With Pierre Haddad, pharmacologist and scientific researcher, we understand, every Friday live, the alternatives to reverse unpleasant conditions.
We have first gathered here , according to your testimonies, your natural solutions to relieve, soothe and reverse different symptoms and illnesses.
Then I shared this list with him so that he could choose a topic to present, supporting it with science.
Quite a start: this week he explains to us the repercussions of hydrolyzed collagen.
Our meeting on April 26:
Topics covered and transcript of remarks*:
3:00 - What is collagen?
Collagen is a truly fascinating protein.
First, it is the most abundant in the body; 25% of all proteins in the body is collagen, which accounts for 5% of our body weight.
It's a very important structural protein on many levels. Collagen is like a three-strand braided rope that contains most of the amino acids we need in the body, including three in particular that are important for providing this structure that serves as a scaffold for bones, skin, and joints.
4:15 - What are these three amino acids?
Glycine: There are about 3,000 amino acids in collagen protein, and a third of them are glycine. So it's a very important building block.
Then there are two equally important amino acids: lysine and proline, which are converted into hydroxylysine and hydroxyproline. Hydroxyproline is what creates the twists, the "spiral," and makes it braid into three strands. Lysine instead creates bonds to solidify.
It's a bit like reinforced concrete, with metal rods that make building pillars much stronger.
The metal rods would be the collagen and the concrete would be the calcium and minerals to make the bones.
Collagen is important for bone structure.
5:15 - Types of Collagen
There are about twenty types of collagen. The most important ones are:
Type 1 is mainly for skin and bones. Type 2 is more specific to cartilage. Type 4 is a bit like the "glue" that holds all our organs together: the liver, the spleen, etc. We call this the extracellular matrix, the gel in which all our cells bathe and which holds them together. So, it helps with tissue cohesion, and we'll talk about it in more detail for certain functions, such as in bones (I talked about the metal rods in reinforced concrete), for cartilage.
6:15 - What is cartilage?
Cartilage is a bit like rubber. At every joint, wherever it moves, there would be friction between the bones; we don't want that! There's a hydraulic system (there's a little fluid), but there are also buffers. The buffers are cartilage, a small layer that looks like rubber.
Nature is so well done! Near the bone, the fibers are aligned perpendicularly, so this will provide a bit of a buffering effect to absorb shock, while on the surface, they are aligned horizontally to provide friction resistance.
Cartilage is composed mostly of water, almost 70%, but 10 to 20% of the famous type 2 collagen.
7:30 - With age, collagen production decreases
It's continually damaged, eliminated, and replaced throughout the body. There are enzymes for remodeling as well. It's all dynamic, it changes, we grow... From the age of 30, we stop growing, so production decreases, but it accelerates a lot from the age of 50.
However, there are ways to increase it, and that is by providing collagen.
As I said, collagen is like a braided rope. Try to digest a braided rope, it's not easy! It won't be easily absorbed. What our body absorbs are the little "lego" blocks, the amino acids.
What our body can absorb is a single amino acid, a pair, or a triplet. So, a single amino acid, two amino acids together, or even up to three, depending on the type of amino acid; our body is able to absorb it from the intestine into the bloodstream. It's distributed throughout our body, and we use these amino acids to rebuild our own proteins.
Braided rope is 3,000 amino acids, let's say 1,000 per strand in the braided rope. This needs to be cut into small pieces ranging from 1 to 3 amino acids. Our enzymes do this, but it's not that easy.
10:00 - Why hydrolyzed collagen?
By being hydrolyzed, it cuts it into pieces of 5 to 30 amino acids.
The first way to denature collagen is through temperature. The gelatin you get when you make broth, for example, with bones, is exactly that: denatured collagen. So, the strands are undone and roughly cut, but they're still long pieces that need to be cut further. If you treat it with enzymes or acid, it will break it further.
The hydrolyzed collagen in your products and in all products is hydrolyzed collagen, so it's treated with these enzymes to break it down into small fragments. Our digestive enzymes are able to break these small fragments into small pieces of 1, 2, or 3 amino acids that we can absorb.
Studies have shown that when you put hydrolyzed collagen with chondrocytes, the cells that produce cartilage, for example, if you put a little hydrolyzed collagen in their soup, their collagen production will increase.
There are two hypotheses about this. One is that you're providing the "Lego," the building blocks for your proteins. And the second is that you might be sending a signal. Since these are collagen breakdown products, when the cells see this, they say, "There's collagen breakdown, so I need to make more."
This has been shown to increase collagen production.
This is why hydrolyzed collagen treatment takes a little time to set in. It needs to be rebuilt. Joint pain comes from the thinning of this "rubber," the cartilage, which means that when it rubs, we feel the pain and the cracking more.
12:40 - What contributes to cartilage degradation? How long does it take to rebuild?
There are many things related to cartilage degradation. Of course, there's age, but there's also trauma. For example, if we do more extreme sports, if we put a lot of strain on our joints, it's sure that they'll wear out faster.
