How is it possible for supplements to boost collagen levels in skin

When we first started working with collagen supplements over 16 years ago, we were amazed to see the changes that customers experienced. These were not isolated just to the face or even just the skin. Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body. It is in every joint, bone, ligament, tendon, strand of hair and nail — even your digestive system.

The initial response from many in the medical field was that this could not possibly work as surely the digestive system would break down these protein molecules. A recent post in the news explains it so well.

Following a discussion on Twitter, I wanted to talk about the mechanism of action of collagen supplements. The Twitter comment was along the lines of collagen being digested in our intestines anyway, so skin benefit is not possible, as the collagen molecule from your supplement would never reach the skin.

This is a very common misconception and something that I also thought until looking into the research in more detail and finding out that the mechanism of action of collagen supplements is very different from what most people think it is. The benefits have also been confirmed in clinical studies, so let me tell you how it works.

Natural collagen, which is a huge molecule, would of course never end up in your skin as an intact molecule, after ingesting it as a drink. Your gut simply wouldn’t be able resorb such a big structure as a whole; it would of course be digested and broken down into smaller sub-units. So what really happens is that small collagen fragments (so-called peptides and amino acids) are being resorbed via the small intestine into our blood stream. Via the network of blood vessels, these collagen fragments are then distributed throughout our entire body including our skin, where they have been shown to remain for up to 14 days.

Here comes the fascinating bit. Because there are suddenly unusually high amounts of collagen building blocks floating around, your skin is essentially ‘tricked into thinking’ that there must have been a lot of collagen breakdown for some reason – maybe a big tissue injury or so. Your skin will respond to this message by increasing its own collagen production (and you even supplied the necessary building blocks, so no excuse not to…). This will lead to tissue remodelling, skin regeneration and ultimately a firmer skin with a more refined surface.

Collagen fragments have been confirmed in scientific studies to be able to attract fibroblast skin cells and stimulate them to produce not only more collagen, but also other vital matrix components such as elastin and hyaluronic acid. And this makes perfect sense. You see – nature originally invented this chemotactic response (i.e. the collagen-fragment-induced fibroblast attraction) to lure these important skin cells to damaged tissue, in order to facilitate swift repair.

There are countless collagen products on the market, many of them too low in dose or an inferior type of collagen. The recommended dose is around 10g per day.