Acute sodium bicarbonate loading has negligible effects on resting and exercise blood pressure but causes gastrointestinal distress.

Oral ingestion of sodium bicarbonate (bicarbonate loading) has acute ergogenic effects on short-duration, high-intensity exercise. Because sodium bicarbonate is 27% sodium, ergogenic doses (ie, 300 mg∙kg⁻¹) result in sodium intakes well above the Dietary Reference Intakes upper limit of 2300 mg/day. Therefore, it is conceivable that bicarbonate loading could have hypertensive effects.