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Episode 15 – Title: Collagens: Hype or Healthy?
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Jonathan: Welcome everyone, to another episode of empowering you organically. I’m joined by my cohost, TeriAnn Trevenen.
TeriAnn: 00:06 Hey everyone.
Jonathan: 00:07 Today we are talking about a subject that we received a lot of emails and a lot of questions about. And we were talking about collagen. So we’ve made a lot of notes here that we want to go over and just have a conversation about collagen help you really understand what is it? Is it necessary to do a collagen supplement? If so, what should you be looking for? Why all of that fun stuff. So today we’re talking all about collagen and just going to give you a crash course lesson. So I hope you enjoy it.
TeriAnn: 00:39 Yeah, and let me just say, starting out, we do not claim to be the experts or a doctor. So any information we share with you. This is based off of our research and findings. We run a company called Organixx, and we sell a collagen called clean source collagen. Collagen is a hot topic right now. And a lot of people are selling it for the anti-aging benefits. They’re also talking, they’re talking a lot about teeth and skin and hair and other things. But I think you’re going to find today that there’s some interesting things in relation to collagen in your health that you probably didn’t know about.
TeriAnn: 01:21 I’m really excited to talk about this today because collagen is a product that I absolutely love when we were manufacturing our collagens. And this show isn’t just to show to plug our collagens it’s more to give information. But what I can say is when we manufactured our collagens, we looked at a lot of different collagens in the industry and how people were doing it and how we wanted to do it better. So we’re going to talk a little bit about things that you should look at when it comes to buying collagens and knowing what the best collagens are out there.
Jonathan: 01:51 And that’s the challenge, right? Things go trendy, things get hot, right? Ketogenic diet is hot right now. So all of a sudden you see keto everything out there on the shelves and most of those are just using salts to induce like a keto response on a meter. You’re not really into ketosis. You’re not actually getting the benefits of ketosis. It’s the same thing with collagens. I mean, we saw the trend about a year ago. And we did not come out with our own collagens for eight months after that, because we took the time to research, to study it, to source the best materials and to formulate what we felt was the best one out there.
Jonathan: 02:36 So again, I say all that because I’m not trying to plug ours, I just want you to understand, when you see all these different collagen supplements out there, there is a difference. There are things to look for, whether you get ours or not great, if not, no big deal. This is really an episode just to educate you so that you really know what to look for, and what to put in your body. And as with everything that we do, and we practice what we preach, we’re just here to give you the information so that you can make an educated decision on your own.
TeriAnn: 03:06 Yeah, and I’d like to make the plug to say that we definitely do the very best that we can to do our research and manufacture the absolute best quality products, the highest quality products, organic products that we can. But we’re also grateful to know that there’s other people in the industry who are as passionate about it as we are. So hopefully this just gives you information on what collagens are, how they can benefit your health, and what you need to look for when it comes to the product that you’re taking.
TeriAnn: 03:32 So let’s talk about collagens for a minute. What is collagen? Collagen is a protein made up of amino acids, the most abundant kind in the human body. In fact, different kinds of collagen molecules make up about one third of the total protein in the human body. We find collagen in bone skins, muscles, tendons. You can pretty much think of collagens as the stuff that binds your body together, which is a good way to see that visually in your head. It forms a firm, yet flexible foundation to provide structure as well as strength to the skeleton and surrounding tissue.
TeriAnn: 04:07 So it’s a super important thing in our body. It’s connecting ourselves, it gives our skin and our body elasticity, but also keeps it strong as well, which is an interesting concept, right? One of the reasons that collagen is a big deal and why it’s coming into focus more as part of supplementation is that as we age, we lose collagen. And when you think about all the things we just talked about, and what collagen does for you, when we lose collagen, think about what that does to your body. For all those aspects that it supports in your body when you’re losing it. It’s progressively getting worse in the aspect of your skin is getting softer. Things are not staying as firm. They’re supposed to be elastic, but yet firm, right? And things are starting to sagging and less of that holding your body together with collagen.
TeriAnn: 05:01 Now collagen is talked a lot about, for bones, skin, muscles and tendons. But there’s other aspects of it benefiting your body that go well beyond just your outward appearance and how it impacts your body. We’re going to talk a little bit about that today. But I want to touch on, a few things that I mentioned. Collagens in our body isn’t strong cartilage and muscles. Cartilage is a type of connective tissue that is made up of collagen. Your nose, your ear lobes, joints are vital points in your body that are made up of the tissue. Think about joints, right? And cartilage in your joints. What happens as we get older? Like Jonathan, when you run, what happens?
Jonathan: 05:43 I definitely feel it more and more. I start feeling the stiffness, I start feeling the aches absolutely.
TeriAnn: 05:48 Yeah. So collagen helps to keep those muscles and that cartilage strong very important. With teeth collagen is needed to help keep the teeth in place in your gums. It keeps things strong, but think about that yet flexible like keeping things in place in your mouth. Thick hair collagen plays an important part in hair growth. It fills in the spaces around each hair follicle. So it’s super important for hair growth and thick hair and healthy hair. For smooth skin wrinkling, and cellulite or other unfortunate result of low collagen in the body. Not enough collagen means skin begins to lose elasticity and sag.
TeriAnn: 06:24 And so if we have enough collagen in our body, that slows down that impact of losing that elasticity. It also causes the skin to become more week. It’s stronger, it glows more. It’s more firm when you have enough collagen in your body. And another one that’s super important and I don’t think it gets talked about enough. And this is the one that I think some people may be surprised by is your gut health. So gut health is super important. And I’m going to put Jonathan on the spot because he’s been around natural health content for a long time.
TeriAnn: 07:03 But talk a little bit not just in relation to collagens but talking about gut health and why it’s so important, because I don’t think people understand this. Even to a manufacturing and supply chain level. As far as how we create our products and the delivery system in our products. We talked about this a lot as a company. What’s important about gut health, healthy gut walls. I know we’ve talked a lot about this, I’m going to put you on the spot let you talk a little bit about it.
