THORNE Betaine HCL & Pepsin - Digestive Enzymes for Protein Breakdown and Absorption* - 225 Capsules

Product works great for me.No more Times or Rolaids for me.

I've been using this brand for a year now, and it works very well for me. I did have a strange surprise when I first started using it, because it seems to be a lot more effective than some other brands. I had been using other brands which it seems weren't as potent as this one. I was using about 12 tablets (3 per meal) of a different brand per day.When I took the very first Thorne capsules, I took 2 of them, which I thought would be perfectly fine because they contained less HCL per cap than the others. BIG mistake! My stomach burned for quite a few hours. I learned the hard way to only use one Thorne capsule.In fact, I found out right away that just taking one of these with breakfast took care of my problems for the entire day, and somehow gave me the same results that I was getting with 12 per day of the others. (I have a particular digestive problem which responds well to HCL, and I get fast feedback the same day as to the effectiveness of HCL capsules.) So, for my particular health scenario, the Thorne capsules have consistantly worked well for me, the one per day makes me feel great, and obviously well worth paying a little extra for, since I only use one instead of 12. I don't take any more HCL during the day unless I eat meat, in which case I take one capsule just before I eat the meat. However, for this I purposely use another brand which isn't as strong as the Thorne. Taking more than one Thorne per day seems to be too much for me, and causes discomfort. I should probably experiment with taking half of a Thorne capsule.There is one other positive effect of taking the Thorne that I find extremely important. When I was taking large numbers of HCL's of other brands, I was exposing myself to excessive heavy metal contamination, which I didn't understand at the time. But I've come to understand that contamination in supplements is common, so now I place particular value on the Thorne HCL's for doing the job with only one cap per day, thus minimizing my exposure to heavy metals and other impurities. Plus, being a higher quality product, the Thorne probably also has way fewer impurities than the average supplement.

It works great

I bought this supplement on the recommendation of my nutritionist. After using it for more than a month, I didn't notice any major results but I felt there were improvements with my digestion and I'm not sure if this product was the cause. What I really didn't like about the product was the smell of the capsules, they are really unpleasant and makes it difficult to swallow. Overall I can't say this is super product but it's also not bad if you want to try it out.

For those of us who have a hard time with digesting proteins, especially meats and chicken, this is a great product. There are many digestive products on the market, some more generic for general digestive help. This one is specifically for the digestion of protein foods, especially meats. Without it, the meal can just sit in the upper stomach, causing stomach upset, with gas and reflux. A few of these with such a meal can make all the difference, allowing your food to just break down and keep moving. A lifesaver, really. It is increasingly hard to find these over the counter nowadays. Used to get mine at Whole Foods, but they discontinued it. So glad they have it at Amazon. It's a great product and so convenient. Came the next day after ordering. Very pleased.

So far, so good. I’ve suspected that my GI issues have been due to a weak acid system as opposed to the too-much acid system they have been treating me for with PPI’s. Without going into too much TMI details, it was obvious I wasn’t digesting my food properly. When I told the doctors, I kept receiving PPUI’s due to my gastritis. My iron is so low that my PCP told me most people would be in the hospital at these levels. I read about this supplement on a Facebook GI support site and looked it up. By reading the reviews, it seemed like there were others like me who suffered needlessly.I started taking these yesterday, and purposely ate foods that would have normally had me laying in my chair with a heating pad on my stomach. So far, so good. No pain. It has only been the start of the 2nd day, but again, doing well. I’m hoping I can digest my food, up my iron and feel like a person again, not exhausted all the time. I’ll update this post as I know more.

I've been dealing with some issues for a few years now. Had to cut out dairy and sugar and bread and potatoes...it's been a rough few years. Dr gave me a food list... basically told me to figure it out. He had no idea. Migraines, bloating, hemorrhoids and bleeding, zits ony scalp. Had to ditch soap all together.If I take this after a I eat food POOF like fricken magic I can now eat cookies and milk and bread and ice cream and potatoes again. Omg what a relief. It's been hard, eating steel cut oats and salt and unsweetened almond milk and zucchini everyday.It fixed it all except the zits... If I eat dairy and sugar still get that.Anyway, I'll be using this for quite a while I think. Already about finished the 180 pill bottle.When I first bought this I didn't use it, didn't expect it to work, didn't know what it'd do, anyway after a month or so I tried it after eating some really nasty stuff... You know donuts and ice cream. And boom! Nada happened. I was waiting for days to see if anything would happen but nothing did. I cheated on my diet every day for a week with these.Anyway, I'm writing this review because I need more. Tried the bio-gest..but either I didn't take enough or its just not as good... Anyway this stuff, 2 or 3 pills and I'm good. 1 pill leaves me with a little bit of symptoms.Anyway...need to go talk to the doc again to see what this means. Till then, happy days!

I usually love Thorne products, but this one did not seem potent enough to help with my low acidity. I worked up to 8 capsules with each meal and finally switched products and did not have to use as many capsules.