Its is now well recognised that ingesting hydrolysed collagen has great benefits for improving skin (1) hair (2) and nails (3). You’ve probably also heard how it’s great for joint health and strengthening our bones (4) , ligaments and tendons as well (5), but more recently there are many new discoveries published about its tremendous holistic health benefits.
Here are 10 health benefits of Hydrolysed Collagen you probably didn’t know about, and the scientific evidence behind them.
1. Collagen Prevents and repairs Leaky Gut, Ulcerative colitis and IBS.
There are recent studies that support potential therapeutic roles for specific amino acids contained in Hydrolysed Collagen, including glutamic acid, arginine, glycine, lysine, threonine, and sulfur-containing amino acids, in gut-related diseases.
Results of these new lines of work indicate nutritional and cytoprotective effects of amino acids on gut integrity, growth, and health in animals and humans.(6)
The dietary amino acids in Hydrolysed Collagen Powder are major fuels for the small intestinal mucosa, as well as important substrates for syntheses of intestinal proteins, nitric oxide, polyamines, and other products with enormous biological importance.
The unique amino acid profile of collagen heals damaged cells and build new tissue in the intestinal wall, as well as coating, protecting and soothing the lining of the gut wall. This aids in healing and repairing a leaky gut as this study (7) shows. The study reports that:
“Amino acids caused a much greater increase in serum gastrin concentration and enhanced acid secretion”.
The amino acids found in Hydrolysed Collagen Powder, increase production of hydrochloric acid (HCl) in the stomach. This has several positive implications and it can help prevent further damage.
HCI breaks down proteins. Without sufficient hydrochloric acid, undigested proteins can cause allergic reactions which lead to the inflammatory immune system response that comes with leaky gut and further damage the lining of the stomach (8). HCl kills off pathogens and kills many organisms that can come from tainted, rotten, or undercooked food. HCl also helps your body to absorb minerals.
Amino Acids such as Lysine, Methionine and Threonine, Arginine, Glycine, and Glutamic Acid, are all contained in uniquely balanced amounts in Hydrolysed Collagen. These Amino Acids play critical roles in maintaining or promoting gut health and gut functions (9) (10)
Check out this comprehensive and informative article (11) which explains the role of hydrolysed collagen in repairing gut problems.
2. Collagen helps to Prevent and Repair a Hernia.
Many scientists are now studying the role of collagen in hernia and have even defined hernia as a disease of the Extra Cellular Matrix (ECM). Studies focusing on hernia as a disease of the ECM reflect a new approach to decipher the biology of recurrent or direct inguinal hernia and incisional hernia formation.
Collagens are not only abundant in our skin, but also abundant in ligaments, tendons, cartilage, and in muscle as fibrillar proteins. Not only do they give structural support to resident cells, but also regulate the resident and inflammatory cell function.
New research suggest that inguinal hernia is not so much a local disease as it is a local manifestation of a systemic disorder of collagen metabolism. Numerous studies are showing that patients with inguinal hernia have some anomalies in collagen metabolism and a changed ratio of collagen types.
These studies have revealed marked changes in the abundance, composition, and metabolism of interstitial collagens in patients with recurrent hernia diseases, adult groin hernia and incisional hernia. These observations have led to the suggestion that hernia formation and the recurrence of incisional hernia may be explained by disordered tissue renewal and by abnormal wound healing, respectively.
In Australia, leaders in hernia surgery are now recommending their patients ingest marine collagen powder pre and post operation as studies (12) have shown a transient increase in collagen-derived peptides, especially of Pro-Hyp, in the blood and skin after ingestion of collagen hydrolysate.
This article (13) contains the most comprehensive and up-to-date information on collagen’s role in the prevention and repair of hernia.
3. Collagen Promotes a Restful Sleep.
Getting a good night sleep, or not, directly affects your mental and physical health.
Lack of sleep can take a serious toll on your daytime energy, productivity, emotional balance, and even your weight. Yet many of us regularly toss and turn at night, struggling to get the sleep we need.
Enter Hydrolysed Collagen.
Hydrolysed collagen is the only protein that contains a whopping 20% of the amino acid glycine.
This amino acid is considered among the most important amino acids for the body. It exerts widespread influence over our bodies’ systems, structure, and general health, including cardiovascular, cognitive, and metabolic health.
A study published in the scientific journal 'Frontiers in Neurology' (14) reports:
'Recently, we found that glycine subjectively and objectively improves sleep quality in humans who have difficulty sleeping'.
Even more astoundingly, this study showed that glycine not only improves night time sleep but 'improves daytime sleepiness and fatigue induced by acute sleep restriction'. YES, subjects were less sleepy during the day!
In another clinical study on the Sleep Promoting Effects of Glycine (15), scientists showed that low-dose glycine before bedtime subjectively improves sleep quality and reduces sleepiness and fatigue during the day in individuals with insomniac tendencies or restricted sleep time'.
