As you already know, prepping is also about using what’s at hand. But a real prepper, knows what to store in order to have it all at hand. Take sodium bicarbonate for example.
Sodium bicarbonate is very useful in treating stomach acid problems such as gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. Gastritis means inflammation of your stomach lining.
Think about it, the stomach is a gastric pit with a pH that can fall as low as 2. This gastric acid pit is able to dissolve meats, yet it does not dissolve itself…why? e reason is the lining of the stomach secretes a mucous film filled with sodium bicarbonate that helps protect its own cells from the acid produced by other cells in the stomach.
Sodium bicarbonate is a very strong base or alkaline solution…the opposite of an acid. It effectively neutralizes the stomach acid before it reaches the wall of the stomach. When this does not happen, the acid eats away and irritates the stomach lining and leads to gastritis.
When this is long lasting and severe it will erode a hole in the lining, which is an ulcer.
In a postapocalyptic scenario there will be many opportunities for treating various conditions with a simple, inexpensive substance such as sodium bicarbonate. It can effectively replace all the medications you will presumably not have available to you, such as the H2 blockers and the Proton Pump Inhibitors that many people currently take such as Pepcid, Zantac, Prilosec, Protonix, Prevacid, etc.
This is a safe and effective way to raise the pH of your stomach and your entire body.
Remember, pH is the way an acid/base balance is measured in your body. A pH of 7 is neutral (water), anything lower than 7 is acidic, anything higher is alkaline or basic. Since the stomach pH is very low because of the acid it is secreting…and if there is a problem such as gastritis or even ulcers…then we need to raise that pH in order to allow healing.
Note: Do not take sodium bicarbonate if the powder is not fully dissolved, and never take it when your stomach is full of food and you are bloated. It has the potential to release gases and rupture your intestines.
But let’s not forget what we’re here for. Here’s 9 Beneficial Effects of Sodium Bicarbonate:
1. Increasing pH (making you more alkaline) will help the body’s immune system kill off bacteria.
2. PH controls the speed of our body’s biochemical reactions. pH is responsible for rate control in enzyme reactions in our body as well as the speed of electrical conduction of nerve impulses. Even our mitochondria (the cell powerhouses) suffer under acidic conditions. Enzymes work ideally in a narrow pH range; this is because changes in pH change the way chemical bonds function.
3. Sodium bicarbonate is effective in treating poisonings, chemical exposures, and even overdoses of pharmaceuticals,by canceling out the cardiotoxic (heart-damaging) and neurotoxin damaging nerves) effect. Most of the body’s waste and toxins are acids, thus your body needs to combine them with alkaline buffers like sodium bicarbonate in order to neutralize them and excrete them. An increasing acid load lowers the pH and leads to many of the degenerative diseases that Americans currently suffer with such as reflux, kidney stones, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, gout, and heart disease, to name a few.
Sodium bicarbonate is capable of absorbing heavy metals and toxins such as dioxins and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). Most patients have dioxins in their body’s tissues. These accumulate over a lifetime and persist in people even without continued exposure. Dioxins are known carcinogens, or cancer-causing agents, and greater exposure translates to greater risk of developing cancer and other health problems. Sick patients often have elevated levels of these and other toxins in their tissues since we are constantly exposed to toxins that have entered our waters and our food chain.
4. Sodium bicarbonate is also effective in radiation damage. It will help prevent radiation damage to the kidneys. Currently the United States Army is using it for this to protect its troops.
5. Sodium bicarbonate also helps treat radiation-exposed soils to neutralize the damage, where it can be mixed with the top two or three inches of soil where it has been found to bind up radioactive particles for removal and remediation of the soil. At Los Alamos National laboratory in New Mexico, researcher Don York has used baking soda to clean soil contaminated with radioactive uranium. He has shown that sodium bicarbonate binds with this uranium, enabling him to separate it from the soil. Using this method he was able to remove approximately 92 percent of the uranium from contaminated soils.
For us Preppers this is huge; with a generous enough supply of sodium bicarbonate stockpiled, you will be able to make your survival garden once again capable of producing life-sustaining food.
6. Hay fever and chemical and food allergies are also improved with alkalinization of your body with sodium bicarbonate.
7. Headaches and pain relief: Sodium bicarbonate has potent analgesic (pain relieving) properties. Take one teaspoon dissolved in a glass of water. It works very well for migraine headache relief. Migraines are frequently caused by neck pain, sinus and allergy problems, and magnesium deficiency. When taking any medication for a migraine (I highly recommend Excedrin: which is Tylenol, aspirin, and caffeine. (As long as you are not allergic to any of the ingredients or are on a blood thinner of some type, which would be highly unlikely in a postapocalypse scenario). Take it immediately, as soon as you feel the headache starting.
Most migraineurs learn this eventually; migraines, once they start, cannot be ignored, they always worsen until you are down and vomiting and clutching your throbbing head. Ice packs or anything cold you can apply to your forehead and top of your neck where it meets the base of your skull will help. A dark, quiet area will also help.
8. Earwax: A mixture of sodium bicarbonate and warm water when flushed into the ear gently with a turkey baster or something similar will dissolve and dislodge the wax blocking your ear. Do this several times until it opens up. Some people use some warm mineral oil to get the same result.
9. Constipation and colitis symptoms have been known to improve with the use of sodium bicarbonate enemas. Mix a half a cup of sodium bicarbonate in a quart of warm water and put it in an enema bag and instill it into your colon. is will act as a natural cleanser and help any bowel irritations as well. I also highly recommend Epsom salt orally for constipation.
