- Co-authored by Hahsa Abid and David Frost
Collagen creams, gummies, powders, serums, and supplements seem to be everywhere. Certainly there is merit to looking good “nekked”, as David Frost wrote in his second book, Strong to Save.
But does collagen’s plausible value go beyond skincare and aesthetics? The short answer is a conditional yes.
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body, making up roughly 30% of total body protein. This equates to about 10 pounds for an average-sized adult.
Think of collagen as our structural “glue” that gives tissues strength and resilience, with at least 28 recognized types in the human body. The three most common types of collagen and their roles are summarized in this Table:
| Tissue/Organ | Approx. Collagen Content* | Primary Type | Structural Role |
| Tendons | ~80–85% of dry mass | Type I | High tensile strength, transmits force from muscle to bone |
| Skin (Dermis) | ~70–80% of dry mass | Types I & III | Structural support, elasticity, mechanical resilience |
| Ligaments | ~70–80% of dry mass | Type I | Joint stability, bone-to-bone connection |
| Articular cartilage | ~50–60% of dry mass | Type II | Framework, cushioning, load distribution |
| Bone | ~90% of organic matrix | Type I | Flexible framework supporting mineral deposition |
| Blood vessels | ~30–40% of dry mass | Types I & III | Structural integrity, mechanical support |
Table 1: Major types of Collagen
Note: Percentages herein vary by measurement method and source.
Two key points:
- Collagen-based materials have long been used in wound and suture care (dressings and burn-healing products)
- Because connective tissue underlies skeletal movement, collagen also matters to upper-echelon athletes and active adults—not just anyone chasing younger-looking skin.
This summary diagram (Figure 1) highlights our discussion points.
Figure 1: Collagen Keys
How Does Our Body Make Collagen?
Fibroblasts and other specialized cells build collagen from amino acids — mainly glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline. Vitamin C, zinc, and copper support this complex and energy-intensive process.
* Production and maintenance of collagen represents ~ 3 percent of our basic metabolic rate (BMR). Note: these amino acids are non-essential, meaning that our bodies can produce them. Individual molecules form distinctive triple protein chains with twists. The whole collagen structure looks like a thin thread under a microscope, as suggested by the schematic in Figure 2. It is these tight twists that provide collagen’s high tensile strength (the glue) and its high molecular weight.
Figure 2. Triple Twists make Collagen
These helices aggregate into progressively larger fibrils and fibers that create the structural networks in our connective tissues and organs (listed earlier in Table 1).
Not extraterrestrial, yet extracellular in design.
Why Does Collagen Decline With Age — and What are accelerants?
As we age, collagen synthesis slows while breakdown increases — changing the structure and quality of our connective tissue. The degradation rate isn’t the same for everyone; hormonal shifts, particularly around menopause, can affect skin collagen, thickness, and elasticity. Likewise, breakdown varies for our connective tissues and skeletal bones.
If you do not have “crepey” skin around your knees and elbows – you very well may in the days ahead.
Figure 3: Crepey Skin
Credit: Gemini
But aging isn’t the only driver for collagen degradation. Everyday lifestyle factors accelerate collagen loss and skin tone:
UV exposure. Prolonged sun exposure accelerates collagen breakdown and fragmentation in the skin, contributing to photoaging — fine lines, wrinkles, and loss of elasticity. A good broad-spectrum sunscreen is one of the most effective protections available; topical vitamin C and retinoids may help address existing photoaging. (PubMed citation)
Smoking, excess alcohol, chronic stress, and poor sleep. These raise oxidative stress and can exacerbate collagen breakdown.
Physical activity — in both good and bad directions. Biomechanical loading up to a safe level stimulates connective tissue (collagen) remodeling, which is good, but overtraining and/or inadequate recovery can extend collagen breakdown rather than buildup, which is bad.
When tension on a tendon or ligament increases beyond 6%, the athlete may suffer a total tissue rupture. The overt sound of an Achilles tendon rupture is not easy to forget. Nor is the rehabilitation time short.
Collagen truly matters!
Figure 4 shows a nominal timeline for physiological response for Collagen after physical exertion.
Figure 4:
You may note the similarity to Stimulus – Response – Adaptation (SRA) curves for related strongspan and windspan efforts. The NIH reports, “when you subject your body to physical exertion, your connective tissue undergoes degradation followed by elevated protein synthesis.”
Fact: collagen turns over much slower than does muscle; its SRA timeline spans 72 to 120 hours.
This is a key point for elite power lifters. After very heavy power-lifting sessions, it is advisable to follow the recovery timeline shown.
