Doctor's Best Betaine HCl Pepsin & Gentian Bitters Supplement - Supports Digestive Enzyme Production for Men & Women, HCl Betaine with Pepsin Caps, Protein Digestion & Gut Health Support- 120 Capsules | Supports Digestive Enzyme Production for Men & Women, HCl Betaine with Pepsin Caps, Protein Digestion & Gut Health Support

Lately I’ve been having gut issues including acid reflux, bloating, indigestion etc. When I eat certain meals I notice I get full really fast then the other symptoms follow. After doing some research I decided to buy this. I took it with my first bite of breakfast and feel fine! But do your research and only take this with meals where there is PROTEIN as this will help break them down properly. Also make sure to get some l glutamine, aloe Vera gel, and zinc carnosine to help attack your gut issues at the source and heal them. These won’t heal your gut but they are a good supplement to take while you are in the process of healing and make digesting food so much easier.

Take as instructed with meal, helps to digest protein and for me especially eggs.

For years, I lived on the world’s most boring menu: freshly cooked meat (frozen immediately, because histamine intolerance is extra like that), rice, broccoli, yams, apples, blueberries, turmeric, butter, oregano, and salt. That’s it. No snacks. No desserts. No joy. Even with this microscopic menu, I woke up most mornings flirting with anaphylaxis. Add in chronic SIBO, a two-year run with mastitis in both breasts (despite never having kids), and vitamin deficiencies that refused to budge, and I was basically one weird symptom away from being a side plot on Grey’s Anatomy. Then came the glamorous stool test. While collecting samples (truly living the dream), I noticed something weird—many of the pills I’d been taking were coming out completely intact. I took this poop mystery to several doctors, and one of them—a naturopath—finally said, “Well, if all your pills are showing up in your stool, it probably means you have almost no stomach acid.” Okay, pause. No stomach acid? That sounded bad so I went down a rabbit hole tried Doctor’s Best HCl Betaine, and I’m not kidding—within two days, everything changed: I could eat food again. Real food. Fake food. All the food. None of the near-death drama. The chronic mastitis? Gone. (Apparently, there’s something called the “gut-breast axis,” but don’t ask me to explain it.) The SIBO that had been making me miserable for years? Not anymore. And the vitamin deficiencies that kept popping up on blood tests? They finally started improving. I thought fixing my stomach acid would just help my digestion, but it turns out, low stomach acid doesn’t just mess with your stomach—it messes with everything. Without enough stomach acid, you can’t break down proteins, absorb nutrients like B12, magnesium, and iron, or keep your gut bacteria in check. And it doesn’t stop there. Like I said, it's a whole rabbit hole. Naturally, I started obsessively Googling. That’s when I stumbled on a medical book from the 1800s, which said that if you went to a doctor back then with symptoms like IBS, bloating, diarrhea, or food intolerances (all things I'd had for YEARS), the first thing they’d assume was wrong was that you didn’t have enough stomach acid! Um, what? Their solution? Lemon juice, apple cider vinegar—basic stuff to kick-start acid production. Simple, effective, and very unmodern. Today? Doctors will slap you with antacids faster than you can say “gut-brain axis,” making the problem worse for so many people. It wasn’t until much later—after Doctor’s Best gave me my food back and my vitamin levels normalized—that I learned how stomach acid is connected to GERD (which I’ve never had) and a bunch of other issues I did have. After that, I talked to a GI specialist who knew the term for “low stomach acid” (hypochlorhydria) but had no idea how to treat it. Her solution for GERD? Surgery to tighten the esophageal valve—a valve that literally depends on stomach acid to close. Make it make sense. Here’s why Doctor’s Best is now my ride-or-die: It Works: Thanks to the added bitters, I get results with a smaller dose than other brands I’ve tried (and trust me, I’ve tried a lot). Gelatin Capsules: When I take cellulose capsule HCl supplements, they don't work.. unless I open them bc my body doesn't make enough acid to open cellulose. These are the ONLY HCl betaine in gelatin that I've ever seen. Affordable: It’s more effective than pricier options, so my wallet is as happy as my stomach (and my milk-ducts). Here’s how I used it: Start with one capsule per meal. Add one capsule at each meal until you feel a slight burning sensation. (If that happens, I ate more food, drank some milk, and you was fine.) Back off by one capsule, and that’s your sweet spot. Some people can taper off once their stomach acid normalizes, but I haven’t been able to do that yet... Between my underlying conditions (Lyme, mold toxicity, and MCAS) I might never be a free-spirit eater again. And because Amazon doesn’t love sweeping medical claims: I’m not a doctor, and I can’t guarantee this will work for everyone. Health is deeply personal and nuanced. But if you’re like I was—desperate, exhausted, and stuck on a bland, depressing diet—this might be worth looking into. For me, this has been one of the three most important supplements I've found (and I've tried hundreds) -the others are benfothiamine and molybdenum.

