Collagen & Supplements: Everything You Need to Know

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Dr Ellie Rashid (0:33)

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Dr Emma Craythorne (0:36)

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The final season.

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Dr Emma Craythorne (0:59)

The number one gold standard ingredient that I think has the biggest impact on collagen, but it takes a little while to get there.

So I got my hair cut recently and my hairdresser asked me what I do. And I said that I was a dermatologist. And the first question that he asked me was do oral collagen supplements work?

Dr Ellie Rashid (1:20)

That is a question I would say I get asked more than any other question about the skin.

Dr Emma Craythorne (1:26)

Same, same, constantly all the time.

Dr Ellie Rashid (1:28)

At the school gate, at the hairdressers, random people in the supermarket.

Dr Emma Craythorne (1:34)

So we thought it would be good if we just talk about oral collagen supplements, what collagen is and whether there's actually any evidence for us to take oral collagen supplements.

Dr Ellie Rashid (1:45)

Because what is your immediate response to that question before we dive deep into things?

Dr Emma Craythorne (1:51)

So I do think it's got some benefit for hydration. I recently did a panel with Cappell who does his special interest is hair.

And he was talking about how it's essentially a protein source. So there could be some benefits because you're increasing your protein intake. But I think this idea or this narrative that you can take an oral collagen supplement and it somehow weaves its way into your skin. And as they all say, like it provides this great scaffolding and it improves the plumpness and improves fine lines and wrinkles. All of that has been discounted.

Dr Ellie Rashid (2:27)

I mean, I saw whilst driving in London the other day, twice on the side of a bus stop company that makes oral collagen with the headline statement of a 42% reduction in your wrinkles in, I think it was like 12 weeks or something, from having this oral collagen. And obviously I was like, what the hell?

Dr Emma Craythorne (2:50)

I almost respect that they've said 12 weeks, because most of the time it's like in two days.

Dr Ellie Rashid (2:54)

Maybe it was two days, but either way, even in 12 weeks, you're just like, I'd love to give this to some people who actually have wrinkles and say to them, okay, let's see if this does this. I mean, of course it's not going to do that. So there was like, I've got to see this study. Like where is this study that's given them this headline? And of course the study doesn't support that. But it is one of these things that these are really pretty big claims, and they are essentially backed up in kind of like quotation marks by the clinical studies that they have run themselves. And I think that it offers a kind of hope for somebody to say, okay, if I take this or drink this or spend my money in this way, this is going to reduce my wrinkles. And obviously suggesting that wrinkles are a problem in the first place, which is also slightly annoying.

Dr Emma Craythorne (3:40)

Totally different conversation. But yeah, absolutely.

I think it's also something that people can control. So you want to feel like you're doing something positive. And if something's marketed as creating a positive impact on your skin, then you'll be like, oh great, yeah, I'm going to do it.

So let's start with what collagen actually even is. So collagen essentially is one of the structural proteins in our skin, and it is responsible for a lot of the bounce in our skin, and it's produced by these cells called fibroblasts in the lower part of our skin. But then we've got different types of collagen. So collagen 1 is the most abundant collagen. Then you've also got collagen 7, which makes up these anchoring fibres, which sticks our top and bottom layer of skin together. So you've got different types of collagen, all having some structural function within our skin. And one of the things that happens as we get older is actually we lose the amount of collagen that we have in our skin.