Jonathan: 07:25 I mean, we’re finding that the gut is one of the most important aspects of your health, right? And having a healthy gut biome and having the right bacterias, and the right just blend of everything in your gut. It makes such a big difference. I mean, not to go off on a tangent, but we did a podcast talking about glyphosate, right, which is main ingredient in Roundup, and pesticides, and things like that. And how we’re finding that’s, it kills off all of these bugs and all of these things on the plant. But then we eat it and it gets inside of gut and it’s killing off everything inside of us too.
Jonathan: 08:02 And these are good bacteria, good everything that’s living inside of us. And so it’s very important and we’ve talked about this, even with our Turmeric 3D, right? And when we were formulating the T 3D, like T 3D is more bioavailable. I’m sorry, Turmeric is more bioavailable when it’s taken with black pepper, but that’s because it’s opening up the walls in your gut that’s allowing the turmeric to seep through. Long term use of that, that irritation of that black pepper is bad for your gut health, right?
Jonathan: 08:38 So you were just talking about, you want me to talk kind of as we’re manufacturing is we’re putting everything together. The gut and how it gets delivered into your body and into your system is the most important thing that we look at when we’re formulating stuff, because without it, without taking that into account, you’re either doing more damage by putting black pepper in with your turmeric supplement or your body is just not even absorbing it all together, right? Where we add the fulvic and the humic acid and things like that, so that it has a stronger delivery system. So not sure how deep you want me to get into it.
TeriAnn: 09:12 No, that’s perfect. And let’s talk a little bit more about collagens and the gut. So interesting research and I’ll just make a plug. A lot of this research and information comes from our organics inspired health library. And you can find a lot of good articles and research that we’ve done there. But it is now known that roughly 80% of our immune system cells reside in the gut. So talking about gut health so important. The millions of tiny microscopic folds in the intestinal walls called villi are actually made of collagen. Think about that. Intestinal walls. We talked about collagen being the thing that binds us and holds us together.
TeriAnn: 09:52 Our gut wall is actually made up in large part of collagen. For this reason collagen is thought to help seal the gut, allowing food particles to stay inside the intestines where they belong. One of the latest and the dozens of studies that make the connection between gut health and autoimmune conditions is a joint U.S, Italian study that found that in individuals with a genetic predisposition, a leaky gut. A leaky gut is not a strong gut right? Let’s talk about that for a second. Leaky gut is when your walls are not sealed, they’re not tight, they’re not strong, and things are allowed to seep out. You’re not keeping the nutrients in, you have things passing through that should be passing through. IN Individuals with a genetic predisposition. A leaky gut may allow environmental factors to enter the body and trigger the initiation and development of autoimmune diseases. Think about that.
Jonathan: 10:42 The gut it’s just so important and having a healthy gut not having a leaky gut. And because we’re on a supplement company, because we’re talking about supplements and collagens, we’re not making any claims that are clean source collagen, heels leaky gut or anything like that. We’re not allowed to do that. What we can say, though, is the studies that we’ve researched. And what they find is that having, adding collagen to your diet can help with this based off of this study.
TeriAnn: 11:12 Yeah, well so that’s why a lot of the protocols for healing the gut now involves collagens because collagens help heal the gut, and it helps it ability to seal the guy. If you think about how this intestinal walls are actually made up of collagen. If you’re deficient in collagen, what does that do? Think about that. It’s pulling away the strength of the gut, because they’re not getting enough of what actually helps it to be strong and creates it. So super interesting. And again, I just want to touch on the fact that collagens is a hot topic right now.
TeriAnn: 11:45 People are talking about hair, nails, skin teeth, and let me tell you, I take collagens every day. And there is no question in my mind that my skin, my hair, my nails have all improved, and I’ve seen a huge difference in that. Talk about glowing skin and I’m not the only person that says that. I have a lot of friends who take collagen. Everybody loves collagen. But I think one of the things we skip over a lot is the good gut health. And if you want more information on gut health, you can go to our inspired health library. We have a lot of articles about it. If it’s the first time you’re hearing about it. It is incredibly important to your health. So I encourage you to check it out.
Jonathan: 12:25 Yeah, you can just go to Organixx, O-R-G-A-N-I-X-X, two Xs.com. And then you’ll just see a link right there at the top of the page for the inspired health library.
TeriAnn: 12:35 And you can search for gut health, you’ll find tons of information there. We’re going to talk a little bit more about how it improves your gut health a little bit later on. The next thing I want to talk about is types of collagen. There are over two dozen types of collagen. Although roughly 85% of the collagen in the body is made up of type one, two or three, or a combination of these three types in your body. Collagen is unique in the way that it packs itself into the body to create tissue. And the abundant type one collagen is so strong, in fact some experts claim that it is hard as steel.
TeriAnn: 13:10 So remember, it strengthens everything in our body, yet it’s flexible as well. So it’s a really interesting thing in how it holds our body together but allows us to move at the same time. So type one collagen we’re going to talk about five different types of collagen. But first, the top three type one, two, and three are 85% of the collagen in your body as I mentioned. So type one collagen is the most prevalent type of collagen. It’s the substance that makes up the skin, tendons, bones as well as the structural framework for the organs. So super important.
TeriAnn: 13:43 It’s also found in the digestive tract, which we just talked about, type one collagen, which helps repair and heal your gut. It also is for hair skin and nail health as well. So type one collagen is very, very important. Type two collagen is the structural component of cartilage in the body, because of this, it is great for joints to rebuild cartilage and ligaments, tendons, skin, and bones. And a little bit later on I’m going to touch on a study that was done around putting collagen supplementation into athletes and what it did as far as cartilage in joints and things like that.
