Does collagen live up to the hype? [New research 2025]

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:18 What is collagen?

00:43 Does it work according to research?

03:37 My Online PT Course

04:08 Protein & vitamin C confounding

06:04 Niche application

06:45 Conclusion

08:16 Outro

Transcript:

Collagen hype train is real. If you supplement collagen thy skin will be perfect, radiating like the sun. Your joints will be as if cast from iron. Your hair will be lush like… Whatever… Let’s look at the science.

Collagen is a peptide and it’s part of our connective tissues. Connective tissues are the supporting structures of our body. We find them in tendons, cartilage, bone and also our skin. That’s why the idea is that if you supplement this, then it goes into your own skin and cartilage and connective tissues, and it makes those stronger. For hair the theory doesn’t make any sense because hair is not a connective tissue and hair does not contain collagen. While it’s plausible that consuming more collagen makes our own collagen structures stronger, the recent research is not very optimistic. The latest study by Aussieker et al. found essentially no effect at all of consuming collagen on any positive marker of collagen synthesis. Specifically, they found that 6 sets of leg presses and leg extensions increased myofibrillar and connective tissue protein synthesis, as you would expect, but there was no additive effect of collagen supplementation in the form of 30g of hydrolyzed collagen. The collagen supplement also had no effect on skin protein synthesis or markers of whole body collagen production or breakdown.

Another recent study by Kirmse et al. found to no effect of 30g daily hydrolyzed collagen supplementation on muscle connective tissue protein synthesis or myofibrillar protein synthesis during a week of strength training including calisthenics. Calisthenics are theoretically an ideal stimulant for collagen production because they put a lot of stress on our joints and our connective tissues. And then another recent long term study again failed to find the benefits of collagen supplements over placebo. Balshaw et al. found that 15g daily bioactive collagen peptide supplementation did not augment patellar tendon adaptations to strength training. After 15 weeks of serious strength training the collagen supplement failed to augment tendon size, tendon stiffness, strain reduction or any other mechanical property of the tendons.

Now, there are a few older studies that found that people that experienced joint pain and supplement collagen and experience a reduction in joint pain, but all of those were sponsored by Gelita AG. Guess what their roughly $1 billion in sales come from. Hint: It’s not bananas. If we have to believe the research on collagen from the collagen industry, then collagen is supposedly also a miraculous muscle builder. Research has found that just 15g of collagen supplements miraculously improves muscle growth to a far greater extent than that amount of protein from any other source. Yet if we look at the independent research on collagen, collagen is a terrible source of protein for muscle growth. In fact, the protein score for collagen is literally 0.

Most research has found that collagen fails to stimulate any muscle protein synthesis, and it’s a horrible source of protein for muscle growth. Collagen supplementation for our joints theoretically makes some sense. Collagen supplementation for muscle growth, however, really doesn’t, so I wouldn’t trust any research that finds miraculous benefits of collagen supplements for muscle growth. And that means I also wouldn’t trust anything that comes out of those laboratories on other measures. Indeed and the only independent study on healthy individuals with joint pain supplementing collagen there were no benefits compared to placebo. Supplementing 10g of hydrolyzed collagen for 12 weeks had no effect on knee performance, knee pain, or inflammatory cartilage or bone biomarkers. The current research does not fully debunk collagen supplementation for joint pain, but when we have 5 industry sponsor studies finding one thing and an independent study finding another thing, it does make me think: “I have seen this movie before and I think I know how it ends.”

That said, there are also some independent studies finding benefits of collagen supplementation for acute markers, namely things like collagen synthesis. However, all of those are confounded by enrichment with vitamin C. So they supplemented not just collagen, but also vitamin C. Turns out – vitamin C can stimulate collagen production. In fact, collagen is produced by our own bodies with vitamin C and protein. Collagen is effectively just a protein source. Just like whey protein, meats, dairy, any other protein source. And just like any other protein source, collagen is broken down before it enters any of your tissues. So it’s not like you consume collagen, and it just travels through your body and goes into your own collagen structure and inserts right into the tendon.

Now, collagen gets broken down into individual amino acids and some peptides. And then it’s basically rebuilt into your collagen structure. At that point it doesn’t matter anymore if those amino acids came from your collagen supplement, your whey protein supplement, or potatoes. And research shows that consuming other sources of protein can increase the precursor amino acids for collagen production, just as well as collagen supplementation. Moreover, research has found that collagen supplementation is more effective in individuals with low protein intakes and that vitamin C can stimulate its own collagen production. So if you consume enough protein and vitamin C, then your body should have all the substrate it needs to build its own collagen.

To make the case for collagen: Collagen does have a very high amount of glycine and hydroxyproline. Those amino acids are not essential, but they are conditionally essential. So it’s possible that an ideal protein intake for muscle growth and other health purposes does not fully cover those requirements, but it is a stretch to say the least. Moreover, if there were substantial benefits of those conditionally essential amino acids, then you should see those in research on protein intake as they should influence lean body mass. And we don’t see those benefits for muscle protein synthesis or lean body mass or fat free mass. So they would have to be very, very small.

I will throw one bone to the collagen fan club, no pun intended, that is completely unreserved. Collagen supplementation, specifically undenatured collagen type II supplementation seems to be beneficial for individuals with osteoarthritis. It reduces joint pain and might have positive effects on reducing autoimmunity. And while this research is commonly cited by people that sell collagen to say that collagen reduces joint pain, this research is probably not applicable to most healthy lifters. Osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative condition in which the joints basically hurt themselves from the inside out. It is not like a common injury you get in the gym. It’s a completely different scenario. Many exercise injuries aren’t even in the cartilage. They are usually in tendons.

In conclusion, the case for collagen supplements for joint or skin health is very weak. It’s unclear if collagen supplementation even increases collagen production in the body in the first place. The reason for that is probably that not much collagen synthesis takes place to begin with, so you don’t need that much protein or vitamin C for it, and to the extent that it is necessary, it’s quite important usually, so it might happen on its own. Even if collagen supplementation does increase protein synthesis in connective tissues, there is 0 evidence that this is still beneficial if you already consume enough protein and vitamin C. Right now, essentially all the research shows is that protein supplementation, not specifically collagen supplementation, because, again, collagen is just a protein source, can improve protein synthesis. There’s nothing novel there. Moreover, the evidence for vitamin C is a lot stronger, and all the positive research pretty much is confounded by either industry sponsorship or co-administering vitamin C.

So until we have research that has control for protein intake and vitamin C that shows that collagen supplementation is better than other protein sources at increasing collagen protein synthesis, and ideally, actually meaningfully improves long term metrics for either skin health or joint health, I wouldn’t go out of my way to supplement collagen and spend a lot of money on it. Now, if you like something like gelatin, which is also collagen; In fact, hydrolyzed collagen is made from gelatin; then by all means have that. But as a supplement, collagen supplements represent a very low quality protein source that is sold for a relatively high cost. So consumer beware.

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