It's really in the long term that it will improve because it has to be rebuilt. It's like with metabolic diseases, it depends on the level of degradation. If we get to the point where bone is rubbing against bone, and there's almost no cartilage left, no matter how much collagen you put in your body, it won't necessarily rebuild enough.
You have to take it early.
I myself used to have knee pain when I was exercising. I started taking it and it got better. I no longer have any pain. With long-term hydrolyzed collagen like this, I take it every day.
The earlier you take it, the more likely you are that hydrolyzed collagen will work.
Indeed, the stress causes the deterioration to accelerate. Tennis, football, soccer—these are sudden movements that stress...
4:00 p.m. - The roles of collagen - continued - and Fibromyalgia
I talked earlier about its role in providing structure. It also provides flexibility. For example, in muscles, there is a little collagen around the muscle fibers to help them keep their shape. This is what is involved in fibromyalgia. There is a little less collagen around the muscles, and unfortunately, a little more is deposited around the nerves. So, in one case, there is less collagen, so there is more microtrauma to your muscle fibers. At the nerve level, this lowers the pain threshold. The combination of the two causes people to have pain, fibromyalgia.
5:00 PM - According to the testimonies we've received, collagen can help people suffering from fibromyalgia. Does that make sense?
Yes, absolutely.
But again, it's not a miracle cure, it's not a panacea. There are people for whom it will change their lives, and others for whom it won't make a difference, unfortunately. It's like with medications. Doctors will start by offering you one, and if you don't respond well, they'll choose another from another class or another member of the same class of drugs.
It's the same with natural products. This doesn't mean they'll work for everyone. The testimonials likely come from people who are most sensitive and for whom the effects are most significant.
Health Canada accepts the claim for hydrolyzed collagen to relieve joint pain. There are several studies worldwide.
19:00 - Why do some health experts not believe in the benefits of hydrolyzed collagen?
In a way, it's that they are not trained.
There are many things that are driven by wars. Wars drive technology, scientific advances.
As I mentioned before, 100-120 years ago, "pharmaceutical" companies were natural health product companies. Gradually, with the advancement of organic chemistry and the ability to create compounds that drugs...
It's true that we have far fewer people dying from infectious diseases thanks to antibiotics and other types of medication. It's true that it has changed lives.
There is also hygiene of life, but also hygiene, in general, of removing microbes from our environment.
22:00 - Another role of collagen: helps with hydration
Another important thing about collagen's roles that I forgot is that it helps with hydration. This becomes important for skin, hair, eyelashes... So collagen will help hydrate tissues, especially type 4 collagen, which is like the "glue" or gel in which our tissues bathe and form. Hydrolyzed collagen helps hydrate the follicles that make hair grow. This helps them stay healthier.
There are a lot of studies on the skin. So hydrolyzed collagen, there are clinical studies that have shown that it increased hydration, suppleness, resistance to soaps, ultraviolet rays, and that it was even as good, almost in some cases as cosmetic procedures "fillers" to remove wrinkles and all that.
23:50 - Hyaluronic acids and vitamin C: key elements
Vitamin C is a key element because it's a cofactor in the enzymes that produce collagen. Sometimes lysine is also added to hydrolyzed collagen blends. Lysine is already present, as I mentioned before, but this gives a little boost.
Vitamin C is important. And indeed, hyaluronic acid, in the joints, plays a role in the synovial fluid, which is this hydraulic fluid, a small cushion of liquid. It's truly natural hydraulics.
Hyaluronic acid is involved in the production of proteoglycans, which are like a viscous gel that forms in the space between the rubber and the cartilage. Cartilage itself has a function, and hyaluronic acid complements this by providing the hydraulic aspect.
For the skin, hyaluronic acid helps with hydration.
25:25 - Where do you find lysine?
It is one of the 20 standard amino acids. It is present in many proteins and is present in collagen itself.
25:45 - Regarding cramps and spasms relieved by collagen (testimonial)
I'll have to do some more research on this. I can come back to it at another time.
26:30 - What about Crohn's disease?
There's the inflammatory aspect in osteoarthritis, in particular. When your body's defense system sees damage, there's a whole system of inflammation that kicks in to get the immune system cells to repair and remove the damage.
Osteoarthritis is also an inflammatory disease, so it makes sense that it reduces inflammation by rebuilding cartilage in joint pain.
In inflammatory bowel diseases, we would need to push further to try to understand. What I can see is that it is certain that there is also collagen in the walls of the intestine, there is it everywhere.
There are tight junctions that keep your intestine sealed, what we call epithelia (lungs, liver, kidney). We want to keep the outside separate from the inside. So, there are tight junctions, but there's no collagen in there. There is some around it, but there are specific proteins for that.
When you have a problem, and then it becomes more permeable, the intestine, there is inflammation that enters there...
* This live transcript is intended to help you easily find the topics that interest you and the information you are looking for. Maison Jacynthe disclaims all liability. All information contained on this page is not intended to replace justified allopathic treatment or to override the expertise of the medical profession. It is up to each individual to take charge of their own health, to inform themselves, and to make the necessary changes to improve their condition. Therapeutic supervision by a qualified health professional is obviously suggested.
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