Reddit reviews Doctor's Best Betaine HCI Pepsin & Gentian Bitters, Digestive Enzymes for Protein Breakdown & Absorption, Non-GMO, Gluten Free

Happy to share my AIP tips! I have always been health and nutrition conscious and had been following a (whole grain heavy) vegan diet for approx 7 years when I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. I also developed Vitiligo, another autoimmune condition during that time. My weight had dropped from about 110-115 (I’m 5’4”) to 95 pounds and my quality of life had deteriorated to the point where I honestly fantasized about suicide on a daily basis. My hormone levels were almost non-existent and the resulting depression and extreme fatigue only added to the misery.

I began to read and research extensively and decided to give AIP a try. I did feel better initially but after months of following the protocol became somewhat discouraged as many of my symptoms remained. I continued to read and learn and made some tweaks that I think really helped speed up the healing process for me.

The first one is L-Gluatamine supplementation. You can eat all of the healthy food in the world but if your digestive system is unable to absorb it due to a compromised gut you’re not going to benefit from all of the wonderful vitamins and micronutrients that your body needs to heal. The way I understand it AIP eliminates the toxic foods that are inflaming your gut but it can still take a long time to get back the essential mucosal lining that was destroyed by an inflammatory diet (especially grains and gluten). I used a supplement called G.I Revive, here’s the link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00290AXJW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

In addition to L-Glutamine this supplement contains other gut healing ingredients but it is pretty spendy, so if it’s not in the budget powdered L-Glutamine (about 5 grams mixed with water first thing in the morning on an empty stomach) will still help speed up the healing process.

The second thing that I did to help heal my digestive system and increase my micronutrient absorption was to start supplementing with HCl. Low stomach acid is incredibly prevalent but not often discussed and can be brought on by stress, a poor diet, medications (especially antacids), age, and other factors. Without adequate levels of stomach acid the food that enters your stomach isn’t properly broken down and the micronutrients aren’t properly absorbed. Here is a little info on low stomach acid if you’re interested:

https://branchbasics.com/ways-to-increase-stomach-acid-production/

And tips on how to properly supplement HCl:

https://healthygut.com/articles/how-to-supplement-with-betaine-hcl-for-low-stomach-acid/

And finally, this is the HCl supplement that I used:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H40XPH4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The third tweak that I made was incorporating offal (or organ meats) into my diet after I felt that my gut had healed enough to absorb them properly. What you eliminate is important but when your starting point is not a place of health that you simply want to maintain, but a place of disease and malnourishment, what you add into your diet is equally important as what you eliminate and organ meats are the most nutrient dense, healing foods on the planet.

First I tried to cook liver but honestly could not choke it down, the smell alone gives me a gag reflex, so I take desiccated (dried) organ meat capsules instead. I take Beef liver, heart, lung, kidney, pancreas, collagen, gallbladder, trachea, and spleen by Ancestral supplements. They do make a beef organ blend for people who don’t want to buy or take a shit ton of capsules like I do. I take 3 capsules of each organ with every meal which is equivalent to a bite, so that’s like eating one of each organ per week. When I incorporated the organ meats into my diet my vitiligo patches started to re-pigment. I am about 50% re-pigmented at this point but every week I see little but noticeable improvements.

Here is a link to Ancestral Supplements on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/node/18594231011?_encoding=UTF8&field-lbr_brands_browse-bin=Ancestral%20Supplements&ref_=bl_dp_s_web_18594231011

The last change that I made was to incorporate intermittent fasting into my daily routine. Initially I was intentionally eating over my TDEE in order to gain some of the weight I’d lost when I was sick, I just consumed all of my food within a six hour window in order to give my digestive system time to rest and heal. These days I’m back to 115 pounds, symptom free, depression free, and full of energy so I IF maybe 4 days a week and eat close to my TDEE to maintain my current weight. I have incorporated some Paleo foods back into my diet so I’m no longer on AIP (it’s a healing mechanism, not a diet you need to maintain forever) but did so slowly and carefully after I felt that I’d given my digestive system enough time to heal.

If I eat nuts I buy them raw and soak them before I eat them. This eliminates the compounds that irritate and inflame the gut. Sounds like a lot of work but it really isn’t, you just plop them in a bowl, leave them overnight, and bake them in the oven on low or in a food dehydrator with the seasonings of your choice. I make big batches so I only have to do that once in a while.

https://blog.paleohacks.com/activated-nuts/#

I love eggs so those are back in my diet as well (pastured and organic only). When the gut is compromised the body reacts to almost everything, which is why AIP is so limited, but once the body has had a chance to heal and recuperate it’s totally possible to eat some of those foods again with no reaction at all.

Anyways hope this was helpful in some way, I know it can seem like an impossible and daunting task but take it slow and don’t overwhelm yourself thinking that all of these changes need to be made at once, do what you can and build on that at your own pace, healing is possible!

This sounds like you have a gallbladder/bile problem. You're not excreting the enough of the enzymes to break down food (especially fats).

​

Get Beatine HCL (for stomach acid)

Get Ox Bile Salts (for the gallbladder and bile)

Drink Apple Cider Vinegar and Lemon juice ( a splash of each in your water) with your meals.

Then, if you can, go on a Low Carbohydrate / Ketogenic diet to stop feeding the gas producing bacteria sugars that they use to create the gas in the first place.

​

I would suggest looking into this stuff:

https://www.amazon.com/Doctors-Best-Betaine-Gentian-Capsules/dp/B00H40XPH4/ref=sr_1_9_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1468705819&sr=8-9&keywords=betaine

Yeah similar transition, this is what I used: Doctor's Best Betaine HCI Pepsin & Gentian Bitters, Non-GMO, Gluten Free, Digestion Support, 360 Caps https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H40XPH4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_07nWDbH4AZZXS

It doesn’t. Been asked many times to many functional MDs that see thousands of patients. It’s like how 5-HTP doesn’t create dependence, rather it up-regulates the raw material available, not something the body sees as a need to counter adjust to.

And I don’t find it too expensive
amazon.com/dp/B00H40XPH4
For 360 caps at $20 that’s like 180 meals if taking 2, and at 3 meals a day that’s 60 days at all meals :-)