Long-term Effects?

Nick: The body's biological terrain for urinary pH is between 6.5 - 7.35 If you can measure them regularly to stay within that parameter it is great.

If taking sodium bicarbonate with a big pinch of potassium bicarbonate long term use to get it within that parameters allows the body for optimum functioning. Too alkaline is not good, nor is too acid. Moderation is best and optimum is always something in the center.

Unfortunately 90% of our foods we eat are acid forming. So to be practical, baking soda helps in only 90% of the cases, but as usual, this is taken on an empty stomach so that the stomach will empty to the intestines where it is to be used whenever the food that are digested by the stomach to neutralized the excess acid so the stomach acid won't eat up the intestines and causing scars or constipation. Long term constipation from lack of bicarbonates may lead to hemorrhoids. You can probably guessed what is the effect of long term acid stomach eating up the intestines - the mysterious of the leaky gut syndrome. The cause of leaky gut in one way is lack of sufficient bicarbonates to neutralize the stomach acid!

Does he feel that the amount of sodium bicarbonate used in combination with Apple Cider Vinegar is too little to cause any problems?

Apple cider vinegar contains minerals which lead the body to alkalinity, unfortunately the malic acid portion of the ACV requires the body's bicarbonates necessary to neutralize it. Without sufficient bicarbonates in the body to neutralized will bring the common problems of "acid tongue", a phrase earthclinic coined as a result of first discovering the problem and the treatment using baking soda sometime ago. This is why it works for some taking ACV and why it doesn't work for others. The missing link is the baking soda. The best solution is a neutral solution, of pH 7, where 2 tablespoon of ACV plus 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda will get a pH of 7.

Is the ingestion of sodium bicarbonate able to actually influence the amount of bicarbonate in our blood?

The kidneys if a filtration center to remove excess acid out of the body. Taking baking soda of just 1 teaspoon plus 1/2 glass of water, for me, will cause my urinary pH from acidity due to bad diets, of 5.5 to about 6.5 within 2 hours. The bicarbonates goes into the blood rather quickly if the body is already in need of it, however most bicarbonates are stored in your 20 food long intestines needed to neutralized the acid by the stomach and these intestines needs to take insults of excess acid using bicarbonates necessary to neutralize them. Without sufficient bicarbonates, the acid goes into the blood for example oxalic acid in beans, goes into the blood, sees the calcium and form calcium oxalate which tend to accumulate in your kidneys. Without sufficient bicarbonates, as you can see, the acid will react with the body's' bones which is high in calcium, causing excess calcium in the blood and your bones become brittle from lack of it - the acid simply ate it up, just like the acid rain as it reacts with ancient monuments and eats away the face of the statue. Most monuments are made composed of calcium carbonates.