The takeaway: healthy collagen maintenance isn’t just about taking supplements — it’s nutrition, movement, recovery, sleep, and sun protection working together.
Can Diet Support Collagen Production?
Adequate dietary protein supplies what our collagen synthesis requires, while vitamin C, zinc, and copper enable the process. Eggs, fish, poultry, dairy, legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds all contribute. Rather than chasing one “collagen-boosting” food, we suggest that you aim for adequate high-quality protein plus a broad range of micronutrients.
Do Collagen Supplements Actually Work?
Sales of collagen and collagen peptide supplements are booming. Yet the science is less settled than marketing suggests. Some systematic reviews report improved skin hydration and elasticity with supplementation. However, a 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis found those benefits largely disappeared in studies without pharmaceutical-industry funding — a real signal that better research is needed. (PubMed citation)
Beyond skin care, research points to possible benefits for relief of skeletal joint symptoms, with early work exploring bone and muscle health. (PubMed citation)
So supplementation is not a scam, but it is not a panacea either. The evidence varies by outcome, formulation, dose, duration, and study quality. Remember that dietary supplements aren’t reviewed by the USA’s FDA for safety and effectiveness.
If you decide to try one for skin care:
Look for hydrolyzed collagen (collagen peptides) — broken into smaller fragments for easier absorption.
Check the collagen source, the amount per serving, and whether third-party testing is available.
A reputable brand discloses ingredients and quality-control practices clearly.
Price isn’t a reliability signal — a higher cost doesn’t mean a better product.
Collagen and Collagen Peptides
Collagen is a large, rigid structural protein built from long amino-acid chains in a triple helix. Collagen peptides (hydrolyzed collagen) are fragments produced by breaking collagen down enzymatically, which makes them easier to digest and absorb by our gut microbiome.
Here’s the catch. Once absorbed in the gut, those peptides and amino acids don’t zip directly to your skin, bones, or joints to build/rebuild collagen.
Yes, some collagen peptides act as signaling molecules that influence collagen-producing cells. Yet supplemented amino acids simply join your body’s overall amino-acid pool — to be used wherever they’re needed. They are not earmarked for collagen production. (Metaphorically, it’s a bit like eating hair to cure baldness — but collagen, unlike keratin, actually breaks down into usable building blocks. It just doesn’t come with a postage-guaranteed delivery address in our bodies.)
Trivial Pursuits?
What is the source of most Type I collagen supplements? Bovine (cowhide) and marine (fish skin and scales) proteins are the substrates for your Type I supplements. Pork byproducts are also on the market as a source of Type I collagen.
And what is the primary source of Type II collagen? Chicken cartilage.
Cowhide, fish scales, and cartilage – oh my!
If and when you opt to supplement collagen proteins or peptides, make your choice(s) based on your specific goal(s) and the credible evidence behind the product. There are more than a few market survey choices for a. skin, b. joint/bone and performance recovery collagen.
We highlight two credible research and testing resources: 1. ConsumerLab and 2. Health for your consideration. Yes, there are many retail sites that rate products, yet they may unsurprisingly rate their own products highly.
What About Collagen in Skincare?
Topical collagen skincare products work differently than ingested collagen peptides. The collagen molecule is too large to penetrate to the deeper dermis and replace lost collagen there. Instead, effective skincare relies on other evidence-based ingredients:
Hyaluronic acid: attracts and retains water for hydration (often seen as HA or HLA). Our bodies naturally develop HLA, yet processing capacity diminishes with age and stress levels.
Glycerin(e) or glycerol: a natural or ingested moisturizer. Vegetable glycerine is used as a moisturizing agent, a food preservative, in wound care, and even to make dynamite.
Pretty versatile!
Ceramides: These natural fats support your skin’s protective barrier. Ceramides make up at least 1/3rd of your epidermal surface.
Vitamin C: a vital antioxidant that directly aids collagen synthesis. A deficiency here correlates to collagen loss over time. Dave Frost does not supplement Vitamin C as he consumes citrus fruits, cruciferous vegetables, peppers, and other fruits like mangoes.
Niacinamide (Vitamin B3): This water-soluble vitamin provides a skin barrier function, tone, and addresses topical inflammation. It supports natural ceramide production. Some dermatologists suggest Niacinamide as a counter to precancerous actinic keratoses(AKs). David Frost does supplement Vitamin B-3 because of his many AK and cancer abnormalities.
