Normally, you just report them separately as in “six subjects were assigned to a control arm, while twelve received treatment.” The groups are often about the same size, though you might put more subjects in the treatment group if you suspect some heterogeneity in the response to treatment.
A better design would test all subjects in both conditions—take a baseline sample, treat everyone and take a second sample, and then take a final sample after you think the treatment has washed out. An even better design would be a cross-over experiment, where half of the subjects receive the treatment first, then are “crossed over” to the control group, while the rather half get a mirror-image treatment.
That's naive approach to decision making seemingly based on a narrow frequentist outlook eschewing a copious amount of prior knowledge on the subject. An analytical/scientific outlook on deciding behavioral decisions doesn't mean you only accept things based on whether a single research trial rejects the null hypothesis. I'd recommend reading more on probabilistic decision making [cf 1].
Personally this research has convinced me to try a small amount of baking soda. Specifically, I'm basing this decisions as the outcome of an internal decision matrix based on reading a lot of prior literature and personal experimentation balanced with the low risk of the behavior changes and not by taking the article in isolation. Personally, I've read a number of various "anecdotal" evidence pointing toward acidity / pH balance but didn't take it too seriously as it seemed unlikely modifying dietary pH levels could affect blood chemistry. This article provides both a plausible method of actions built around solid dual-pronged approach. The direct physiological studies with mice shows direct (and high powered results) indicating shifting populations of regulatory cells based on sodium bicarbonate intake. Combined with even a low power human based trial it overall yields a fairly convincing argument. There's lots of prior evidence linking RA severity with regulatory immune cells [2]. In the rise of recent direct links of immunology and gut flora it's very likely there's links of diet to immunological health as well.
Therefore, I'm going to experiment a bit and see if it helps with periodic inflammation. Unfortunately whether any effects last long term or build up tolerance would be good to know. But even temporary relief that could cope with flare-ups would be very helpful, and given the caustic nature of auto-immune medications a bit of baking soda has small risk profile [cf 3] that I'm willing to tolerate.