TeriAnn: 14:25 So then the next thing Oh, and also I forgot to mention type two may also be really good for respiratory system, detoxification pathways and more, because of the type of amino acid it’s vital for nitric oxide production, which supports blood flow, lowering blood pressure. So type two is also very important.
Jonathan: 14:47 And type two it’s also good for joint health and possibly even for arthritis support. There’s a 24 week investigation conducted by Penn State University. Researchers studied athletes who supplemented their diet with collagen hydrolysis, they found improvement and joint pain across the board. Results of this study have implications for the use of collagen hydrolysis, to support joint health and possibly reduce the risk of joint deterioration in high risk group or in a high risk.
TeriAnn: 15:18 Yep. And that was the research I found that was super interesting. So when you’re talking about being a serious athlete, or even if you’re talking about aging, and those joints deteriorating. Collagen can really help to support that joint health, and it can also help in decreasing inflammation in those areas as well, which I think is super interesting. Not only in supporting it and making them stronger, but getting rid of a lot of that inflammation that you experience. Type three collagen is typically found wherever type one collagen can be found as well as some other unique places. It’s housed in what are called particular fibers, the substances that make up connective tissue. It’s crucial for the healthy functioning of the cardio vascular system.
TeriAnn: 16:03 Type three collagen, low type three collagen has been linked to ruptured blood vessels and can be life threatening. So collagen is I mean, all those ways we just talked about, and we’re going to talk about type four and five here in just a second. But just think about all of those aspects of the body. The type one, two, and three are a part of-
Jonathan: 16:21 And the fact that it makes up 85% of your body. I mean this is why it was so essential to make sure that our collagen wasn’t just one type right? And you find that out there in the marketplace. You can definitely find-
TeriAnn: 16:35 One or two is mostly the popular way to go.
Jonathan: 16:37 Exactly.
TeriAnn: 16:38 One or two types of collagen.
Jonathan: 16:39 Exactly right. Rather than trying to touch on everything.
TeriAnn: 16:41 Yeah. Type four collagen helps to strengthen and feel your cells that form the tissue protecting organs. So very, very important. As well as muscles and fatty tissue. And then also again the endothelial cells line the majority of the surfaces along the digestive tract and respiratory organs. We talked about the digestive tract and the gut earlier but also organs. And then type five collagen helps create the surface of cells, and there are at least a dozen others, and a lot of other things that they do. But those are the ones we were going to touch on today.
TeriAnn: 17:20 So Jonathan made a really good point. Supplementation with collagen is a really hot topic right now. It’s something that’s very important, especially if you’re not getting enough of it. But I think it’s really important when you’re looking at a collagen and supplement to take that you’re looking at what types of collagens they have in there. And that you’re getting a lot of different types of collagens in there. Type one, two, and three are very, very important. And as we mentioned, typically people just have one or two types of collagen in their products that they’re creating.
TeriAnn: 17:53 Now let’s talk about collagen for a minute from a natural perspective. So obviously if collagens in our bodies, our bodies are creating it on their own. And when we’re younger, we’re producing a lot more of it. But we’ve learned that as time goes on. And as we age that we decrease in the amount of collagen that we have in our body. So what are some ways that we can create collagen naturally in our bodies? One of the things that I read when it came to this is don’t overdo it when it comes to exposing yourself to UV radiation from the sun. That’s a big no, when it comes to keeping collagen production healthy in your body.
TeriAnn: 18:37 Second, it says if you smoke cigarettes quit now. Those are two things that it said. If you want to be producing collagen, and keep your collagen level strong, those are two things you should not do. So just keep those things in mind.
Jonathan: 18:52 Those are the things to eliminate. I mean at least to keep in check is the UV. So there’s also foods that have collagen, boosting aspects to them. Aloe Vera, ginseng, cilantro, different algae products, spirulina as well as different foods that are high in vitamin C, can help in the production.
TeriAnn: 19:13 Yes, and I want to touch on that really briefly. So this is something that I don’t think a lot of people know about collagens, but vitamin C is super important when it comes to collagens. And let me just read a little something around that. Without adequate amounts of dietary vitamin C, the body can’t actually form or store collagen. So let me just read that again. Without adequate amounts of dietary vitamin C, the body can’t actually form or store collagen. This makes vitamin C a mandatory co-factor in collagen synthesis. It’s responsible for holding cells together during the creation of collagen. This is one of the reasons why vitamin C is considered to be a vanity vitamin. It can help your body synthesize collagen, which leads to healthy nails, hair, skin and other benefits, which we talked about gut health and other things. Due to vitamin C being water soluble, the body needs daily refills of this vitamin. If your body lacks collagen a quality vitamin C supplement, should be a high priority.
Jonathan: 20:19 And it’s, I’m going to shamelessly plug because we did a lot of research when we were formulating our clean source collagens. And it’s why we have vitamin C inside of our clean source collagens, because of that fact. And we’re not using citric acid, vitamin C, we’re actually using Camu-Camu for vitamin C source, so it’s even more bioavailable. Yeah, it’s interesting to me, when you just do a little bit of research to really find out. You can see, and not calling anybody out. But you can see the supplement companies that do their research. And they create a product based off of all of this knowledge versus companies that just put out some something because it’s a new trend. Or put something out, and they slap collagens on it or something else.
TeriAnn: 21:05 Yeah, and we’re going to talk a little bit more about that towards the end to just some things to look for. But I did want to touch on that to increase collagen into your body don’t be deficient in vitamin C, even if you’re not taking a collagen supplement, which I strongly believe everyone should be. And I’m a big proponent of it. I think that there’s a lot of good vitamin C products out there. I take a liquid spray vitamin C product that I absolutely love every single day. And so I think vitamin C is important in many aspects. But especially when it comes to being able to create and maintain healthy levels of collagen in your body.
