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Lo que nadie te dice sobre el colágeno (Estudios científicos) — Transcript

by La Traumatóloga Geek · 5,122 words · 779 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00There’s a jar in your bathroom, your
0:02kitchen, or your mother’s purse—
0:04white, elegant, with gold lettering. It
0:07says collagen. Maybe it says marine
0:10collagen. Maybe it says with hyaluronic
0:13acid and a hint of vanilla. It cost you
0:15between 20 and 40 euros, and you take
0:18it every morning, convinced you're
0:20giving your skin, your joints, even
0:22your bones, exactly what they’re
0:24running out of. I’m going to tell you
0:26something you’re not going to like.
0:28That powder you’re taking is
0:30chemically the same as gelatin in a
0:32dessert. The same as the film on your
0:35grandma's stew broth when it cools down
0:37and gets jiggly. Exactly the same
0:40molecule. The only difference between a
0:4230-euro jar and a packet of neutral
0:44gelatin from the supermarket is
0:46marketing. Strawberry flavoring and a
0:49photo of a 60-year-old woman with the
0:51skin of a 30-year-old. "But Inés, it
0:54works for me.""I notice my skin is
0:56better.""My knees hurt less." And here
0:58is where it gets interesting. You might
1:00be right. It might not be a total lie.
1:03There are good, serious studies,
1:05published in real journals, that
1:07suggest it does do something—a little
1:09, but something. The thing is, it does
1:12it for a completely different reason
1:14than what they’ve sold you, and when
1:16you understand the real reason,
1:18you’ll look at that jar differently
1:20and probably stop paying 30 euros for
1:22what you can get for one, because this
1:24isn’t new. This has happened before.
1:28In Paris in 1841, with a commission of
1:30Europe's most important scientists. A
1:34bone-boiling machine and a pack of dogs
1:36that starved to death with bellies full
1:38of collagen. By the end of this video,
1:41you will see three things. You’ll
1:43know what really happens to collagen
1:45when you swallow it. You’ll know what
1:47the only good studies that exist
1:49actually say and why they have a huge
1:51asterisk next to them, and you’ll
1:54know exactly what to do to make your
1:56own collagen without any brand taking
1:58your money. I’m Doctor Inés. Welcome
2:01to my channel. I’ve spent over 11
2:03years putting my hands inside the human
2:05body—knees, hips, shoulders, tendons.
2:10I’ve seen real collagen, the kind
2:12inside that holds up your skeleton—
2:14not the one in the jar—live, shiny,
2:16white, taut, or frayed like an old rope
2:18. And I’ll tell you one thing right
2:22now: collagen is probably the most
2:23important protein in your body, and the
2:25one you’ve never been told the truth
2:27about. It is the scaffolding for
2:30everything: for skin, bone, cartilage,
2:33tendons, your artery walls, your gums,
2:35and the corneas of your eyes. If it
2:38were to disappear suddenly, you would
2:40collapse onto the floor like a puddle
2:42of gelatin. Collagen literally holds
2:44you together. So the question isn't
2:47silly, it's actually a very good one.
2:49If collagen is so important and we
2:52produce less of it as we age, why not
2:54just take it directly? It sounds
2:57logical, it even sounds elegant. So,
2:59today we are going to answer three
3:01questions. The first: what really
3:04happens to collagen when you swallow it
3:06? Because I’ll tell you right now,
3:08your gut isn't foolish enough to let
3:10the whole protein pass through and send
3:12it straight to your face. What it does
3:14is something else, and that something
3:16changes everything. The second: does it
3:19actually work, or is it just a trick?
3:21I’m going to show you the solid
3:23studies, with names, numbers, and
3:25dosages. And I’m also going to show
3:27you who funded them, which is something
3:29you should always look at in nutrition.
