Cream of Tartar: Health Uses & Benefits

Reply to EC: 30 years ago I had a friend (now deceased) who was crippled as a young woman 20 years before with polio. She told me she took a teaspoon of cream of tartar in water every morning on rising and that this kept her "water" flowing in good order. I regret now I didn't clarify exactly what she meant, maybe having partial paralysis (she could manage on crutches) meant her bladder needed better control or to prevent any edema. She did mention that it was a remedy well known among her contemporaries. Hope this helps a bit.

Candida Cleanse, Cream of Tartar Pro-biotic and organic sea salt.

Hi, I've been suffering with chronic sinus infections for about 4 years. Went to doctors several times, had an operation inside my nose and nothing worked. I am extremely mad a conventional medicine that uses drugs and surgery as treatment. Conventional medicine and drug companies should go down as they do more damage to the population than the diseases itself. After I got the operation, my life became a living hell. I lived my life around the sinus problems I had. I lost so many good things in live that I can't even count. I finally decided to take my health in my own hands and I will never go to a conventional doctor anymore, unless it if is a real emergency, in an ER of a hospital because one can't never say never, now I am my own doctor and I don't take drugs anymore. Why take drugs if they only purpose is to make money, IT IS ALWAYS ABOUT THE MONEY. The antibiotics destroyed my life completely. I gave tons of money to the drug companies on the course of this problem, I bought so many nasal decongestant and over the counter decongestants that if I have my money back I would probably be rich by now.

I had relieved that came when I understood that most chronic sinus infections are fungal and not bacterial or viral. I started with the Threelac therapy, helped but, they don't tell you on the websites that you need to do a Candida diet for at list one month (very hard to do), then they send you a paper inside that tells you that you must do the diet, but I tried anyway, without the diet, it did not help. Then I did the Candida diet for 45 days, I felt fantastic, but all ended few weeks later, then I did colloidal silver maximum strength 10,000 PPM (parts per million) for 45 days, I felt fantastic again, but few weeks later the problem started again; this time I added Pro-biotic, PB8 14 million and used a water pump (the ones used for cleaning teeth) device with an end of rubber for nose use. I bought Organic sea salt and put two table spoons in 30 oz of distilled water, tilt my head about 45 degrees on top the sink and started the machine, all of the sudden there was a strong burning sensation,in my nose started some really loud noises inside and the discharge went on for about three days, I had to breed thorough the mouth for hours and when I got tired I used the decongestant to catch my breath a little, about few hours. My eyes burned too, to control this problem I used lots of cold water on my eyes and blinked. I did the same for several days and now I am nasal decongestant independent for about a week, and that is the first time in about 4 years.

The real action was actually happened when I found the testimony of a lady on EARTH CLINIC ABOUT CREAM OF TARTAR. I went to the health store here in town and bought 10 spoons of the product for 9 bucks; the first time I drank one tea spoon of the product in a 4oz glass of water, I felt really strong reactions in my body. I was in and out the bathroom for two days, and was eliminating Candida like crazy. I check my ph the next morning, just before breakfast or brush my teeth, and it was a fantastic 7.5 ph, I am usually 6.0 ph, which is acid.

I credit my cure to these five things together, 1) cream of tartar, 2) nasal pump 3) organic sea salt 4) pro-biotic and 5) Earth clinic, thank you.
Ricardo Aguiar.

I had a non-healing boil and started taking 1/4 tsp of powdered turmeric in a glass of water a couple of times a day for a couple of days. I have taken turmeric in the past without a problem. Today I tried cream of tartar instead (same dosing). After the second dose, eight hours apart, my stomach grumbled and I had bad racing heart, anxiety, and had runny stools. I think it was the cream of tartar and I was surprised because I didn't think it had much side effects (but I know things can affect people differently). I heard it is an "acid salt" and wonder if it is because I am a little sodium sensitive. The racing heart happens if I take baking soda alone too but is fine if I take it with apple cider vinegar or lemon/lime juice, maybe because the natural potassium balances the salt out? Anyways high anxiety is an uncomfortable feeling.

Prevent Poison Ivy

I suffered something awful when they stopped giving the prevention shots for poison ivy at the doctors office. I am so susceptible to it that I'd swear I can get it by looking at it through binoculars! If I broke out in the spring it would stay with me through October. No exaggerating. I finally met a lady whose grandma told her to add a teaspoon of cream of tartar to water and drink it in the early spring (it's awful bitter!). My family has been doing this for years, now, and it really does work! If we're going to be out around poison ivy, or oak in the fall we take another dose just to be safe.

This works great! I read about cream of tartar in another place a couple years ago, and it just said to take it, so l ate a half teaspoon right off the spoon and followed it with water. It tastes tart, not bitter this way. It prevented my husbands allergic reaction to the grass and weeds as he cut the grass as well. l also used it to stop an asthma attack from mold when l was out of meds, and it worked. It is a by-product of wine-making, the powder forming on the barrels from a substance in grapes and other tart fruits.

