According to a Charles Poliquin interview posted here by Chip Douglas, most of the atheletes that go to Poliquin are lacking in HCL. He says to eat a high protein meal and half way through, take 200mg of HCL-eat the rest of your meal and wait 15 min. to see if you get a warm feeling in your stomach. If you don't, add 200mg during your next high protein meal, etc. until you get this warm feeling. When you get this feeling, cut back to see what maintenance dose you should stay at. Under no circumstances should you go over 1400mg. Well, I tried this at lunch today while eating a steak. I didn't feel anything after 15 min. so I figured I would add 200mg. tomorrow. About 2 hrs. later, I had really bad heart burn. Months ago, I posted about asthma, and was told by a well respected member here, to take this same product(along with some others) to fight inflamation etc. Within a day back then, I developed heart burn, so I quit taking all the new things that were recommended back then. I'm guessing, that the betaine HCL was what caused the heart burn back then, and what caused it today. I have two questions:

Would the fact that I take TMG(Betaine Anhydrous-1000mg) everyday mean anything with the addition of the betaine HCL?

Does this mean that I have plenty of HCL in my system already, and the addition of 200mg of betaine HCL put me over the top, and caused the heart burn?

I'd like to bump this please.
I also read the thread mentioned above with great enthusiasm but Beatine Hcl is still a bit of a mystery to me. Why do you have to take it with only solid protein meals and not with shakes etc. What if you don't get the "warm" feeling in your stomach and why shouldn't you use this product for too long of a period?

TMG and betaine HCL are not the same thing even though both have the word betaine in them. TMG is a methyl donor, the other is a source of hydrochloric acid. Bad heartburn is not a good thing to have for long periods, so I would probably skip the HCL.


"most of the atheletes that go to Poliquin are lacking in HCL"

I would be surprised if this is a true statement for people in that age bracket. I could see athletes eating relatively large (compared to the rest of the population) amounts of calories/protein and a number not being able to optimally digest things, but I would suspect this to be a function of needing more digestive enzymes not needing more HCL. THe best digestive enzyme supps are broad spectrum plant based e.g. similase.

Scott, thanks for the info. The interview quotes Poliquin as saying that the athletes are so lacking in HCL, that before he starts them on anything(high protein etc.), he gets their HCL levels up to normal. He says "you aren't what you eat, rather you are what you assimilate".

The product that gave me the heartburn, was Now Foods digestive enzymes. It has everything Poliquin recommends-papain, bromelain, the HCL and more.

If you're getting a burn off of that small of an amount of HCl, you aren't even close to deficient...so it won't help you. In fact, you might be overproducing HCl, and may respond better to taking something basic with your supplements/meals such as club soda or apple cider vinegar.

I have read all of Poliquin's info on HCl, and I was surprised by his assertions about the large number of deficiencies he runs into, but it could very well be true.

As ScottL said, get a good digestive enzyme.

Jon,

He does make an important point:

"you aren't what you eat, rather you are what you assimilate".

However HCL deficit in supposed to be common in people e.g. over 50 or 60. I have not seen any info to suggest it is an issue in younger people (and in any case you have tried it and don't seem to need any supplemental). Enzymes are another case entirely, and while I like Now brand stuff in general, the typical supplemental enzymes e.g.

papain, bromelain, etc

really are not even remotely as effective as the broad spectrum plant based ones.

I read the same article and tried the same experiment, but used the NOW betaine HCl which has 648mg Betaine HCl per cap.... and I have to take like 4 before I get a moderate burn (with a large meal). That's over 2.5g betaine hcl -- almost twice the "maximum" suggested by Poliquin. At first I freaked out, but have read similar experiences from others using the NOW brand...

This thread covers it (including the original CP article)
http://www.ironaddicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10870

As I understand it, if you get the heartburn-ish feeling with 200mg, you're fine. I'm thinking that I should try again with a different brand...

Used the same Betaine HCl and I went up to 3 caps and could not feel even the slightest burn. I didn't feel like I should go any higher however so I'm just using one cap with each meal. I'll be weighing myself to see if I do indeed gain any pounds.