The Ultimate Go-Getter Guide To Collagen Peptides!

Did you know that collagen peptides a “protein glue” that hold your body together?

We simply call it collagen, and it’s all the rage nowadays for good reasons!

Without collagen, your skin would be dry and thin, your nails would be brittle, your muscles couldn’t grow, and your bones would be extremely fragile.

You may have heard that collagen can be good for your skin, but here’s the secret the beauty industry doesn’t want you to know: collagen does nothing for your skin, hair, or nails when it’s applied topically.

In fact, the molecule is too big to be absorbed by the skin. Collagen has to be eaten to reap all of its (many) benefits.

Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body and it helps give shape, strength, and integrity to your tissues and organs.

It’s necessary to form and heal virtually every tissue in your body. That’s why it’s the most abundant protein you have — 30% of the total protein in your body is collagen.

Without optimal levels of collagen all of the following suffer or deteriorate:

• Skin
• Nails
• Hair
• Muscles
• Tendons, joints, and ligaments
• Bones
• Tissue
• Eyes
• Gut
• Heart
• Brain

So it’s clear that OPTIMAL levels of collagen are key for anyone suffering with issues in any of those areas. In fact, here are my favourite 11 benefits of optimal collagen levels…

TOP 11 BENEFITS OF THE RIGHT KIND OF COLLAGEN (ARGENTINE COLLAGEN PEPTIDES (ACP))

1. SUPPORTS SKIN HEALTH

The real and lasting benefits of collagen in your skin come from the inside out. Research shows that taking the right kind of collagen supplements:

• Improves skin elasticity
• Boosts skin hydration
• Reduces wrinkles
• Prevents UV damage
• Prevents early signs of aging
• Diminishes roughness of facial skin

For example, in one double-blind trial, 69 women received either 2.5g or 5.0g of a collagen supplement or placebo once daily for 8 weeks.

At the end of the study, skin elasticity in both collagen groups was significantly higher in comparison to placebo. After 4 weeks of follow-up treatment, elderly women had a significantly higher skin elasticity level.

Another double-blind trial comparing two types of collagen compounds found that a high collagen content significantly improved facial skin moisture, elasticity, wrinkles and roughness in comparison to the low collagen compound and the placebo.

Bottom line: The right kind of collagen supplementation can prevent early signs of aging by keeping your skin firm and moisturized.

2. KEEPS YOUR NAILS STRONG

Collagen supplementation can prevent brittle and broken nails, and support nail growth. One study found that consuming the right kind of collagen powder…

• Increased nail growth rate by 12%.
• Decreased the frequency of broken nails by 42%.
• 64% of participants had a significant improvement in brittle nails.
• 88% of participants experienced an improvement after 4 weeks. 

3. MAY PREVENT PREMATURE HAIR LOSS

New ground-breaking research has found that certain types of collagen could prevent early hair loss, hair thinning, and hair graying.

Because collagen is part of your hair follicle stem cells (HFSC), which helps create new hair. A deficiency can trigger early aging in hair stem cells, causing premature hair loss.

4. ALLOWS MUSCLES GROWTH AND REGENERATION

Adequate levels of collagen in your body are vital for the growth and healing of muscles. The right kind of collagen supplementation has been shown to:

• Increase muscle strength
• Make resistance training more effective
• Aid muscle regeneration
• Prevent muscle disorders

One study found that supplementation with ultra-pure collagen in combination with resistance training increased fat-free mass and muscle strength while lowering fat mass.

A study published in Nature discovered that a lack of a certain type of collagen can impair muscle recovery.

5. HELPS JOINTS, TENDONS, AND LIGAMENTS

Collagen makes up a vast majority of the tissue in joints, tendons, and ligaments. In fact, tendons are 80% collagen!

Therefore, any deficiencies can affect flexibility, range of motion and cause joint diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.

Supplementing with Argentine collagen can:

• Maintain the integrity of tendons and ligaments
• Prevent and treat rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis
• Lower joint pain and swelling
• Support tendon repair

In a randomized, double-blind trial involving 60 patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis, consuming the right type of collagen for 3 months decreased the number of swollen and tender joints, and 4 patients had a complete remission.

Collagen supplementation is especially helpful for osteoarthritis. One double-blind study concluded that “collagen peptides are potential therapeutic agents as nutritional supplements for the management of osteoarthritis and maintenance of joint health”.

6. STRENGTHENS BONES

The strength of your bones depends on two things:

• The quantity of bone tissue.
• The organization of the collagen framework in your bones.

As you age, this collagen network debilitates, making your bones less resistant. Luckily, your body is able to quickly absorb and use oral collagen to make up for the natural collagen loss.

