Collagen In Beauty Products and Health Supplement

Collagen has been a popular ingredient in Beauty products and many claimed that it will give luminous skin, counter aging  when used on face or consumed as a supplement. How true are these claims?

In this article, I will examine the usefulness of collagen in the beauty products and their claims via my research through the research articles. I hope these will help my reader to understand collagen.

 

What is Collagen?

Collagen is a protein, a huge protein. As per all protein, it is make up of the smallest unit, amino acid. It is a major protein, most abundant in the animal kingdom, found in the connective tissue. It acts as a scaffold to the tissue, connecting them together. To put it simply, presence of collagen in the skin will produce the bouncy, wrinkle free skin.

 

Collagen In Beauty Products - Collagen Structure

 

Collagen are degenerated with age. In addition, it is noted that it is difficult for collagen to regenerate itself.

This macro molecule is also partly responsible for good bone health.

 

Effectiveness When Consumed as Health Supplement

From my Biochemistry undergraduate days, I was taught that collagen are macro-molecules (big molecules), meaning that when consumed like starch are broken down to the smallest unit whereby the intestine could absorb the nutrients.

In other words, from the fact, I was confident that it will result in no benefits to the skin or regeneration of collagen and so.

When I did a search of the published research journal in the scientific journal bank, PUBMED, interestly, there were an increasing number of research result with evidence pointing towards the effectiveness of collagen as an oral intake supplement. That means if you ingest collagen pills, you are likely to get bouncy skin. The various result were from Chung JH et al (2001), Matsuda N et al (2006),  Zague V et al (2011)Schwartz SR & Park J (2012)Choi SY et al (2014)Proksch E et al (2014)Borumand M & Sibilla S (2014).  I was astounded. But the science behind this finding is yet to be established. In addition, there isn’t any peer review conducted yet.

 

Effectiveness When Applied on Skin

There isn’t a single research published in any journal to determine the effectiveness.

Per Bos JD et al, the absorption of molecules via the skin is under 500 Dalton while the collagen is as huge as 2000 to 3000 Dalton. The collagen is 4 to 6 times bigger!

 

Discussion

In the entire PUBMED, less than 10 research journal was found relating to Collagen as health supplement or as beauty product. And there isn’t a single peer review yet.

With the little evidence and in my view, non-conclusive and non-substantial evidence, I will take the published data with a pinch of salt, till more works were done and the science behind it is understood. Moreover, Munro HM (1978) research suggested that high level of amino acid in the body has side effect on the brain. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find more works that affirm this finding. In a nutshell, personally, I will choose to wait and see.

We could not find any research on collagen as topical. But per Bos JD et al, only 5000 Dalton and below are absorbed, collagen is unlikely to be absorbed via the skin.

 

 

References

Shoulders MD, Raines RT. Collagen structure and stability. Annu Rev Biochem. 2009;78:929-58.

Lodish H, Berk A, Zipursky SL, et al. Molecular Cell Biology. 4th edition. New York: W. H. Freeman; 2000. Section 22.3, Collagen: The Fibrous Proteins of the Matrix. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21582/

Proksch E, Segger D, Degwert J, Schunck M, Zague V, Oesser SOral supplementation of specific collagen peptides has beneficial effects on human skin physiology: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Skin Pharmacol Physiol. 2014;27(1):47-55

Proksch E, Schunck M, Zague V, Segger D, Degwert J, Oesser SOral intake of specific bioactive collagen peptides reduces skin wrinkles and increases dermal matrix synthesis. Skin Pharmacol Physiol. 2014;27(3):113-9.

Yoon HS1, Cho HH, Cho S, Lee SR, Shin MH, Chung JHSupplementating with dietary astaxanthin combined with collagen hydrolysate improves facial elasticity and decreases matrix metalloproteinase-1 and -12 expression: a comparative study with placebo. J Med Food. 2014 Jul;17(7):810-6

Matsuda N, Koyama Y, Hosaka Y, Ueda H, Watanabe T, Araya T, Irie S, Takehana KEffects of ingestion of collagen peptide on collagen fibrils and glycosaminoglycans in the dermis. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 2006 Jun;52(3):211-5.

Chung JH, Seo JY, Choi HR, Lee MK, Youn CS, Rhie G, Cho KH, Kim KH, Park KC, Eun HCModulation of skin collagen metabolism in aged and photoaged human skin in vivo. J Invest Dermatol. 2001 Nov;117(5):1218-24.

Zague V1, de Freitas V, da Costa Rosa M, de Castro GÁ, Jaeger RG, Machado-Santelli GMCollagen hydrolysate intake increases skin collagen expression and suppresses matrix metalloproteinase 2 activity. J Med Food. 2011 Jun;14(6):618-24

Choi SY1, Ko EJ, Lee YH, Kim BG, Shin HJ, Seo DB, Lee SJ, Kim BJ, Kim MNEffects of collagen tripeptide supplement on skin properties: a prospective, randomized, controlled study. J Cosmet Laser Ther. 2014 Jun;16(3):132-7.

Schwartz SR, Park J. Ingestion of BioCell Collagen(®), a novel hydrolyzed chicken sternal cartilage extract; enhanced blood microcirculation and reduced facial aging signs. Clin Interv Aging. 2012;7:267-73.

Borumand M, Sibilla S Daily consumption of the collagen supplement Pure Gold Collagen® reduces visible signs of aging. Clin Interv Aging. 2014 Oct 13;9:1747-58

Bos JD1, Meinardi MM. The 500 Dalton rule for the skin penetration of chemical compounds and drugs. Exp Dermatol. 2000 Jun;9(3):165-9.

Munro HM. Nutritional consequences of excess amino acid intake. Adv Exp Med Biol. 1978;105:119-29.