I Have Accidentally Ingested A Teaspoon Of Ammonium Bicarbonate

[milk]

It's very silly. I thought it was sodium bicarbonate. Looks exactly the same. I dissolved it in a glass of water, which I think made it less harmful. That's how I drink my sodium bicarb. I noticed a strange taste as I drank the solution, and then realized my mistake. Again, very silly, I know.

This was yesterday night, almost 24 hours ago. Then I drank a glass of milk with plenty of sugar and a glass of water with about three teaspoons sodium bicarbonate and went to bed. I don't know if milk, sugar and baking soda were the right call here but I was in a bit of a panic. I woke up two hours after falling asleep and it took another two hours to fall asleep again, even after taking a 500 mg aspirin, which is unusual. Aspirin tends to make me fall asleep again quite quickly.

While laying in bed I felt a strange, slightly painful feeling on my palms and soles. And upon waking up in the middle of the night it felt like my nasal cavities were slightly enlarged, and I felt this scent of cookies. Ammonium bicarbonate is added to certain cookies.

Today I felt kind of sleepy and physically weak, and my thinking powers are not as vigorous. My OCD and anxiety are stronger. I usually deal with OCD by rationally refuting the things OCD tells me, but this takes both physical and mental energy, and I was lacking that energy today. It's like my mind is less nimble and I end up succumbing to whatever OCD tells me.

Right now, however, I'm feeling okay. This after taking niacinamide (500 mg), zinc sulphate (10 mg), 500 mg aspirin, a few cups of coffee in which I dissolved a few grams of magnesium chloride, and 100 mg tianeptine. (I've been taking tianeptine again, for about a year now, at responsible doses and with no issues. I usually take way less than 100 mg.)

That's it. I hope the damage isn't permanent. Any suggestions here? Am I doing this right?

 

[yerrag]

Why do you have that in the first place?

It's okay. The body makes ammonia from glutamate/mine? when it's needed, instead of other cations like potassium, in order to react with some acidic anions like chloride and sulfate, so that these can be excreted through urine.

A one-time occurrence. Just don't do it regularly, but I'm even more concerned about the impurities in it. But then, I'm concerned about impurities in every chemical I take in.

 

[milk]

Why do you have that in the first place?

It's okay. The body makes ammonia from glutamate/mine? when it's needed, instead of other cations like potassium, in order to react with some acidic anions like chloride and sulfate, so that these can be excreted through urine.

A one-time occurrence. Just don't do it regularly, but I'm even more concerned about the impurities in it. But then, I'm concerned about impurities in every chemical I take in.

Ok, I'll tell the full story. There's this brand of sodium bicarb. I often buy. Two days ago I was shopping for groceries and I grabbed myself a small bag of it. Exact same package design - colors, fonts, everything -, and the white powder looks exactly the same. I only found out it was ammonium bicarb. after ingesting it.

Yes, our bodies produce ammonia, but ingesting large ammounts is very toxic. My hearing got worse the next day, and my tinnitus was worse last night. And my mind is still sluggish. I do hope this is just temporary.

 

[Maljam]

I'd call poison control 1-800-222-1222.

 

[Amazoniac]

- Induced metabolic acidosis by ammonium chloride: action mechanisms, dose and effects on athletic performance

"The first study relating the NH4Cl use to a state of metabolic acidosis was a self-experiment, in which Haldane[11] [son] in 1921 conducted the experiment on its own. In that study, Haldane ingested large amounts (5 to 55 g) of NH4Cl on six different occasions. In two of these experiments the duration was one week each. During their experiments, Haldane[11] reported that about 13% of ingested NH4Cl was excreted as acid, and NH3 thus was excreted as urea. In addition, there was a high respiratory rate during rest. Haldane also reported that walking at three miles per hour (mph ~ 5 km/h) resulted in a severe increase in respiratory rate and cycling was impossible. The author of the manuscript reported, therefore, that NH4Cl ingestion caused a marked and prolonged acidosis and symptoms of this status included an increase in acid and NH3 excretion. Since then, several studies have used NH4Cl when it is desired to promote and investigate the aspects related to metabolic acidosis."​

Chloride makes the molecule lighter, therefore those 5 grams are considerably more concentrated in ammonium compared to the salt that you took.

