<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> When I first was diagnosed 6 years ago, I suffered horrible heartburn, indigestion, gas bloating, malnutrition, almost daily food allergy reactions, etc. My regular MD prescribed Zantac which gave temporary relief for the heart burn, but unfortunately made everything else worse. I was a digestive disaster suffering very poor health as a result of it. The solution to the problem came as a big shock, an actual paradigm shift to me, an RN who had been trained to believe that heartburn was caused by "excess stomach acid" and should be treated with an acid reducing/suppressing drug (Zantac, Prilosec, Nexium, TUMS, etc.). I read about the importance of supplementing stomach acid in a very well written book, WHY STOMACH ACID IS GOOD FOR YOU by Jonathan Wright MD. It details a whole program for overcoming heartburn & improving disgestion, absorption, etc. At about the same time I read the book, a competent physician in Seattle prescribed Thorne Bio-Gest. I very rarely have heartburn or symptoms of indigestion any more. I can now enjoy foods that used to cause hives & other unpleasant reactions for me. A large & important part of the solution is Thorne Bio-Gest. I've taken 4 capsules at every meal for about 5 years now. If I miss too many doses I pay for it. Bio-Gest contains ox bile as well as stomach acid (HCl), pepsin & pancreatin. It's an excellent product containing replacement of ALL the natural digestive components. It contains none of those "plant derived" enzymes which really means "mold derived." (I avoid those enzyme products because I have mold allergies.) It's a bit pricey, but totally worth what I pay for it. I consider it to be the most important supplement I take on a daily basis. If I can only afford one supplement, it's Bio-Gest. If you want to try it, you might have to do some searching to find Bio-Gest in your area. It's a high quality pharmaceutical grade supplement & isn't available at health food stores. It can only be purchased through certain pharmacies. Some pharmacies require a doctor's prescription for it. You'll be most likely to find it at a compounding pharmacy or holistic MD's dispensary. There are other brands of HCl/pepsin replacements found in health food stores, but they aren't as complete as Bio-Gest. I haven't found any to be as effective, so I continue with Bio-Gest. I do know others however, that get satisfactory results from less expensive health food store brands of HCl/pepsin supplements. I'll give you a warning, though, use caution. Bio-Gest is very, VERY strong & takes a while to adapt to. The very first week I took it, I got such relief from taking one capsule, I kinda went nuts & started taking it at every meal. After several days, I thought I'd have to call the fire department to put out the flames! My doctor ordered me off it for five days & told me to very, VERY slowly re-introduce it. It took me several months of increasing my dose by one capsule a week until I settled on the dose that completely eliminates my symptoms of indigestion. The deal is, CD damages more than just our small intestines. We often don't make enough of our own stomach acid & digestive enzymes to keep us healthy. According to Dr. Wright & other physicians I've spoken to, damaged digestive systems rarely fully recover normal capacity once damaged. This deficiency of natural digestive components results in chronic heartburn, bloating, food allergies, malabsorption & many other symptoms & consequences of indigestion. This causes heartburn because our bellies get used to running on "low" & "forget" how to contain our stomach contents where they belong. It takes some gentle prompting to retrain our stomachs to hold on tightly to it's contents unstead of letting them reflux into our esophagus. Contrary to popular belief it's actually a highly acidic environment in the stomach the triggers the lower esophageal sphincter (the LES valve) to clamp shut. Without an appropriate amount of acid in the stomach, the LES valve gets lazy & we suffer with heartburn. The lazy LES has to be retrained by slowly increasing stomach acid w/ meals. Dr. Wright's book explains many other things that can contribute to LES dysfunction. His book outlines an excellent program for overcoming chronic indigestion. Valerie in Tacoma *Support summarization of posts, reply to the SENDER not the Celiac List * Archives are at: Http://Listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?LIST=CELIAC