Life Kit - Do collagen supplements really work?

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Collagen supplements have been widely promoted on social media, with claims that they'll strengthen hair and nails, lessen wrinkles and even ease joint pain. But are there studies backing these claims? NPR health correspondent Maria Godoy dives into the research and shares science-backed tips for better skin that are more effective.Fill out our survey at npr.org/lifekitsurvey.Follow us on Instagram: @nprlifekitSign up for our newsletter here.Have an episode idea or feedback you want to share? Email us at [e-mail] the show and listen to it sponsor-free by signing up for Life Kit+ at plus.npr.org/lifekitLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey, it's Mariel. Before we start the episode, I want to thank you for listening to Life Kit and to ask you a favor. We'd love to know what you think about the podcast. Help us out. Tell us what you like and how we can improve by completing a short, anonymous survey at npr.org slash LifeKit Survey. We'll also have a link in our episode description. And thank you.

You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. So you may know, our bodies are rich in a protein called collagen. Here's Maria Godoy, health correspondent at NPR. It's found in bone, tendons, ligaments, you know, cartilage. And it is a major structural protein in our tissue. So it gives skin elasticity and firmness, which we want. And, you know, it also gives strength and integrity to the tissues and keeps joints strong, among other things.

But guess what? Starting in our 20s, the amount of collagen in our bodies and the quality of that collagen, starts to decline. Real bummer. I know, but life is cruel, so, you know, it's just part of the natural aging process. And for collagen and skin, there are certain things that will speed that decline up, like smoking, you know, exposure to environmental pollution, UV radiation, sun exposure, which is, you know, why you should use sunscreen, not just to protect against cancer, but also to keep your skin healthy and preserve that elasticity. Anyway, this is why collagen supplements have become a

multi-billion dollar industry. They're supposed to help our bodies make more collagen. By the way, as a reminder, the FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they go to market. And just because you can buy something in a store, it doesn't mean it works. But yeah, Maria says these are everywhere. Like if you just walk into Costco, there's always like giant bottles of collagen peptides that are being sold. And if you go on social media, everyone's promoting it, just influencers, wellness influencers, saying, collagen is good for you and very much everywhere on social media for the last years. If you're not taking a collagen supplement, then what do you do?

I take two servings of collagen mixing with my coffee. Collagen is everything. It's a little bit more pricey, but supplements, there's something in me that doesn't care. The best decision I have ever made was to trust the stranger on TikTok. I'm already getting emotional. I saw a video of a woman talking about this collagen. It's completely changed my life. But do collagen supplements work?

Maria has been looking into it, and on this episode of Life Kit, we talk about what the research says. That's after the break. Hey, Maria. Hey. Okay, so where do collagen supplements come from? Yeah, so collagen supplements generally come from animal sources, like fish, pigs, chicken, cattle. And there are two main forms. The first, which you see a lot of, is called hydrolyzed collagen.

So this collagen that's been broken down into peptides are like smaller chains of amino acids that are more easily absorbed. And the idea is that you take in these peptides and then they're absorbed by your GI tract. Dermatologist Lauren Taglia of Northwestern Medicine explained it to me. like this. The thought or the theory is that if you ingest it, it goes through the GI tract and gets absorbed, and then it's theoretically goes to places to support or increase collagen production. So hydrolyzed collagen supplements are generally what you see advertised for hair, nail, skin, but they are also sold to promote joint health. But there is another type of collagen supplement that's sold specifically for joints. It's called undenational. It's called undenial.

native type 2 collagen. And there are lots of different types of collagen in our body, like more than two dozen different types have been identified. But type 2 makes up the majority of the collagen in cartilage that surrounds joints. And undenatured type 2 collagen hasn't been broken down, unlike the peptides. It's thought to work differently. You know, so basically the idea is that it triggers an immune response that releases chemical messengers and those chemical messengers tamped down in inflammation. And so that would help alleviate joint inflammation and pain in patients with things like osteoarthritis. And based on your reporting, do collagen supplements actually do what they claim? What does the research say? Well, let's start with skin. I spoke with Dr. Marianne McCreta Sennas. She is an assistant professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School. And she said, yeah, there is some evidence that supplements can boost skin. There have been randomized controlled trials that have shown. that after 8 to 12 weeks of collagen supplementation, things like depth of wrinkles, skin elasticity, dermal thickness seems to be improved. Okay, so that's promising. Yeah, I mean, it sounds promising, right? And then just this fall, there was a big meta-analysis that looked at 23 randomized controlled trials with more than 1,400 patients who took collagen supplements for skin over 8 to 12 weeks.