More evidence of Hydrolysed Collagen’s positive benefits can be found in the following links (16) (17)
4. Hydrolysed Collagen Supports Weight Management
Hydrolysed Collagen increases satiety, or the feeling of fullness. This could aid weight loss and management by reducing hunger, and therefore, how many calories you eat in a day. There’s also some evidence that collagen may reduce the development and accumulation of adipocytes, or fat cells.
This study, (18) investigated the anti-obesity effects of collagen peptide on fat metabolism in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice. The body weight gain and total body fat weight were lower in the collagen-fed groups than in the control group. The findings indicated that collagen peptide has anti-obesity effects through suppression of fat accumulation and regulation of fat metabolism.
What's even more impressive is that when scientists in this study (19) compared gelatin (a derivative of collagen) to casein protein derived from dairy, they found that ingesting gelatin resulted in a greater appetite suppression. The study reported
5. Hydrolysed Collagen Regulates Blood Cholesterol Levels
As we've mentioned earlier, Hydrolysed Collagen has a unique amino acid profile that contains large amounts of the amino acid Glycine. It also contains extremely low levels of the amino acid Methionine.
So why does this matter?
Well, studies have recently found that diets low in methionine and high in glycine content tend to decrease our plasma cholesterol level. It is suggested that amino acids like glycine in dietary proteins are responsible, at least in part, for the positive alteration of plasma cholesterol levels.
This study (20) was conducted to investigate the effects of collagen peptide ingestion on blood fat profiles. Collagen peptide was administered for 29 days to rats fed a high fat and high sugar diet, and their blood fat levels were determined on days 1, 28, and also on day 30. They found that total cholesterol, particularly LDL, was significantly lower in rats given collagen peptide than in control rats on day 30 after overnight fasting. These results suggest that collagen peptide ingestion improves cholesterol metabolism in rats fed a high-lipid and high-sucrose diet.
In humans, our optimal cholesterol ratio is between 3.5 and 1. A higher ratio increases the risk of heart disease. In this study (21), scientists evaluated the effect of Hydrolysed Collagen administration on the development of atherosclerosis in healthy individuals. They found that, in patients with an initial dangerous ratio of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), the ratio was significantly reduced when consuming Hydrolysed Collagen.
6. Hydrolysed Collagen Inhibits Tumor Growth and Cancer
It is suggested that age-related oxidative stress, as a consequence of chronic inflammation, contributes to the induction and progression of cancer (22). It stands to reason then, that interventions that delay ageing or age‐related diseases and therefore inflammation, would greatly benefit health.
Hydrolysed Collagen is a potent anti inflammatory and exhibits many health benefits including, antitumor activity (23) .
The study, conducted by Laing et al., reported Hydrolysed Collagen intake inhibited spontaneous tumor incidence and increased the life span in Sprague-dawley rats. They showed that Hydrolysed Collagen notably increased the mean life span, the life span of the last 30% of the survivors, and the maximal life span.It significantly decreased overall spontaneous tumor incidence of both sexes. The incidence of death from tumors was decreased in Hydrolysed Collagen groups in comparison with the control group of both sexes.
Scientists concluded that:
“Hydrolysed Collagen dose-dependently increased life span and decreased spontaneous tumor incidence. Moreover, the antioxidative property of Hydrolysed Collagen may be responsible for the increased life span and protection against tumor development”.
The results of a similar study published in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine(24), provide a mechanism underlying anti‐skin ageing by Hydrolysed Collagen's intake and highlight potential application of Hydrolysed Collagen as a healthcare supplement to combat cancer and cardiovascular disease by inhibiting platelet release.
The authors of that study comment:
“ these results provide a possible mechanism underlying the anti tumor effect of Hydrolysed Collagen”.
This article (25) contains comprehensive information and links to over 30 clinical studies.
7. Hydrolysed Collagen Lowers Blood Sugar and Alleviates Diabetes
A recent double blind randomized clinical study (26) to evaluate the efficacy of hydrolysed collagen peptide as an add-on nutritional supplement in type 2 diabetes has found there is a significant reduction in fasting blood glucose (FBG) and HbA1C (glycated hemoglobin) in three months study period in subjects who have taken oral ingestion of hydrolysed collagen peptides. Insulin sensitivity has been improved significantly in the hydrolysed collagen peptide group. This study demonstrates the potential role of hydrolysed collagen as an add-on nutritional supplement for the management of type 2 diabetes.
The glycine content of Hydrolysed Collagen facilitates the action of insulin in lowering blood sugar and alleviating diabetes. Glycine inhibits lipolysis and this in itself will make insulin more effective, and help to prevent hyperglycemia.
