Potassium does have some anti-inflammatory properties and alkalising with potassium bicarbonate can be helpful during periods of physical inactivity according to this study;
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29739680
Alkalinization with potassium bicarbonate improves glutathione status and protein kinetics in young volunteers during 21-day bed rest.
Potassium bicarbonate sounds tailor-made for ME/CFS! ME/CFS is characterized by inactivity and inflammation, and low glutathione levels, among other things. The study you linked says in part:
Physical inactivity is associated with lean body mass wasting, oxidative stress and pro-inflammatory changes of cell membrane lipids. Alkalinization may potentially counteract these alterations.
I've never heard this before, that alkalinization could help with oxidative stress and pro-inflammatory changes of cell membrane lipids and glutathione levels. I think this is huge actually for persons with ME/CFS, who are so sedentary and yet so subject to high levels of lactic acid, and also victims of body mass wasting. I never knew that alkalinization could help with all these issues! Even if potassium bicarbonate had no effect on mesothelial cells as sodium bicarbonate does, these effects alone would be enough to give it a try! Thanks so much for the link
Although I would not be at all surprised if the increased alkalinity from sodium bicarbonate was a factor in its role in helping to reverse autoimmunity, and if this is the case, then potassium bicarbonate should help with autoimmunity as well. Since alkalinization helps with
pro-inflammatory changes of cell membrane lipids
, I don't think it's too much of a leap to posit that alkalinization helps with the inflammation associated with autoimmune diseases, or at the very least I think it's definitely worth exploring.