And it found that patients did see significant improvements in rinkly. goals, hydration, elasticity, but there was a big caveat. Here's SENA again. High quality studies and studies not funded by industry did not show a significant association, right? While those funded by industry and that were a bit lower quality did find a significant association. Yeah, when she says lower quality, that means that the study design was in a strong. So, for instance, maybe it was not a double blind study study. so that neither the researchers nor the participants knew if they were receiving collagen supplements or placebo, so that's considered less rigorous and less reliable. And then when it comes to industry funding a study, that doesn't mean the results shouldn't be considered at all.

But, you know, it does raise the potential for bias that the people who sell the supplements are, you know, funding the finding that says, yeah, they work. Yeah. One other thing I wanted to note is that Senna is a dermatologist and her specialty as a researcher is actually hair loss. And you'll often see collagen supplements promoted as being good for hair. But Senna says there's basically no evidence when it comes to hair. And I wanted to note that because I, myself, in the past, have purchased collagen supplements just for this to, like, boost hair. But, you know, she says there are no human studies she's aware of that support this. And so if that's your concern, just don't waste your money.

Got it. What about joint health? Is there any evidence there? For joints, the state of evidence is pretty similar. There are studies that show benefits, especially when it comes to osteoarthritis in the knees. And osteoarthritis is like when the cartilage that cushions the end of your bone wears down. So you get pain and stiffness and loss of movement with age. It's the most common form of arthritis in the world.

And several studies have shown improvements in pain reduction and knee function when using either hydrolyzed collagen or undenatured type 2 collagen. So that sounds promising. But again, the problem is that many of the studies are indistinguished. refunded, so it's really hard to disentangle the potential for bias, and the studies that do exist are pretty small, and a lot of them are considered low quality. I also spoke with Dr. David Felson. He's a longtime osteoarthritis researcher at Boston University, and he said that, yeah, collagen supplements could potentially help treat people with joint pain, but his stance is really just this. There's no large-scale studies here, and there need to be. Okay, so what's the bottom line

here, you think? Should we be using collagen supplements or not? Well, you know, when he comes to joints, he says the evidence isn't there for him to recommend it. But if he has a patient, you know, who's taking these supplements and they feel like they're helping with joint pain and it's not costing them an arm and a leg and they don't have kidney problems, he's okay with that. But just make sure to talk to your doctor first to make sure supplements aren't interfering with any medication you're on. And one thing I want to note is that whenever you're buying any supplement, you want to make sure to buy ones that are tested by a third party. Yeah, how can you know if a supplement is tested by a third party? Do you just, like, look at the label? So products that

have been certified by a third party will often have a verification sale on the label, and there are third party certifications to look for. There's an NSF certified for sport. That's one. Informed Sport is another, and USP verified mark from the US Pharmacopia. You can also go to these group's websites to look up a product and see if they certified it. And even if a product has one of these labels on the bottle, I'd recommend cross-checking it on the website anyway just to make sure the bottom line I wanted to know is like, is this going to help me? And I asked dermatologist Lauren Taglia, and she told me, without large randomized controlled trials, funded independent of industry, doctors like her just can't confidently recommend collagen supplements for skin either. That's kind of where we all stand. We're kind of, you know, just, oh, it could be helpful, but not a ton of strong evidence to support at this.

his point. Now, she and other doctors, dermatologists specifically that I spoke with, said, you know, if you decide to take collagen supplements on your own, they may help you. Anecdotally, they've had patients say their skin, or even their nails look better, but they can't recommend them based on the current science. After the break, we'll have more on collagen supplements with Maria Godoy. All right, we're back with Life Kit. Maria, I imagine these collagen supplements could also be expensive, right? Like you've said, it's a multi-billion dollar industry.