Jonathan: 21:41 Another interesting thing when it comes to collagens, we talk about avoiding the UV rays, we talk about quitting smoking. Another thing is you’ve got to manage your stress. Studies have shown that high stress states maintained over the long term can raise homocysteine levels, which in turn may affect the way collagen febrile linked together. This ultimately results in potential bone weakening and a greater risk of chronic disease.
TeriAnn: 22:09 Yeah, stress is just bad all around.
Jonathan: 22:12 We’ve talked about this on many podcasts. I mean, we just did a podcast a little bit ago, we were talking about self care and managing your stress levels there. And it’s just what we’re finding time and time again, that stress just deteriorates the body. Whether it’s from increasing the cortisol levels or doing all kinds of other damage on the body, that you’ve really got to live a long, healthy life. Stress I think is the first thing to manage.
TeriAnn: 22:41 Yeah, agreed. And I want to just say one disclaimer, we always get comments when we say things on the podcast or on articles or on information, they’re like, Well, then, what about this? When it comes to UV rays, there are healthy levels. As always, with everything in health care, too much of one thing can be bad thing. And so you have to find a balance. I’m not saying, we’re not saying that’s all bad. It’s just saying manager your levels of that. And so I just wanted to put that plug out there, because I know would get comments like, Are you saying it’s bad to go out and get exposed to it? And it’s not.
Jonathan: 23:16 The sun is healthy, it’s great for your vitamin D levels. I’m definitely not saying to go out there and take some off the shelf sunscreen and rub that all over your body. Either you’re putting a bunch of toxins into your largest organ on your body. So there’s absolutely ways to help manage it with natural sunscreen, especially if you’re more apt to getting burned and things like that, then definitely protect yourself. But I think there’s, I’m definitely not saying stay inside. I think the benefits from being outside and getting sunlight. Getting that vitamin D out way. Again, it’s all just in moderation.
TeriAnn: 23:52 Yeah, absolutely. So that’s talking a little bit more about natural ways of producing it. We’re going to talk now about collagen supplementation and we’re going to talk about 12 different benefits of collagen and supplementation-
Jonathan: 24:06 We love list, don’t we?
TeriAnn: 24:07 Yeah we love lists, we absolutely do. It’s a great way to get information out there. So the number one thing and we’re just going to touch very briefly on each of these. Some of them we’ve already touched on we don’t need to say and drill at home with every single one. But number one we talked about this healthy skin lack of collagen in the body means skin begins to lose elasticity. Especially as we age and collagen production goes down. So it’s really, really important with collagen in our bodies and collagens supplementation. As we get older we’re not producing as much it can really help to keep our skin healthy and for a lot longer.
TeriAnn: 24:45 And when you’re consuming collagen your body starts using it to repair all of these things. Your sagging skin the collagen matrix, connective tissue and so collagen supplementation from a skin perspective is definitely an added bonus.
Jonathan: 24:58 Number two glowing soak hair. Likewise, a 2012 study conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles found that oral supplement safely and effectively promotes a significant hair growth in women with temporary hair thinning. I’m not sure how it affects us men as much but it definitely helps women and I know that thinning is an issue. I mean my aunt definitely suffered from thinning hair. She got older and I think that again we’re talking about collagen supplementation.
TeriAnn: 25:29 Yeah, number three hard as nails. A 2017 report published in the Journal of cosmetic dermatology found that collagen supplementation helped improve brittle nails after 24 weeks of use. And I got to say like I am, I’ve already said it. Like I’m a walking campaign for skin hair nails when it comes to collagens. I’ve been on collagens now for probably three or four months and it’s absolutely improved the strength of my nails, my skin and my hair and I absolutely love taking it. So I’m putting my shameless plug in there but I absolutely love collagens.
Jonathan: 26:07 Improving eyesight. Number four the eyes are made up in large part of watery, gelatinous tissue. This means that they need enough collagen to make them strong and able to work effectively. Research in India suggested a lack of collagen and maybe one of the causes of cataracts.
TeriAnn: 26:22 Yeah and that one was actually I have to say, when I was looking at all this information and reading up on collagens, I know a lot about it, because we manufacture it. And so I really had never thought about the link to eyesight and how it helps there, but very, very important. Number five, easing joint pain, the connection between collagen and healthy joints may seem obvious, and it is. We talked about type two is the primary component of the tissues that provide a buffer between bones which make up a joint muscle.
TeriAnn: 26:52 And so when we talked about the study of people using collagen supplementation and how it improves the strength in their joints and their cartilage. Also, another interesting aspect of it when we talked about supporting healthy inflammation levels, but also pain. There’s also other research that I read out there around studies done where people implement collagens supplementation in their life and they have reduced level of pain specifically when it comes to areas like joints and cartilage. And seeing that pain reduced based off of the collagen that they’re taking.
Jonathan: 27:27 And you wonder is that pain because of the breakdown of the collagen and so now you have bone on bone or you have other things happening and … Number six fat burning and muscle building. Some Research also suggests that collagen may be beneficial and helping you lose weight through fat burning. This is because collagen contains the amino acid glycine, which is essential for creating synthesis. Creatine is a compound that is formed in protein metabolism which provides the body with fuel, especially during physical activity.
TeriAnn: 27:59 Number seven, reducing cellulite. The presence of cellulite, maybe another sign of low collagen. This is because of the collagens relationship to skin elasticity. So we’ve talked a lot about skin but of course, cellulite like all other skin issues that you may be experiencing can be improved based off of collagen.
Jonathan: 28:18 Number eight, strengthening teeth. Collagen also forms one of the building blocks of healthy teeth, especially collagen type 17, which helps to form tooth enamel. In addition, in 2015 survey and study found a correlation between low collagen levels, inflammatory processes and periodontal disease.
