Do collagen supplements really work?

Collagen supplements have been widely promoted on social media, with claims that they'll strengthen hair and nails, lessen wrinkles and even ease joint pain. But are there studies backing these claims? NPR health correspondent Maria Godoy dives into the research and shares science-backed tips for better skin that are more effective. Fill out our survey at npr.org/lifekitsurvey. Follow us on Instagram: @nprlifekitSign up for our newsletter here. Have an episode idea or feedback you want to share? Email us at [email protected] the show and listen to it sponsor-free by signing up for Life Kit+ at plus.npr.org/lifekitLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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• 0:17Marielle Segarra?

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• 0:47Marielle Segarra?

  So you may know, our bodies are rich in a protein called collagen. Here's Maria Godoy, health correspondent at NPR.

• 0:54Speaker 02

  It's found in bones, tendons, ligaments, you know, cartilage. And it is a major structural protein in our tissues. So it gives skin elasticity and firmness, which we want. And, you know, it also gives strength and integrity to the tissues and keeps joints strong, among other things.

• 1:11Marielle Segarra?

  But guess what? Starting in our 20s, the amount of collagen in our bodies and the quality of that collagen starts to decline. Real bummer.

• 1:20Speaker 02

  I know, but life is cruel. So, you know, it's just part of the natural aging process. And for collagen in skin, there are certain things that will speed that decline up, like smoking, you know, exposure to environmental pollution, UV radiation, sun exposure, which is, you know, why you should use sunscreen, not just to protect against cancer, but also to keep your skin healthy and preserve that elasticity.

• 1:41Marielle Segarra?

  Anyway, this is why collagen supplements have become a multi-billion dollar industry. They're supposed to help our bodies make more collagen. By the way, as a reminder, the FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they go to market. And just because you can buy something in a store, it doesn't mean it works. But yeah, Maria says these are everywhere.

• 2:02Speaker 02

  Like, if you just walk into Costco, there's always like giant bottles of collagen peptides that are being sold. And if you go on social media, everyone's promoting it, just influencers, wellness influencers, saying collagen is good for you and very much everywhere on social media for the last years.

• 2:24Speaker 03

  If you're not taking a collagen supplement, then what are you doing? I take two servings of collagen, mix it with my coffee.

• 2:28Speaker 04

  Collagen is everything. It's a little bit more pricey, but supplements, there's something in me that doesn't care.

• 2:32Speaker 05

  The best decision I have ever made was to trust the stranger on TikTok.

• 2:39Speaker 05

  I'm already getting emotional. I saw a video of a woman talking about this collagen. It's completely changed my life.

• 2:47Marielle Segarra?

  But do collagen supplements work? Maria has been looking into it. And on this episode of Life Kit, we talk about what the research says. That's after the break.

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• 4:08Marielle Segarra?

  Hey, Maria.

• 4:09Speaker 02

  Hey.

• 4:09Marielle Segarra?

  OK, so where do collagen supplements come from?

• 4:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, so collagen supplements generally come from animal sources, like fish, pigs, chicken, cattle. And there are two main forms. The first, which you see a lot of, is called hydrolyzed collagen. So this collagen has been broken down into peptides, so like smaller chains. Of amino acids that are more easily absorbed. And the idea is that you take in these peptides and then they're absorbed by your GI tract. Dermatologist Lauren Taglia of Northwestern Medicine explained it to me like this.

• 4:44Speaker 07

  The thought or the theory is that if you ingest it, it goes through the GI tract and gets absorbed. And then it theoretically goes to places to support or increase collagen production.

• 4:58Speaker 02

  So hydrolyzed collagen supplements are generally what you see advertised for hair, nails, skin, but they are also sold to promote joint health. But there is another type of collagen supplement that's sold specifically for joints. It's called undenatured native type 2 collagen. And there are lots of different types of collagen in our body, like more than two dozen different types have been identified. But type 2 makes up the majority of the collagen in cartilage that surrounds joints. And undenatured type 2 collagen hasn't been broken down, unlike the peptides. It's thought to work differently. You know, so basically the idea is that it triggers an immune response that releases

• 5:38Speaker 02

  chemical messengers and those chemical messengers tamp down inflammation. And so that would help alleviate joint inflammation and pain in patients with things like osteoarthritis.

• 5:50Marielle Segarra?

  And based on your reporting, do collagen supplements actually do what they claim? What does the research say?

• 5:57Speaker 02

  Well, let's start with skin. I spoke with Dr. Marianne McCready-Senna. She is an assistant professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School. And she said, yeah, there is some evidence that supplements can boost skin.

• 6:09Speaker 08

  There have been randomized controlled trials that have shown that after eight to 12 weeks of collagen supplementation, things like depth of wrinkles, skin elasticity, dermal thickness seems to be improved.