3:31And the third, the one that’s going
3:32to make you the angriest. Why does
3:35something that biology gives away for
3:37free cost you 30 euros? Stay until the
3:41end, because when I show you what your
3:43body truly needs to produce collagen,
3:46you’ll realize you’ve been paying
3:48for half the recipe, while the other
3:50half—the part that really matters—
3:52is in your fridge for pennies. It turns
3:56out that in the early 19th century,
3:59France had a massive problem. Parisian
4:02hospitals were full of the poor, the
4:05sick, and orphans. There was nothing to
4:08feed them with. Meat was extremely
4:10expensive, and someone came up with an
4:12idea that looked brilliant on paper. If
4:15meat is expensive, let’s use the
4:17bones that get thrown away. You can
4:19extract gelatin from bones. Gelatin is
4:21protein. Let’s give gelatin to the
4:24poor and feed them for free. An 1841
4:27report from the Academy of Sciences,
4:30signed by some of the best scientists
4:33of the era, was, word for word, the
4:36answer to today’s collagen fad; only
4:39it was written 180 years ago, with dogs
4:42, steam engines, and a level of rigor
4:45that many Instagram experts would kill
4:48for. We are in Paris, in the 1830s. The
4:52city smells of coal, horses, and hunger
4:55. There is a man named Jean Pierre
4:58Joseph Darcet. He is a chemist, the son
5:01of a chemist. He is a man of the
5:03Enlightenment, the kind who believes
5:05with all his soul that science can
5:07solve the people's problems. And
5:10d’Arcet has an obsession: to end
5:12hunger for the poor in Paris by using
5:14something the city throws away by the
5:17ton—bones—because Paris generates
5:19mountains of bones every day from
5:21butcher shops, slaughterhouses, and
5:23kitchens. And d’Arcet knows something
5:26that normal people don’t: that inside
5:29the bone, besides calcium, there is a
5:31substance that, when boiled for a long
5:33time, becomes a thick liquid that
5:35wobbles when it cools. Gelatin, the
5:38same thing carpenters used to glue wood
5:41: boiled collagen. D’Arcet thinks: "
5:44This is protein, this nourishes," and
5:47he designs machines, autoclaves,
5:49pressure bone-boilers that extract
5:52gelatin on an industrial scale. He
5:55installs them in Paris hospitals, at
5:58the Hôtel-Dieu, at La Pitié, and
6:00begins boiling gelatin soup for the
6:02sick, the convalescents, and the poor.
6:05At first, everyone applauds. It’s
6:08cheap, it’s abundant, the plate
6:10wobbles, it looks like rich people’s
6:12food, and it’s pure protein. Or so
6:14they think? And don’t think this was
6:16just the whim of a few crazy people.
6:18This was taken seriously at the highest
6:20level. Factories were set up, contracts
6:23were signed with hospices, with prisons
6:26, with the city's charities. They
6:29proudly calculated how many thousands
6:31of rations they could get from the
6:34bones Paris threw away every week.
6:37People were convinced they were about
6:40to end the hunger of the poor in one of
6:42Europe’s largest cities by recycling
6:45trash. It was, for the mentality of the
6:48time, a humanitarian and scientific
6:51revolution at once. Gelatin was the
6:54superfood of the future. A future
6:56fueled by what used to rot in the
6:58street. Look at how seductive, how
7:01logical, and how similar this is to
7:03what makes you put a jar in your cart
7:06today. It’s protein, it comes from
7:09bone, it’s what we need. Take it
7:11directly. The exact same logic, 200
7:15years apart. But something strange
7:18starts to happen. Hospital doctors
7:20begin to notice that patients eating a
7:22lot of gelatin aren't getting better.
7:26What’s more, some get worse, they
7:27feel weak, they don’t heal; they eat
7:30it, they get full, they stop being
7:31hungry for a while, and yet they just
7:34wither away. As if eating were doing
7:37them no good at all. And this is where
7:39the story gets serious, because in
7:42France, when there is a real scientific
7:44dispute, they call in the heavy cavalry
7:47, the Academy of Science, the same home
7:49of Lavoisier, of Laplace, of the greats
7:52; they create an official commission,
7:54and they call it, without any
7:56imagination, the Gelatin Commission.
