gerd/ betaine with pepsin

[violet33]

I was reading the gerd comments and I agree its very confusing. Is it too much or too little acid? I think its an individual thing. I read however, that hcl betaine with pepsin is supposed to be good for gerd. Does anyone know anything about this or ever heard this? This supplement is supposed to digest food because it seems gerd interferes with digestion because of not enough acid. I would really appreciate feedback on this as it is very confusing to me. Thank You.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I don't know about pepsin but Betaine HCL can lower your stomach PH (make it more acidic which is what happens when we eat as more acid is supplied) and there is a very small study showing this in a specific chemically induced low or no acid condition:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3946491/

They found it lowered stomach PH.

You might want to look at digestive enzymes then if this is on your radar because those supplements tend to contain Betaine HCL. I know from seeing them on Amazon that they tend to contain specific enzymes for specific food elements e.g. one for carbs, one for fats, one for proteins, etc. If your diet is higher in one of these, maybe adding more of that enzyme will aid digestive but I really couldn't say without researching this so its only a suggestion.