Hello Dr. Jeff,

I am trying to figure out if I need Betaine HCL and my question is: Is it possible to have candida and have too much stomach acid? My understanding is that it is the other way around - low stomach acid doesn't kill candida allowing it to grow.

The reason I amasking is that I have all the symptoms of low hcl ie. indigestion/acid reflux and food allergies, premature gray hair, acne, belching/bloating after meals, constipation, nausea, fatigue after eating and this was all while eating a good diet and avoding gluten, dairy and sugar. In addition, I have been under very high periods of stress which depletes hcl. Testing has indicated candida and some vitamin and mineral defeciencies.

I have had candida off and on for many years and after treatment it always came back so I started to think the low hcl might be the cause. I tried betaine hcl 500mg under a N.D.'s advice and it burned - however I was having an acute case of 24/7 acid refux at the time ( prior to use of hcl) and stomach pain and I have read that sometimes even though you need acid, if the stomach lining is affected you will get a reaction.

It is now 6 months later and I have seen some improvements with digestive enzymes and a very restrictive diet but am still getting reflux. acne. food allergies etc. and I have decided to try hcl again - this time I decided to start at a lower dose - asked my pharmasist to make me 100mg - took it yesterday and today took 200mg and did get some mild indigestion - but sometimes I get it withought taking anything so it is hard to say for sure. I also became very tired. Is this a bad sign? A friend of mine got pysically ill the first few times she took it but then it went away and her symptoms improved.

If my HCL is too high wouldn't it kill the candida and prevent the food allergies? In other words doesn't the fact that I have these things esp. with the reflux/indigestion mean it must be low?

Any thoughts on how to proceed?

Thanks,

CC