Stomach Acid Test Instructions

The Stomach Acid Test is a simple test you can do at home. Nutritionally oriented physicians often prescribe this test along with a zinc challenge test. It requires a bottle of Betaine HCl, at 200 mg potency per capsule, which can be ordered in the Food and Supplement Store.

Step 1
Prepare a high-protein solid meal (no shakes). Let’s say for illustration purposes a moderate-larger ( 6-12 oz) steak, poultry, or fish and vegetables.

Step 2
Eat roughly half of the protein/meat of the meal.

Step 3
Swallow a 200mg capsule of HCl (e.g. Digestyme or Digest Force).

Step 4
Eat the other half of the protein/meat and the vegetables.

Step 5
Wait 15 minutes.

Step 6
If your stomach acid is normal, you will feel like you just drank a hot cup of tea. If you feel nothing, you need HCl as a supplement. So what do you do next? At every meal repeat steps 1 to 6, upping the dose one capsule per meal until you feel the burning sensation. So if it takes five meals to get a burning sensation, you need on average four capsules per meal. If you get to seven capsules and you have no burning, stop the test – you are achlorhydric!

After the test
You are getting better when you start feeling a burn at your initial determined dosage. For example, if you found that five capsules was your initial need, you may find that three days later it starts to burn, so then you would cut back to four capsules with a typical high-protein solid meal. And so on.

Most people achieve normal levels within eight weeks even when they start at seven capsules, but some individuals take as much as 18 months.

Once you go off HCL, it is suggested by most functional medicine experts to take 2g of histidine a day for eight weeks to support HCl production. Make sure to take a great multivitamin formula once a day upon engaging in HCl therapy, as it will accelerate the healing. Make sure that your HCl product also contains the probiotic pepsin and the digestive enzymes papain and pancreatin, as they have a synergistic effect with HCl therapy.