Hcl??
 

Hi

I think I posted about this before, but I am wondering if anyone believes that HCL can aid in digestion? I am having some issues with breaking down foods and it appears it happened when I stopped the HCL. Not sure if this is all in my head though!

Any thoughts would be highly appreciated.

I think it really depends on the individual. I started using betaine HCl with pepsin immediately after discontinuing 18 months of PPI's. Been 2.5 years off the PPI's, and I began experiencing GERD symptoms few months ago, a lot of silent reflux and semi-regular heartburn. I hadn't been taking the HCl like in the past, though.

I resumed the HCl and began some other digestive enzymes as well. The silent reflux symptoms seem to have diminished, hopefully it will go away completely. My heartburn would usually come at night just before retiring, taking a dose of the HCl seems to make it go away. I think it works for me, for what I need it for. I believe it's important to know why a supplement is taken or dietary change is being made in order to gauge effective response.

It seems not everyone produces enough gastric juices to properly digest food. So supplementing with the HCL is actually beneficial. I've considered it but my GERD disappeared completely once I had foods I was allergic to identified.

I'm on my fourth or fifth month with it. I definitely saw a change for the better. Not that I was having digestive issues like GERD, but I noticed that I felt better after taking them.

The number of capsules goes by how much protein is in the meal. After a period of time your body is retrained and you can taper off. I'm closing in on that; I take them every other meal now.