It is known that the plasma glycine level is low in patients with obesity or diabetes and the improvement of insulin resistance increases plasma glycine concentration. In prospective studies, hypoglycinemia at baseline predicts the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and higher serum glycine level is associated with decreased risk of incident type 2 diabetes. Among patients with type 2 diabetes, hypoglycinemia occurs before clinical manifestations of the disease, but the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying glycine deficit and its potential clinical repercussions are unclear.
In this study (27), glycine supplementation of 5 g/day (2 scoops of Collagenx) was reported to improve insulin response and glucose tolerance. The data suggests that oral glycine stimulates the secretion of a gut hormone that potentiates the effect of insulin on glucose removal from the circulation.
And this study (28) showed that a morning dose of glycine 5 g orally increased early, late and total insulin responses without changes in insulin action in healthy first-degree relatives of Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.
8. Hydrolysed Collagen Accelerates recovery after stroke.
Did you know that a small dose of glycine taken shortly after suffering a stroke was found to accelerate recovery, preventing the spreading of injury through its inhibitory and anti-inflammatory actions?
So those who consume regular doses of Hydrolysed Collagen actually reduce damage in future strokes!
The aim of this study (29) was to assess the safety and the efficacy of glycine in 200 patients with acute ischaemic stroke. Fifty patients received placebo, 49 glycine 0.5 g/day, 51 glycine 1.0 g/day and 50 glycine 2.0 g/day for 5 days in each group.
The authors found that glycine treatment at the dose of 1-2 g/day (ie one scoop of CollagenX) was accompanied by a tendency to decrease the risk of dying over 30 days.
9. Hydrolysed Collagen treats symptoms of Schizophrenia
As you're finding out, the amino acid Glycine, contained in Hydrolysed Collagen, is truly amazing. Even more amazingly, scientists are currently studying the link between glycine and schizophrenia, finding that treatment with the amino acid improved patients positive, cognitive and general psychiatric symptoms.
Russian medicine considers glycine a brain drug and it has been available by prescription there since the 1950s. There has been considerable interest in the Western world lately about using glycine for treatment of many psychiatric conditions including bipolar depression, dementia, PTSD, etc. There are many studies related to glycine research for schizophrenia, and they point to other studies on glycine for many brain conditions.
These studies (30), (31), have shown that high doses (30 g) of glycine have reduced the more subtle symptoms of schizophrenia, such as social withdrawal, emotional flatness, and apathy, which do not respond to most of the existing medications. An open-label clinical trial (32) performed in 1996 revealed that 60 g of glycine per day (0.8 g/kg) could be given to schizophrenic patients without producing adverse side effects and that this dose led to a two-fold increase in cerebrospinal fluid glycine levels.
This study (33) showed that lower plasma levels of Glycine and Serine (both high in Hydrolysed Collagen) have been reported in schizophrenia compared to controls. Combinations of glycine with antipsychotics or glycine transport inhibitors have been reported to be useful in treatment of schizophrenia, and increased glycine serum levels have been reported in schizophrenia patients responsive to antipsychotics.
In this study (34) published in the scientists report that Glycine administration to treatment-resistant schizophrenic patients resulted in a significant reduction in negative symptoms.
10. Hydrolysed Collagen Protects against UV Rays
Hydrolysed Collagen powder helps protect the skin against UV melasma, and enhances the fibroblast production and extracellular matrix of the skin.
We know that continuous exposure to UV-B from the sun results in an aged skin with wrinkle formation and can cause Melasma. Melasma is a skin condition characterized by brown or blue-gray patches or freckle-like spots. Sun exposure can cause melasma because ultraviolet rays affect the cells that control pigment.
In this clinical study (35), oral supplementation with Hydrolysed Collagen powder prepared from fish was investigated to evaluate the safety and efficacy to treat melasma. Sixty-two healthy female volunteers who were diagnosed with melasma by a dermatologist were included in the study. They were instructed to take 10 g of Hydrolysed Collagen powder per day along with breakfast for a period of 60 days. The authors reported a reduction in hyperpigmentation with lighter facial skin tone after oral supplementation. The melanin contrast index in the lesion area was reduced in comparison with the placebo group. Their results showed that Hydrolysed Collagen powder inhibited UV-B-induced pigmentation.
In another scientific trial (36), conducted by Lee et al, the effects of oral administration of fish collagen peptides on skin protection was studied when exposed to UV-B. They concluded that consumption of Hydrolysed Collagen powder prevented the UV-B induced wrinkle formation. The enhancement of other skin properties was reported such as skin hydration, transepidermal water loss, and epidermis thickness.
Further evidence is contained in the results of these 2 studies (37), (38) which suggest that collagen peptide is beneficial as a dietary supplement to suppress UV-B-induced skin damage and photoaging.
If you want more information on the amazing health benefits of Hydrolysed Collagen Powder then go to www.collagenx.com.au