DoctorOz: Does Edible Collagen Really Get Rid of Wrinkles? Experts Weigh In

So we just talked about fat drinks and if they're worth your money, but there's another trend that's got everybody talking. It's edible collagen to reverse or diminish your wrinkles. Now they come in pill, powder, even a liquid form. In fact, women around the country have been having these collagen cocktail parties, no alcohol, just collagen cocktail parties, and trading in their Cosmos martinis for a shot of collagen. So I'm gonna try one of these shots. Again, there's no alcohol, unfortunately, but that might make it better for somebody. Who wants to try some of these things? You up for it? Here, try this. If you have any wrinkles, you should grab some of this stuff. That's the argument anyway. Go ahead and take it and pass it around. Let's see what you guys think. Are you ready? Let's do it all together. Hmm. For I have a discerning palate required for this. What do you guys think about that taste? It's not bad. It's fruity. Fruity? Yeah. Better than I thought. Better than you expected? Yeah. Better than I expected too. I didn't think I'd like it. You guys all sort of agree it's reasonable? So I'm curious about these things. They've become a big, big topic these days. So I brought in some ladies who have been drinking liquid collagen like you're doing right now for a while. All four of you have been doing that. I must say, you look wonderful. If you're gonna look that beautiful, maybe it's worth it. How long have you been taking the collagen for? I've been doing it on and off for about eight months. Yeah, and I definitely notice when I'm consistent with it, I get a lot more compliments on my skin. My hair grows faster. My nails grow faster. So. Have you guys had any work done? I mean, you look really good. Yeah, I know. I'm looking carefully. You feel the same thing getting worse? I'm gonna just examine you while you talk. I'm looking for frown marks. I started taking it to reduce wrinkles. I just was coming up on a big birthday, so last year I started taking the pills. Pills I tend to forget. You know, I have a problem remembering it, so I switched over to a powder. And the powder's really nice because it goes in your drinks every morning. I take a green shake every morning. And it's been reducing the wrinkles, though. How much are you paying for the collagen? I pay about $45 for a big canister. And I call it a girl's BFF. Because for hair, skin, nails, it's awesome. Are you pretty happy with it? So I actually tried the liquid collagen, and I took it for about a month. And as you can see, it turned back the clock 50 years. Just a month. For 74, you look wonderful. Thank you, but I actually didn't really like it. I don't think it did much for me, for the price point. So someone I trust a lot on these issues, Janine Downey. And that's the question I'm gonna ask her. Is edible collagen worth it? She's a board-certified dermatologist. A lot of folks do not know what edible collagen is. If you don't mind, explain what collagen in general does for us. And I'm curious about why you started taking this, as an expert in the field. Okay, so collagen is a building block of our skin. And it's the most abundant protein in the body. The best way to explain it is you think about a baby, and you think about chubby cheeks that a baby has. That's collagen. And then as we get older, sun, stress, if we smoke, the collagen starts to sag, okay? And that's how the collagen kind of gets beat up and depleted as we get older. It becomes jowls. Exactly. So I take it for skin, but I also take it for my joints. And I agree with them that hair and nails are other additional benefits, potentially. Dermatologists, physicians, don't think it works. I mean, some have said it's like taking hair in a pill form if you're bald, right? It doesn't quite go that way. So what makes you believe that it's effective? Because it cushions your joints. It's really helped me with my knee. I mean, absolutely, a bit with my skin. But it's not gonna just take your wrinkles and erase them from your face. That's not the case. So the lifestyle issues are also important. Right, right. But on top of that, you think it makes sense. All right, so then there's the issue about whether you take it in this pill form that you have or the liquid form that's become popular. These shots that I gave everybody here. Okay, so the liquid form is a bit ridiculous, unfortunately, because the gastric acid inside our stomach is gonna just break apart all of the protein bundles and you're not gonna go to the intended target site. So it's not gonna get to