Are those collagen drinks you’re seeing on Instagram really the fountain of youth?

We’re all looking for a miracle anti-ageing potion that is safe, non-invasive, easy and accessible. Is collagen it?

Of late, it is perhaps impossible to scroll through Instagram without getting hit with a tutorial for—or a product that promises—bouncy, glowy, unbelievably supple skin. Between Jello skin, glass skin, glazed donut skin and dolphin skin, the common factor is this: You want skin that looks lit-from-within, is taut, is even and ricochets back like a baby’s bottom. Skincare products like retinol and peptides can help you get there, and so can injectables like fillers. But what really, really gives you skin that’s happily springy? Enough collagen. Products that can help you build up that reserve are flooding the market—there’s a new collagen drink, supplement, IV drip or topical that’s launching everyday. But do they work? We ask the experts.

What really is collagen?

“The word ‘collagen’ is derived from the Greek word ‘Kolla’ meaning ‘glue’,” says Dr Madhuri Agarwal, a Mumbai-based dermatologist. Collagen is a protein that contributes to about a third of the body's total protein composition. It is one of the primary components of skin, bones, muscles and ligaments. “In the skin, collagen is found in the dermis and accounts for 70-80 per cent of dry weight of the dermis. It gives structural strength and toughness and prevents the skin from tearing,” says Agarwal. “The more collagen there is in the skin, the more elastic and supple it looks,” says Dr Kiran Sethi, skin & wellness specialist and author of Skin Sense, and founder of Isya Aesthetics. Some doctors like to liken collagen to the scaffolding of a building. Once it starts to break down, everything starts to cave in, which, on the skin, might appear in the form of fine lines, sagging and drooping.

Consuming sugar, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, eating inflammatory foods and spending too much time in the sun causes glycation, which breaks down collagen in the skin. It also rapidly reduces as we age—after the age of 25, we lose approximately 1.5 per cent of our natural reserves every year. By the time you reach 50, almost 50 per cent of your natural stores have been depleted.

How do collagen supplements work?

Capitalising on our collective aversion to aging, collagen supplementation has become a popular route to try to stop this breakdown in its tracks. There is the fear of aging and the eagerness to prevent signs of it that has fuelled the increasing need to opt for anti-aging products. “Collagen has been touted as the coolest anti-aging product on social media and through influencers recently,” confirms Agarwal.

Collagen supplements promise to improve skin moisture levels while increasing elasticity, and are said to help with stronger nails, better joint mobility and gut health too. It sounds obvious—adding more collagen to a collagen-deficient body should help, right? But the thing is, collagen doesn’t know where to go when it’s ingested, so a supplement isn’t necessarily properly directed.

When you eat or drink collagen, the stomach and small intestine break the proteins down using enzymes to get usable amino acids. During this process, a lot of the goodness is likely lost. Research says that collagen supplements essentially act as a feedback mechanism to actually trigger your own collagen production. When there are collagen molecules in the body, they are said to send false signals to the body that collagen has been broken down. This stimulates the collagen-producing cells, called fibroblasts, to generate it. Some studies have proven these results, but they aren’t enough, and it’s still too new. “We still need authenticated scientific studies backing the claims,” says Agarwal. Sethi agrees—while she hopes we get newer studies that can be trusted, she also says some of her patients still find that they feel better, and notice a difference in their skin, hair and pace of wound-healing.

TL;DR–they’re safe to use, but they aren’t particularlyt game-changing. If you still want to add a collagen supplement to your routine, doctors suggest you look for a bovine source as compared to fish-based collagen. “You want to make sure that it has 2-3 grams of collagen in the serving size, because any less than that and it will have zero effect,” says Sethi.

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