7:59And at the head of it, they put a man
8:01who did not mess around. His name is
8:04François Magendie, a physiologist, one
8:06of the fathers of experimental medicine
8:09. The teacher of Claude Bernard, a cold
8:11, rigorous man who didn't believe in
8:14anything that couldn't be measured.
8:16Magendie was the type who thought that
8:19an opinion without an experiment is
8:21worth nothing, and he set out to
8:22experiment. The commission took years.
8:26At a certain point, someone from the
8:28academy grew impatient and asked them
8:30for the report. Magendie, who by then
8:32was presiding over the house, replied
8:34that the experiments were still
8:36underway and that he wouldn't turn
8:37anything in until he was sure. It took
8:40them 7 years. And here I want you to
8:42understand why this is so important,
8:44beyond the anecdote. We are talking
8:47about the birth of an idea that seems
8:49obvious to us today, but was
8:51revolutionary back then. That to know
8:54if a food is useful, it’s not enough
8:56to reason about it; you have to test it
8:58, measure it, and compare it with
9:00control groups. Magendie was one of the
9:04first to apply this to food, and he
9:07applied it precisely with gelatin
9:09because he sensed that Darcet's neat
9:11logic might be completely wrong—that
9:13"it is protein, therefore it nourishes"
9:16was a tricky syllogism, and to
9:18dismantle it, he didn't argue, he
9:20experimented. And what was Magendie
9:23doing during those 7 years? Dogs,
9:25hundreds of dogs. And controlled,
9:28weighed, measured food. In an era when
9:31nobody did that. He took dogs and
9:33divided them into groups. To one, he
9:35gave only gelatin. The purest gelatin,
9:39the best extracted, the one Darcet
9:41defended. Water and gelatin, as much as
9:44they wanted. And the dogs died. They
9:48died just like the dogs that were given
9:50absolutely nothing at all. What's more,
9:53at first, the dogs ate the gelatin
9:55eagerly. A few days later, they would
9:57sniff it and turn away as if their
9:59bodies knew something the commission
10:01didn't yet know. They preferred to eat
10:03nothing rather than eat only that, and
10:05they died in the same timeframe as if
10:07they had been left to fast. Magendie
10:10tried everything. Gelatin alone,
10:13gelatin with a bit of fat, gelatin with
10:15a bit of meat to make it appetizing. It
10:18didn't matter. If the basis of the diet
10:20was gelatin, the dog would fade away.
10:23And then he did the experiment that
10:25closed it all out. He took another
10:28group of dogs and gave them a mixed,
10:30varied, normal diet. Those dogs were
10:34perfect, healthy, strong, with shiny
10:37coats. And to top it off, the report
10:40says he fed one group for months with
10:43raw bones, real bones, with their
10:46marrow, cartilage, fat, everything. And
10:49those dogs eating whole bones remained
10:52strong and vigorous. Do you see? The
10:55whole bone, good. Gelatin alone, death.
10:59On August 2, 1841, Magendie took the
11:03podium at the Paris Academy of Sciences
11:06and read the Gelatin Commission's
11:09report. And the verdict was devastating
11:11. Gelatin on its own does not nourish,
11:14does not sustain life, does not replace
11:17meat. A body that only receives gelatin
11:20dies. No more machines for the poor. No
11:23more bone soup for the poor. The dream
11:26of feeding Paris with what was being
11:28thrown away was over. The Academy had
11:30spoken. Now then, why does the same
11:33material that forms your bones, skin,
11:35and tendons not serve to nourish you if
11:38you take it purified? Magendie did not
11:41have the molecular answer. He couldn't
11:44have it because amino acids weren't
11:46fully discovered until decades later,
11:48but he sensed the essential point: that
11:50gelatin, although it is protein, is an
11:52incomplete protein. It is missing
11:55something, and that something turned
11:57out to be an essential amino acid
11:59called tryptophan. In other words,
12:02collagen has no tryptophan, and without
12:05tryptophan, your body cannot rebuild
12:08the proteins it needs to live. It
12:10doesn't matter how much you eat. And
12:12here is what blows my mind. Today's
12:15collagen industry sells you exactly
12:17what Magendie proved does not nourish.