I find Cream of Tartar very helpful in treating prostate inflammation. Dissolve in hot water between an eighth to one quarter teaspoon of Cream of Tartar (CoT), then add this to your juice. Do this morning and night.

CoT is very high in potassium and this is great for the renal system. It works quickly, within an hour or so. Make sure to dissolve in hot water as instructed as it doesn't dissolve well in cold water. If you don't dissolve it the granules are a bit too acidic as they are (I can get a canker sore), and it is also likely to not work as well.

It seems that its the Cream of Tartar and not the cream of Tartar and Sulpher tablets. The boil on my hip has completly cleared up. The sting was out of it quite fast. But I felt a bit iffy while taking the Cream of tartar, but you generally feel yucky with a boil anyway. It seems to do the trick.

I had my first boil (CA-MRSA) in February of this year. Took doxycycline for 6 weeks. In May I developed another boil, this time in my nose... An undesirable location thanks to its close proximity to the brain. For another 6 weeks I used Bactroban (Mupirocin) cream 3x per day as per doctor's orders. No change in the boil. Finally in desparation I tried hot compresses in my nose combined with this cream of tartar remedy. I started with 1/2 tsp in a glass of warm water but that gave me a wicked headache for 24 hours on the second dose... So I backed off to 1/4 tsp 2x per day. Within 24 hours the boil suddenly came to a head and now, three days later, has opened on its own and is slowly draining away.

I am a true convert to the cream of tartar. I do believe it is at least in part responsible for the sudden and rapid healing from a boil that has plagued me for 6 weeks. Very impressed - plan to use cream of tartar in small doses from now on for maintenance and healing. Thank you!

A cure for boils that I have used since the 1960's: one teaspoon of cream of tarter, 3 doses, eight hours apart for the first day; then one teaspoon per day for 5 days. Other people have tried it and it seems to work universally. My father called it Canadian Folk Medicine. It works by correcting a potassium deficiency.

Here's a folk remedy for boils. I get boils all the time, always around my belt buckle. They seemed to last a week or two, and even after they burst, the area remained tender for a few days. My Grandmother gave me a teaspoon of Cream of Tarter mixed with about 6 oz. of water when I had a boil the size of a golf ball. Within about 4 hours it had burst, and the next day, it was gone. Now I use it all the time, with great results. She says "It cleans your blood", but I'm sure there is a scientific reason for it. You may want to use warm water, as it doesn't dissolve well in cold water. Also, it tastes very acidic, so I usually dissolve it in an ounce of warm water and mix it with cold orange juice, and you can't taste it at all.

Cream of Tarter for Edema: Cream of Tarter is rich in potassium. Often edema is caused from not enough water intake (dehydration) or too much sodium and not enough potassium. Cream of Tarter, 1/4 t in a glass of water, sipped, will provide a hefty dose of potassium. For me I start to pee out the fluid within an hour.

Thank you for sharing.

I have been taking Lasix (furosimide?) and daily potassium supplements for many years for my valve leakage, and gradually I started retaining more and more fluid. Cloth still fit, just that the scale shows numbers that pop my eyes wide. Tried so many things...none worked.

So I tried 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar with glass of water and was amazed by how fast it worked.

Then went and read more, and learned that's it may not be good if taking potassium sparing drugs. (my meds were non-potassum sparing) Optimistic by the result started taking 1/2 tsp with glass of water daily.

I must say, I feel good, I've lost 10+ lbs of fluid over a couple of months. Plan to adjust/reduce to 1/4 tsp once I reach my optimum weight and see how it goes.

I got a cyst after what could be referred to as a detox.. I think that the Lymph system might get overloaded, with the accumulated crap leaving the body, It was more a cyst, but Turmeric and Cream of tartar got rid of it.

I started off with just a teaspoon of Tumeric, then added a teaspoon of cream of tartar to it, poured in some milk, gave it a stir and drunk it all down. Then as it improved I just used Cream of tartar.

The Cream of tartar seemed to kick start the healing, not the Turmeric. The sting came out of it about the second dose. I used it internaly. I got through about packet of Cream of tartar from the baking isle of the supermarket. I'm sure the boil/whitlow its something to do with the general cleaning up of the body, with the natural cleansers ive been taking. Ive only had one like that before.

I vote Yea! The comments posted for this one intrigued me to do some more research on cream of tartar. Here's what I found. Cream of Tartar is NOT the same thing as Tartaric Acid - although some try to use the names synonymously.

