OP asking the right questions. The main effect of oral collagen supplements is that they can build healthy, full, and radiant portfolios for the supplement makers. The "glow" of having money is very noticeable.

Thats an important thing, it doesn't. Evidence doesnt back it up and neither do Biological mechanisms.

Some will argue that youre ingesting the exact nutrients you need to produce it, but that's exactly the same situation as ingesting other common proteins and in colagen production, the limiting and regulating factors are not availability of nutrients mainly

Collagen is definitely not absorbed to the bloodstream

Lucky OP!

Today is the day that you get to learn about the fact that dietary supplements are not required to have any evidence to back up their claims. They're not regulated that way, like medicines are.

That refers to collagen that has already been partially broken down so it is easier for us to digest.

The good thing about it is it gives us exactly the peptides we need to build our own collagen. But we do still have to break it down and rebuild it ourselves.

One thing to keep in mind though is that we don't actually replace our collagen that much at all. Unless you go through special procedures to make it happen, like what we are starting to see with regenerative medicine, you are not going to get much effect.

It doesn’t do anything, and it also doesn’t do anything if you put it on your skin in the form of a lotion. It’s a marketing gimmick. It might definitely contain the ingredient! But it doesn’t actually do anything, it just sits there. People just know it’s a primary reason for youthful-looking skin, so if a supplement or lotion contains it, it must be extra-good for your skin.

Collagen supplements usually don't have all the wonderful benefits people claim. You are correct that it will mostly be broken down into component parts before reaching the blood stream. It might have the benefit of having nearly the same ratio as what the body may need to synth it, but whether that matters much if you get sufficient general dietary protein is probably not all that likely.

I have a genetic issue that influences collagen synthesis in the body, and every now and then some other people with my condition try to "medicate" themselves by eating collagen. No way that will ever do anything as the stuff does not go into the body as is. It's broken up and new collagen is built from available raw materials, using the messed up process.

For complex proteins, taking oral supplements of something like collagen probably doesn’t do much. There is little scientific evidence to show that it helps, and most of those studies are funded by the companies trying to sell you the supplements.

Best thing you can do for your skin long-term is avoid sun damage by wearing SPF.

Your right, it doesn’t, there’s a reason doctors don’t prescribe collagen supplements and it’s be cause your body just breaks them down into the amino acids, and your body can’t recognise where those amino acids originally came from and so when it turns them back into proteins, it’s just uses them for whatever it needs to make. Collage supplements and many stuff at the health stores are a load of bullrot

In general, the efficacy of most supplements is debatable. If you actually read the documentation on most of them, you'll notice that they're rather vague on what they actually DO. In many cases, they have absolutely no scientific evidence to suggest they actually do what they claim, so they leave their claims to vague phrases like "digestive health" or "joint health". There are also concerns about the safety of them if they did work (e.g., a supplement that claims to increase breast size and actually does? What the hell is it doing to your body to do that?)

The only supplements with any real evidence are the micronutrient ones (i.e., "vitamins") and only if you have a specific deficiency (e.g., calcium supplements for someone who's severely lactose intolerant).

Tldr, most supplements are at best useless or at worse harmful.

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There is in fact a lot of animal and clinical evidence that supports collagen hydrolysate (assuming this is what you meant by active collagen) supplementation for skin aging: Recent progress in preventive effect of collagen peptides on photoaging skin and action mechanism

The human digestion is a slow process catalyzed by digestive enzymes. Short collagen chains can be absorbed quickly into the blood stream while longer collagen chains are too big to be absorbed and are mixed with the digestive enzymes and broken down into peptides. Collagen hydrolysate are made by using heat or acid to controllably partially digest long collagen fibrils into shorter chains for fast absorption. Aging skin produces less collagen. The wrinkling we see on old people's faces are caused by this change in the material composition of their skin. The short collagen chains travel through the blood stream to the skin and are incorporated into cell-produced collagen fibers, making up for the loss of collagen production caused by aging.

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