So there's also this question of, is this worth the money? Right. That was actually my big question, because I know I've paid like over $30 a bottle for collagen supplements in the past when I tried them. And so I asked this, like, if you have 30 bucks to spend, is this where you spend it? And like, no. So when it comes to skin, at least, all the doctors I spoke with stress that there are things you can do to help boost collagen that do have science behind them. And that's really, especially if you're on a limited budget, that's where you should be spending your money. Okay, love that.

What are those? One of the people I spoke with is Dr. Maya Jonas. She's an assistant professor of dermatology at the Ohio State University. And she said, start with the things we know are safest and have the most robust evidence behind them. We always talk about diet, making sure patients are eating a healthy Mediterranean diet. well-balanced, you know, avoiding alcohol, not smoking, avoiding secondhand smoke. We always talk about sun protection. We talk about retinol and using vitamin A. Retinal for those who don't know is a topical vitamin A derivative, and it basically boost collagen production. There are lots of

different kinds of vitamin A-based products that you might have heard of. You know, there's Tretanoin, or you might hear of things like retinaldehyde, and these are all in the retinoid family, and some of them are stronger than others. Some people are more sensitive to some formulations than others, so you might have to try different formulations to figure out which one works for you, or you can talk to a dermatologist so that they can steer you in the right direction. And, you know, another dermatologist I spoke with said, if you pulled like 100 dermatologists, 99 of them would tell you that retinoids are the number one thing you should be to boost collagen.

And use it at night. You don't want to actually use it during the day because it makes you a little more sun-sensitive and UV exposure can actually make it a little less effective. So two reasons to use it at night. Okay, so that's my public service announcement on retinal and sunscreen, you know, sunscreen every day, right? Because as we talked about at the beginning,

sun exposure will accelerate the decline of that collagen production in your skin. And, you know, when it comes to diet, Jonas says eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, that's not just good for your overall health, but they also contain things our bodies need to support collagen production, things like vitamin C and zinc and copper. And you also want to make sure you get plenty of protein from things like fish, poultry, meat, dairy, eggs, soy, legumes. Basically, you want to eat foods that contain the amino acids you need for collagen production. Yeah. And the last thing I'm going to evangelize is to get plenty of sleep and exercise. Again, part of my regular spiel.

So research has shown that poor sleep and stress can take a toll on skin. And exercise can not only improve your mood, but it can improve blood flow to the skin. And it may help counteract the loss of elasticity and dermal thickness that comes with aging. So, you know, if you don't want to do it for your health, do it for your vanity. Totally. That's what I say to people about sunscreen, too. Me too, all the time. Also, I tell my daughter, good skin in your 40s begins in your tens with sunscreen. In your tens. Oh, no. All right, Maria, thank you so much for this.

Oh, it's my pleasure. Okay, time for a recap. There are randomized controlled trials showing. that collagen supplements can make your skin look and feel better, specifically making your wrinkles less prominent and your skin thicker and more elastic. But a meta-analysis of 23 of these studies found a big caveat. When you remove the lower quality studies and the ones that were funded by the industry, you don't see those results. Kind of the same deal with joint health. Some studies show benefits, but many of them are industry-funded and low quality. There is basically no evidence that collagen supplements can make your hair healthier.

But some things we know can improve collagen production. Eating a Mediterranean diet, using topical retinoids, avoiding alcohol, not smoking, wearing sunscreen, and getting plenty of sleep and exercise. Yeah, all the boring stuff we're always telling you to do. That's our show. Have you subscribed to the Life Kit newsletter yet? Every Friday, you'll get even more expert advice on health, money, and more. by the LifeKit team. Think of it as a weekly check-in from your friends at LifeKit.

Subscribe at NPR.org slash LifeKit newsletter. This episode of LifeKit was produced by Margaret Serino. Our visuals editor is Beck Harlan, and our digital editor is Malika Garib. Megan Kane is our senior supervising editor, and Beth Donovan is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy Tagle, Claire Marie Schneider, and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from Stacey Abbott, with fact-checking by Tyler Jones. I'm Mariel Segarra. Thanks for listening.