Baking soda may help patients with advanced chronic kidney disease, according to a new study.

"This cheap and simple strategy also improves patients' nutritional status, and has the potential of translating into significant economic, quality of life, and clinical outcome benefits," said Dr. Magdi Yaqoob of the Royal London Hospital.

Baking soda -- also known as bicarbonate -- is used for baking, cleaning and other household tasks.

The result was based on a study of 134 patients. One group took baking soda as a tablet daily along with the usual care. A news release on the study said that those who took the pill lost kidney function two-thirds more slowly than those on traditional treatment.

Yaqoob said that the rate slowed to about that of what normally happens as people age.

The release also said that while sodium levels rose in those patients -- sometimes a problem caused by too much salt in the diet -- it didn't lead to any problems with increased blood pressure.

The researchers admitted that there was no placebo group and they knew which patients were taking a pill, two factors that mean this was not the strongest kind of experiment. Future tests could validate the results.