Betaine HCL

DebE13 · Post by **DebE13** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 5:25 pm

It almost took an act of God to find it! Store #3 and I finally found it. It's kind of scary that I asked the Walgreens pharmacist about it because I couldn't believe they didn't carry it. She never heard of it but pulled it up on her computer and told me I could only get it by RX. Grrr. Anyway, trying it with my meal tonight and I really can't tell if there's anything going on so I'll try 2 tomorrow. I've got my fingers crossed that I'll notice something. If not I'm going to eat pizza and cookies til I bust!!

Just kidding.

mzh · Post by **mzh** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 5:54 pm

I buy mine locally at The Vitamin Shoppe and also order it online from Vitacost. RX? Wow. I guess pharmacists don't know OTC stuff.

I can tell you for sure - if I don't take it with meals I get looser poos. (That's with 1 Entocort.)I was taking one with all meals and now I take 2 with larger meals and one with smaller ones.

jmayk8 · Post by **jmayk8** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 5:56 pm

What is it?

mzh · Post by **mzh** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:30 pm

It increases stomach acid. Some of us have low stomach acid, which gives us even more bowel problems.

wmonique2 · Post by **wmonique2** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:33 pm

How do you know if you have high or low stomach acid. Most docs ASSUME everybody has HIGH acid and they put everyone on PPI's...

Enlighten me, please.

Love,

Monique

Sheila · Post by **Sheila** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:51 pm

Be careful when you first take Betaine. I heard about Betaine HCL here and decided to try it when I started the paleo diet and it didn't agree with me. Turns out I don't need it and felt terrible after taking one pill. I have a bottle, one pill removed, and would be happy to send it to anyone who can't find it locally.

BTW, I always thought Tums was a pretty useless product since I never had any need for it and couldn't imagine how something so simple could help indigestion. Wrong again. The horrible pain of gastritis that sometimes wakes me up at night is ameliorated within a few minutes by 2-3 Tums. Miracle drug.

Sheila W

mzh · Post by **mzh** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 7:14 pm

Hi, Monique, Here are some tidbits I've collected over the years. Achlorhydria means no acid, hypo-means low acid. I did tests c) and d).

Achlorhydria or hypochlorhydria
a. Heidelburg capsule - most regular GI docs don't know what this is. It's a more naturopathic route. I never had it.

b. blood tests
1) extremely low serum pepsinogen A (PgA ) <17 mcg/L
2) high serum gastrin levels <500-1000 pg/mL
3) Iron indices
4) calcium, D, thiamine, elevated serum folate
5) antiparietel cell antibody testing

c. Betaine HCL home test
1) Day one: 30 minutes before breakfast - one tab 650 mg betaine HCL; if burning occurs, stop taking
2) Day two: if no discomfort on day one, take two caps the next day. If there is discomfort, the correct dose is one cap with each meal
3) Day three: if no discomfort with two, take three caps. This will be the dose taken with each meal.

d) Drink 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda in 8 oz water before breakfast. If you don't get a reaction, you're low. You should burp if you have normal acid.

HTH,
Marcia

Post by **tex** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 9:42 pm

Monique,

To add to what Marcia posted.

Most doctors are wrong. They just assume that everyone who complains of heartburn/indigestion produces too much acid. Why do they make such a dumb (pardon me, I meant to say "unprofessional") assumption? Because they learned how to treat those symptoms from their drug rep, rather than in medical school. The symptoms of too much acid are the same as the symptoms of inadequate stomach acid.

The fact of the matter is, as we age, we produce less acid, not more. Relatively few people produce too much gastric acid. (Obviously, Sheila is one of them).

When you take a Betaine HCL tablet, you should notice a warm feeling in your stomach, roughly 15 or 20 minutes after you take it. If you don't notice any change, the dose is insufficient. Increase the dose at the next trial, until you experience a warm feeling after taking it. As Marcia and Sheila pointed out, if you experience a burning sensation, instead, that dose is too high. If it happens on the first dose with only one tablet, then you don't need any Betaine HCL — you already produce either plenty, or too much stomach acid.

Love,
Tex

gluten · Post by **gluten** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 1:38 am

Hi, The question of HCL and anti-acids was asked at a support group meeting. The medical advisor who is a N.D stated that " Heartburn and Gerd is caused by low stomach HCL " I buy my HCL from Trace Elements Inc. I buy it from them because they do my hair testing. There is another site online.You can have a hair test and their trace elements are the same and maybe available without a hair test. Jon

mzh · Post by **mzh** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:04 am

Thanks;that's good to know, Jon.

Marcia

tlras · Post by **tlras** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 8:37 am

I hope the Betaine works well for you. I'm scared to take it right now till I see my GI doctor next month as I have a little bit of gastritis in my lower stomach and don't know if the Betaine HCL will aggravate it or not.

@Sheila....Tums does work wonders for Gastritis! I took it back when I had stomach pains and it does work very well. Luckily I don't need it anymore as I'd probably be a little wary of taking it since it has milk in it. But, oh do they work!

Terri

Post by **tex** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 9:16 am

Terri wrote:I'm scared to take it right now till I see my GI doctor next month as I have a little bit of gastritis in my lower stomach and don't know if the Betaine HCL will aggravate it or not.

That's a wise decision, IMO, because it's certainly possible that it might aggravate the gastritis, especially if you don't need the extra acid for digestion.

Tex

Sheila · Post by **Sheila** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:50 pm

Tums has milk in it????? I see corn starch, which I should not be ingesting, but I don't see dairy. Please explain which ingredient is the culprit:
calcium carbonate
sucrose
corn starch
talc
mineral oil
natural and artifical flavors
sodium polyphosphate
red 40 lake
hellow 6 lake
yellow 5 (tartazine) lake

I wish they didn't put artifical color/flavor etc but the darn things work!

Thanks
Sheila W

Sheila · Post by **Sheila** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:50 pm

yellow 6 lake

tlras · Post by **tlras** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 7:24 pm

@Sheila....I'm so sorry....you are right, there is no milk. I just checked the Smoothies we have. I could have sworn that one of them that I bought in the past said "contains milk". Gosh darn it....what am I thinking of. I wonder if some of them have it and some don't.

I think I quit taking them because of the sorbitol but really don't need them right now as I'm on Pepto. Will take them again if I get a gastritis flare up. I could have sworn the larger container I had was off limits due to milk. Now I'm wondering what OTC drug I'm thinking of and hoping I'm not taking it....jeez I read so many labels these days I'm getting totally confused. Gonna look at their website to see if any contain milk.

My apologies again. The brain fog is setting in....lol!

Terri