- Retinoids: cell turnover, evidence for photoaging
- Salicylic acid: to address pore-clearing, acne
- Azelaic acid: to lessen redness, pigmentation, texture.
Please judge a collagen skin care product by its active ingredients, formulation, and evidence, not by whether “collagen” is on the label. Buyer beware!
Skin Treatment Options: Microneedling and Radiofrequency
Contrasting topical products that work on the skin surface; two special procedures trigger our skin’s own collagen-repair response.
Microneedling (also called collagen induction therapy) deploys fine needles — typically 0.5–2.5mm deep — to create many micro-injuries in the dermis. Those controlled “wounds” start a healing cascade: growth factors are released, fibroblasts activate, and the skin ramps up production of new collagen and elastin, along with new blood vessel formation. Over several sessions, this can meaningfully improve acne scarring, fine lines, texture, and stretch marks — the effect comes from real tissue remodeling, not a temporary surface tightening.
RF (radiofrequency) microneedling combines that same micro-needling injury with radiofrequency energy delivered through the needle tips, heating the dermis (often to roughly 65–72°C) while largely sparing the epidermis above it. The heat causes immediate collagen contraction, followed by a longer wound-healing response that produces new collagen over following weeks. Because the thermal energy reaches deeper and more uniformly than needling alone, RF microneedling can (temporarily) tighten skin, deeper dermal scarring, and jowl or neck laxity, not just texture.
Practical notes:
Depth and control matter. At-home “dermarollers” use very short needles. These are safe to self-administer, but are also less effective, since they don’t reach deep enough to trigger the same remodeling response in the dermis structure.
RF microneedling is a medical procedure, not a spa treatment. The FDA has specifically warned that RF microneedling should only be performed by a trained, licensed provider — not at home. Rare but serious risks include burning, scarring, fat loss, and nerve damage.
Not for everyone. Active acne, rosacea, very thin or sensitive skin, diabetes, pregnancy, and blood-thinning medications are all reasons to get professional, individualized guidance before use.
Downtime is real but short. Microneedling results in a day or two of redness. RF microneedling recovery may run slightly longer, with visible remodeling continuing for weeks after the skin looks normal again.
Results build over a series of sessions, and like supplements, these procedures work best layered on top of the skin care fundamentals (e.g., sun protection, nutrition).
Exercise, Tendons, and the Aging Athlete
For athletes, especially in high-impact or endurance sports, tendons and connective tissue can become a limiting factor as their bodies age.
√ “Heavy” exercise drives collagen turnover.
√ Biomechanical loading will trigger temporary degradation.
√ Then, collagen is rebuilt by increased synthesis and remodeling during the recovery phase – up to 5 days later (if the building blocks are available.)
The Flow:
Exercise loading → initial collagen turnover → recovery → increased collagen synthesis and remodeling.
Dr. Keith Baar and colleagues at UC Davis have studied one protocol built around a particular timing window:
Ingest 15 grams of gelatin plus vitamin C before a loading exercise.
This protocol gets relevant amino acids circulating while the tissue is under mechanical stress. It’s a promising line of research, yet not proof that everyone needs a collagen supplement pre-workout.
The core idea is timing plus loading: pairing nutritional building blocks with an actual mechanical stimulus. The unknown factor here is the dose of exercise loading.
Master fitness trainer and Masters athlete David Frost puts it simply: aging tendons, more than skeletal muscle, can become the “weakest link” in an aging athlete’s performance. Motion is collagen medicine, too; progressive and appropriate loading is what connective tissue needs to adapt.
Dave’s general approach reflects a risk/reward/cost reality. He takes collagen peptides as part of his nutrition. Yet he doesn’t attribute specific performance or recovery gains to them. This is a reminder that even enthusiasts should be healthy skeptics, since it can be hard to separate a real effect from expectation or placebo.
Our Bottom Line
Collagen formation and maintenance isn’t about finding one miracle food, supplement, serum, gummy, or cream. Collagen supplements likely help some people in our three areas of consideration: 1. skin care, 2. joints/bones, and 3. performance recovery.
Yet strong clinical evidence is still missing for some collagen and collagen peptide assertions.
Remember that cost, expectations, and placebo effects all shape how people may perceive their personal results.
Suggestion: Before you buy an expensive product, ask what the evidence actually shows for the specific outcome you care about.
⇒ Your body already knows how to make collagen.
Your job is to give it the building blocks, the mechanical stimulus, and the healthy environment it needs to keep doing so.
Stay well past forty (and look good nekked),
Koach Dave
ps – have you joined the Well Past Forty community?