The technical name for Cream of tartar is potassium bitartrate which is not exactly the same as straight tartaric acid. It is formed during the cold stabilization process in wine making and happens when the potassium that naturally occurs in grapes binds with the tartaric acid which also naturally occurs in grapes. Thus diluting (neutralizing) the tartaric acid and making a white crystalline substance called potassium bitartrate.

Let's also note that cream of tartar is a food grade substance which is regulated by the US FDA. It is widely used in baking, as well as some sodas and lots of other foods. If it were that toxic to the consumer, I sincerely doubt the Food and Drug Administration would allow it to be freely used in foods available to everyone!

I very much appreciated the toxicity information listed under cream of tartar in the cures for candida section. I even wonder if I already have damage from using it before (in much lower doses than suggested here, and for arthritis).

My favorite remedy for candida is Huang Lian Su, a chinese herb available at Chinese pharmancies, but not where I am currently living, which brought me to your site. I did take some GSE--grapefruit seed extract--before heading to the grocery to get other remedies to try, and realized as I was shopping, that the symptoms were already subsiding. So GSE might be at the top of my new list of favorite helps for candida.

The toxicity issues around cream of tartar as documented in the "nay" article were very surprizing, and I will never use it again. The levels recommended by someone else posting on this page sound potentially extremely damaging, when compared with the information that follows in that entry. I hope you will remove the suggestion of cream of tartar as a remedy given the extreme hazzards, and the poor public awareness of these hazzards.

Thank you,
Joanne

Dear Karl: Yes, I have looked on that issue for many years and for me it has always left me in the gray area, or one that I prefer not to recommend. It must be noted that it is with great pains that I not use this, despite many temptations. Why I am never tempted there are many reasons.

Of course you are free to try the remedy and I might be wrong. However, let's look at some of my complaints on such use.

If I have a choice between cream of tartar and potassium bicarbonate, I would choose potassium bicarbonate (and baking soda) for the candida problems. Another form of potassium is potassium citrate, which is free of the problems also. However, people whose body are high in nitrates (and I know because I had experience with this), they can sensitize to too much potassium, causing heart beat problems. At least this is my experience. A safer form is the citrate, or sodium citrate, which is superior than the baking soda. Basically sodium citrate is nothing more than citric acid mixed with baking soda, until pH reaches 8.0, in which case the resultant reaction in a water solution, will yield a sodium citrate. As a simple home remedy, it is a lemon and baking soda formula. If you simply wanted more citrate, than its likely to be a more baking soda is added than the original one which were (8 teaspoon of lime plus 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda) to be a pH of about 7.5.

Also, I could not confirm the original source of information of Dr. Tom Revis, other than that one quote that it was taken.

The other problem I have is the acid pH of the initial solution, which is taken to be about 3.5. It's the same problem I had with apple cider vinegar, which must be neutralized to a basically more neutral solution to a pH of 7, otherwise you get burning sensation of the esophagus at pH below 7.

The other issue is that when we prepare the growth of a yeast medium culture (which I might be wrong, but candida is yeast too), one patents uses (Nitrate reductase from yeasts, the preparation and use thereof Document Type and Number: United States Patent 5294539):

3. An NAD(P)H-dependent nitrate reductase according to claim 1, wherein the synthetic nutrient medium contains essentially:

0.04 g/l m-inositol, 1.0 g/l potassium dihydrogen phosphate, 1.0 g/l magnesium sulfate, 4.5 g/l potassium hydrogen tartrate, 1.5 g/l potassium nitrate, and 20.0 g/l glucose.

The cream of tartar is the potassium hydrogen tartrate (other synonyms are potassium hydrogen tartrate cream of tartar, potassium acid tartrate, monopotassium tartrate and potassium bitartrate).

Also in autistics and certain people with a problem of leaky gut, it was found that tartrate to be high and would be toxic to them. While it is true that tartrate is part of the Kreb's cycle, it is also true of citrate, acetates, and malates. The most results of energy increase, and hence, the immune system appears to be the acetates and the malates. While my own experience in achieving superior soda loading (a term atheletes used to achieve lower lactic acidosis), involves either or both maintaining a stable alkaline pH, or getting cells rid of the lactic acid. Now, maintaining alkaline pH, I found that citrates work better than bicarbonates in general. While the body rids of lactic acidosis best with acetate. The problem about acetate use is it won't achieve effective alkalization as with the citrates. So in my opinion the citrates and acetates are preferred to raise the immune system best. As to the problem of tartrates many people with bacteria, or toxins, the bacteria or other organism tends to produce too much tartrates, causing the body to be in excess of tartrate whenever people do get sick. This is especially true of leaky gut syndrome and autistics. A small study attached, below on autistics can be read for your perusal. There are many others.