Consuming ultra-pure collagen supplements may:

• Stimulate bone-forming cells.
• Improve calcium absorption.
• Provide anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits.
• Prevent osteoporosis.
• Increase the capacity to resist fractures.

In children, daily intake of ultra-pure collagen at key stages of growth has positive effects on bone remodeling and formation.

7. PROMOTES TISSUE REPAIR

Here’s how collagen helps your skin heal:

• Within seconds of the injury, collagen activates coagulation in the wound to stop the bleeding.
• As the blood vessels grow stronger, cells called fibroblasts — collagen factories — lay down more collagen (aka the “glue”) until the scar looks firmer.
• During the second week following the wound, leukocytes gradually abandon the wound area and your cells start cranking out collagen.

If your body isn’t able to produce enough collagen, or you have a deficiency in vitamin C (crucial for collagen synthesis), your ability to heal can be affected.

8. KEEPS YOUR EYES HEALTHY

Collagen is key for good vision as it helps maintain the pigmented layer of your retina and the clear gel that fills your eyeball (vitreous body).

Research shows that deficiencies in a certain type of collagen may lead to eye defects and malformations.

 

9. PROMOTES GUT HEALTH

A recent study found that collagen peptides could help repair a “leaky gut.”

Also, a lack of collagen in your intestinal tissue has been linked to chronic inflammation and inflammatory bowel disease (IBS).

 

 

10. ENSURES HEART HEALTH

Collagen keeps your heart beating, literally, because it is concentrated in one of the three walls of your heart: the myocardium, which is in charge of making the contractions to pump blood. Here, collagen does two things:

• Provides a structural framework to the cardiac muscle cells.
• Provides stiffness to the walls of your heart and aids force transmission so it can pump blood.

Without enough collagen, your heart couldn’t beat.

Unfortunately, as you age the collagen network in the heart naturally changes. This shift in collagen levels weakens and thins your heart’s wall, alters heart function, and changes the pressure in your arteries when the heart pumps blood.

11. SUPPORTS BRAIN HEALTH

Collagen is present in your neurons, where it helps to fight oxidation and neuro-degeneration.

Research finds that collagen deficiency in the brain can cause:

• Spontaneous cell death (apoptosis).
• Higher vulnerability to oxidative stress.
• Impaired autophagy (destruction of cells in the body).
• Impairment of motor and memory task performance.
• Increased neurotoxicity.

In other words, the right type of collagen helps the brain function properly and prevents neuro-degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Bottom Line: The “hype” around collagen supplementation (assuming it’s the right, safe, pure type) is well deserved because collagen deficiency is linked to many degenerative diseases like arthritis, osteoporosis, poor vision, impaired wound healing, leaky gut, and Alzheimer’s disease.

THE SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT COLLAGEN PEPTIDES SUPPLEMENTS

The right type of collagen supplements provide readily-available collagen chains that can be used by your body in all the tissues it’s needed. And while whole foods DO give your body the raw materials to make “glue” (collagen), the right type of ultra-pure collagen supplement gives your body the “glue” directly. This can result in benefits to all the areas we just covered in a shockingly short amount of time.

Collagen supplements can have many names, including the terms “collagen hydrolysate”, “hydrolyzed collagen” and  “collagen peptides”, but they all mean the same thing: small collagen chains extracted from animal tissues.

Gelatine goes through a similar process, but it’s not the same as hydrolyzed collagen, as some people might think.

COLLAGEN PEPTIDES VS GELATIN

Collagen and gelatine are not the same supplement. Gelatine is a form of cooked collagen.

To create gelatine, the collagen-rich tissues are boiled at a high pressure to partially break down the collagen molecules. The gelatine is then extracted, purified and dried. This is called a partial hydrolysis.

Unlike collagen supplements, there are no enzymes to create gelatine. The collagen does not brake down entirely.

This leaves gelatine with long chains of amino acids, in contrast with the short chains of collagen peptides.

That’s why gelatine is less absorbable and efficient than collagen peptides.

WHICH COLLAGEN PEPTIDES SHOULD YOU TAKE? 

Gelatine is ideal if you want to increase your intake of amino acids in your daily life — as you saw above, it’s an excellent source of collagen building blocks — but ultra-pure Argentine hydrolyzed collagen is a far better choice if your goal is to boost your collagen levels faster and more easily.

BENEFITS OF ULTRA-PURE ARGENTINE COLLAGEN PEPTIDES

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but these are my 5 favourite benefits of the right kind of collagen supplementation:

#1 BOOST YOUR METABOLISM

Ultra-pure hydrolysed Argentine collagen is easily digestible in the gut and then immediately crosses the intestinal barrier, enters circulation, and become available for your tissues.

