IMPORTANT: I no longer recommend Betaine Hydrochloride supplements. While I do believe they help people and they helped me as well, I think they are a short-term solution. The long-term solution to low stomach acid is to improve your overall health. One of the best things you can do is ingest natural sources of calcium such as Raw Organic Dairy and Canned Fish with Bones. Also get good sleep and reduce your stress. These were the most important changes I made to improve my stomach acid production and I believe they are much better solutions than taking Betaine Hydrochloride at every meal.
Note: I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Listen to your body, watch your own results over time, take things slow and be careful.
Hydrochloric Acid is secreted by your stomach to digest your food and break it down into components that can be absorbed. If you have inadequete Hydrochloric Acid secretion, you will suffer from vitamin and nutrient deficiencies that can lead to all kinds of health problems including ACNE. Check this out:
The preponderance of information on gastric acid secretion, HCl supplementation and skin disease is based on the work of Allison published in 1945. In Allison's experience, a normal balance of gastric acidity could be restored with administration of HCl during meals. In severe cases he recommended one capsule of HCl before, during, and after each meal. He was convinced, in severe hypochlorhydria or achlorhydria, B-complex vitamins were poorly absorbed. In patients known to be or suspected to be vitamin B-complex deficient, he invariably found achlorhydria or hypochlorhydria. In certain cases, he observed distinct psychic influences (primarily anxiety and nervousness) seemed to suppress acid secretion. In a series of 400 patients with skin disorders and suspected B vitamin deficiency resistant to local treatment, he investigated stomach acidity.
He also observed the severity of acid deficiency was in direct proportion to both the duration and severity of the skin disease and digestive symptoms. Improvement in general health and skin condition was observed following treatment with HCl and B-complex (as brewer's yeast) in virtually all patients with impaired HCl production. Cases with very moderate HCl deficiency showed rapid improvement and early signs of intolerance to the acid, which he believed indicated a return to normal secretion. While Allison did not claim the ten dermatology conditions were always due to B vitamin and HCl deficiency, his observations and therapeutic results suggest gastric acidity should be investigated in individuals presenting with these conditions.
Ayers also commented on a correlation between eczema and psoriasis and reduced gastric secretions. He found 8 of 11 patients with eczema and 10 of 19 patients with psoriasis had functional hypoacidity. In one case, he reported a 52 year-old patient with a 46 year history of eczema had impaired HCl production. After supplementation with HCl, the patient's skin condition remained nearly normal during one year of follow-up. Francis reported that four patients with vitiligo and achlorhydria experienced disappearance of vitiligo after starting HCl supplementation with each meal.
I read about HCI as it was recommended when undergoing liver-flushes. I, however, couldn't find any anywhere. Has anyone found some? Digestion is a hugely important element of health, and I'm sure if my digestion was better so would my general health and acne. I suffer from constipation as well.
i had low stomach acids, and when i fixed that, my constipation went away (which in turn helped my skin).
but you shouldn't just take the pills... you don't want to be taking the pills the rest of your life. so you also should...
only eat as much as you can fit in both hands at one meal
wait at least 3 hours between meals (especially if the meal has a significant amount of protein)
don't drink cold/iced drinks, and don't drink any fluids with meals (a few sips is okay)
get lots of organic salts (zucchini, celery), vitamin B6 and electrolytes -- these help produce HCL
overall, you also need to eat an alkalizing diet (read: http://www.askshelley.com/faq.php?p=default&cat=54#a89) and get enough potassium, salt, and calcium (supplement calcium, apart from meals, if you're not eating dairy). from what i understand, the reason that some people have low stomach acids is that they're too acidic overall, and the body doesn't want to produce more acids that are needed for digesting food.
you should be able to find betaine hydrochloride at most health food stores.
Care to elaborate more on how well this is working for you?
I started out with moderate acne on my face and cystic acne on my back. Through various natural health modifications (absolutely no topicals), I reduced the acne on my face to almost-nonexistant. However, I was still getting cysts on my back.
Betaine Hydrochloride with Pepsin cleared up the cysts my back and now I can say that I get ZERO acne on my face as well. My skin is more clear than it has ever been since I was 8 years old. I no longer get bloating or excessive gas or the occassional diarrhea I used to get.
I have a suspicion that the reason diet and other healthy lifestyle modifications worked so well is because it improved my DIGESTION and IMMUNE SYSTEM. This makes a ton of sense if the current theory that acne is a Hypersensitivity reaction. If you improve your digestion, you reduce conditions like leaky gut that contribute to sensitivities that in turn contribute to acne. If you improve your immune system, you improve your bodies ability to ward off the bacteria and inflammation that cause acne. It's all connected.
When you supplement with HcL, you not only make your food easier to digest, the increased acid also increases your ability to destroy the bugs, parasites and molds in your food before they ever get into your system.
Also, can this be bought anywhere over the counter pretty much?