I’ve been using Doctor’s Best Betaine HCI Pepsin & Gentian Bitters for a short period, and while it’s too early to see significant results, my initial impressions are positive. Effectiveness: Early signs suggest that it may be helping with my digestion, particularly with protein breakdown and absorption. I’ve noticed a slight improvement in how I feel after meals, but it’s too soon to confirm any major benefits. Usage: The capsules are easy to take, and the recommended dosage is straightforward. Incorporating them into my daily routine has been hassle-free. Ingredients: The combination of Betaine HCI, Pepsin, and Gentian Bitters is promising. Knowing that it’s designed to support digestive health gives me confidence in its potential effectiveness. Quality: The product is non-GMO and gluten-free, which is important to me. The quality seems good, and the ingredients are well-chosen for their intended purpose. Value: With 120 capsules in the bottle, it offers a decent value for the price. It’s affordable, and if the long-term benefits prove true, it will be well worth the investment. Conclusion: While it’s too early to make a definitive judgment, Doctor’s Best Betaine HCI Pepsin & Gentian Bitters shows promise as a digestive aid. I’ll continue using it and monitor for further improvements.

It may be too early to leave such a glowing review, but I'll update it if it turns out to be a false alarm. For over a decade, since about 2009, I've had almost constant loose stools and diarrhea. Not off and on, but every day. Pardon the TMI, but it became a daily ritual, to use the bathroom multiple times for number two. I almost forgot what a firm stool felt like. Well the first day of taking these pills, that's no more. I used the bathroom once, and it was solid! *Strike up Handel's Halleluiah Chorus!* It has been months since that happened. I honestly don't even remember the last time! It's not an exaggeration to say I've tried just about everything else for the past decade. I've tried psyllium husk fiber, which is the only thing that helped other than this, though the stool still wasn't totally firm. I've tried Benefiber. I tried probiotics of various sorts, kefir, yogurt, s. bolardii, l. reuteri, etc. etc. I tried IBS supplements. I tried Propolis. I went to a gastroenterologist who ran stool tests on me, did a colonoscopy, and prodded around with no success. I've had GERD, which I've taken pills to suppress my stomach acid, and all the while the problem just became worse. In my research I've learned that my symptoms, common symptoms of what doctors pass off as IBS because they don't know the root cause of them, can be caused by low stomach acid. Oddly enough, even the acid reflux apparently may be caused by it. When I read this, I came across something called the "baking soda test." Baking soda is a strong base, so when you put it in a strong acid, like stomach acid, it produces gas, enough to make you give off a strong belch. So you mix half a teaspoon of baking soda in about four ounces of water and swallow it. You time three minutes. If you don't belch, you aren't giving off the expected gas that one would expect if your stomach acid is strong enough. *This test should be run in the morning when you get up, before you've had food.* I took this test a couple mornings in a row and had very little gas. Didn't belch at all the second time I tried it, and the first time I did a slight bit immediately, probably because I swallowed some air. This convinced me to go ahead and try these pills. And boy am I glad I did. This may be a game changer if they continue to work like they did today. These pills are working in a way I haven't seen anything else work, and my first trip to the potty since I started taking them was a FIRM success. If you have symptoms of IBS, loose stools, diarrhea, frequent trips to the bathroom, etc., you owe it to yourself to give these a try.

I’ve suffered with IBS and anxiety disorder for years. In recent months I experienced higher amount of flares of these conditions. Unbeknownst to me at the time, prolonged stress can deplete the stomach acid. So one morning after a particular bad night of panic attacks, I was experiencing severe IBS symptoms. But something was different this time. I suddenly had a complete loss of appetite, constant feelings of nausea and inability to consume any solid food. I was sustaining myself with Boost shakes, smoothies, and this other product I found on here called Liquid Hope, a liquid meal replacement. But I would still feel painful and bloated for one to two hours after just drinking a Boost shake, and despite the fact that I was making sure to take in enough fluids and calories, I still felt so weak and exhausted I couldn’t even walk from my bedroom to the kitchen without having to sit down and rest. After over a week like this with no improvement I went to the doctor. The doctor sent me to the emergency room. They did a blood work up and urinalysis, and a CT scan of my abdomen, but nothing showed up. After giving me IV fluids, which did make me feel notably better, they sent me home with a diagnosis of IBS and told me to follow up with my gastroenterologist. However it was three weeks before I could get an appointment with her. I tried going back to my primary doctor for additional testing, but I was so exhausted just by walking into the office that I nearly passed out and my blood pressure was down to 80 something over 60, so back to the ER I was sent. More tests, no more answers, once again sent home after receiving more fluids. This had been going on for three weeks with no sign of improvement and I was desperate for an answer. I decided to think outside the box and I consulted a Medical Medium. Well that was the best decision I made. She was amazing and spot on accurate in describing my problems. After our consult she emailed me with suggested supplements and additional links with more information, and one of the things she stressed was a need to rebuild my stomach acid. So after reading a Dr. Axe article on this I decided to order this supplement. It was like a miracle! After one day of taking it before each meal, I woke up the next day feeling almost 100% back to normal. And after studying this condition, low stomach acid, it all made sense. It didn’t matter how much fluids or nutrients I was trying to consume if my body didn’t have enough stomach acid to be capable of absorbing most of it. I feel like this product gave me my life back.

