How Supplements Work
The 
Digestive System
Unless digestion and absorption are efficient, the most carefully planned diet fails to accomplish its purpose, and recovery from asthma and allergies is inhibited. When the diet has been inadequate for the person's nutritional needs, both digestion and absorption become faulty.
The stomach produces hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes, necessary for proteins to be broken down and converted to amino acids, for starches and complex sugars to be broken down and converted to simple sugars, and for fats to be broken down into fatty acids and glycerol. These changes must take place before the nutrients can enter the blood without causing allergies. Also, without enough hydrochloric acid, calcium and vitamin C cannot be absorbed, B vitamins are destroyed, and minerals cannot reach the blood, and, without fat-splitting enzymes, essential fatty acids, carotene and vitamins A, D, E, and K cannot be absorbed.
An insufficiency of hydrochloric acid can result from a low intake of amino acids (components of protein), vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, pantothenic acid, niacin amide, choline, and other B vitamins; this lack is usually also accompanied by a decrease in digestive enzymes and stomach movements (intestinal motility), necessary to mix food with the enzymes. Volunteers deficient in pantothenic acid showed a simultaneous decrease in hydrochloric acid, digestive enzymes, total digestive secretions, and motility. Recovery required approximately three weeks after tremendous quantities of pantothenic acid were given them.
Recovery from any chronic illness, not just allergies, cannot be expected unless digestion and absorption are efficient. Supplements of hydrochloric-acid tablets or liquid and enzyme tablets with bile should be taken temporarily and can usually be found at a health-food store. Puritan's Pride has a combination hydrochloric-acid (betaine hydrochloride) and enzyme tablet (click on Puritan's Pride logo on this site to order). If the diet is kept adequate, the supplements can usually be discontinued within a month.
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