Should you take Collagen?

Is it going to make a difference?

 When I was studying for my menopause qualifications, collagen was one of the more baffling of the modules, so it doesn't surprise me at all that most people are a bit confused about it!

There is more than one type of collagen, and it's different stuff in hair, nails & skin compared with cartilage in your knees. As we age our body makes less collagen and loses what we have more easily (much like with our muscles), and this is why we can get wrinkles, brittle hair and nails, sore joints.

But what's the best type of collagen to take to help slow down this decline? Well, nobody really knows. The thing is, there are studies out there that show people benefitting from fuller hair, better skin elasticity and so on, but these are all biased studies as they are funded by the companies who sell the supplements. So far, there are zero unbiased trials that definitively prove taking collagen will improve your body's collagen. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't take it, because there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that it works and lots of people are very happy with the supplement they have chosen.

So, to simplify things: take it if you want to try it. There's every chance you will find it helpful but there's not a scientific guarantee.

What I can also tell you is that there is no such thing as vegan collagen (it is only found in bovine, poultry or shellfish sources) - if you are taking one of those, there will be zero collagen in it. But, there will most likely be a lot of vitamin C and zinc, which we know does help your body with its own collagen production.

And with this in mind, collagen is actually a protein, so you could just concentrate on making sure you get lots of protein, vitamin C and zinc in your diet until a proven supplement comes along.