I mean, this is daily asked on the Facebook page, and I get a lot of emails on this, too. So collagen, as we get older, we get wrinkles. I got lots of them.
I call them my laugh lines. I don't– Look, there's things I care about, I don't care about wrinkles and stuff, I really don't. But, I don't, but I'm weird.
I walk around in hoodies and in my pajamas, and I just am not, I don't care. But most or many, many people do, and primarily women are looking into these products. And collagen is known to plump up your skin a little bit more, give it more hydration, more elasticity, and it can reduce your wrinkles a little bit.
Now, the science says, so, a meta-analysis, this means they took a bunch of studies, and from those studies, all these little studies, they came up with, yeah, if you're taking collagen for over 90 days, it shows a little bit of improvement in skin hydration, elasticity, and a little reduction in wrinkle. Are we getting rid of wrinkles, ladies?
That's not happening with collagen. No matter what super influencer on social media has said, you're not going to lose your wrinkles unless you get a facelift, okay? So, can it– cause, as, you know, I'll notice in the mirror, I do notice it's like, "Jeez, I feel like I'm 13, 14 years old." The mirror will tell me different.
It's different. But, and I do notice, like, you know, you get little elephant skin, it looks dry. Jeff's like, "Jesus, I hope I never get that old." You know, all these things, we get this.
This is our body is not forever. And so, it is shown to be– it will help. It will help.
It will help. Here's the problem with it though for kidney stone formers. So, for kidney stone formers, it has this thing, let me try to say it.
I always have a hard time with it, hold on. Hydroxyproline. Hydroxyproline.
So, that's an amino acid, and it's found in collagen. And so, when we eat it or when we drink it, like in these powders and stuff, it can– it breaks down into– I'm not going to give you the science of it, but it– the amino acids break down to this glyoxylate and then from that, the liver produces more oxalate because of this.
So, in collagen is hydroxyproline, and that breaks down in your body and can increase your urine oxalate. And so for stone formers, it's not advised. It's not advised.
Now, some people will say, "Well, I make calcium phosphate stones, what do I care about oxalate?" And listen, I'm going to I'm getting a little woozy with this one, I'll tell you why. I have a lot of doctors tell patients, "You don't have an oxalate problem. You make calcium phosphate stones." But if you go and start eating a bunch of almonds and spinach, you can you can convert right over to calcium oxalate stones, at the very least, make a mixed stone of calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate.
That's very common, by the way. But a lot of stone analysis, patients will say, "Well, my doctor said it's calcium oxalate." Meanwhile, there's some things on their urine collection where I'm like, " I bet it's calcium phosphate, too." But because the larger percentage of the stone is calcium oxalate, the doctor just says it's a calcium oxalate stone.
But it can definitely be like 70% calcium oxalate, 30% calcium phosphate. My point is, folks, you may make one stone today based upon diet and lifestyle habits, but if you change them and do other things, you can go over to another stone former type, okay? So, maybe you're doing a low-carb and you make uric acid stones.
You fix that, and you start bringing in some of the grains that have higher oxalate and spinach and almond, you're going to make now a calcium oxalate stone. So, you can make different types of stones, okay? So, I'm just putting that out there.
So, the bottom line for me, for most people, for most people who are not stone formers, this isn't going to be a make– they're not all of a sudden going to turn as a stone former. But for somebody who is known as a kidney stone former, I would not be using collagen. I always tell patients, "No." Use some creams, maybe.
Do whatever you got to do, talk to your dermatologist. Like I said, I think it's really important, I am not I'm not against you using these potions and whatever you're trying to do to look younger. I think that's important for some people.
They feel less confident, their self-esteem is lower. It makes them feel better to look younger, and that's absolutely fine for them, but they do have to find another way. So, I want to make sure I'm very clear on this.
I am a huge proponent of people doing things that make them feel better in the world, so they can show up happier, stronger, confident. That's so important. And it's so easy.
We walk around in life, it's so easy to be knocked down and just have your worth lowered. It's just so easy. That just happens, right?
So, if you seeing your wrinkles fade– and I want to be clear, collagen's not taking away wrinkles. It's not, okay? And the science is very shady on nails and hair, so you know, too, okay?
There is a placebo effect. A lot of people think, "Oh, they look 12, 13 years old" after they take a couple hits of, and that's really not going on. But again, I mean, you know, they feel better doing it.
But for kidney stone formers, I'm going to say, "Please, don't." There's no reason why you shouldn't have– there's other things you could be using. I would go to your dermatologist and see what are, you know, that don't have collagen in them. There's so many potions and stuff the dermatologist has.
And I know you want to go to Marshall's and just pick something off the shelf real fast, but I really do think when we're putting things in our body as far as supplements, cuz that's what these things are, we really should consult our doctor. So, if you want to firm up your skin, if you want to try to, you know, make your wrinkles a little lighter in your face, whatever it is that's going to make you feel better about yourself, I would consult a dermatologist.
Collagen for kidney stone formers, it would be a no. I'm sorry to say, and I know that makes a lot of people feel sad, but my job is to keep you stone-free. And so, that's my take on collagen.