12:20The same material, the same molecule,
12:22hydrolyzed gelatin, which is nothing
12:24more than gelatin broken into smaller
12:27pieces. The commission of the best
12:30scientists in Europe spent 7 years
12:32proving that, on its own, it doesn't do
12:35what it promises, and 180 years later,
12:38the same thing in strawberry-flavored
12:40powder is sold as the elixir of eternal
12:43youth. History does not repeat itself,
12:46but it rhymes, and that rhyme costs €
12:4830 a jar. The science behind it. Okay,
12:50let's look at the body, because there
12:52is a nuance here that is extremely
12:53important and that almost no one
12:55explains well—neither those who sell
12:57you collagen, nor those who tell you
12:59it's a total scam. The truth, as almost
13:01always, is in the middle and is much
13:04more interesting. First, let's
13:06understand what collagen is when it's
13:08inside you. Imagine the reinforced
13:10concrete of a building. Concrete can
13:13hold weight, but what keeps it from
13:15cracking and crumbling are the steel
13:17bars inside, the ones you can't see in
13:19your body. Those bars are collagen. It
13:22is a rope-shaped protein. Three long,
13:26braided strands, resistant to tension.
13:30There are 28 different types, but the
13:32one in charge, which accounts for 90%,
13:35is type 1 collagen. It is in the bone,
13:38in the tendon, and in the skin. And
13:41there is one more thing they will try
13:42to sell you, and it's worth knowing
13:44about these types of collagen. You will
13:47see jars that say type 1 and 3 collagen
13:50for skin, type 2 for joints, as if it
13:52were a targeted medicine, like a key
13:55fitting into a perfect lock. That is
13:58pure nonsense, because as we will see
14:00now, you don't absorb type 2 collagen
14:02and send it to your joints, or type 1
14:04to your skin; you break it all down
14:06equally in your gut, and the
14:08distinction is gone. The type on the
14:10label is a marketing trick that
14:12exploits the fact that types of
14:14collagen really do exist in your body
14:16to make you believe the powder knows
14:18where to go. It doesn't know. No
14:20protein you eat knows where to go. And
14:23now, the fact that changes everything.
14:25Collagen is not a statue. It is a
14:27permanent construction site. Your body
14:29is continuously destroying and
14:31rebuilding it every single day of your
14:33life, like a crew of masons removing
14:35old bricks and laying new ones non-stop
14:38. When you are young, the crew is huge
14:40and works fast. From the age of 25 or
14:43so, you begin to lose the ability to
14:45produce collagen by about 1%every year.
14:49When a woman reaches menopause and her
14:51estrogen levels drop, that loss
14:53accelerates. Up to 30%of skin collagen
14:57can be lost in the first 5 years after
15:00menopause. That is why skin thins and
15:03wrinkles, and why bones become fragile.
15:07It is not just calcium; the collagen
15:09scaffolding where the calcium attaches
15:12is crumbling. Up to this point,
15:14everything supports the logic of the
15:15jar. If I lose it, I replenish it. But
15:18here, the intestine enters the picture
15:19and complicates everything. When you
15:21take that collagen, your body doesn't
15:22just grab it and stick it on. That is
15:24impossible. Your intestine does not let
15:27whole proteins pass into your
15:28bloodstream. If it did, you would have
15:30a brutal allergic reaction every time
15:32you ate. What your digestive system
15:35does is what it does with any protein,
15:37with a steak or an egg. It tears it
15:40apart, breaking it down into individual
15:42bricks, the amino acids, or into small
15:44pieces of two or three bricks, the
15:45peptides. In other words, you take
15:48collagen from a cow or a fish, it turns
15:51it into a bunch of loose pieces that
15:53are identical to those any other
15:55protein would give you, and your face
15:57doesn't receive that collagen; it
16:00receives a handful of amino acids that
16:02your own body decides how to use based
16:04on its own rules. It might build a
16:07muscle, it might make a protein, or
16:09with any luck, it might make a little
16:11bit of collagen wherever it feels like.