TeriAnn: 28:37 Number nine aids the liver. Collagen can help your internal organs as well and including the liver. In fact, collagen can be a great liver protector. The glycine and collagen can prevent this primary detoxification organ from getting overtax by too many harmful substances. So just keeping it strong just like we talked about with the gut.
Jonathan: 28:59 It’s just phenomenal how many places in our body collagen plays and it’s a different type of collagens and all of that. And so, I’m not going to go so far is to call anything a miracle supplement. But if you’re looking for that one thing to take, that could make a big difference in those aches and the aging and all of that other stuff. The argument for it continues to grow.
Jonathan: 29:26 So number 10 helps your heart. The amino acid content in collagen is one of the reasons why supplementation can be so beneficial especially as we age. Proline is an important amino acid found in collagen that it has been proven to help release fat build up along arterial walls in the bloodstream. Because of this, there’s evidence to suggest that it can help with high blood pressure and arterial sclerosis. Hardening of the arteries.
TeriAnn: 29:53 Number 11 helps heal wounds. As stated in benefit number two, collagen is vital for skin elasticity and strengths. When we talked about skin and cellulite and all those things, ways that it can impact the skin. This goes for skin and tissue repair as well. This is why the latest non toxic wound healing and dressing technology and medicine use organic as well as synthetically produced collagen substances for sponges, injectables, membranes, films and seeing grass. This one was news to me, 100% had no idea that this was going on. I actually pulled some other articles and wanted to read a little bit more about what they were doing for wound care. And a lot of it is around collagens, which I had no idea and I think that’s so fascinating. so fascinating what we can do with the information we have now and helping people with things just as simple as wound care.
Jonathan: 30:50 Absolutely. Number 12 we talked a little bit about helps heal leaky gut. Perhaps one of the most exciting and hopeful benefits of collagen is for the millions of Americans who suffer from digestive issues, autoimmune diseases and neurological conditions connected to leaky gut. Yeah, I’m just going to read a little bit more on this. Collagen can help break down proteins and food. This gelatinous substance can also help them repair the intestinal lining. Basically rebuilding our gut lining. This keeps both good and bad bacteria in the GI tract where it belongs. A 2003 study published in the journal for clinical pathology found that individuals with inflammatory bowel disease also suffered from lower concentrations of collagen.
TeriAnn: 31:35 Yeah, so just to take it one step further. We talked about gut health, and we’ve talked about it a few times. Some of the research behind collagens supports the fact that it can help balance stomach acid, help hydrate the digestive tract, help to repair the stomach and intestines. And we just talked about how it helps with irritable bowel syndrome, IBS and stomach ulcers. And with leaky gut, which we already talked about.
TeriAnn: 32:06 So I just want to touch really quickly, leaky gut. And we already told you where you can go to get more information on that atOrganixx.com. But leaky gut is also called intestinal permeability, and occurs when tiny holes form in the digestive tract. So literally think about the visual things can leak out of your gut, which you want to keep in the good nutrients and the things that help your body to be strong. We just talked about how the immune system is strongly supported by the gut.
TeriAnn: 32:36 This allows foreign matter when you have leaky gut to enter into the bloodstream, whether the immune system sees them as invaders and launches, attacks or auto immune reactions to that this vicious cycle leads to chronic confusion for the immune system. And in many cases, to autoimmune diseases. As we mentioned, 80% of our immune system cells reside in the gut. So collagen and we talked about this earlier as well, helps to strengthen the gut wall. And so if you’re deficient in collagen, you’re going to suffer from leaky gut, you’re going to suffer from not having a strong immune system, because a lot of our immune system is supported by what resides in the gut.
TeriAnn: 33:16 Super fascinating information. I also just want to touch on the fact that collagens can help with rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, joint plate pain, inflammation, and there’s plenty of studies linked to collagens and symptoms relating to these issues. So very, very important. I wanted to read this study. This may have been the one that you touched on earlier, but it was just a brief synopsis of it. So it says that people under the 30 crowd that are ignoring that knee pain after run could lead to cartilage breakage and disability in the long run, right? Ignoring it and not paying attention to it. And it could mean low levels of collagen in your body.
TeriAnn: 34:06 There’s evidence out there and how up in your collagens levels can help. So Jonathan referenced this research study earlier Penn State University in 2008 in this clinical trial, 147 relatively healthy male and female collegiate athletes, with no signs of joint disease but who occasionally experienced joint pain were divided into two groups. The first group received a collagen hydrolysate supplement for 24 weeks, the other received a placebo collagen hydrolysate is a type of supplement were collagen molecules are broken down into peptides for better digestion and absorption.
TeriAnn: 34:37 The results of the study indicated that the individuals who consume the collagen supplement had reduced plate pain and inflammation and increased mobility compared to those who did not. So just super fascinating as far as how that can support better joint health in the long run, which we see as we age that deteriorates impairs people’s ability to walk, to run, to be fit, and active and healthy and a tremendous amount of pain because they don’t have those high levels of collagen in their body.
Jonathan: 35:08 What makes this study so important is I think a lot of people and the marketing that’s gone out there around collagen is all about anti-aging, right? So it’s there to firm up your skin and get rid of wrinkles and help your nails. And it’s marketed out there to the 50 plus crowd, right? And that’s not the case. What this study really shows is, even if you are in your 20s, and you’re experiencing some pains, and some things like that, that’s already a sign of the collagen break down that’s going on in your body.
Jonathan: 35:42 And you’re already producing less of it by your mid 20s. If you’re at your 30s it’s a good idea to start with a collagen supplement. If you’re in your 40s, absolutely 50s, no brainer 60s, what are you waiting for? I mean, at this point, it’s just very clear that this is one of those simple supplements that your body needs and can use. And yes, you can find ways to create more of it. And it’s not super easy either, right? We have to talk about your vitamin C levels in the right place. Are you eating the right foods? How often are you eating your Aloe Vera every day, right? And these things that help you produce-
TeriAnn: 36:18 Just cutting off the plant and taking it every day? Everybody does that right? Everybody is taking Aloe Vera every day. But no it even speaks to the fact that especially if you’re an athlete, and you’re being hard on your body like that, and then your collagen levels are decreasing. Why wouldn’t you support that healthy collagen level in your body and keep your body strong, because you’re being hard on your body. But for everyone, it matters because we’re all using our bodies every single day.
