Betaine HCL so far has been a miracle for me. Even a whole tablespoon mixed in a glass of water doesn't seem to bother me. Yet I'm sure if I drank a glass of apple cider vinegar I would be seriously hurting from it. The apple cider vinegar has a PH of 5 but a tablespoon of Betaine HCL in a glass of water has a PH of around 1 and doesn't bother me, only giving me a warm feeling which I don't mind.

I just can't figure out how I am able to tolerate that much acid. In fact I seem to thrive on it.

PH of 5 is the same PH as vinegar
PH of 4 is ten times more acid than 5
PH of 3 is 100 times more acid than 5
PH of 2 is 1000 times more acid than 5
PH of 1 is 10,000 times more acid than 5, or the PH of vinegar!

That is seriously acid!

It must not be the amount of acid, but the type of acid, as far as tolerating it goes. Vinegar is a different type of acid than stomach acid but Betaine HCL is the exact same kind.

I've read that calcium is used by the pancreas to neutralize the acid in your stomach. Otherwise it would burn a hole in your small intestines. I'm thinking that the aches and pains I had before I started taking betaine HCL were from too much calcium built up where it didn't belong and that my body used that excess calcium in places it didn't belong to buffer all the excess HCL. Seems like once it is all used up that my body could take calcium from my bones and in places it belongs! Hopefully I'll be able to tell when I've reached that point. I suppose I could just start taking extra calcium but that sounds like a stupid idea and at that point it just makes sense to cut down on the HCL instead. I still have one small area in my back that's been hurting ever since I was a kid. Once that's gone I intend to cut way back on the HCL or maybe sooner if I stop getting results. It could be a different problem, that betaine HCL wont cure!

Besides aches and pains I've noticed a lot of other remarkable health benefits from taking it. The tartar on my teeth is gone. My skin has cleared up immensely. I've also started taking loads of collagen for that too; which I could never take before, because whenever I did I would get a cold and bad cold sores, presumably from all the arginine. Viruses feed on arginine. I guess the trick is for the body to use it before the viruses get their chance to use it first.

The side effects from taking collagen seem to be totally gone since I started taking HCL. At first I tried taking monolauren along with the collagen to avoid colds and cold sores. And it actually worked pretty good. Then I thought about it and felt, that maybe I wasn't digesting all the protein from the collagen and all the meat I been eating and that it would be a good idea to take something to help with that. I ordered the betaine HCL on a whim for just that purpose. I had no idea that so many other health problems would be eliminated before I started taking it; but it makes sense. Even the best diet is only as good as your digestion. Fixing my digestion (I didn't even know there was anything wrong with it.) has fixed a whole bunch of other problems that I had no idea were even related to it.