16:15It’s as if you bought a very
16:16expensive designer piece of furniture,
16:18put it through a shredder at your front
16:20door, and expected the resulting
16:22sawdust to reassemble itself into the
16:24original piece of furniture inside your
16:26living room. That’s not how it works.
16:28The shredder is your stomach, and it
16:30doesn't care if the furniture was from
16:31IKEA or a luxury brand. Now, a fair
16:34caveat, because I don't want to feed
16:36you a tall tale on the other side
16:39either. It turns out that not all
16:41collagen is broken down completely into
16:43loose bricks. A small portion survives
16:47as two-amino-acid pieces, specific
16:49peptides with names like
16:51proline-hydroxyproline. And it has been
16:55observed that these bits do reach the
16:58blood, do circulate, and could act not
17:00as building material, but as a kind of
17:02signal, like a message, as if those
17:05fragments floating in your blood were
17:07telling your cells: "Hey, collagen is
17:09being broken down somewhere." Start
17:13building—a useful false alarm, let's
17:16say. "It was shown that
17:19hydroxyproline-containing peptides,
17:22such as prolyl-hydroxyproline and
17:24glycyl-prolyl-hydroxyproline, are
17:27stable in gastrointestinal fluid, are
17:29absorbed, and reach higher plasma
17:32concentrations after oral
17:34administration, suggesting that the
17:36intake of collagen tripeptide is an
17:39effective way to provide bioactive
17:41peptides orally." Son Tak, Journal of
17:46Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2016.
17:50In other words, the idea is not
17:52absolute nonsense; there is a plausible
17:55biological pathway, but look closely at
17:57what it doesn't say. It doesn't say it
18:01replenishes your collagen; it says some
18:03fragments reach the blood and could
18:05send a signal. From "could send a
18:09signal in a lab model" to "it takes
18:11years off your face." There is a small
18:14commercial chasm, and there is one more
18:16thing, the most important of all, and
18:18it's what Magendie didn't get to see.
18:20For your body to actually make real
18:23collagen, it needs an essential tool, a
18:25vitamin. Without it, you have all the
18:28bricks in the world and you can't build
18:30anything. That vitamin is vitamin C,
18:33and that is what the next part is about
18:35because it has one of the most
18:37terrifying stories in medicine behind
18:39it. Heavy artillery data. But before
18:42vitamin C, I owe you the numbers
18:43because I said there are good studies,
18:45and I’m going to give them to you
18:46straight, and then I’ll give you the
18:48asterisk. Data point one, the skin.
18:50Study by Proksch et al. published in
18:54Skin Pharmacology and Physiology in
18:562014. 69 women between 35 and 54 years
19:01old. Double-blind with placebo, as it
19:04should be. Some took 2.5 g of collagen
19:08peptides daily, others 5 g, others a
19:10placebo, for 8 weeks. The result: those
19:14who took collagen improved skin
19:17elasticity in a statistically
19:19significant way compared to the placebo
19:22. In other words, it wasn't a
19:24coincidence; the skin was objectively
19:27more elastic, measured with devices,
19:30not just "I look better." Data point
19:33two, the joints. Study by Clark et al.