• 6:24Marielle Segarra?

  Okay, so that's promising.

• 6:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, it sounds promising, right? And then just this fall, there was a big meta-analysis that looked at 23 randomized controlled trials with more than 1,400 patients who took collagen supplements for skin over eight to 12 weeks. And it found that patients did see significant improvements in wrinkles, hydration, elasticity.

• 6:46Speaker 02

  But there was a big caveat. Here's Senna again.

• 6:50Speaker 08

  High-quality studies and studies not funded by industry did not show a significant association, right? While those funded by industry and that were a bit lower quality did find a significant association.

• 7:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, when she says lower quality, that means that the study design wasn't as strong. So for instance, maybe it was not a double-blind study so that neither the researchers nor the participants knew if they were receiving collagen supplements or placebo. So that's considered less rigorous and less reliable. And then when it comes to industry funding a study, that doesn't mean the results shouldn't be considered at all. But you know, it does raise the potential for bias if the people who sell the supplements are, you know, funding the finding that says, yeah, they work.

• 7:34Marielle Segarra?

  Yeah.

• 7:35Speaker 02

  One other thing I wanted to note is that Senna is a dermatologist and her specialty as a researcher is actually hair loss. And you'll often see collagen supplements promoted as being good for hair. But Senna says there's basically no evidence when it comes to hair. And I wanted to note that because I have myself in the past have purchased collagen supplements just for this, to like boost hair. But you know, she says there are no human studies she's aware of that that support this. And so if that's your concern, just don't waste your money.

• 8:01Marielle Segarra?

  Got it. What about joint health? Is there any evidence there?

• 8:06Speaker 02

  For joints, the state of evidence is pretty similar. There are studies that show benefits, especially when it comes to osteoarthritis in the knees. And osteoarthritis is like when the cartilage that cushions the end of your bone wears down. So you get pain and stiffness and loss of movement with age. It's the most common form of arthritis in the world. And several studies have shown improvements in pain reduction and knee function when using either hydrolyzed collagen or undenatured type 2 collagen. So that sounds promising, but again, the problem is that many of the studies are industry-funded. So it's really hard to disentangle the potential for bias. And the studies that do exist are pretty small and a lot of them are considered low quality. I also spoke with Dr. David Felsen.

• 8:49Speaker 02

  He's a longtime osteoarthritis researcher at Boston University. And he said that, yeah, collagen supplements could potentially help treat people with joint pain, but his stance is really just this.

• 9:00Speaker 09

  There's no large-scale studies here and there need to be.

• 9:04Marielle Segarra?

  Okay, so what's the bottom line here, you think? Should we be using collagen supplements or not?

• 9:09Speaker 02

  Well, you know, when it comes to joints, he says. The evidence isn't there for him to recommend it. But if he has a patient, you know, who's taking these supplements and they feel like they're helping with joint pain and it's not costing them an arm and a leg and they don't have kidney problems, he's OK with that. But just make sure to talk to your doctor first to make sure supplements aren't interfering with any medication you're on. And one thing I want to note is that whenever you're buying any supplement, you want to make sure to buy ones that are tested by a third party. Yeah, how can you know if a supplement is tested by a third party? Do you just like look at the label? So products that have been certified by a third party will often have a verification seal on the label. And there are third-party certifications to look for.

• 9:52Speaker 02

  There's NSF Certified for Sport, that's one. Informed Sport is another. And USP Verified Mark from the US Pharmacopeia. You can also go to these groups' websites to look up a product and see if they certified it. And even if a product has one of these labels on the bottle, I'd recommend cross-checking it on the website anyway, just to make sure. The bottom line, I wanted to know is like, is this going to help me? And I asked dermatologist Lauren Taglia, and she told me, without large randomized controlled trials, funded, independent of industry, doctors like her just can't confidently recommend collagen supplements for skin either.

• 10:29Speaker 07

  That's kind of where we all stand. We're kind of, you know, just, oh, it could be helpful, but not a ton of strong evidence to support at this point.

• 10:36Speaker 02

  Now, she and other doctors, dermatologists specifically that I spoke with, said, you know, if you decide to take collagen supplements on your own, they may help you. Anecdotally, they've had patients say their skin or even their nails look better, but they can't recommend them based on the current science.

• 10:52Marielle Segarra?

  After the break, we'll have more on collagen supplements with Maria Godoy.

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• 12:01Marielle Segarra?

  All right, we're back with Life Kit. Maria, I imagine these collagen supplements could also be expensive, right? Like you said, it's a multi-billion-dollar industry. So there's also this question of, is this worth the money?

