I almost landed in the emergency room taking the baking soda solution to make my system more alkaline!
That retired NC doc with his Utube video may get other people in trouble, saying he took 2tsps daily (and doing it online).
I was only taking 1/2 tsp 2x daily for a couple of days (started 1/4tsp 1st day), and on the third day decided to increase to 3/4 tsp (one time as had missed the first dose that day).
I woke up next morning and could only take shallow breaths. If I tried to take normal breaths, my lungs hurt badly, sharp pains.
My urine PH strip said 8.0. Way too high! It had been very acidic for the past 4 months (when I started checking) at 5.5 to 5.75.
I could barely do research I felt so bad, but I found out that if your system gets so alkaline that you have alkalosis, that your lungs become acidose (maybe to protect) while your body is in a toxic alkaline state.
NOT nice, and a high percentage of people in this state have to have IV potassium chloride in emergency rooms to save them. In this condition, your system excretes your potassium and chloride and you quickly become deficient of these critical body elements.
It was Sunday, so all I could find was potassium alone, and also found chloride in a magnesium chloride product, and also took some sea salt for the chloride, but not good to take too much sodium.
Took TWO DAYS of painful breathing and massive shakiness and weakness, and the third day I was still weak but could take normal breaths without pain.
So, 2tsps like that retired doc took in Utube video. DON'T DON'T DON'T
Posts: 254 | From North Carolina | Registered: Nov 2013
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Judie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 38323
posted
Yikes, thanks for the warning. I was on an alkaline diet awhile back and got very ill. I wound up in the emergency room and they gave me potassium. I wonder if what you went through happened to me...I never got a real explanation about why I was so low in potassium.
Baking soda is also high in nickel, not good if you have nickel allergy.
Posts: 2839 | From California | Registered: Jul 2012
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posted
I guess I had gotten a bit desperate to get to normal alkalinity (at least in urine PH tests).
You see, I had been on the alkaline diet for 4 months with no appreciable increase in urine PH (was 5.5-5.75 at best, very acidic).
If your system is normal alkalinity, it is hostile to Bb. Bb does something to make our systems more acidic, as Bb thrive in acidic systems.
So trying to normalize the body's alkalinity is a worthy pursuit. But I strongly warn against taking baking soda internally from my experience.
Posts: 254 | From North Carolina | Registered: Nov 2013
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dbpei
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Member # 33574
posted
Nancy, that must have been so frightening. Are you okay now? I hope that you didn't get any permanent damage from this. Thank you so much for sharing your experience so others can avoid your nightmare.
I have been using smaller amounts of baking soda based on a recipe from my ENT years ago. I make a saline rinse with 1/2 tsp salt (I use sea salt), 1/4 tsp baking soda with 1 cup of boiled or distilled water.
I have been doing this for a few weeks now and feel it is helping. I recently read about adding a half tsp of Johnson's Baby Shampoo (as it has a surfactant in it to break up biofilms). This is the part that I don't know how safe it is and would like to find out.
I have also read the same about Xylitol. I believe I may have read this in some of the information researched by Dr. Brewer.
Does anyone here know anything about this?
Posts: 2387 | From New England | Registered: Aug 2011
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poppy
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posted
We are all so desperate to be better, getting shafted by insurance, the medical establishment, the government health agencies, and so we take things into our own hands. But this should be a warning to all who try things that others recommend, whether a retired doc on youtube or other patients on lyme forums. Be cautious!
Posts: 2888 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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dbpei
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Member # 33574
posted
You are so right poppy. Thanks for the reminder.
Posts: 2387 | From New England | Registered: Aug 2011
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GretaM
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posted
Yikes! Nancy! That is so scary! I am so glad you are OK.
Yes, xylitol works and is safe. My LL gave me a recipe for nasal rinsing. PM me if you are interested Posts: 4358 | From British Columbia, Canada | Registered: Jun 2013
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Alka Max is a pretty good product and usually comes with pH test papers.
Persons need to learn how and when to test their pH via saliva and/or urine...and the meaning of the results.
pH, for those who don't know, stands for the potential of hydrogen (to go into the cells).
Since we humans are mostly water (H2O), hydrogen is in great abundance - two hydrogens and one oxygen.
"This is the elemental chemical composition of the average adult human body.
Water is the most abundant chemical compound in living human cells, accounting for
65-90% of each cell.
Each water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom, but the mass of each oxygen atom is much higher than the combined mass of the hydrogen.
All organic compounds contain carbon, which is why carbon is the second most abundant element in the body.
Six elements account for 99% of the mass of the human body: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus."
