Collagen Supplements Fall Short on Wrinkles — SkimNews
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- Collagen supplements contain hydrolysed collagen cut into chains of 40 or fewer amino acids; digestion further breaks it into fragments of one to three amino acids that enter the same pool as meat, dairy and legumes rather than travelling to skin intact.
- James Varani said a collagen supplement provides the same collagen-building inputs as eating “a good steak”; his research found age-related collagen loss reflects less efficient cellular assembly, not a shortage of ingredients.
- Anjali Mahto and David Grimes published a September paper identifying “substantial methodological concerns” in collagen studies; they said an overwhelming proportion were industry-funded or involved authors with commercial ties to manufacturers.
- Some collagen trials reported significant wrinkle-depth reductions, but the actual differences were only a fraction of a millimetre—unlikely to change appearance, with measurement accuracy also open to doubt.
- Regular exercise has been found to increase collagen-gene expression; every dermatologist the author interviewed stressed sun protection because ultraviolet radiation stimulates enzymes that degrade collagen.
- Tretinoin, a vitamin A derivative known since the 1990s to increase collagen, requires a prescription and can cause dryness, redness and peeling if not used carefully.
- Gene therapy developed for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa was approved in the US in 2023 and in the UK this year; a modified version is being evaluated in clinical trials involving people with aged skin.
Why it matters: Consumers spending on collagen pills are not buying their way out of age-related wrinkling, because the skin’s collagen-building machinery—not ingredient supply—is the main problem. Better-supported choices include sun protection, exercise and tretinoin, while gene therapy for aged skin remains in clinical trials after its 2023 US approval for a rare disease.
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