19:36published in Current Medical Research
19:39and Opinion in 2008. Conducted at Penn
19:42State University. 147 college athletes
19:46with joint pain from exercise. 10 g of
19:49hydrolyzed collagen daily versus
19:51placebo. 24 weeks. Result: the collagen
19:56group had significantly less joint pain
19:58when walking, standing, or lifting
20:00weight. And for those who had knee pain
20:04, specifically, the effect was even
20:06clearer. Data point three, and this is
20:09the one that really interests me as an
20:10orthopedist. Bone. Study by König et
20:13al. published in the journal Nutrients
20:16in 2018. 131 postmenopausal women with
20:21already low bone density, 5 g of
20:23specific collagen peptides daily or
20:25placebo for a whole year, double-blind,
20:28and they measured bone mineral density
20:31of the spine and femoral neck, which is
20:34where it really matters, where grandma
20:37breaks her hip. After 12 months, the
20:40bone mineral density of the spine and
20:43femoral neck increased significantly in
20:45the group that took collagen peptides
20:48compared to the placebo group. In
20:51addition, a favorable shift in bone
20:54markers was observed, indicating
20:56greater bone formation and less
20:58degradation. König et al. Nutrients
21:012018.
21:02This is serious. It is exactly what an
21:04orthopedist looks for. A simple, cheap
21:07intervention. Safe, and one that
21:09improves bone density a little for
21:12women who are losing it. A little, mind
21:14you, it is not a drug, it does not
21:16replace bisphosphonates, but it adds up
21:18, and when something adds up, costs
21:20little, and does no harm. Data point
21:22four, so you can see that I don't side
21:24with those who criticize it either. The
21:26John et al. study, published in the
21:28Journal of Medical Food in 2014,
21:30involved 45 people taking hydrolyzed
21:33collagen combined with astaxanthin, an
21:35antioxidant. 12 weeks. It improved
21:39facial skin elasticity, and this is
21:41what's interesting: it reduced the
21:43expression of enzymes called
21:44metalloproteinases, which are literally
21:46the scissors that break down your
21:48cartilage. In other words, there was a
21:52biological signal, not just a sensation
21:54—again, a real, modest effect with an
21:56antioxidant helping, not just the
21:58collagen. So, I know what you're
22:01thinking. Are you telling me, Inés,
22:04that after all that talk about
22:05Magendie's dogs, collagen actually
22:07works? Well, be careful, because here
22:10comes the asterisk, and it's a big one.
22:14First, look at the dosages. 2.5, 5, 10
22:17grams a day, every day for months, not
22:20a little shot every now and then. If
22:23you're taking half a teaspoon three
22:25times a week and expecting a miracle,
22:27forget it. Second, and this is the big
22:30one: who funds these studies? Because
22:33in the bone study, one of the authors
22:36is from the Collagen Research Institute
22:39—a place literally named the Collagen
22:42Research Institute—and in the skin
22:45study, a name linked to the collagen
22:48industry appears again. This doesn't
22:51mean the studies are fake or rigged.
22:54They are methodologically sound studies
22:56published in peer-reviewed journals,
22:59but when the manufacturer is among
23:01those researching the product, caution
23:03dictates taking the results with a
23:06grain of salt. We must wait for
23:09independent researchers to replicate
23:11them and be wary of the most
23:13enthusiastic conclusions. And I tell
23:16you this from experience, because in
23:17medicine, we see this constantly and
23:19have learned how to read it. When a
23:23study with positive results is funded
23:25by the person selling the product, we
23:27don't throw it in the trash, but we
23:29apply what we call the "interest
23:31discount." It's like when a salesman
23:34tells you a car is wonderful. Maybe
23:36it's true, but you internally lower the
23:38enthusiasm a bit because you know they
23:40make money if you believe them. It's
23:42the same with collagen. Most of the
23:44nice research comes directly or
23:46indirectly from the very sector that
23:49markets it. And the funny thing is that
23:52they don't even need to lie. It’s
23:54enough to choose which studies get
23:56published and which ones get tucked
23:57away in a drawer. By measuring the
23:59parameter that turns out well and not
24:00the one that turns out average. It's
24:02not fraud; it's gardening. It's pruning
24:05the data until the shrub has the shape
24:07that sells. That’s why, until there
24:10are large, long-term studies paid for
24:12by someone with no stake in the outcome
24:15, I’ll keep my enthusiasm in check.
