a bicarbonate solution internally the soda should be dissolved on cold water.

This is all very valuable information coming from the horses own mouth, the Arm and Hammer Baking Soda Company, which sells aluminum free baking soda. Clearly they knew what they had in their hands one hundred years ago; and its long use in medicine sustains the companies published medical views:

“Besides doing good in respiratory affections, bicarbonate of soda is of inestimable value in the treatment of Alimentary Intoxication, Pyelitis (inflammation of the pelvis of the kidney), Hyper-Acidity of Urine, Uric Acid disturbances, Rheumatism and Burns. An occasional three-day course of Bicarbonate of Soda increases the alkalinity of the blood, assists elimination and increases the resisting power of the body to all Infectious Diseases.”

Magnesium chloride is the only form of magnesium that has been reported to increase immune system strength though all forms of magnesium need to be counted in this regard. When one adds magnesium chloride to ones baths, puts it on the skin like suntan screen, or takes it orally with sodium bicarbonate one supercharges their defensive perimeter or what is called the anti-pathogen factor in Chinese Medicine. Add Iodine, Selenium, Vitamin C and some healthy sun exposure or Vitamin D and we have the heart of army we need to array against viral invaders. Magnesium Bicarbonate – Ultimate Mitochondrial Cocktail is the name of one of my chapters that explains why both these essential mineral ions need to be present in sufficient concentrations.

Testimonials:

(for more, see the article here)

Sources:

http://sodiumbicarbonate.imva.info/index.php/administration-methods/arm-hammer-soda-company/#arrive

And the article by Mercola

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Vitamin D Regulates the Immune System

I am an herbalist, and that is where I turn first, in most cases.  But Vitamin D is an exception.  It is a hormone used by most of our cells in over 2000 functions,.  As humans ranged north of the African savannah where we evolved and started wearing more clothing, we started lowering our D levels.

Vitamin D
Vitamin D

Vitamin D has the ability to kill off bacteria and that property has been so important that we have retained that property as primates for over 60 million years

Vitamin D  also prevents the over stimulation of our immune system which could cause it to attack ourselves.  This is important for the Swine Flu which can be dangerous if there is an excessive inflammatory response, called a cytokine storm.

Most deaths in the 1918 flu pandemic and more recently from SARS, happened when young healthy people who had a strong immune response provoked a cytokine storm which allowed an excessive response that quickly killed them off.  We speculate that with higher levels of Vitamin D, the regulatory function that caused the excessive inflammation might not have occurred.

This article tells how the process works, but the takeaway is to keep your Vitamin D levels high (blood level around 60) which may require 10,000 iu or more daily and if you get the flu increase it. 

Aug 19 2009, 10:20 AM EST

Regulation of Antimicrobial Peptide by Vitamin D Found to Have Been

Conserved for 60M Years Continue reading Vitamin D Regulates the Immune System