I'm 29. The ibuprofen triggered my flare, but it was under control with carafate. I was reading a lot on the forums and didn't want to stay on carafate either, so I tried some of the natural remedies, which none of them worked.
The hcl I purchased it from the vitamin world. I don't remember the dosage, because I don't have the bottle anymore. My husband got mad an trashed it. I was feeling ok before i started the hcl, then I started to get a slight burning after taking it, but it would go away after drinking some water. This went for about two months while I was on the carafate also. Then I decided that I felt decent, and stopped the carafate and went for a week just with the hcl, papaya enzymes and vitamins. At the end of the week I woke up one morning on fire, and since then I'm back on PPIS, carafate, zatanc, tums, gaviscon, strict diet, and its very hard to keep the fire down. I have a few days where I feel that I'm doing a little better and then the next day I'm back to square one.
You can definitely try the hcl, But I would be very careful. I would take just one pill and see how I feel. I would take it without food to see if it burns, because if you eat and then take it you don't know if its the supplement or the food that burns. I thought that it was the food, and it ended up being the HCL. I refused to think that it was the hcl, since everybody on the forums were saying how great it worked for them.
good luck and let me know how it goes, this might help you, but it definitely didn't work for me