A book excerpts on tartaric acid (from http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/bookstore/autism.asp#biologicalTretments )is as follows:

"A toxicology manual (3) indicates that tartaric acid is a highly toxic substance. As little as 12 g has caused human fatality with death occurring from 12 hours to 9 days after ingestion. Gastrointestinal symptoms were marked (violent vomiting and diarrhea, abdominal pain, thirst) and followed by cardiovascular collapse and/or acute renal failure(3). A gram is approximately the weight of a cigarette. This compound especially damages the muscles and the kidney (4,5) and may even cause fatal human nephropathy (kidney damage) (6) which was of interest to me since the two brothers with autism initially evaluated had the extreme muscle weakness as well as evidence of impaired renal function."

One more problem is the level of tartaric acid in autistics is so high that it reaches toxic levels in autistics. The problem about this autistics quite often get yeast infections, whether they are candida albicans or not I don't know. And yeast infections as a result have high heavy metals.

Tartaric acid is not recommended for people with either chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia. It decreases the malic acid, and reduces the energy levels. Again if you don't believe me, here is a quote, source (http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/book/bk5sect2.html):

"A large percentage of patients with the disorder fibromyalgia who have high amounts of tartaric acid in the urine respond favorably to treatment with malic acid (11-13). I presume that supplements of malic acid are able to overcome the toxic effects of tartaric acid by supplying deficient malic acid. Fifty percent of patients with fibromyalgia who also frequently have elevated yeast metabolites also suffer from hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) even though their diet may have adequate or even excessive sugar(14). The reason may be due to the inhibition of the Krebs cycle by tartaric acid. The Krebs cycle is the main provider of raw materials such as malic acid that can be converted to blood sugar (Figure 6) when the body uses up its supply. (The technical name for this process is gluconeogenesis or "new formation of glucose".) If sufficient malic acid cannot be produced, the body cannot produce the sugar glucose which is the main fuel for the brain. The person with hypoglycemia feels weak and their thinking is foggy because there is insufficient fuel for their brain. If adults with elevated values of tartaric acid in the urine have foggy thinking, have little energy, and are so depressed that they may seek out Dr. Kevorkian, imagine what a young child who has some of the same toxins and who has yet to form a clear concept of the world must feel like."

One other that is not mentioned is heart palpitations, diarrhea, excess sweating, and fainting more likely I think from the excess use of potassium than anything else as this basically skews your blood biochemistry and it is a waste product of yeast.

quote: Cream of Tartar kills Yeast !!! Direct quote from the following website: http:/www.totalityofbeing.com/ArchivedYeastInfections.html

..."Through the work of Dr. Tom Revis DC, ND, I've discovered that plain old Cream of Tartar powder, yes the spice, will not only alkalinize better than the coral ever could. (You can test your saliva with Litmus paper to see the difference), but the Cream of Tartar powder also kills yeast all by itself! What a great combo to help with the battle! Most folks need between 1 to 2 tablespoons of the powder daily depending on the severity of the infection. You can mix it with water or just plop the powder in your mouth and swallow water to wash it down. (Don't breathe in while the powder is still dry in your mouth as some of the still dry powder can go down the wrong way). You can divide the tablespoon into 3 teaspoons to take less at one shot. Expect to have the runs for the first few days using the Cream of Tartar as the initial die off of yeast happens.

So take the cream of tartar then at a seperate time take the I Flora (2 capsules 3 to 4 times daily with or with out meals) and the Inulin powder (one teaspoon 3 to 4 times a day) as well. These days I've been using the Inulin from NOW (www.nowfoods.com). It is significantly less expensive that the stuff I used to use as it is from chicory and not artichoke hearts, yet all of the studies done by the German researchers from the University of Leipzig who first successfully used Inulin used the Chicory kind, so why spend more when the chicory Inulin will more than do the job and for a lot less money!

Most docs and patients who have used this program have put a considerable dent in their Candida Infections in 30 days without the problem of compliance to a restrictive diet. The program will work regardless of what you're eating!

everyone talks about baking soda for yeast, i have found that cream of tarter is a much better for ridding the body of yeast with out die off, 1 teaspoon in a little water 3 times a day, works great. take for at least 5 days.

i have used this for people suffering from rashes, etc. from any yeast related problem. cream of tarter, comes from the making of wine, so it is mostly made from grape skins pulp and seeds. it also does not have the salt of baking soda so is a better choice for high blood pressure. for thrush just swish around in the mouth and swallow. also great for acid reflux.

I found using cream of tartar and internal ingestion of essential oils finally cured a nasty antibiotic resistant UTI.

The oils I used were mostly Juniper, and less of Eucalyptus, Lavendar and Siberian Pine.

The UTI calmed down within a day!

I just tried Cream of Tartar yesterday and felt much more comfortable after a couple of hours. Today I'm at a lower grade of discomfort and taking it again. No question it worked yesterday and pretty fast. I have been doing the Apple Cider Vinegar, baking soda etc, and this is much better. I'll see what it does today. Thanks for sharing!