Everything You Need to Know About Drinkable Collagen

The fountain of youth is real.

source:elle.com

According to new research published in this month's Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, women who incorporated a collagen peptide drink into their daily routine improved the look of skin after just eight weeks. Dermal collagen density significantly increased and fragmentation of the dermal collagen network significantly decreased. But that's not all: Both effects persisted after 12 weeks. 

A little skin science 101: Collagen (the word is derived from the Greek kolla, which means "glue") is the most abundant protein in the human body. The main component of connective tissue, it cements cells together and gives skin its structure and elasticity. Collagen production begins to decline at a rate of about 1 percent a year in our mid-twenties and goes rapidly downhill in our forties and fifties, with the majority of women experiencing a 30 percent drop in the first few years post-menopause. This is a natural process, but it's also aggravated by sun exposure. The effects we see in the mirror? Dryness, sagginess, dullness, and loss of plumpness.

In an independent, double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in 2013 in Skin Pharmacology and Physiology that involved 100 women between the ages of 45 and 65, those who took 2.5 grams of a hydrolyzed collagen peptide once a day for eight weeks showed a 20 percent reduction in wrinkle depth around their eyes. Plus, the subjects' levels of pro-collagen I—the precursor to collagen—were up 65 percent. And these results were lasting: The women's skin still showed elevated moisture levels and elasticity four weeks after they stopped taking the supplements.

There is one caveat: Not all ingestible collagen is created equal. First of all, hydrolyzed collagen, which is made by purifying and breaking down the protein's amino acids into low-molecular-weight fragments, is different from the old-school gelatin our mothers used to make wobbly desserts; because hydrolyzed peptides are so tiny, they're much more easily absorbed by the body. "From a scientific point of view, nobody knows exactly what makes a collagen peptide effective. All we can do is test them," says Steffen Oesser, PhD, founder of the Collagen Research Institute in Kiel, Germany, who conducted the 2013 study. "There are products on the market that are less effective or ineffective, so my advice is to look for the ones that have studies supporting them."