TeriAnn: 36:44 So the last thing I want to touch on today is, and we’ve talked about this in the past when we’ve done podcast on turmeric, when we’ve done podcast on mushrooms. We’re talking about hot topics in the supplement industry, because we really believe in their ability to help you and we want to educate people more on what they are and why you should be taking them. But we also are big supporters of clean and quality manufacturing when it comes to supplements. It’s something we’re trying to change in the industry and bring attention to because anyone can get together with a manufacturer and find some ingredients and throw together a product and sell it for $60 a bottle.
TeriAnn: 37:26 They probably produce it for $2 a bottle and make a huge chunk of change based off of you taking their supplements. But that’s not what we’re after. Our products are based around whole food based products. Organic clean, high quality, we have powerful delivery systems and the way our products are manufactured because they’ve been fermented. And we use specific ingredients to help deliver our ingredients directly into yourselves. And it’s no different for collagen. So while we certainly love our collagens, I want to say a few things. Just a disclaimer, everything we talked about in this podcast, we’re not saying our collagens is going to heal, treat, cure you from anything. We do believe in its ability to help you have a better and healthier life based off of some of the things that we’ve talked about today.
TeriAnn: 38:15 But also we’re not saying that our product is your product 100% for sure. We do sell a really good clean source collagen product and we love our product. But we really just want to inform people in the industry and be a huge supporter in the industry for better manufacturing processes and higher quality and standards when it comes to it. So some things to look for when you buy your collagen. First of all, we spoke about this earlier in the podcast but a lot of people are just doing one or two types of collagens in their collagens product. But you can actually get a lot more into your product. Our specific product has five different types of collagens. We have it from grass fed pasture raised bovine collagen peptides, bovine bone broth hydrolysis protein, chicken bone broth, clean marine wild caught fish collagen and egg shell membrane collagen.
TeriAnn: 39:10 Another thing we talked about is that vitamin C and collagen go hand in hand. If you’re deficient in vitamin C, your body cannot absorb and continue to produce collagen at healthy levels. So we have Camu-Camu and the Acerola cherry, which are both high in vitamin C, and forms vitamin C, to help the collagen be efficiently delivered into your body and into yourselves when you’re taking the product. And another thing that we do in a lot of our products, we either use humic, or folic acid, sometimes both. And that’s a component of our products that helps break down the product and deliver it directly into your cells.
TeriAnn: 39:49 And so when you’re buying collagens, I would definitely be looking for a very clean source Collagen. A collagen that has multiple types of collagens in the product, has a powerful delivery system. You should definitely be looking for one that has vitamin C in it. Also, it’s super important and we’ve talked about this time and time again. And I cannot stress this enough. You should be asking your supplement companies for test results. We have all of our products tested. We’ve talked about test results before, especially in a podcast around prop 65, which I would highly recommend listening to. Why test results are important, what test results you should be looking for, what levels you should be looking for.
TeriAnn: 40:33 We are really proud of our clean source collagens. We had heavy metals, test done on our clean source collagens. And it came back as not detected for any of the heavy metals that were tested for.
Jonathan: 40:46 So that’s arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury not detected at all, which means yet 0.01 parts per million, right? I mean, it’s just-
TeriAnn: 40:57 Yeah, clean across the board. And we’ve even been given permission to post those results on our website. But it doesn’t matter if you’re taking our product or someone else’s product. You should be pushing for higher standards and testing from your supplement companies, you should be asking them for their test results. There’s one other aspect as I’ve done my research behind collagens, and as we went to release our collagens. Something that I was looking at a lot. Is a lot of supplements companies with powders in this day and age are adding flavors to their products big time.
TeriAnn: 41:28 They want to hide the flavor mask, the flavor, our collagens, really is odorless and doesn’t have a flavor in my opinion. I personally, on this sort of personal note I take collagens every day. I put it in a smoothie with other powders that I put in there. Peanut Butter, banana, all organic Of course ice and water and mix it up. So I’m getting my collagens and other-
Jonathan: 41:52 You’re doing that with your bone broth.
TeriAnn: 41:53 Yes, yeah. So I do, we have a chocolate bone broth. And speaking of flavoring, ours is all natural flavoring. Meaning and I’m going to talk about all natural. When I say all natural in our flavor it’s cacao powder. That’s all that it is as far as the flavoring goes for the chocolate. So it is 100% real chocolate flavoring organic. And so I use our chocolate bone broth. I do a scoop of that. I do a scoop of collagen. It’s a smaller scope of the collagens on the bone broth. And then I do organic peanut butter, organic bananas, ice and water and I mix that up. I drink that every day, sometimes twice a day.
Jonathan: 42:34 I think it’s good for you to talk about how you have it because I can shake up our collagens in a scoop of just regular water with some ice and drink. And there’s no flavor, there’s no taste there. And you can mix it with anything hot or cold. You could add a scooper this to some soup. You could add it to your coffee. You can put it in your-
TeriAnn: 42:48 Put in your Ice cream if you want. Organic ice cream if you want. But yeah, I mean, you can put it on anything.
Jonathan: 42:53 Exactly. And it’s odorless, it’s flavorless and it blends really easy. It’s not going to end up all clumpy or anything like that. It’s very easy to you.
