The Times Online in the UK has a report in which common baking soda is examined as a performance enhancing substance and it’s entirely legal. Apparently it’s enough of an aid for many sports that several doctors are wanting to be banned from events like the Olympics.

“Just last week, an Australian sports scientist said that the use of legal performance-enhancing substances could become a major issue of the Beijing Olympics. “Beijing will probably be remembered for the abuse of legal aids,” said Robin Parisotto on Australian radio.

And Dr Deitrick believes that bicarbonate of soda can significantly improve performance. “If you took out the participants who experienced negative side-effects… you’d see an average improvement in running times of about 2.2 seconds,” Dr Deitrick says. “For a relatively short running distance, that’s very significant.”

But how does something so seemingly innocuous have such a dramatic effect? During prolonged or intense exercise muscles produce large amounts of waste products, such as lactic acid, that lead to soreness, stiffness and fatigue. Because sodium bicarbonate naturally reduces acids, it acts as a buffer against these performance-limiting by-products.”

Read the full article here.