Dear Customer.
Thank you again for taking time to leave your comment and review about our anti-ageing collagen.
With regards your point "wondering if there's something better" and "I, II, III, V, X Type", maybe I could elaborate a little and help answer this for you, if I may please? I will try to do this in short, easy steps otherwise my email will go on forever and I might overwhelm you with information!!! 🤦🏻♀️
1. Typically, most collagen is formed when families of amino acids group together and form a chain of collagen molecules in a triple helix structure (like DNA but 3 strands, instead of 2). These molecules then group together to form fibrils and, in turn, these fibrils then further entwine forming collagen fibres. Please note though that not all types of collagen form fibres.
2. Most people believe there are 16 types of collagen. In fact, almost 40 subtypes have actually been identified. However, only a small number of these are really physiologically significant. The first 5 types, using Roman numerals I, II, III, IV, and V are the most abundant types of collagen found in the body and over 90% of all collagen is made from Type 1.
3. Type I forms collagen fibres and is found in skin, tendons, internal organs and the non-mineral part of bone; Type II is the main component of cartilage; Type III is typically found in reticulin which is a type of fibre found in connective tissues typically in bone marrow, the liver and the lymph system; Type IV is found in basement membranes (best to Google this!) and type V is seen in hair and on the surfaces of cells. FYI - Types I and III are often seen together in cells and tissues.
4. When we consume collagen the body does NOT say "great, my human has fed me Type II collagen so I am going to use this wherever I need Type II collagen (eg cartilage)". The body says "great, my human has fed me some complex chains of amino acids, so I am going to break these down into individual amino acids and I am going to use them for whatever I need them for."
5. The human body is far more clever than science and it will decide exactly which amino acids it wants to use and exactly what it wants or needs to use them for. As some examples, typically the body will take arginine and turn it into nitric oxide which is a neurotransmitter; it may use histidine for growth and tissue repair; it may use leucine for blood-sugar regulation, muscle and bone growth or repair, hormone production and wound healing... and so on.
6. It is therefore not the Type of collagen that determines whether one collagen product is better than another.
7. It is also, therefore, not the source of collagen that determines a better product (so whether it is from cow, fish, pig or eggshells).
8. It is actually the quality of the manufacturing hydrolysis process that will determine whether one product (regardless of collagen type or source) is better than another, because the hydrolysis process is what takes these very big and very complicated molecules of collagen and breaks them down into small "chunks" called peptides.
9. The smaller the peptide "chunk", the easier it is for the body to digest and make use of (i.e the more bio-available it is). This can be measured and is known as the molecular weight and, for collagen, this is measured in Daltons. The lower the daltons the smaller the peptides and typically the more bio-available.
10. So a 3000 dalton marine collagen would typically be less bio-available than a 2000 dalton marine / bovine / porcine etc collagen.
11. Humans are around 20% protein and of that, 30% is collagen protein. EVERYONE needs protein, so collagen protein - which is basically just a very clean and very bio-available form of protein - can help everyone, especially as most people are consuming protein in forms that the body cannot assimilate (eg cooked meat/fish; processed dairy products like whey etc). This is also why so many different people experience such huge varieties of benefits - one person may see hair re-growth; another may feel less pain and inflammation and another's nails may grow and skin may glow! And it doesn't matter how old you are, what sex you are or what race you are. We all need protein.
So, to conclude on your points, our collagens are produced by a manufacturer who has the most state-of-the-art, advanced hydrolysis processing system and this is why our molecular weight for both bovine and marine are 2000 daltons. This will also be why when you test our product against others it will sink faster in water, dissolve more freely, not clump and have less taste and smell.
We believe we are using the best collagen in the world that is currently available and which meets our very strict regulatory, health and safety and quality standards so we cannot currently offer a better product. Our collagens are mainly type II and contain 18 amino acids of which 8 out of 9 are the essential amino acids (the only one missing is tryptophan because it is not present in collagen naturally). So, it's currently not possible for us to make our collagen better unless the manufacturer improves their processing (which our own is doing all the time).
That said, we are always researching ways of improving the product range that we offer, which is why we launched the Gut Health Collagen and the Anti-Ageing collagen. We took the best collagen and combined it with carefully selected, high quality super nutrients so that we could deliver the benefits of multiple gut health and anti-ageing supplements to our customers in one convenient and money saving dose.
We are now also looking at vegan, hair loss, anti-acne, pet and coffee blends, so watch this space!!
I hope that all the above helped answer your comments and was not to overwhelming, but if you have any questions or wish to discuss things further then just say hello@ediblehealth.com
We are always here for our customers!
Thanks again for your support!
Kindest regards - Corinna, Director