TeriAnn: 43:05 And for me, where I do a lot of supplementation, I like to get a lot into one type of smoothie. So I just get a lot in one go. But there’s so many different ways that you can do it. And let me also say, I don’t say this enough. But we get a lot of comments from people who just all of a sudden will buy products and they’ll take all these supplements. It doesn’t matter what supplements you’re buying, or what company you’re taking them from. I strongly encourage people like if you’re going to start taking collagens because of what you’ve heard today, do one supplement at a time for a week and see how it impacts you. Maybe two weeks and see how it impacts you.
TeriAnn: 43:44 I often hear people who will get comments and feedback from people. And that’s not just from people who are buying our products. But I get it from friends and family. Like I started taking all the supplements and I felt so sick. And I’m like did you do one at a time? They’re like, no, I started like taking six. I’m like, Well, what if one of them doesn’t work well with your body. And it’s not what your body needs. Oftentimes, when you’re having a bad reaction to a supplement it means that your body doesn’t need it, or it just doesn’t sync well with your body. So I’m just putting that plug-
Jonathan: 44:06 Or it doesn’t sync well with the other supplements that you’re taking. It’s interesting and listen, some of our supplements really complement each other. I on the other hand, I don’t have an issue. I can take a handful of all of our supplements-
TeriAnn: 44:22 And a lot of people can-
Jonathan: 44:23 In the morning and there’s no effect. But it’s good to see how your body feels right? I’m not going to come out here and just tell everybody that hey, this one thing is going to do all of this for you. It’s the same way I feel about different ways of eating out there and different diets. It’s different for everybody. And everybody’s bodies are different. All of your needs are different. Your nutrient deficiencies are different. And so try something for a little while. I wanted to cut in earlier, but you were on a roll.
Jonathan: 44:53 The conversation around using clean ingredients is so overlooked and it amazes me. When we talk about a supplement, which is a high concentration from a whole food, right? And so you can take our mushrooms or turmeric or anything like that. And if it’s been sprayed with pesticides, you’re getting a high concentration of that pesticide in your supplement. If it’s not an organic ingredient. And so that’s what makes, that’s what is so important to understand here. That if you currently live a lifestyle where you believe as we do that organic is the healthier way to go without the pesticides even GMO free, then consider your supplement should follow the same thing, because it’s a high concentration of that ratio mushroom that’s in seven and plus right? Or it’s a high concentration of another ingredient that’s in another supplement. Why are your standards not the same for those ingredients as they are for when you’re chewing it up and just put it in your mouth?
TeriAnn: 45:58 Yeah, absolutely. It’s definitely overlooked. And that’s a great segue into one other thing that’s overlooked. And I touched on this just a few minutes ago, but went off on another tangent. Natural flavors in products. We are seeing in our industry a huge turn in the way that people are producing their powders and it’s with all natural flavors. I actually got some information pulled by Joni who helps manage our podcasts and she’s fantastic. And she did some research for me. And so I’m just giving her a shout out. She’s actually the one that turned me on to this quite some time ago. This natural flavors thing that’s going on.
TeriAnn: 46:40 It’s like very popular to do natural flavors on your supplement. And I want to read a few observes around natural flavors. And I want to give credit Vani Hari, who is the Food Babe put on her website. An article around natural flavors and this was a quote that came from her article. “The difference between artificial flavors and natural flavors, organic flavors and other added flavors. The term flavors on a package is highly misleading. It sounds innocent and is on so many products that we are desensitized to it.
TeriAnn: 47:15 Flavor companies own these proprietary formulas making it near impossible to find out exactly what’s in them. You’d like to think that natural apple flavor is just some juice extracted from an apple and inserted into the food. Nope that natural apple flavor needs to be preserved and stabilize and has agents added to help it mix well into a product. This is why flavors can contain upwards of 100 ingredients like propylene glycol, polysorbate 80 BHT all considered incidental additives. Not required to be labeled by the FDA. The FDA doesn’t require companies to tell you what is in the flavors they use. It’s a complete mystery ingredient.”
TeriAnn: 47:55 To take it one step further from an article on the NCBI.nlm.nih.gov and will link all of this in the show notes. The natural versus natural flavors, conflict and food labeling or regulatory viewpoint. The abstract of that article says “food branded with a natural label can be found in any grocery store across the United States.” And let me just say, I’m going to stop for a second. When you’re looking at a label down under the supplement factual frequently say all natural or natural flavors.
TeriAnn: 48:30 When you see that, you need to question it. Consumers consider this label to be an important attribute when making a purchasing decision. And billions of dollars are spent annually on these products. Well, many consumers believe natural foods are healthier, heavy reliance on that assumption is misguided as natural has no formal legal definition. It’s merely define pursuant to an FDA approved informal policy. Another important health attribute in a consumers purchasing decision is the presence of natural flavors and food.
TeriAnn: 49:02 However, unlike the term natural FDA has been promulgated, legally binding regulations for natural flavors. These flavors are currently the fourth most common food ingredient listed on all food labels. I’m Just going to read that again. These all natural flavors are currently the fourth most common food ingredient listed on food labels. In reality, natural flavors are a far cry from what consumers might expect, as they can contain both artificial and synthetic chemicals often used as processing aids. Nonetheless, without a legally binding natural regulation, there has been little opportunity to contest the naturalness of natural flavors in the past.
TeriAnn: 49:40 Recently, FDA has initiated a notification of requests for comments on use of the term natural, so an attempt to propagate regulations may be underway. Thus, it is appropriate to consider where natural flavors will fall if binding regulations are set forth. This article that I’m reading from talks about the natural debate. So will link that article and you can go and look at more around that. Basically all that to say, and if you talk to my friends about this, who turned me on to this, you could be eating crap. And I’ll even say the words that they use for it. When you’re eating and consuming products that have the words natural flavoring are all natural flavors and you should question it.
TeriAnn: 50:24 The reason I’m touching on it in this podcast is again, there’s a big movement in the protein and the powder industry to flavor products. And while you can flavor products with natural ingredients, and I’m not saying all natural flavors, I’m saying natural ingredients. Like our bone broth has actual cocoa powder in it. That’s how we get our chocolate.
