Home remedies and over-the-counter products, such as essential oils, apple cider vinegar, coal tar, and salicylic acid, are often used to help manage psoriasis symptoms. Another home remedy for psoriasis might be in your kitchen cabinet.

Baking soda can be used as a cheap and easy-to-prepare topical (on the skin) solution. However, it’s important to remember that any new product can have side effects and may even trigger or worsen your psoriasis symptoms. Speak with your health care provider or dermatologist before trying baking soda on your skin.

What Is Baking Soda?

Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate, is best known as a leavening agent. It helps cookies, cakes, and breads rise in the oven. In addition, baking soda is popular as a cleaning agent to remove stains and get rid of nasty odors.

Baking Soda for the Skin

Baking soda isn’t just used to cook and to clean. Some people have found it useful as a home health remedy, either taken orally or used topically for skin conditions. While it may seem strange to use a baking ingredient on your skin, researchers have found that baking soda can be used as an antimicrobial — a substance that helps kill microorganisms like bacteria.

Another way baking soda may help the skin is its pH, or level of acidity. When dissolved in water, baking soda has a basic pH. Some skin conditions, like psoriasis, are associated with disturbances in your skin’s pH. Adding baking soda to your bathwater helps create an alkaline environment, which may help loosen or remove dead skin cells and reduce flaking.

Using Baking Soda for Psoriasis

Some people with psoriasis have found that baking soda may help remove dead skin from psoriasis skin plaques and calm itchiness. Baking soda may be especially popular because it’s easy to find and easy to combine with other home remedies.

Although there’s scientific evidence that baking soda may help the skin in general, there’s conflicting information on whether it’s specifically helpful for psoriasis. Most research on baking soda and psoriasis has looked at the effects of balneotherapy, or bathing, with baking soda and its effects on psoriasis lesions. Studies from the journal Dermatology and Therapy on the effects of mud and mineral baths that naturally contain sodium bicarbonate found that they were useful in treating psoriasis. However, a small study of people with plaque psoriasis found that directly applying baking soda to affected areas of skin didn’t improve their skin hydration or redness.

Because there isn’t much research on this topic, and the results are mixed, it may be worth testing if baking soda has any effect on your psoriasis symptoms. Always test new products under the guidance of your dermatologist, so as not to make any skin conditions worse.

How To Use Baking Soda on Your Skin

Baking soda can be placed directly on the skin or as an addition to a bath.

Make a Topical Paste

You can make a paste from baking soda to apply directly to affected areas of skin.

To make the paste, follow these steps:

1. Mix water and baking soda until the baking soda is wet enough to apply to the skin without falling off. The usual proportions recommended are 3 parts water to 1 part baking soda.
2. Leave the paste on the skin for up to 20 minutes. Leaving baking soda paste on the skin for too long can disturb the skin’s natural oils and can even cause rashes and chemical burns on sensitive skin. If you notice your skin getting irritated from the solution, wash it off immediately.

Mix a Scalp Solution

Mixing baking soda with a carrier oil, such as olive oil or coconut oil, can help moisturize the skin while soothing it. “I have psoriasis on my scalp,” a MyPsoriasisTeam member reported. “I mix sodium bicarbonate and olive oil into a paste and apply. This gives me great relief.”

Use It as a Shampoo

Using baking soda paste as a shampoo or rinse can help treat the symptoms of scalp psoriasis. A baking soda rinse or shampoo is a natural exfoliant and can help remove dandruff.

Applying an apple cider vinegar rinse after a baking soda solution can help keep your hair shiny and well-conditioned. Apple cider vinegar may also be effective in calming itchy skin caused by scalp psoriasis.

Make a Baking Soda Bath

Warm baths are a great part of a skin care regimen for psoriasis flare-ups. “Warm bath tonight, feel much better,” one MyPsoriasisTeam member reported. Adding baking soda to a warm bath can help calm irritated skin and possibly loosen skin plaques.

The National Psoriasis Foundation suggests adding other soothing ingredients, such as oatmeal, Epsom salts, Dead Sea salt, and aloe vera, to your bathwater to ease your psoriasis symptoms. One MyPsoriasisTeam member advised, “Try an oatmeal bath! I love it.” Another MyPsoriasisTeam member found relief, saying, “I put coconut oil in my bath, and with just two baths, it is a lot better.”

Risks of Using Baking Soda on Your Skin

Baking soda mixed with water is generally safe to use on the skin. When using a new product on your skin with psoriasis, there’s a risk of irritation or an allergic reaction. Talk to your dermatology or other health care provider before trying a new product on your skin to minimize the potential risks.

Overuse of baking soda is linked to a potentially dangerous condition called metabolic alkalosis, in which too much bicarbonate gets into the blood. Symptoms of metabolic alkalosis include irritability, fatigue, confusion, tingling and numbness, and muscle cramps, twitches, and spasms. Severe cases can cause abnormal heartbeat, seizures, and coma.

While most cases of metabolic alkalosis occur when people consume baking soda orally, it can also be absorbed through the skin. Contact a health care professional immediately if you experience symptoms of metabolic alkalosis after using baking soda treatment on your skin.

Talk With Others Who Understand

MyPsoriasisTeam is the social network for people with psoriasis and their loved ones. On MyPsoriasisTeam, more than 126,000 members come together to ask questions, give advice, and share their stories with others who understand life with psoriasis.

Have you used baking soda as a home remedy for your psoriasis? Do you have any advice for others on how to use it? Share your experience in the comments below, or start a conversation by posting on your Activities page.