Can Eating Collagen Build Stronger Tendons?
Hey friends! So, if you've followed us for a while, you might remember an interview we did with Keith Baar. Keith is a professor at UC Davis who has been investigating ways to strengthen connective tissue, like tendons. Tendons take longer to respond to training than muscles do, which can potentially lead to imbalances (and subsequent injury), so it's definitely worthwhile to make them extra robust. Tendon strength is also a key factor in sports performance, even more so than muscle in some respects. Great sprinters, for instance, have stiffer tendons, which store more energy and recoil more powerfully, driving them across the finish line.
To that end, Keith has performed experiments with human subjects, in which he has them consume gelatin with vitamin C shortly before jumping rope for six minutes. Tendons are mostly comprised of collagen, so it kind of makes sense that consuming collagen in the form of gelatin, and thus increasing availability of the constituent amino acids, could help with connective tissue remodeling. And sure enough, after consuming the gelatin, participants showed higher levels of biomarkers suggestive of increased collagen synthesis.
That’s obviously promising. But more recently, some other labs have published a couple of new studies examining the impact of this sort of supplementation on various properties of tendons in the knee and the ankle over a longer timespan, which is really exciting.
Before I dive into them, one thing that I need to point out is that they use a very different dosing protocol. For one thing, the collagen is consumed post-workout, rather than pre-workout like in the Baar trials. The biological rationale for taking them pre-workout, according to Baar, is that connective tissue doesn't get a ton of blood flow, so it just doesn't get anywhere near the nutrient uptake that muscles do most of the time. However, there is one key window when tendons are more receptive, and that's when they are being stretched (like during exercise). Under this tension, liquid gets squeezed out of the tendon, and it is then forced to absorb surrounding fluid. So, if you've just consumed collagen within the last hour, then that fluid should contain the amino acids that you're trying to get into the connective tissue right when the tendons are being stretched. Anyway, these trials suggest that consuming it after training can also work, which conceivably gives us a wider window to consume collage around a workout.
This Week’s Research Highlights
🦶 Supplementation with collagen results in greater Achille tendon thickness.
Researchers affiliated with the University of Freiburg in Germany recruited 40 healthy male volunteers and had all of them participate in a high-load resistance training program. Exercise sessions were monitored by sport scientists to ensure proper compliance. One group of subjects was assigned to consume 5 grams of specific collagen peptides every day, while the other group received 5 grams of a placebo supplement (maltodextrin). All participants took their supplement within one hour after each training session, or on non-training days at about the same time. After 14 weeks, both groups experienced substantial increases in muscle strength, much as you would expect (all of these men were new to resistance training), and gains were similar across the groups. However, when the researchers measured and compared the thickness of the men's Achilles tendons, they noticed a big difference. Specifically, men who took specific collagen peptides showed a significantly greater increase in their Achilles tendon cross-sectional area (+11.0%) compared to the placebo group (+4.7%). Additionally, the men who took collagen experienced a greater increase in the thickness of their gastrocnemius (+7.3%), one of the calf muscles that attaches to the Achilles tendon. You want thicker tendons because all else being equal, thicker tendons are able to handle more stress, and in theory are less prone to injury. This could be particularly useful for people suffering from overuse injuries, as well as older athletes who are more vulnerable to Achilles tendon injuries.
🦵 Collagen supplementation can improve stiffness of the patellar tendon
Researchers in the UK recruited 17 high-level female soccer players (a population that is very susceptible to soft tissue injury). They pair-matched all of the players by age, height, weight, and strength before splitting them into two groups to ensure that the two groups would start out physically similar to one another, and then randomly assigned them to consume either 30 grams of collagen hydrolysate + 500 mg of vitamin C or a similar amount of a placebo. All subjects took their supplement right after training sessions, three times per week. After ten weeks, the collagen group showed an 18% increase in patellar tendon stiffness (versus just a 5% gain for the placebo group). Stiffer tendons have a greater loading capacity, potentially reducing risk of injury in the face of high mechanical load, and tendon stiffness is also linked to greater strength and power output as I mentioned earlier, so this is a beneficial adaptation.
Random Trivia & Weird News
⚔️ Brad Pitt, while portraying the warrior Achilles, tore his Achilles tendon.
If you’ve read your Homer, you know that in In The Iliad, the seemingly invincible warrior Achilles is slain on the battlefield after he is shot through the back of his ankle with an arrow. This is because his mother dipped him in the river Styx as an infant, making his entire body invulnerable except for the part of the ankle where she was holding him.
In a weird example of life imitating art, Brad Pitt apparently experienced an Achilles tendon rupture while filming a stunt for Troy.
Maybe he should have taken some collagen during his prep for the film? 🧐
🚨 New Newsletter Section Alert:
Better Brain Fitness with Dr. T
Josh Turknett & Tommy Wood: What Is Brain Health? via the Better Brain Fitness podcast.
We think brains are super important, so we've decided to introduce a new section here in the humanOS newsletter devoted solely to brain health and fitness. In it, we'll link to content from Dr. Josh Turknett. Josh is a neurologist and director of brain health and cognitive performance coaching at humanOS. He is also the founder of Brainjo and the Brainjo Academy.
Up first is an episode of the Better Brain Fitness podcast, where Dr. Turknett and co-host Dr. Tommy Wood attempt to answer the deceptively difficult question: "What is brain health?" While this episode is only twenty minutes, it’s packed with thoughtful and compelling perspective on the subject.
Podcasts We Loved This Week
- Danny Lennon & Alan Flanagan: Chrononutrition — New findings and updated views. Via Sigma Nutrition Radio.
- Bethany Brookshire: Are animal “pests” really the villains we make them out to be? Via Science Friday.
Products We Are Enjoying
Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides
Research suggests that any form of collagen, even just plain old gelatin, will all be broken down in the gut and work pretty much the same from a nutritional standpoint. However, one big advantage for a product like this one is that it dissolves readily in any liquid, cold or hot, and it has a very neutral flavor, making it easy to take even in larger amounts.
It also comes with vitamin C already added in, so it's also a little bit more convenient (don't have to remember to combine it with OJ). Finally, it's been independently lab-tested and found to be free of heavy metals or other nasty stuff, so it's a safe choice.
humanOS Catalog Feature of the Week
Thanks, as always, for reading, and we'll see y'all next week!