Most likely many of you have seen ads or spoken to women who are drinking or selling beverages laced with collagen. The sales pitch for these drinks is that drinking collagen will rebuild and enhance the collagen in your skin and that Japanese women have been doing it for years (so of course it must be valid, right?). I can see why this would be easy to accept. For more than two decades women have believed that collagen added to skin-care products will add to the collagen in your skin, so why wouldn’t the same be true from the inside out? After all, if you drink dairy products rich in calcium you do get stronger bone growth. Conversely, if you drink colas and other soda drinks you lose calcium and have an increased risk of osteoporosis (Source: Osteoporosis International, December 2005, pages 1803-1808).

But back to drinking collagen. Most of this attention is a result of a collagen drink called Toki. It is marketed in a pyramid-style business plan so your neighbor or co-worker may be the one tempting you with frivolous, scientific-sounding claims to get you to purchase the drink or their associated supplements (there is always something else you need) or try and get you to sell the stuff yourself.

Aside from claims that are too good to be true, Toki asserts that they have impressive, independent studies demonstrating the success of their drink. At best, their research is dubious. Despite the company’s contention about having unbiased research it isn’t the truth. The studies they have were paid for by the company distributing their products, namely Lane Labs based in Allendale, New Jersey. If you end up believing even a portion of their misleading sales pitch you will find yourself out $175 for a 30-day supply of Toki. Surely that kind of expenditure requires more than the claims Toki has cooked up.

In this case, getting past the hype and marketing shenanigans takes in-depth information because anything involving the human body is complicated. Just in case you don’t want to make your way through this article, the short answer is; don’t waste your money. Collagen drinks are NOT miracles for your skin. The hype in comparison to the truth is just too far apart for any logical person’s budget to handle.

Still with me? Great! Where this issue gets complicated is that there is some research showing the intake of collagen can have benefit for skin and bones. However, there is no science showing it gets rid of wrinkles, at least not unbiased, peer-reviewed research.

What is collagen? Collagen is made of protein and functions primarily as a support structure in the body, comprising 30% of its mass. There are many forms of collagen in the human body. Interestingly, only 4 types of collagen account for over 90% of the body’s total. They are: Collagen I which is found in skin, tendons, capillaries and veins, bone, and organs; Collagen II, which is the primary component of cartilage; Collagen III, the main component of reticular fibers; and Collagen IV, the mainstay of the cell membrane.

When collagen is broken down it produces gelatin which is used in foods (think Jell-o), or in cosmetics (think products that claim to get rid of wrinkles or in nail-care products claiming to grow or strengthen nails). Pure collagen can be used in skin-care products as a way to keep skin hydrated. But eating Jell-O no sooner adds collagen to your skin than gelatin ever helped anyone grow a nano-inch of nail length. And no one has ever shed a wrinkle from putting collagen on their skin.

So does ingesting pure collagen translate to how eating calcium works on the body or is it more akin to believing that if you feed a cow chocolate it will produce chocolate milk? The answer is consuming collagen may work more like eating calcium rich foods or supplements but NOT in terms of helping wrinkles. Thinking otherwise would be like assuming a broken leg will be repaired by eating calcium.

When you eat or drink collagen (from meat or in supplements) it is digested and broken down into the individual amino acids it is made up of, as it would be in any animal protein you eat. But the collagen from either source would not be distributed directly to the collagen in your skin. It’s just not possible, any more than the cow analogy will come true. But eating collagen does seem to be able to help the entire body’s formation of collagen and that’s good news. (Sources: Archives of Dermatological Research, October 2008, pages 479-483; Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, and Arthroscopy, August 2006, pages 750-755; American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology and Metabolism, June 2005, pages 864-869; and Journal of Nutritional Science, March 2006, pages 211-215).

Is Toki or other pricy collagen drinks any better than collagen supplements for this potential benefit, which also happen to cost a lot less? You’ll be happy to know spending more money will not enhance the potential benefit. Either way, you won’t see your wrinkles disappear so keeping the $175 monthly cost (which amounts to $2,100 a year) in your pocket may be far more helpful to you in the long run.

One other point which makes matters even more complicated: some of these collagen drinks allude they contain a form of or are able to stimulate the body’s production of collagen peptide (a fragment of collagen broken down by enzymes). Collagen peptides have been shown to improve general bone density, have anti-arthritic properties, and even anti-bone tumor properties (Sources: Journal of Bone and Mineral Metabolism, November 2004, 547-553, Matrix Biology, November 2006, pages S69-S70; and Clinical Immunology, January 2007, pages 75-84). But this is a complex topic and there is no direct research indicating dose or comparative information of modalities. There is also research showing that some forms of collagen can stimulate arthritis and only specific forms can offer help (Source: Journal of Immunology, August 2008, pages 2m741-2,752; and www.pubmed.gov). Medicating in this arena needs to be done with your physician’s advice.

Despite the confusion and complex manner in which various forms of collagen work in the body (for better and, in some cases, for worse), what you need to know is that drinking collagen is not going to alter your wrinkles, firm skin, or delay a trip to the cosmetic surgeon for any of the numerous corrective procedures that really do make an anti-wrinkle difference. I’ll drink to that!