Can Collagen Supplements Help in Skin Recovery & Rejuvenation?

So I get asked frequently about collagen, collagen supplementation, drinking collagen. What's my overall take on collagen? And for a long time I just, I would. I would say it depends based on absorption, things like that. But I'll go way back in my history. And so since we're talking about basically what can collagen do to help your skin? Because that's really what the question is. If I was taking care of a patient who had lost skin, say in an accident or burned in some way, sometimes severely burned, in a fire. House fires were common. Campfires were common times. Enclosed workspaces can catch fire and injure people. During my years of training, we took care of many, many severely injured patients who had large total body surface area burns and needed to have their burned skin removed and their nutrition optimized. And then if they had donor site, basically where you take other skin, you could help repair those areas, allow them to heal, get a competent skin envelope again, and then they didn't. Especially in really severely burned infants, you could culture keratinocytes and then place those. And although it was a much more fragile type of skin envelope, they could heal. And so during the course of those treatments for all those complex patients, I never once thought about actually giving them collagen, because collagen itself is a very, very large molecule. And for purposes of discussion, we'll just say, you know, collagen itself in scientific terms is 300,000 Dalton protein structure. And that's too large for our skin to absorb or for our GI tracts to absorb it. So obviously, you know, I get asked like, what are the benefits of taking collagen and what types are available? Are there any studies to support it? Take to see results? If I'm taking collagen supplements, what's the recommended dosage for enhancing skin health? Are there side effects? Can collagen replace just a healthy diet and skincare routine? Are there particular brands I recommend or endorse? Am I someone who potentially could be harmed? Should I avoid taking collagen? What other factors may affect the efficacy of using collagen supplements? Like lifestyle factors, including diet, smoking, sun exposure, et cetera. And these are all the appropriate things to be thinking about. And there are a number of factors that influence collagen absorption. So basically, when I get ask the question, I immediately think of like, all right, how are you going to actually get the collagen in your system in order to be able to use it? Anybody who follows my strategic holistic accelerated recovery program knows I use perfect Aminos which are already broken down amino acids because those are the easiest to absorb. So instead of taking the stairs everywhere, I usually take the elevator. So if we're going to talk about how to best utilize collagen, and I have collagen supplementation as part of our routine. But it's not the main thing. The most bioavailable form of the body, the one the body can use the easiest, is hydrolyzed collagen, which means it's broken down into smaller peptides, which are just smaller chains of amino acids, which, like I said, it's too large on its own to be easily absorbed. Once you break it down and make it smaller, then you can absorb it better. So hydrolyzed collagen is better. That's what you're looking for. That increases its bioavailability. The hydrolyzed collagen can be in a number of forms. It could be a powder, a capsule, a liquid. I don't have any, you know, relationships with any companies, but those are the forms that are the best in order to get something out of it. Other nutrients that you need in addition, obviously to help can get the collagen absorption is enough vitamin C to be able to use it. Everybody knows the story. The pirates, you know, would develop scurvy because they couldn't get vitamin cuz there's no, you know, basically fruits to eat on C. So you have to accompany collagen intake in the correct form with obviously vitamin C. But more importantly, everybody's in individual digestive health that dictates, you know, the majority of the issue. So as everybody knows, I deal with a lot of patients with breast implant illness. I deal with a lot of patients wanting specific cosmetic outcomes, whether it's from body contouring, facial rejuvenation, a holistic mommy makeover, a no cut facelift, whatever the case may be. And I put them through my strategic holistic accelerated recovery program. And the point being, you're trying to get everybody on as level a playing field as possible by understanding their genetics, their toxicity, their gut microbiome, food sensitivities and hormone balance. Because then you can actually then from my standpoint, make the most headway and give them game plan themselves for treatment for whatever the issue they're worried about, whether it's facial rejuvenation or breast or body contouring, skin tightening, what have you. The kind of, if you will, the way I think about it, people come to me in these moments where they've decided to have something done. They want a minimally invasive Way to do it. If it's a no cut facelift, they want to take out old breast implants. If they're suffering from capture, contracture, malposition, chronic systemic inflammation leading to breast implant illness, maybe they just want fat transfer for a holistic, you know, mommy makeover. So they want to reshape the hip, waist, thighs, abdomen and transfer that to the breast. So these are all, all treatments that I asked about. And then my program dictates, you know, much about what I really feel is important in terms of recovery. And typically I won't make a protein source in recovery, a collagen protein source because of the same reasons I just alluded to. It can be a component, but I don't rely on it. We would use typically pea protein. So it's, you know, stripped down. It's very simple. Because people have so much sensitivity in their, in their diets, we just try to be as careful as possible. And then I already said I leverage. Using perfect aminos, we have our inflammation support bundle which relies heavily on liposomal formulations which are liquid. The absorption's more in your mouth, oral cavity. We don't rely much on capsules other than a few for our detox. So we're really trying to increase your ability to both prepare, go through any kind of treatment you want and then recover in an expeditious fashion. This all combined with my in office care, which is oxygen therapy, lymphatic massage for the body contouring and breast patients when I indicate, and then red light therapy, of course we have that in the office. We have other options regarding different modalities in stem cells as well. So I think the larger issue is Collagen, of course is a molecule that can be utilized. It's specialized by you hydrolyzed, so it's broken down to a smaller molecule. The form in which you take it is fine. I don't know how much you would actually, because I don't have a test to assess that or how long a therapy should be for you to gain max benefit from my own personal bias, I feel if you want skin tightening, typically there's gotta be some small mechanical injury. And then I, I add different layers of stimulation through energy therapy to get more tightening. And then of course, if you will, the item is doing a no cut facelift where I don't use a knife for facial rejuvenation, but we remove skin without a scar, we tighten the neck in a minimally invasive way, and we tighten the deeper tissues. Bipolar radio frequency treatments with or without your stem cells. Or with or without exosomes. So in summary, you can use collagen. Use hydrolyzed collagen. You pick your your product you like with and stick with it and see how you do.