• 12:13Speaker 02

  Right. That was actually my big question, because I know I've paid like over $30 a bottle for collagen supplements in the past when I tried them. And so I asked this, like, if you have 30 bucks to spend, is this where you spend it? And like, no. When it comes to skin, at least, all the doctors I spoke with stressed that there are things you can do to help boost collagen that do have science behind them. And that's really, especially if you're on a limited budget, that's where you should be spending your money.

• 12:40Marielle Segarra?

  OK, love that. What are those?

• 12:42Speaker 02

  One of the people I spoke with is Dr. Maya Jonas. She's an assistant professor of dermatology at the Ohio State University. And she said, start with the things we know are safest and have the most robust evidence behind them.

• 12:52Speaker 10

  We always talk about diet, making sure patients are eating a healthy Mediterranean diet that's well-balanced, avoiding alcohol, not smoking, avoiding secondhand smoke. We always talk about sun protection. We talk about retinol and using vitamin A.

• 13:09Speaker 02

  Retinol, for those who don't know, is a topical vitamin A derivative, and it basically boosts collagen production. There are lots of different kinds of vitamin A-based products that you might have heard of. You know, there's tretinoin, or you might hear of things like retinaldehyde, and these are all in the retinoid family. And some of them are stronger than others. Some people are more sensitive to some formulations than others, so you might have to try different formulations to figure out which one works for you. Or you can talk to a dermatologist so that they can steer you in the right direction. And you know, another dermatologist I spoke with said, if you polled like 100 dermatologists, 99 of them would tell you that retinoids are the number one thing you should be using to boost collagen.

• 13:53Speaker 02

  And use it at night. You don't want to actually use it during the day because it makes you a little more sun sensitive. And UV exposure can actually make it a little less effective. So two reasons to use it at night. Okay. So that's my public service announcement on retinol and sunscreen, you know, sunscreen every day, right? Because as we talked about at the beginning, sun exposure will accelerate the decline of that collagen production in your skin. And you know, when it comes to diet, Jonas says eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. That's not just good for your overall health, but they also contain things our bodies need to support collagen production, things like vitamin C and zinc and copper.

• 14:36Speaker 02

  And you also want to make sure you get plenty of protein from things like fish, poultry, meat, dairy, eggs, soy, legumes. Basically, you want to eat foods that contain the amino acids you need for collagen production.

• 14:47Marielle Segarra?

  Yep.

• 14:48Speaker 02

  And the last thing I'm going to evangelize is to get plenty of sleep and exercise. Again, part of my regular spiel. So research has shown that poor sleep and stress can take a toll on skin. And exercise can not only improve your mood, but it can improve blood flow to the skin. And it may help counteract the loss of elasticity and dermal thickness that comes with aging. So, you know, if you don't want to do it for your health, do it for your vanity.

• 15:16Marielle Segarra?

  Totally. That's what, that's what I say to people about sunscreen too.

• 15:21Speaker 02

  Me too, all the time. Also, I tell my daughter, good skin in your 40s begins in your 10s with sunscreen.

• 15:26Marielle Segarra?

  In your 10s? Oh, no.

• 15:34Marielle Segarra?

  All right, Maria, thank you so much for this.

• 15:36Speaker 02

  Oh, it's my pleasure.

• 15:41Marielle Segarra?

  Okay, time for a recap. There are randomized controlled trials showing that collagen supplements can make your skin look and feel better, specifically making your wrinkles less prominent and your skin thicker and more elastic. But a meta-analysis of 23 of these studies found a big caveat. When you remove the lower-quality studies and the ones that were funded by the industry, you don't see those results. Kind of the same deal with joint health. Some studies show benefits, but many of them are industry-funded and low-quality. There is basically no evidence that collagen supplements can make your hair healthier. But some things we know can improve collagen production.

• 16:20Marielle Segarra?

  Eating a Mediterranean diet, using topical retinoids, avoiding alcohol, not smoking, wearing sunscreen, and getting plenty of sleep and exercise. Yeah, all the boring stuff we're always telling you to do. That's our show. Have you subscribed to the Life Kit newsletter yet? Every Friday, you'll get even more expert advice on health, money, and more, all curated by the Life Kit team. Think of it as a weekly check-in from your friends at Life Kit. Subscribe at npr.org/lifekitnewsletter.

• 16:56Marielle Segarra?

  This episode of Life Kit was produced by Margaret Serino. Our visuals editor is Beck Harland, and our digital editor is Malika Gharib. Megan Kane is our senior supervising editor, and Beth Donovan is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy Tagle, Claire Marie Schneider, and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from Stacy Abbott, with fact-checking by Tyler Jones. I'm Marielle Segarra. Thanks for listening.