24:18And the third, the final asterisk—the
24:20one that stings. There is not a single
24:24large, long-term, independent study
24:26showing that taking collagen makes you
24:29age slower, live longer, or prevents a
24:32single real hip fracture. What exists
24:35are small improvements in specific
24:37parameters, measured over very short
24:40periods, and sometimes by people with
24:42an interest in the result. Now, the
24:44brutal truth. The molecule in your €
24:4830 tub and the one in a € 1 packet of
24:50unflavored gelatin are the same—
24:53identical. Hydrolyzed collagen. Yes,
24:56the effect is real. You can get it for
24:59€ 1; you’re paying € 29 for the
25:01packaging and the flavor. Because while
25:04science moves slowly with its small
25:06trials and studies of 70 women, the
25:08industry has done what it always does.
25:13It took a molecule with a real but
25:15modest effect, put it in a pretty jar,
25:17hiked the price 20-fold, and sold you a
25:19story that biology doesn't support.
25:22Let’s break down the tub, ingredient
25:24by ingredient. "Marine collagen" sounds
25:26like it’s from the bottom of the
25:27ocean. Like seaweed; it’s actually
25:30just boiled fish skin and scales.
25:33Nothing wrong with that, but it’s
25:34exactly the same. It's hydrolyzed
25:36collagen from cows or pigs, it just
25:38sounds more expensive, so they charge
25:40you more for it. The word "marine"
25:42gives you nothing; it just takes money
25:44from your pocket. Strawberry or vanilla
25:46flavored? Turn the tub around and read
25:48the label. Often, the second or third
25:50ingredient is sugar. Sometimes
25:53sweeteners, sometimes straight-up sugar
25:55. In other words, to take your "
25:57anti-aging" protein, you’re consuming
25:59sugar, which is precisely one of the
26:02things that damages collagen the most
26:04through a process called glycation. You
26:06give with one hand and take away with
26:08the other. This is the best one. "With
26:10hyaluronic acid, coenzyme Q10, and 12
26:12vitamins." The oldest trick in the book
26:14: they add a little bit of everything
26:16to justify the price. Often in
26:18ridiculous amounts, far below what
26:20would actually be useful, but they look
26:22great on the label. And now the crown
26:24jewel, the ultimate perversion: many
26:27collagen tubs have added vitamin C, and
26:29they tout it as an extra, a gift— "
26:32look how complete our product is." Well
26:34, it turns out that this "extra" is
26:36likely the only thing actually doing
26:37anything at all. And this brings us
26:39back to what I left you hanging with
26:41earlier. Do you remember me saying your
26:44body needs a vitamin to produce
26:46collagen? It's vitamin C. Without it,
26:49the enzymes won't braid. The three
26:51strands of collagen don't work, and
26:53that's not theory. It has a name and
26:56one of the most hair-raising histories
26:58at sea: scurvy. For centuries, sailors
27:01would go months without fresh fruit,
27:03develop scurvy, and it is nothing more
27:06and nothing less than your body
27:08stopping the production of collagen.
27:10And what happens when you stop building
27:12the scaffolding for everything? Well,
27:14the most terrifying part: their teeth
27:16would fall out because gums are pure
27:19collagen, they would bleed everywhere
27:21because blood vessel walls are collagen
27:23, and, most chilling of all, old wounds
27:26would reopen; scars from 20 years ago
27:28from a youthful fight, from a childhood
27:31surgery, would open on their own, and
27:33fractures that had healed decades
27:36earlier would separate again. Why?
