The Truth About Collagen
Collagen, ah, one of the biggest health kicks in 2018. I was first acquainted with collagen in 2015 by way of my own research. I was reading about skincare and stumbled upon collagen. I read about collagen helping hydrate and keep skin younger for longer. The reasoning being that it basically supplements the collagen that we start losing at about age 25. So I went with it, I kept on reading, looking up article after article about these collagen supplements that you could take. This is what I found.
Scientific Background :
Here’s a little bit of background knowledge to help you evaluate the things I will tell you later on. The body has about 28 different types of collagen that have been identified so far. Collagens are the most abundant proteins in mammals (~30% of total protein mass). The five most common types are Type I, II, III, IV, and V. To simplify things each type of collagen does something different. If you want to get extremely in depth the article that I linked to above will explain things further.
Over of Collagen Type I-V:
Type I is by far the most abundant protein in all vertebrates. It assembles into fibers that form the structural and mechanical scaffold (matrix) of bone, skin, tendons, cornea, blood vessel walls and other connective tissues. This type of collagen is meant to help get rid of wrinkles, increase skin hydration, grow stronger nails, and thicker hair. It also helps with gut health. Type II is the basis for articular cartilage and hyaline cartilage (the connective tissue that protects your bones at the joints). You also find type II collagen in high amounts in your spinal disks and your eyes. This is the type of collagen that is meant to be good for your joints, arthritis and sports injuries that affect this area. Type III is the second most abundant type in your body. You can find it in large quantities in your intestines, muscles, blood vessels, and the uterus. It’s most often used with type I collagen for gut healing and to improve skin elasticity and hydration.Type IV is a reticulate (main component of reticular fibers), commonly found alongside type I. Type IV collagen is a major component of the basement membrane, which is the specialized sheet-like extracellular matrix of multicellular tissues that exists around certain cell types (e.g., skeletal muscle cells, smooth muscle cells, heart muscle cells, and adipocytes). Type V is found in cell surfaces, hair, and placenta. It is collagen is a fibrillar collagen molecule, which is a minor component of collagen fibrils with type I collagen as the major component.The lower down the list you go, the more medical the explanations become and the less we know about the type of collagen. Think about this we still have not successfully identified all of the proteins in the human body. More ongoing research is occurring on this topic on the International Space Station. Back to the topic at hand. When I first started researching collagen to figure out if it was just a fad or something that can actually work, I found a lot of websites selling the supplement and boasting its benefits. However, when I looked up studies that test these theories all seemed to say the opposite- collagen was ineffectual. Ingesting collagen cannot give you wrinkle free skin, rid you of joint pain, strengthen your nails, or give you luscious locks. Why? Well, the explanation boiled down to this – once you ingest the collagen it gets broken down in your stomach and is basically rendered useless by the time it enters your bloodstream, which is where you need it to go for all these benefits to occur. Injecting collagen straight into the bloodstream, did you think about that? Maybe that could work? Well, I thought about it too but I don’t think it has been done and I suggest you DON’T try it because it could be fatal. Though its a nice idea. The only collagen injections that I have heard of are the localized ones to plump your lips up. One thing most of the articles I read had in common was their consensus that more research needs to be conducted on the topic. Ingesting supplements such as collagen to promote the body’s ability to produce more of its own as well as replenish the collagen that we have lost is still a fairly new concept and there just aren’t enough studies done on the subject yet. However, due to the amazing reviews, I read on the supplement pages and testimonials people have written throughout the web, I decided to give it a try. It’s basically bone marrow so it’s not bad for you, it’s actually a delicacy in many countries. So I gave it a try, so read on and I shall tell you my experience. One other note that I do want to add before we move on to the next part is that more and more studies are being conducted and the research seems much more promising. It seems that there could be true benefits to your beauty, bones, hair, and nails. If you want to read more about that and look at some specific studies take a look here: collagen studies.
My Experience with Collagen:
First Attempt: I started taking collagen in 2015 in order to stay younger longer, replenish my body’s collagen, attain thicker hair and stronger nails. I was not too worried about a leaky gut or joint pain. I first started taking the collagen capsules not the powder. I took it for 2 months and I started to see a difference. The difference was not in my skin, and well that’s because I am still young and really didn’t have any issues. So where did I see a difference? The biggest difference was my hair. I think my nails also got stronger as I usually have weak nails that tend to split and that stopped happening. However, my hair was definitely the biggest difference. No, it did not become thicker. I am going to tell you something now, for all of you that want thicker hair, well it’s not going to happen. Your hair type is a genetic thing, you get what you get and you will never be able to change it (believe me, I’ve tried). And if somehow you find a way to, please, by all means, let me know because I will give it a shot. What you can do is get extensions, or use hair products that make your hair look thicker but the hair follicle on its own will never truly be thicker. Some people are blessed with a beautiful thick mane and well, others (like me) are not. What I did see though was new hair growth. There were a bunch of new baby hairs that started to grow and fill in spaces where you could see my scalp. The baby hair kept growing longer, making the hair on my scalp look thicker just by virtue of having more hair. I took the collagen in pill form (capsules) for about 2 months and I saw a difference. I took the Neocell Capsules. Which like I said, worked well but the directions were to take 6 of them a day and that was a bit too much of hassle. After, awhile I got tired of taking the capsules and stopped. Life Kind of got in the way. Attempt 2: NOW: So fast forward to 2017, I am at home with my parents and my mom goes “you know I feel like you used to have a lot more hair, why do you have places where I can see your scalp”? I come from a Bulgarian household and Bulgarians are incredibly direct. My mom especially. So after she said this, I, of course, start freaking out and looking at my hair in the mirror. She ended up being right, I had some very sparse looking spots in my hair, and well for the age of 27 that was pretty insane. So immediately I figured I would I would go back to the only thing that seemed to work, collagen. I put in an order to Amazon and got myself a collagen supplement. This time not in the form of a capsule but a powder supplement that you take once a day only. You put just a scoop in your coffee once a day. I drink coffee EVERY single morning so I figured that would be a good way to remind myself to take it. Behold- I started seeing the same results that I did on my first try, new hair growth. This time, however, I didn’t stop and I have now been taking collagen for probably 2 years. I take the capsules when I go on vacation and a scoop a day when I am home in my coffee every morning.