the skin. It's not gonna get to the joints, not at all, because the gastric acid is gonna just break it up. So when I hear a complicated answer, I think demonstration. Are you guys in for me? I need your help. Come on up, Jeanine. We built a little demonstration to try to explain. This is not just for collagen, by the way. This is when you talk about pills versus liquid forms of any kind of medication or product. You should be thinking about this. So we're gonna do this together. Okay. All right, so we got two different people here. Two stomachs, two bodies. In this case, we use skin, but it could be the joints. It could be other parts of the body as well. This is the theory about why collagen, when you drink it or eat it, might make a difference. So this is the collagen pill, my version of what you gave me. Okay, all right. And what you, ma'am, what you, yeah. Stand up. Hi. How are you? Would you help us? Sure. What's your name? Stephanie. Stephanie, could you drop that in there? Don't mess up, Stephanie. Don't mess up. That's the collagen pill, and that's the stomach. Now stir that stuff. Stir it, okay? Get to work. Stop fooling around, Stephanie. Okay, come on, Stephanie. You said you were gonna help. All right. Just a minute ago. Stir, stir, stir. As she does that, you notice the stomach has a little bit of blue here? That's actually the collagen. Think about blue as just collagen, whenever you see blue in this demonstration. So that blue, there is a little bit of blue there. There's a little bit of blue. Keep stirring. Remember science class? Come on. Oh my goodness. Give me this thing. Give me my own wand. I want my own wand. There. You know what? Take another pill. Okay. Maybe that'll make it better. There, now we're going. Now we're going. There. There we go. All right, so. When you got the blue in there, you might have to take two pills to get the blue. Then what ends up happening is, go ahead and flick that, Janine. So now your stomach lets the fluid go through your body, and with that blue collagen containing with it, the theory is it'll make your skin begin to plump up. See how it's plumping up? Your skin. Joints, whatever. This is the goal. Now, who's over here? You just come over here. Actually, both of you gotta stand. I need you both here. You'll stir. You'll be the stomach acid. Don't mess up. All right. This is the liquid collagen, all right? You pour the liquid collagen in this stomach. Oh my goodness. Lots of good stuff there. Go stir. Get to work. All right, now. Go ahead and now put stomach acid. Then when you mix the stomach acid together with the pill, what ends up happening? It all goes away. I can pour more of this in there. It doesn't matter. I can't keep up with you. All right, that's fine. Nicely done, stomach. All right, now. Now I don't have the blue anymore, and so when I try to pour this material through my body to get to my skin, I don't have the desired benefit anymore. I've got plump skin here or joints or whatever. Here, I have nothing. I'm not getting the growth because I don't have the blue in there. So that's the fundamental difference between taking a liquid form versus a pill form. It's one of the reasons that if you're gonna try this out, you might not wanna go with a liquid. It's one of the things we worry about all the time. Right. Are you convinced? What do you think? What did you learn from this experiment? I don't know yet. Not sure yet. As they take a pill, it's faster and easier. Right, the coating on the pill is what helps. And it helps. Yeah. Is it safe? Is it safe is the question. Very good question. So we do believe it's safe, but the question overall is, is it worth it? Even if it's safe, is it worth it or just a waste of money? So I must say, personally, I prefer you get all your beauty from foods, right? And your biggest raw materials are there. Things like soy, the leafy green vegetables, avocados, all those nutrients that your skin actually normally wants. However, however, there are some preliminary studies, which is why experts like Dr. Doughty believe this might make sense, that are showing some benefit. They're very small studies. They're often paid for by the companies that make the products. So I'm a little bit suspect of them. But so the bottom line is I am not yet convinced that edible collagen is worth it, but I do think we should keep an eye on it, which is exactly what we're gonna do. So the ozometer says it might work. I'll leave it in the middle. Are you good with that? I like that, I'm comfortable. All right, thank you very much for your brave assistance today. Thank you. We'll be right back.