Considering collagen is just a regular protein shouldnt it be digested into amino acids before being absorbed and have no medical/cosmetic effect beyond being a source of protein just like eating a steak or an egg?
In: Biology
Doctors don’t recommend oral collagen, except for influencers trying to sell you a product.
Collagen supplements have been shown to improve elasticity and hydration of skin and connective tissues.
You’re right that it all gets digested. None of the collagen you consume goes directly into your skin.
Back when I did my own research on this, the takeaway I got was that your body is prepared for natural resources, including various specific nutrients, to be on their own sort of feast-or-famine dynamic. Sometimes you might not be eating hardly any collagen at all. Other times you might be eating a lot of collagen. So when you’re suddenly consuming a lot of collagen specifically, in excess of your standard balanced protein intake, your body realizes that you have a temporary wealth of building materials on hand, and goes into production and repair mode and freshens up a lot of your tissues that require those specific building blocks, which had been idling in gettin-by mode.
doctors have recommend i take something like Juven for my wound care which has collagen type things in it, but never straight collagen powder you see all over social media.
One thing that I haven’t seen anyone mention is that proteins aren’t always completely and totally broken down into free amino acids. Some proteins can form bioactive peptides upon digestion that are small enough to be absorbed intact. Honestly I don’t know if this is relevant at all to collagen, but things like caesin can be broken down into Casomorphin peptides with mild opioid activity. Collagen is also higher in hydroxyproline than other proteins. In fact hydroxyproline is only very rarely contained in other proteins. This is just speculation, but maybe those factors could be leading to some of the benefits seen in studies on collagen.
Collagen supports healthy joints, it makes up a significant portion of our cartilage and without it ligaments tendons and muscles can weaken. It also comprises 70-80% of your skin tissue, and is what give your skin elasticity and structural integrity, and we age and collagen production declines, our skin becomes thinner and more like papery.
Our bodies produce collagen from protein in our diets. its made of three amino acids in a triple helix. You need protein, vitamin C, zinc, and copper to produce it in your body. But as we age collagen production declines. Women lose up to 30% of their body’s collegen in the first five years after menopause. Doctors might recommend collagen supplements to people who dont get enough protein in their diet. Or people with joint conditions or Muscle weakness. Dermatologists might recommend collagen supplements for post menopausal women with crepey skin.
That said Collagen is not a regulated medication. Doctors do not prescribe it. It’s an over the counter dietary supplement. And consumers have no guaranty that any supplement they buy from a pharmacy is accurately labeled, or will do what it is advertised to do so you should consult with a doctor before adding any supplement to your regular routine, and you should look for supplement brands that are independently verified, if possible. ( in the US you’d want to look for brands that are NSF/ANSI certified.)
I have had anemia my whole life off and on. Oral iron supplements would keep my levels just out of the toilet. I can no longer take them due to IBS. My husband saw a video stating that taking collagen helps with iron absorption. So I have tried it along with iron rich foods and dessicated beef liver, a half dose is all I can handle, and it appears to be working. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36475394/ I had my iron levels go into normal range from being deficient. I have to get my ferritin checked. But I have never had my iron be normal this quickly, even taking double the recommended dose of an expensive high-dose supplement.
Because they want to make money. It is a pretty simple concept and it is based on an erroneous assumption.
What you eat doesn’t go through digestion unchanged. It gets broken down and metabolized. When you drink water… It doesn’t go straight to your bladder, it goes through a whole process before it is exceeded by the kidneys.
My college forensic bio professor told us that collagen either cannot be or is poorly absorbed through the stomach, I can’t remember which. But I do know he told us it was a scam
I’m not sure if this is one reason, but peri menopause/menopause can cause your estrogen to plummet along with other hormonal issues, and the lack of estrogen is tied to the inability to produce as much collagen which really affects skin or exacerbates skin issues.
Just eat a bunch of gummy candy that contains gelatin. Gelatin is just cooked collagen, and your body will take it apart and re-form it into collagen as needed.
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