Jonathan: 50:45 It’s listed in the ingredients as cocoa powder.
TeriAnn: 50:47 Yes.
Jonathan: 50:48 It’s not listed as a natural flavor. And that’s the thing that is really important here. Is we’re not just talking about our foods, we’re talking about a lot of the supplements out there. There’s a lot of protein mixes out there. There’s a lot of bone broth mixes out there, there’s a lot of keto mixes out there, there’s a lot of collagen mixes out there. And they’ve got just the craziest flavors in the world. And consider that one are the USDA certified organic, whatever it is, and two what are they flavoring it with, because you could be really trying to be health conscious and not realizing that you’re filling your body with a whole bunch of quote unquote crap.
TeriAnn: 51:26 Yep, yeah. So when you’re looking at products to buy, make sure you’re looking at a few things. Cleanliness of ingredients, I would always say where possible USDA certified organic, non GMO, and then also delivery system, what are they doing to get those ingredients into your body?
Jonathan: 51:48 Is it fermented? Is it sprouted?
TeriAnn: 51:50 Sprouted. They need to be bioavailable. Otherwise, you’re just taking a product that’s going straight to through body. You’ve spent all that money-
Jonathan: 51:55 Need to be whole food not synthetic.
TeriAnn: 51:56 Yeah, whole food. And let me also say, I’m going to take this time to plug something we’ve plugged before in the podcast. You cannot always get USDA certified organic ingredients just based on where their sourced. But that does not mean that it’s not a clean ingredient. Our collagens are the perfect example of this. Our test came back with not detected on all of the heavy metals in the product. But we cannot claim collagen nor can anyone in the industry claim that their collagens are USDA certified organic. Just by very nature of the definition you cannot certify or make those certified organic based off where they’re sourcing everything.
TeriAnn: 52:35 However, whoever you’re buying your product from should have tests to prove the cleanliness of their product just like ours does. So please be looking for that and push for that from the companies you’re buying from. And it’s just such an important conversation in calling for better regulation in the supplement industry that’s going to come from consumers 100%.
Jonathan: 52:55 It has to come from us, right? I mean, I started this supplement company because I wanted better supplements to take for myself, my mom, my brothers and sisters, I’m the youngest of six. It was and it’s not just for us. And then we had thousands of people that were demanding the same thing. And so it’s you that’s demanding it, it’s me that’s demanding it, that’s created Organixx. We’re not going to create every supplement under the sun, we’re likely not going to be creating too many more. But we need to raise the standards in the industry. And that comes from us as consumers, right?
Jonathan: 53:29 I take other supplements that we don’t create, and I hold them to the same standards that I hold ours to. And if they’re not up to those standards, and I don’t take them. And we talk about this, maybe we don’t talk about this a lot. But I talk about this a lot with friends and things like that. Maybe it’s not as easy to get the change in government by voting. But what we do get to do is we get to vote with our money. And we get to vote with where we spend our money. And if we spend our money with local farmers markets, and local people that are growing and foods organically and all of that, then it’s going to produce more of those and make them more readily available, it’s going to drive the prices down.
Jonathan: 54:08 So you get to vote with your money. Same thing with supplements, right? You can go out there and buy the crap and help encourage more people to make crap. Or you can buy good clean supplements and encourage more people to make good clean supplements.
TeriAnn: 54:20 And to take it one step further think about the impact on your health. Putting your money into a supplement that’s just going to go straight through your body, or that has pesticides or negative ingredients. And think about where your money is going. Not only are you supporting better quality manufacturing, and products and companies, but you’re supporting your own health. Think about that don’t waste your money. And so no matter where you’re getting your products, no matter where you’re buying your products, be thinking about all of these things. It’s super, super important. And just because we have a podcast and we’re talking about this content, and we sell products, we support other people in this industry. We’re not out to make every product the best product in the world. We have a specific product line that we’re very passionate about. But there’s other people in the industry who have other products who we support as well because they’re doing it right. And they’re doing it the right way and good for them. And we want to see them succeed because it’s going to change the supplement industry.
TeriAnn: 55:13 So to close this out. I hope this has been really informative for everyone on collagens. Again, I love collagens and I’ll make my plug. It’s been a game changer for me. I’ve noticed a significant improvement in my health, my hair, my skin, my nails, and I love taking it every day. I think it’s a phenomenal product. And hopefully with the information we’ve delivered today, you’ve learned a lot more about what collagen does for your body, how it impacts your body, what it does to make up your body. I know I learned a lot even above and beyond what I already knew, which was quite a bit just in doing the research around this. And if you want more information, we will link all of the articles that are on our website and those that we reference today in the show notes at empoweringyouorganically.com and you go to the this specific episode you’ll be able to find those notes.
Jonathan: 56:03 Yep, empoweringyouorganically.com for everything podcast related Organixx.com. O-R-G-A-N-I-X-X.com. To learn more about our clean source collagens to learn more about our other supplements. And maybe even more important than going there for supplements or to spend any money is go to our health INPSPIRED library. And you’ll find the link right at the top of the page at Organixx.com. Click on that and we have so many different videos and articles and free reports that will just educate you to no end. And each one of our articles, you’ll be able to see all of the list of sources at the bottom of the article, so that you can research, our research and make sure that we’re telling you what and that what we’re saying is true.
Jonathan: 56:51 And so I just encourage you to get educated to understand what you’re taking. Do some research, get good products, treat your body that way. You deserve it. And thank you very much for listening. If you have not already subscribed to our podcast on iTunes and you won’t miss an episode. And TeriAnn thanks for joining us. Again thank you for the wealth of knowledge on collagens and we will see everybody on the next episode.
TeriAnn: 57:18 Thanks everyone
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Episode 15 – Title: Collagens: Hype or Healthy?
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