27:38Because, as I told you, collagen is not
27:40a statue; it’s a permanent
27:41construction site. Your body is
27:43constantly making and unmaking your
27:46scars and your bones. As long as there
27:48is vitamin C, the crew replaces what it
27:50removes. When the vitamin runs out, the
27:52crew keeps removing, but they can't
27:54replace anything. And everything that
27:56was once built with collagen falls
27:58apart. And here is the connection that
28:00nobody tells you about when they sell
28:02you the jar. Human beings, along with
28:04primates and a few other critters, are
28:07the only animals on the planet that
28:09have lost the ability to produce our
28:11own vitamin C. Most animals produce it
28:13in their liver. A dog doesn't get
28:16scurvy from not eating oranges. We do.
28:19At some point in our evolution, the
28:21gene that produces it broke, and since
28:23we ate plenty of fruit, nothing
28:25happened. We became dependent on the
28:28outside for the only tool with which we
28:30build our body's scaffolding. In that
28:32sense, we are more fragile than our own
28:35dog. And the latest perversion, the
28:37most expensive of all: capsules,
28:39collagen in pill form, because at least
28:41the powder gives you a dose of several
28:43grams. But for collagen to do the
28:46little that studies show it can do, you
28:49need between 5 and 10 grams a day. Do
28:52you know how much collagen fits in a
28:54capsule? One gram, if you're lucky. So,
28:57to reach the dosage from the studies,
28:59you would have to take about 20 pills a
29:02day. You take two because the bottle
29:04says so, and those two pills give you a
29:06ridiculous dose that hasn't proven
29:08anything in any serious study, but the
29:10bottle is tiny, fits in your purse, is
29:12recommended by an influencer with a
29:14discount code, and costs the same or
29:16more than the powder. You are paying
29:19the maximum price for a minimum dose.
29:21It is the worst deal on the whole shelf
29:23and it sells the most because it is the
29:24most convenient. So pay attention to
29:27the cosmic joke. They sell you a $ 30
29:29tub of collagen, but for it to work,
29:31they have to add vitamin C, which costs
29:33pennies, and that is what actually gets
29:36your body to produce its own collagen.
29:39If you eat enough animal protein—eggs
29:41, chicken, fish, legumes—and enough
29:43vitamin C—a kiwi, a bell pepper, an
29:45orange—your body has everything it
29:47needs to manufacture its own collagen
29:49for free, with the building blocks you
29:51want and where you want them. Okay, I
29:54know what you’re thinking again,
29:56Inés. So, should I take the collagen
29:58or not? And my answer is clear: if you
30:00have money to spare and you’re
30:02excited about it, take it. It won’t
30:04hurt you, and it might give you that
30:06modest little boost the studies talk
30:07about. But if you're on a budget, save
30:10the money on the tub, buy a $ 1 packet
30:12of unflavored gelatin if you want the
30:14same collagen, or even better, invest
30:17that money in real protein, in fruit
30:19and vegetables with vitamin C. It is
30:21the only thing that has proven beyond
30:23any doubt, with no brand behind it,
30:25that it produces massive amounts of
30:27collagen and bone. Moving your body.
30:31Bone and tendon grow collagen when you
30:33use them. That doesn’t come in any
30:35tub and no one can sell it to you. The
30:38question I want to leave you with today
30:40is: how many of the things you take for
30:42your health are bets on biology, and
30:44how many are bets on marketing? The
30:48collagen in your tub is not a scam, but
30:50it’s not magic either; it’s a
30:52modest molecule with a massive
30:53advertising campaign, and you are
30:55paying the difference between what it
30:56costs and what it does. What you can do
30:59tomorrow is very simple. Pick up your
31:02tub of collagen, turn it over, read the
31:04ingredients, look for the sugar, look
31:06for the vitamin C, and ask yourself if
31:08you are paying $ 30 for a bit of
31:10gelatin and a spoonful of sugar. If you
31:14really want new collagen today for free
31:16, get up and make your muscles and
31:18bones pull something heavy. That is the
31:22recipe no brand wants you to know
31:24because it cannot be bottled. I am Dr.
31:26In. See you on the next shift.

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