According to new research baking powder can slow the progress of chronic kidney disease (CKD).

British scientists said baking soda known as sodium bicarbonate, is so effective that results show a daily dose could even stop patients needing kidney machines.

Normally used for household uses such as baking, cleaning, bee stings and acid indigestion, baking soda costs a fraction to traditional treatments.

Chronic kidney disease affects around three million people in the UK and can have a number of causes. The condition ranges in severity from a mild degree of poor functioning to complete kidney failure.

Patients with severe kidney problems often have to spend time each day on a dialysis machine which performs the same tasks that healthy kidneys are supposed to.

An estimated 37,800 patients in the UK receive renal replacement therapy, which may involve dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Kidney failure patients cost the NHS 3% of the entire NHS budget while every patient on a dialysis machine costs the NHS £30,000 per year.

Doctors have considered baking soda to have potential benefits for kidney disease patients, many of whom suffer from a condition called metabolic acidosis, which means they have low bicarbonate levels.

The pilot study conducted at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, was the first controlled test of the treatment in a clinical setting.

The findings have been published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.