I'd call poison control 1-800-222-1222.

- Hello, Grant Genereux speaking, how can I help you?

 

[yerrag]

I'll tell the full story. There's this brand of sodium bicarb. I often buy. Two days ago I was shopping for groceries and I grabbed myself a small bag of it. Exact same package design - colors, fonts, everything -, and the white powder looks exactly the same. I only found out it was ammonium bicarb. after ingesting it

What country you in? Do they also sell rat poison in same packaging lol? You may not be the only person there to make the same mistake. Is this in a supermarket or in an industrial chemical outlet? Hope it's the latter.

Yes, our bodies produce ammonia, but ingesting large ammounts is very toxic. My hearing got worse the next day, and my tinnitus was worse last night. And my mind is still sluggish. I do hope this is just temporary.

How much did you take? I assumed you took an amount not more than a teaspoon, which would be already a lot by baking soda intake practice. In this case, it's not going to be too much to recover from, if you actually got affected.

Saw you take mag chloride. That's an acidic load and if you're taking it daily, then it's not doing you any good in terms of acid-base balance.

 

[tara]

The stuff is used to leaven biscuits. It makes sense that you could find it near the baking soda. If using a lot for baking, ventilation is important.
If you are on the brink of acidosis, it might be a temporary problem. If you are in robust health, you'll probably weather it OK - probably good that you diluted it with fluids.

 

[Steven Bussinger]

Saw you take mag chloride. That's an acidic load and if you're taking it daily, then it's not doing you any good in terms of acid-base balance.

Are you saying the bicarbonate is part of the acidic load?

 

[yerrag]

Are you saying the bicarbonate is part of the acidic load?

No, I'm referring to the daily intake of magnesium chloride.

The mag chloride is an acidic load. The mag bicarbonate isn't. Daily intake of an acid load accumulates. If depends on dosage and duration.

I use a urine pH test strip to monitor. Optimal urine pH is 6.4-6.8. When I used mag chloride at the rate of 400 mg elemental magnesium, my urine pH fell to 5.5 (or maybe even lower) from an optimal value. It was taken after 4 months of daily supplementation with it.

I developed a cough that never went away. I gained back my allergic rhinitis. But what can one expect when one lowers his acid-base balance to that extent? Glad that I caught that.

Thanks to having a cheap urine pH test strip.

btw the urine pH test strip is Hydrion range 5.5 -8. Buy at Amazon.

 

[Amazoniac]

Ammonia rapidly becomes ammonium in the body, it's spontaneous, only a small fraction remains (in particular because intracellular and urinary pH is lower):
- Renal Ammonia Metabolism and Transport

It's another representation for these:

- Finding the pH of Weak Acids, Bases, and Salts | Chem1 Virtual Textbook

Spoiler

- Ammonia

"Ammonia or ammonium ion is well-absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, and almost 100% of the ammonia produced endogenously in the human digestive tract (60 mg kg−1 day−1) is absorbed and metabolized in the liver to urea and glutamine. The brain can also convert ammonia to glutamine. Due to first-pass metabolism in the liver, little ammonia from the gut reaches the systemic circulation, and toxicologically significant amounts of ammonia in blood (>1 μg ml−1) probably occur only in severe disease states where the metabolism of ammonia by the liver and the excretion of metabolites by the kidney are compromised. It is unlikely that a significant amount of the ammonia contacting the skin is absorbed. Ammonia that reaches the circulation is distributed throughout the body where it can be used in protein synthesis or as a buffer. Most of the absorbed ammonia is excreted in the urine as urea, with minimal amounts excreted in the feces or expired air."​

- Urea and Ammonia Metabolism and the Control of Renal Nitrogen Excretion

 

[SonOfEurope]

- Hello, Grant Genereux speaking, how can I help you?

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