As many of you know, I have been a collagen supplementation skeptic. The first reason is that collagen is a horrible protein supplement for muscle. It’s probably the single worst quality protein you can consume in terms of amino acid profile for muscle. However, many people have touted its benefits, not for skeletal muscle, but for connective tissue, skin, & tendons. This study examined 12 weeks of collagen peptide supplementation at 30g per day in subjects undergoing resistance training vs. those taking a placebo
The researchers found an increase in patellar tendon thickness with the group getting collagen supplementation. That is interesting, but I would stop short of saying it’s a slam dunk. The first thing to point out is that I don’t think it was an appropriate control group. In my opinion, if you wanted an appropriate control, you would have included 30g of protein supplementation from another non-collagen peptide source. Based on the design of the study as it is, the argument can be made that this may simply be an overall protein effect rather than specifically an effect of collagen
The second issue is it lacks a viable mechanism IMO. We have 2 studies from an excellent lab that specializes in protein metabolism demonstrating that collagen supplementation fails to increase the rate of connective tissue synthesis (PMIDs: 39086044 & 37202878)
Right now I’m on the fence about collagen supplementation. We do have human RCTs demonstrating positive outcomes, which usually is my go to in terms of evidence. But I get a bit skittish with studies that show outcomes but there is a disconnect between the outcome & the mechanism. I still want to see more data before I can confidently recommend collagen supplementation
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