I think the product itself might be ok, but I question whether adding more acid is really the answer for heartburn sufferers. At first I thought it seemed to be working, but in following days, I felt worse acid than ever. I wonder if I wasn't eating enough meat protein while taking it to really benefit from it. I took it when I ate a cumulatively large amount of protein, but from non-meat sources. So I think it was far too much acid for me. But can anyone actually answer whether or not this should be taken with only meat protein sources? What about other protein sources? Frustratingly, I have been unable to find the answer. On another note, I suffer from acid reflux no matter what I eat or don't eat (even on an empty stomach--sometimes especially on an empty stomach). So to just take this for protein perhaps doesn't solve my problems. At least not on its own. Zantac mostly helped me, as did PPIs, but I don't want to use PPIs long-term, and Zantac didn't always work as well as I needed it to. I also agree with most recent research that acid reducers and PPIs are over-prescribed and definitely not an answer to get at the source of the heartburn problem (unless, as sounds very rare, you do actually have an excess of stomach acid), but I don't think Betaine HCl is "it" yet, either. I never get the warming sensation as described in the self-experimenting stomach acid test, but I also don't believe it would be safe to take a ton of these. Furthermore, it sounds like to take these, you should be eating a steak like every day to do the "plus one more pill a day until your symptoms change" self-test. I just don't eat that much meat that frequently to know if I'm doing the dosage test properly. I like the addition of digestive bitters in this product, however, and I've also done a lot of research that suggests bitters work throughout the whole digestive system, but they also work by being tasted. In a pill form, I don't taste the bitters. For now, I have quit taking the Betaine HCl. Instead, I am trying Urban Moonshine's citrus digestive bitters (liquid form so I can taste it) and d-Limonene (in conjunction with Peptic Care--just in case I have any issues that need healing). I have not taken the d-Limonene long enough to know if it will mostly cure my heartburn or not, but the few small studies done on it suggest that it works over a two-week treatment period.

After suffering severe heartburn daily, and especially at night, and antacids not helping a bit. I stumbled upon the information that perhaps it wasn't too much acid causing the problem, but not enough. It was hard to take the first pill, worrying that this might not be the right thing, and I might really send the pain through the roof, but thankfully I tried it. The joy I felt from finally not suffering is indescribable. I was treating my problems the exact opposite of what I should have been. I have used this for a year now. I take one every time I eat. I have not suffered heartburn since I began it.

I was suffering from GERD for past 2+ years. Tried various PPIs, antacids prescribed by different Gastroenterologists which gave relief initially but the issues(heart burn, indigestion, belchinh) were recurring. Finally found the issue was due to low stomach acid, after watching few YouTube videos who had similar problem for past 15+ years. So, I tried this betaine hcl supplement along with d-limonene supplement and it worked like a charm. I didn't had any issues mentioned above even after having dal and fried foods. My bowel movement improved as well. I ordered my 4th tub now. I will use this supplement for a couple more months with reduced dosage to bring my stomach acid level to normal level and planning to use it occasionally when necessary.

It is good. I basically use it twice a day with breakfast and lunch, but if I eat a big meal for dinner, I take additional capsule. It helps with digestion. I recommend it.

Great product

Llevo 25 años con síntomas de gastritis y reflujo que siempre atribuí a exceso de ácido clorhídrico, hace un par de meses vi un video del Dr. Carlos Jaramillo en Youtube y caí en cuenta que mi problema era precisamente lo contrario, hipoclorhidria, la cual a últimas fechas había llegado a afectar de manera muy significativa mi calidad de vida, así que dejé de tomar mi dosis diaria de famotidina y 3-4 días después empecé a tomar una cápsula de Betaine HCI Pepsin and Gentian Bitters con cada comida y el cambio ha sido increíble, todos los malestares estomacales prácticamente han desaparecido, recomiendo altamente este medicamento ya que ha hecho maravillas en mi sistema digestivo en general, adiós gastritis, síndrome de intestino irritable, naúseas, lengua blanca, mal aliento, ansiedad derivada de mi estado crónico de malestar, etc.

Amazing product. I am suffering from Acid Reflux due to lack of stomach acid production. These pills have been a boon for me. I do have to take more pills like 4-5 tablets before each meal. That's expensive as the product with 120 capsules doesn't last a month for me. Overall a very potent product.