This drifted across my radar screen today…
https://www.cell.com/heliyon/fulltext/S2405-8440(23)02168-0
Checking on the post, I get a message that links will not open. Perhaps someone with more savvy than I can get it to work.
It opens on my FB page and it’s worth a read.
Thank you for sharing. I have observed several of the benefits of taking collagen over the past 10 years, including skin and hair quality, joint mobility, tendon and wound healing.
My grandmother introduced me to the skin quality benefit of collagen about 50 years ago.
Wendy
Wendy-
What form of collagen do you take? Pill? Powder?
What dosage? You take every day?
I’m thinking this is something I should be trying.
@DoLoop I take organic, grass-fed beef collagen hydrolysate. It’s a white powder which dissolves in water. I take it twice a day, at breakfast and lunch. I sprinkle it on my yogurt and soup. My sister takes hers in coffee or a smoothie.
When I was younger than age 60, I took 1 tablespoon per day. After age 60, my nails began to break and I tore my Posterior Tibial Tendon (in the ankle – painful and debilitating). The key metabolic process that converts the (common) amino acid, glutamate, into the scarce amino acid, proline (which is 25% of collagen), continuously slows with age. I then doubled my collagen intake to 2 tablespoons per day. Then my ankle healed.
I take so much collagen that I buy in bulk to keep the cost down. I buy 5 pounds at a time and transfer to a smaller container.
My current brand is Custom Collagen Clean Collagen brand, but you may be able to find an equivalent cheaper. Look at the price per ounce. Make sure that the content of proline and hydroxyproline is at least 20%.
Proline is the only cyclic amino acid. Unlike all the other amino acids, the proline frame is rigid so it strengthens the collagen molecule. As we age, proline becomes an essential amino acid. We have to eat it because our body can’t make it anymore.
Wendy
Thank you so much for that information. I am definitely going to look into this.
@DoLoop I forgot to mention…
Don’t bother taking collagen pills. They are super-expensive and don’t contain enough collagen to make a difference. My personal experience is that 1 tablespoon per day made a noticeable difference until I was about age 60 but then I needed 2 tablespoons to get a similar effect.
Wendy
Ok, thanks. I was wondering about pills/capsules, but could not find the percentages in the ingredients (if they had any listed–which most do NOT).
Wendy - what do you do when you travel? I’m fine having the canister at home and doling it out from there, and it’s easy enough to take it in the car on a road trip.
But for air travel, do you just skip it, or take some in a small container or something? This is where I wonder if it would make sense to have capsules, although I would probably use the fill-them-yourself kind to cut down on the expense.
You’d also be cutting down on the efficacy. As Wendy mentioned, after age 60, she needed to up her consumption by a significant amount (a whole tablespoon) for it to work for her. That’s why the benefits aren’t there for capsules…it’s impossible to get enough of the stuff into a capsule to have any sort of meaningful effect.
I get that you would have to take about 6 of them to get that tablespoon a day (or 12 in Wendy’s case) but it for air travel, it just seems more convenient (and less messy)
I usually don’t travel for more than 10 days at a time. I skip the collagen when I’m traveling.
Wendy
Well, for equivalent meaningful dosage, wouldn’t you be taking the same volume anyway? Seems easier to me to try to calculate the number of scoops you want and put it in a ziploc bag
I forgot to mention…
When I was about 60, I noticed that my fingernails were starting to break the way they did before I began to take collagen in my 50s. (My grandmother, who had long, elegant nails, told me that taking Knox gelatin (collagen) would prevent nail breakage.)
Instead of paying attention to my own body, I kept taking the same amount of collagen (1 tablespoon per day). Then I began to develop a pain in my ankle. I figured it was just a strained muscle and kept doing Zumba in my high-energy style. BIG MISTAKE! Within a few weeks, I had Stage 2 Posterior Tibial Tendon Disorder. It was very painful. I couldn’t stand for more than a minute. I walked with a liimp.
The Facebook computer diagnosed me. (My primary care didn’t have a clue after an X-ray said the bone wasn’t broken.) The FB computer referred me to a PTTD support group. Most of the people there went for surgery. They showed their X-rays with 2" long screws in the bones of their feet. Months of agony and some needed repeat surgery. OMG!!
I decided to do anything it took to avoid surgery. I began to do deep-water aerobics 4 days a week and also Zumba seated in a chair.
There was no change in my condition until a light bulb went on over my head. I realized that I was getting older and my body’s collagen-building process had weakened. I doubled my collagen intake to 2 tablespoons a day.
Within a month, I could tell the difference. Very gradually, my tendon began to heal. It took a full year to mend. I still wear custom orthotics and ankle braces because it still isn’t 100% as strong as it was originally. The other PTT also partially failed when I put too much stress on it.
The important thing is that I can do an hour of Zumba without pain as long as I keep it low-impact.
This personal experience is how I learned the dosage of collagen my body needs to heal and keep my tendons, skin and hair strong.
Wendy
Yep, me too…same with the few supplements I take also. Keeping track of the real stuff is tedious enough. Haven’t yet had a conflict with travel and my Repatha … that needs refrigeration.
I’m a relative late bloomer to consistent use but started using it… a couple of scoops divided over 2-3 cups of coffee and/or yogourt (per your mention with your sister…hadn’t thought of coffee before) Probably since last November. Essentially to add extra protein to my diet. I’d done a rough and ready analysis of my diet and decided I was a bit low for decent muscle mass.
Been diligent since along with adding extra lifting to my existing training. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t take more detailed measurements/photos then for assessment because I do believe that I’ve gained muscle and lost fat. Nothing that’d break records…maybe a couple of pounds…but quite startling given age/gender/unwillingness to eat for muscle growth(i.e., get fat as well), volume of endurance training and being already fairly muscular.
Along with rejigging my diet a bit, I think the extra 20 gms or so of added protein has more than helped a bit.
I used to do that with the salt doses that I sometimes take while running…it only takes one spill in your backpack or suitcase to lean towards the self-filled capsules. (but then I’m a clutz)
And yes, I’ve just been skipping the doses when I travel so I think we’re on the same page there.
@VeeEnn remember that collagen is NOT a complete protein. It’s lacking some essential amino acids. It’s really a source of proline which is needed to build collagen. Please add other proteins to your diet in addition to the collagen to build muscle. Proline is a conditionally essential amino acid, the “condition” being old age when our body doesn’t make it internally in the amount we need.
Wendy
Oh yeah. I did that BC (before collagen)
I recall just timing the extra lifting with collagen because both required a bit of extra effort. In all probability, it was the physical effort and the training effect that increased the bit of extra muscle rather than anything dietary related
Dragging this topic into Economics, I was surprised to find that a 5lb bag on the UK Amazon site costs £200.62 which with the exchange at £1=$1.24, is $248. There is a cheaper brand available on Ebay, but it may well not have the same level of organic bovine source. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Collagen-Peptides-Powder-80oz-Pouch/dp/B00LGUIOOW/ref=sr_1_9?crid=3W225YPYVBMD9&keywords=custom+collagen&qid=1682015549&sprefix=custom+collagen%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-9
Thanks Wendy for the hydrolyzed peptides tips.
I started one to two scoops per day in mid May.
I notice distinct positive effects:
I attribute at least some of these positives to the peptides.
Thanks!
ralph