Arthritis relief: can collagen supplements help?

Interest in collagen supplements continues to grow – and for good reason. That’s because despite rubbish claims that are way off the mark that there is ‘no evidence they work’ and ‘all the research is funded by the collagen industry’, the reality is very different. In past podcasts I’ve delved into the topic of hydrolysed collagen supplements and skin health and where there are now dozens of blinded randomised controlled trials showing a benefit in increasing skin moisture and elasticity and reducing wrinkles – with many of the studies free from any conflict of interest and all supported by plausible mechanisms as to why collagen, and not other protein sources, can do this. But for this podcast, I want to focus on one of the other reasons that people may take collagen: and that’s to give relief from joint pain and stiffness. So for this episode, I’m going to focus on arthritis and outline what the clinical evidence says and what unique biological mechanisms could be at play to support a unique effect of collagen supplements.

Links referred to in the podcast

• Podcast Episode 82 - Collagen supplements: an update on the evidence for health benefits  https://thinkingnutrition.buzzsprout.com/808853/9137267-collagen-supplements-an-update-on-the-evidence-for-health-benefits
• Podcast Episode 120 - Tendon troubles: can collagen supplements help with tendon repair? https://thinkingnutrition.buzzsprout.com/808853/13372233-tendon-troubles-can-collagen-supplements-help-with-tendon-repair
• Systematic review of hydrolysed collagen in skin ageing 2023 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10180699
• Systematic review of collagen supplementation in osteoarthritis 2018 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30368550
• Review of collagen supplementation for joint health 2023 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10058045
• Systematic review of undenatured collagen and osteoarthritis 2023 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37854210

Episode transcript
To access the full episode transcript, go to the following link and select the individual podcast episode and then click on the ‘Transcript’ tab https://thinkingnutrition.buzzsprout.com

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