Collagen supplements have taken the beauty and health industry by storm. Should it be in your cabinet?
It seems collagen supplements are popping up everywhere – the grocery store health foods aisle, touted by your favourite influencers as the ticket to perfect, wrinkle free skin – even cosmetics companies are getting in on the action. Can they deliver on the promises, and should you be taking one? Image by atlascompany for Freepik.
Before I launch into anything on collagen supplements, we need to have a candid chat about our history with the supplement industry as a whole.
Health supplements (ie: vitamins) first became available in the USA during the 1940s, and collectively we couldn’t get enough of them. Americans flocked to drugstores in record numbers to buy these novel, new miracle pills promised to be the new, modern panacea for improving everyone’s health.
So, 80 years later are we any healthier than our supplement-popping forbearers? The answer is complicated, but generally? The overwhelming amount of research says that no, supplements haven’t tipped the scales of our collective health and wellbeing for the better.
But we never stopped.
Our collective love affair with supplements started in the 1940s when people flocked to their local pharmacy and apothecary for the new miracle pills. Though supplements certainly have their place in medicine, they’re not a golden ticket to better health Image by Freepik.
The stats on our collective supplement use today are sobering.
- More than 1/3 of all Americans take some form or combination of supplements.
- Multivitamin and/or mineral supplements make up 40% of all vitamin sales in the USA.
- ~ 30% of adults age 65+ take 4 or more supplements. *source - Penn Medicine
Here’s the crux. Almost no one needs a supplement. All our daily nutrient requirements are readily available from our diet – especially in our modern world. Supplements don’t cure diseases and they won’t halt the march of time. Anyone who tells you otherwise is at worst selling snake oil, at best misinformed.
However – for some individuals – supplements can be useful, such as for filling in dietary gaps caused by lifestyle/diet choices (vegetarianism/veganism) – vitamin D, vitamin B12, and iron are three common examples.
How does all this relate back to collagen supplementation?
In 2024 the collagen supplement industry raked in 3.4 billion dollars. That’s a lot of money-backed incentive.
Collagen is the most abundant structural protein in the human body. It’s mostly found in your connective tissues – skin, joints, and bones. You can think of it as a kind of cellular glue: its job is to give your tissues their flexibility and structure. We often focus on the role of collagen in our skin lending it resilience and plumpness, but it plays a critical role in the function of your joints, bones, tendons, and blood vessels as well – anything that needs to stretch and flex.
There are three forms of collagen in the human body. Types 1 & 3 are present in hair, skin, bones, and blood vessels and are responsible for bounce and elasticity. Collagen type 2 is found in joints and is critical for shock absorption. Coincidentally, type 2 is the most common form of collagen found in supplements.
Collagen and the march of time
As we age, our collagen depletes by roughly 1% each year. Part of it is that our overall collagen production decreases as we get older, and there’s very little we can do about that. However, there are other, somewhat more controllable factors that influence the rate our collagen depletes as we get older:
- Sun exposure/UV radiation
- Lifestyle – smoking, alcohol, sugar consumption
- Hormonal changes – estrogen decline/menopause
- Poor diet and nutritional deficiency – vitamin C, zinc, copper, dietary protein
- Autoimmune and vascular diseases
Should I be taking a collagen supplement, and if so, which one?
Collagen is new – very new. I released a video on collagen recently, and from a perusal of the comments, many people are missing that nuance.
There is some interesting research that suggests collagen peptides can be absorbed by our GI tracts and might trigger a feedback loop that tricks our skin into making more collagen. That’s very cool. But does it lead to a noticeable effect on the skin? The jury is still out. Between the company funded research, small study sizes, and a lack of double blinds (where neither researchers or subjects know who is given the placebo or treatment), we don’t have a long view picture of what collagen supplements really do to our skin. It’s just too new and the studies are too small.
Although collagen supplements are generally considered safe, some individuals could experience kidney stones (from the specific amino acids collagen protein is rich in), and there have been reports of contamination – everything from heavy metals, controlled pharmaceutical drugs, and bacteria/fungi.
If you are dead set on trying a collagen supplement, purchase from a well-known source or retailer that uses 3rd party testing. Will collagen supplements plump your skin and erase wrinkles? Possibly, but there are better (re: boring and reliable), research-backed ways to achieve that.
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Steps to protect and maintain the collagen you have:
- Eat a diet high in antioxidant-rich, whole foods – fruits, vegetables, a highly-varied, low processed-foods diet will do you best for overall health.
- Sun avoidance to protect the collagen you have.
- Weightlifting at the gym has been shown to effectively and impressively improve collagen in the skin. Consider putting the cost of collagen supplements into a community center or local gym membership. You’ll likely see a better ‘health bang’ for your buck.
- Bone broth does contain collagen and while the health benefits are far overstated it’s a healthy addition to your diet.
- A retinol skincare product will increase skin’s collagen. Vitamin C may also help but the research isn’t as robust there.
- Managing stress, keeping a positive attitude, and prioritizing social connections.
Looking for a way to increase your skin’s collagen? Weightlifting might just be your ticket to better skin. Research continues to support weightlifting as a natural and reliable way to boost your skin’s collagen and it has other, far-reaching benefits. Image by Freepik.
My verdict
When people try to optimize their health or aesthetic goals, often they seek out the new ‘new’ and ‘cutting edge’. What the last 80 years has solidified is that old-fashioned, tried and true healthy eating, regular exercise, and fostering community connections consistently deliver better outcomes than quick fixes in supplement pill form.
If you’re really keen to try collagen supplements, it likely won’t do you harm. You might even see improvements. What they won’t do is counteract a host of collagen-damaging lifestyle choices.
Beyond lifestyle choices, there are some great skincare ingredients (beyond sunscreens) you can use to help boost your skin’s collagen. Retinoids, peptides (like matrixyl 3000 in my Feel Confident Facial Moisturizer), and antioxidants, like vitamin C, can stimulate collagen production.