Two Kinds of Collagen Supplements available:
There are two types of collagen supplements available, predominantly. I am sure with enough searching you could find something else, but there are two main types out there. Bovine collagen and marine collagen. Bovine Collagen: This type of collagen is derived from cows (beef). Marine Collagen: This type of collagen is derived from red snapper fish. I have stuck to bovine collagen but would like to try the marine collagen. Marine collagen is supposed to be better for joint issues and arthritis. 
Collagen Supplements
There are many different kinds of supplements that you can buy, some more expensive than others. I like the powder kind that you put in your coffee, smoothie, tea, or whatever else you like to drink. I have tried a few different kinds and below are my thoughts and the different kinds out there, as well as where you can buy them from. Most of them are collagen types I and III. I did try one supplement thought that was type I-V.
- Neocell Super Collagen Powder 6,600mg Collagen 1 &3 $12.71: This is a great option that is very affordable. The only thing with this is, that it is not the most soluble. It does not mix well with cold liquids especially. So if you are using this with hot tea or smoothies in a blender, I think it will be fine. Again this is really the most affordable option and it lasts about a month if you take it every day.
Zint Collagen Powder: Pure Hydrolyzed Collagen Peptides: Types I and III Collagen: $24.99 for a 16 oz. I liked this collagen too. It’s a very good and affordable solution as well. This one is pretty soluble in all kinds of liquid. The only issue with this one is that the prices tend to vary on Amazon. Otherwise its quite good. 
Sports Research Collagen Peptides Powder: $27.95 for a 16 oz tub of the powder. It comes with a scoop inside it, they all do. I really like this one the best but there is really not much difference between this one and the Zint powder as they are both very soluble in different temperature liquids. I recently bought the larger tube of this which is $52.95 for a 32 oz tub, which just makes it more effective. I have now been taking collagen continuously for over a year and I do not plan to stop.
Results
I absolutely and completely recommend taking a collagen supplement. It really works! I have seen major hair growth because of it (see images below). All of the hair that I have isolated on my forehead are new baby hairs that have gotten longer and longer. First, it started out as baby hairs but then they just kept growing and I kept growing more and more of them. I have tried biotin and other things in the past but this is the best results I have ever gotten with my hair. It looks thicker at the top of my head and I am hoping that it will look thicker all over when all the new hair grows to the length of the rest of my hair. Again, this is new hair growth not thicker hair follicles. As for the skin results, I honestly cannot tell if my skin is better or more moisturized because of the collagen. My nails do seem to be a bit harder from it but the most profound results are seen with my hair. I am hoping that taking it for a longer time will keep me looking younger for longer but that I will only be able to report on as the years go by. My friend: I recommended collagen to my friend who always use to get acrylic nails done since high-school. A few times she had let her own nails grow out and they looked amazing! I always told her to just leave her own nails rather than get the acrylic ones because they look so good. She wanted to but always had issues with the growth. Her nails would take forever to grow long and were very weak, by the time she could grow them a lot of them had already broken. She started taking the collagen and is now growing her own nails out. She said she notices a difference in her hair and skin as well. She has more hair growth, more glowing skin, and definitely stronger nails that grow faster. She also has mentioned that my hair looks thicker as well. My mom: So after trying the collagen supplement for a while and loving the results, I decided to revisit some of my research. I remembered reading that it helped people with joint pain and arthritis. I had found one study which had a double-blind test group take a collagen supplement and a placebo for 6 months and it showed that after 3 months those that had the joint paint had started feeling relief. Some test subjects even reported that all of their pain disappeared. I could not find the original study to include here but this is a similar one conducted on athletes. My mom is now taking the supplement and after a month and a half, she started feeling some of her arthritis pain going away. Not all of it but she that it has gotten a lot better. She is a big skeptic and now she believes in the collagen too. She has also tried a lot of other methods of pain relief, including anti-inflammatories like Aleve, and none of them have done much to help her. ** I also tried another type of collagen Renew, which has type I-V collagen but didn’t quite like that one as much either as it was not very soluble even in hot liquids like coffee. That one you really have to put in a smoothie otherwise its a pain to mix it in. I don’t recommend this one but if you want to try it you can find it here. This is a mix of bovine collagen, marine collagen, and chicken and egg peptides. It’s not a bad collagen supplement, it’s just not very soluble. 
The Short Version
I recommend collagen because it facilitated new hair growth which made my hair look thicker. I also believe that it has strengthened my nails. I cannot attest to the skin improvement claims out there as I personally have not seen any evidence but I think that is because I am not that old and my skin is in pretty good condition to begin with. As for the gut health, that is also not something I can speak to but I have read online testaments by others who claim that it has helped. If you have thin hair or hair loss, I definitely think this will help, and it shouldn’t hurt regardless (unless you have an allergy). This is my personal experience and personal research that I have conducted on my own I cannot guarantee that it will work for you but I think its worth a try. There are many other touted benefits of collagen and if you have experienced any of them, please comment below and share your story.
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