This Is Nourishment For Aging Joints
Hey my friend! I hope you’re having a great weekend!
Have you ever had the experience where you read something that you have read before but something about it stands out that didn’t stand out the previous time? This happened to me a few weeks ago when I was at home on a Saturday studying my textbook “Joint Structure and Function.” Something caught my attention that I had previously not looked as closely at.
I was reading about the composition of joint and connective tissue and the ratio of the two proteins that make up its material- collagen and elastin. Oversimplified, collagen is the protein that gives joint and connective tissue (cartilage, tendon, ligament, bone, skin, etc) its strength and elastin is what allows it to have pliability.
The book was describing the normal effects of aging on these tissues, which is that we tend to lose some collagen and replace it with elastin. This reduces the strength of those tissues and makes them susceptible to damage and injury. This is one of the mechanisms that researchers conclude contributes to the higher incidence of things like arthritis and other joint problems as we age, as well as bone loss and sagging skin.
As I read this the thought jumped in my head- “what if we could reduce the loss of collagen as we age? Would this change the health of our joints?” Seems like a logical question, right?
Well I discovered that it is possible. Here’s how.
Interestingly enough, we can actually supplement with collagen and reduce collagen damage and potentially replace lost collagen, thereby making our joints more “like they used to be.”
I discovered that this is a heavily researched topic. In fact this literature review references 60 different studies and it found that supplementing with collagen reduced joint pain, bone density loss and skin aging.- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26267777
This study specifically looked at its effects on joint pain via a 200 person double blind study and found it to cause a 51.6% improvement in subjective pain reports by the participants- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22500661
This study looked specifically at osteoarthritis knee pain via a 250 person double blind study and found “significant improvement in knee joint comfort” among those who received the collagen supplement- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19212858
This study looked specifically at post exercise/ post sports related joint pain via a 147 person double blind study and found improvement in joint pain with those that received the collagen supplement- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18416885
Of course after reading all this I searched out where I could get some and I found it on amazon for under 25 bucks for about a months supply. Talk about a steal!
Here’s where you can get some- click here
You’ll see that amazon has over 2800 published reviews of this product by users and 88% of them gave it either a 4 or 5 star rating. Read through some of them if you get a minute. Some are quite powerful.
Now keep in mind that all these studies were done over 6 months so you’d need to give it at least that long to see the full effects. My advice to you though is to take it even if you don’t have joint pain because it has a strong preventative effect and it appears that it can make your joint, bone and skin tissues stronger and less susceptible to injury and/or the normal effects of aging. Being that it has no known side effects and is nothing more than a protein derived from beef, I can’t see any reason why you wouldn’t. I know I will!
All the best!
Chris Vercelli MATm, RTS, CPT
Founder: Non-Fiction Fitness