Ultra-pure hydrolysed Argentine collagen is the most efficient source because:

• It accelerates the digestion and absorption from the gut.
• Increases amino acid bio availability.
• Speeds up the incorporation rate of dietary amino acids into tissues.
• Contains no fillers nor toxins that muck up the process

 

In other words, it works faster than gelatine and collagen made from scratch by your body.

#2 IMPROVE SKIN, JOINTS, AND BONE HEALTH

Ultra-pure hydrolysed Argentine collagen peptides strengthen all the tissues in your body, but research finds they particularly shine on skin, joints, and bones by helping to:

• Stimulate collagen regeneration.
• Reduce and prevent joint pain.
• Prevent bone density loss.
• Stimulate bone forming cells.
• Improve calcium absorption.
• Fight skin aging.
• Improve skin elasticity.

#3 IT’S SO EASY TO USE

Ultra-pure hydrolysed Argentine collagen is a tasteless powdered form, which makes it ideal for incorporating into hot beverages, baked goods, smoothies, and other foods without any unpleasant flavours.

#4 IT DOESN’T GEL

Ultra-pure hydrolysed Argentine collagen do not make your beverages gelatinous. It dissolves quickly and won’t change the texture of your food.

However, small clumps might form at the bottom of cold drinks (like cold brews), so enjoy it in hot drinks like hot cocoa, coffee, and tea whenever possible.

#5 AWESOME AMINO ACIDS

Ultra-pure hydrolysed Argentine collagen is 90% protein and contains 8 out of the 9 essential amino acids — histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine.

Tryptophan is the only one not included, but you can easily get it from low-sugar yogurt, eggs, and meat.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A COLLAGEN PEPTIDES SUPPLEMENT

Please do not just take any collagen supplement. Thanks to the popularity of collagen supplementation, some very dangerous players have entered the space and you MUST be careful when choosing which type of collagen you will put into your body.

Be sure to consider at least these 5 factors:

#1 CONSIDER THE SOURCE

The best hydrolysed collagen in the market is bovine collagen. It’s the most researched and has proven health benefits for your skin, bones, joints, eyes, brain, muscles, tendons, and more.

Here’s why it’s superior to other sources:

• Porcine collagen is less researched as a supplement and it’s mainly used for industrial applications.
• Chicken collagen must be avoided for its vulnerability to aviary disease contamination.
• Marine and fish collagen show promising benefits, but they’re relatively new and there’s not enough research to ensure their effectiveness or safety.
• Bovine collagen materials derive from grass-fed cows, while it’s harder to source high-quality raw materials for the rest of collagens.

#2 GO FOR GRASS-FED

Collagen from grass-fed cows has a superior quality.

Research finds that grass-fed cows have higher beta-carotene (precursor of Vitamin A) levels than grain-fed cows.

This matters because vitamin A is critical for the overall integrity of skin and mucous membranes. In the case of cows, it helps collagen maintain the integrity of the hide, which is the main tissue that creates collagen peptides.

This means grass-fed cows may have healthier skins (hides) than grain-fed cows, making grass-fed collagen more effective.

#3 MAKE SURE IT IS AT LEAST 90% PROTEIN WITHOUT FILLERS

Most collagen’s on the market come with a bunch of non-collagen nonsense. To safely enjoy all the benefits we’ve discussed, your collagen must be 90% protein from grass-fed collagen peptides.

Collagen peptides don’t need any other ingredients to be processed, so your supplement should have just one ingredient on the label — collagen. The label should say something like this:

• Hydrolysed Collagen (Bovine source)
• Grass-fed hydrolysed collagen powder
• Grass-fed bovine collagen peptides
• Hydrolysed bovine collagen

Stay clear of any supplements that include gelatine (that’s not the same as peptides), vegetable magnesium stearate, or sweeteners besides stevia.

To make sure there are no hidden ingredients, check the nutrients profile, and make sure the carbs are at 1% or less.

#4 MAKE SURE IT’S SOURCED FROM ARGENTINA

Argentine beef is famous for its world class purity and safety. Because you deserve the purest and safest collagen, make sure yours comes from Argentina. This is often called Argentine Collagen etc.

#5 AVOID ADDITIVES AND FLAVORING

Ultra-pure Argentine grass fed collagen is tasteless and thus can be easily added to anything you eat or drink.

Additives and flavoring NEVER do anything to help you and the VAST majority of them hurt you.

Therefore, please do not allow increasing your collagen intake to increase your intake of additives and flavoring.

Enjoy tasteless pure Argentine grass fed collagen within other beverages, smoothies, and dishes that already provide awesome — and non-toxic — flavour.