I tried to find Betaine Hydrochloride with Pepsin at health food stores in my area, but for some reason none of them carried it, so I was forced to buy it online. I highly suggest you do whatever you can to get it though, because I feel it is a very important addition to a natural acne fighting regimen as well as a great overall health booster.
There are a lot of other great ways to improve your digestion as well, and some people have already posted some tips above. If I get some time, I'll post a whole guide to improved digestion, but if others have more tips, keep 'em comin'!
A few tips after trying out a few different brands of HcL:
- Tablets are the best. If you get capsules, you never know how long it takes for the capsule to digest and the HcL to get into your stomach.
- Make sure you get a brand that only has Betaine Hydrochloride and Pepsin. Stay away from the brands that include Calcium because Calcium can actually cause constipation if taken in the amounts included in these low quality supplements.
- I still recommend the Solgar brand the highest. I couldn't find it offline anywhere, although the poster above says it might be available at GNC
, but online it is very easy to find.
Black pepper (Piper nigrum)stimulates the taste buds in such a way that an alert is sent to to the stomach to increase hydrochloric acid secretion, thereby improving digestion. Hydrochloric acid is necessary for the digestion of proteins and other food components in the stomach. When the body's production of hydrochloric acid is insufficient, food may sit in the stomach for an extended period of time, leading to heartburn or indigestion, or it may pass into the intestines, where it can be used as a food source for unfriendly gut bacteria, whose activities produce gas, irritation, and/or diarrhea or constipation.
saihaynes said:GNC carry the entire SOLGAR range..anything they dont have can be ordered....
hope this helps
Sai
If I were american it would have helped yeah. 
I'll look into solgar, cheers.
[edit]
[Edited link out] <-- for those in the UK.
Strangly enough, this is recommended for candida as well, from which I am also suffering.
Hey HealthDude , first lmme thank you for sharing this with us , i have some questions , can i take this with other vitamins , if yes then which vitamins i should stop taking if i take HCI ...
Sure, you can take this with other vitamins, but I would take your vitamins at the end of your meal so that the HcL doesn't interfere with your vitamin absorbtion.
how long did it take to see results? thanks
Took me about a week to see that it was making an impact.
Right now I'm trying a bunch of new things with my diet and seeing how it affects my skin and overall health. I'm always experimenting . Pardon me if I don't get back to you quick, but I'll be sure to keep you updated as I make new discoveries.
I started out with moderate acne on my face and cystic acne on my back. Through various natural health modifications (absolutely no topicals), I reduced the acne on my face to almost-nonexistant. However, I was still getting cysts on my back.
Healthdude!
How did you reduse the acne on your face? Was is with diet? And are you planning to take 5 of those tablets for the rest of your life or is there any way out?
Thanks for charing! /Anna
I started out with moderate acne on my face and cystic acne on my back. Through various natural health modifications (absolutely no topicals), I reduced the acne on my face to almost-nonexistant. However, I was still getting cysts on my back.
Healthdude!
How did you reduse the acne on your face? Was is with diet? And are you planning to take 5 of those tablets for the rest of your life or is there any way out?
Thanks for charing! /Anna
To get rid of the acne on my face, I made a huge number of modifications to my lifestyle that improved my overall health. I am currently working on a website that will document the optimal health guidelines that I have successfully used to overcome acne as well as other health problems.
The thing that helped me more than anything though was diet. Each person's diet is different, but as a general rule, you will become much healthier if you stick to these foods:
(everything organic)
Meats
Nuts and Seeds
Vegetables
Fruits
Don't eat anything not on that list. That means no grains (bread, corn, rice, etc.), no processed foods, no pizza, no ice cream, nothing that most people eat in the US today. If you can, don't use condiments like BBQ sauce, ketchup, excessive salt (a little salt is ok). This is a natural diet, the diet of our ancestors and the diet that the human body naturally thrives on.
And yes, I plan on taking the HcL forever, unless I find a better solution.
have u tested ur ph level of urine and saliva. i just found out that my urine is very acidic and my saliva is only slightly so. i picked up ph paper from vitamin shoppe. so if i am very acidic already i don't know if i should continue to take the hcl.
there's a difference between blood ph and stomach acids.
when you are too acidic overall, you don't produce enough stomach acids. so taking the pills is exactly what you should do.
read: http://www.askshelley.com/faq.php?p=default&cat=54#a89
And yes, I plan on taking the HcL forever, unless I find a better solution.
you shouldn't need to take them forever. supplementing with calcium would help a lot (i doubt you're getting enough in your diet without dairy).
i've read that dairy calcium is not the best form of calcium for us anyway and that it is not the amount we get but the source that we get it from
notmilk.com is an interesting website
i don't consume dairy except for organic kefir. i know the milk we have access to is full of hormones and antibiotics, and i don't think it's healthy for anyone. but it has calcium... i don't see why it wouldn't be an absorbable form of calcium. it might be possible for someone not consuming dairy to get enough calcium from other foods, but i'd bet that most people don't. so supplementing is usually a good idea.