Hydrogen peroxide (which we make all the time) is also produced by white blood cells to kill some pathogens (those who don't have their own H2O2 defense mechanisms - Bb does). H2O2 in abundance is meant to work quickly and then be countered with via our anti-oxidant enzymes.
posted
Thanks guys for the support! It was very scary.
dbpei, I am ok now. Is your formula a nasal rinse?
I would not add over-the-counter shampoo. Have you read the list of ingredients?
I take Dr. Best serrapeptase for biofilm break-up, and when I had dark field microscopy, there was no mention of biofilm, so maybe it helps. It is over-the-counter.
Posts: 254 | From North Carolina | Registered: Nov 2013
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dbpei
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 33574
posted
Nancy, yes - my saline solution is a nasal rinse. But I am too chicken to try the baby shampoo without MD's guidance.
I recently started taking nattokinase and I also take Interfase Plus (I think this has serrapeptase in it). Hopefully, between the two, if there are biofilms, they are getting broken up. Do you know much about lumbrokinase?
I also recently started using a homemade Xylitol rinse in my neti pot. It is very soothing. But no sign of anything unusual coming out of my nose! (sorry if too descriptive!) Posts: 2387 | From New England | Registered: Aug 2011
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That must have been so scary - I agree with others - so glad you are ok now and hope there are no lasting effects.
The body is a miracle at repairing and balancing our mistakes, often! Thank God!
It is so sad that there is no more real research and unbiased education about Lyme,
and supressing information deliberately is inhumane, and yet it seems to happen and drive us to find out one by one what may work and what does not,
instead of doing this as a civilized society in mainstream medicine.
About the alkalinity: I think I hear you hoping that the right alkalinity would help re-solve the problem of your infection, and it might, but I can contribute my experience to make you feel a little better maybe.
I had perfect alternating acid and base urine samples when I did the 24 hour urine test strip tests.
As described in the instructions, my samples were exactly as the perfect goal.
My husband was acid for 24 hours and never changed. He drinks nothing but diet soda and tons of it.
Not sure this may be the cause. Just telling you to say that the strips seemed to work.
Anyway, even though my body's alkalinity cycles seem to be perfectly normal, I am crippled with Lyme and Co-infections, including Neuroborreliosis with all its trimmings.
Maybe it will make you feel a little better to know that the correct alkaline body chemistry alone would probably not help you all that much, even if you could force it somehow.
-------------------- Persistence, persistence, persistence!!! "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence... Persistence and determination are omnipotent." attributed to Calvin Coolidge Posts: 599 | From USA | Registered: Jun 2011
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posted
It may be helpful to remember that the latest and greatest health info is often proven to be false at a later date....I tend to think this is true of the alkaline vs. acidic hype. The organisms (babs, etc.) don't necessarily MAKE your body acidic, but rather the body ADAPTS to the infection by making itself slightly acidic....The reason for this is to KILL THE ORGANISM, NOT YOU :-) So, acidosis is the body's way of maintaining homeostasis. As with everything, there are always limits to healthy adaptation. For example, if the body becomes severely acidic, then the acidity is truly a threat. There is a fine line between help and harm. When we mess with this too much, there may be times we actually interfere with our healing. Just food for thought :-)
Posts: 31 | From Kalamazoo MI | Registered: Sep 2010
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posted
I think you are right Jen117. More than one well known Lyme MD thinks the production of ammonia (which is highly alkaline) by lyme is responsible for brain fog.
The guys are a little goofy looking (hey I'm 52, so what do I know), but their information seems to be pertinent. I was never comfortable with the thought of body alkalization as a health treatment.
-------------------- 13 yo DX PANS/Tourette's/Asperger's/ADHD treated for Igenex positive bartonella/IND lyme with 2 years of abx treatment. Weaned off abx April 2013 at 80% improvement. Continuing with Buhner bartonella/babesia protocols. Aug 2014 99% improvement. Posts: 265 | From Canada, Ontario | Registered: Jul 2013
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Especially Harmony for sharing your litmus test results and your condition!
I think it was in Dr. S's, Maryland, book, The Lyme Disease Solution (I think excellent book), that he has people go on the (alkaline directing) anti-inflammatory diet for a time before even starting to treat with medication, for those who have a bad & acidic/sugary diet.
What I got from that was that treatments would not be effective if your system was too acidic. Also the exercise thing, that treatments will not work without the non-aerobic exercise.
So that was my aim, and after several months of the anti-inflammatory diet with no litmus strip changes, I got desperate & tried the soda thing.
I thought I read somewhere that lyme produced something, I thought toxins, that made the body more acidic, and that it thrived in acidic environment. Will see if I can find it.
I may have gotten it wrong, misinterpreted, or it may have proven false since that info, like you say sometimes happens, Jen.
Posts: 254 | From North Carolina | Registered: Nov 2013
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