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I am asking with respect to collagen ingested from your grocery store that comes in dried packets or containers.

  1. Is the collagen completely destroyed and denatured in the stomach with the acidic PH?

  2. If the collagen passes through the lining of the stomach into the blood stream or what percent of collagen moves into the small intestine?

  3. From there what percentage of collagen moves across the small intestine lining into the blood stream (still intact/ not denatured)

  4. What percentage then of gelatin/collagen crosses the cellular membrane (if any?).

  5. What percentage of collagen within the cells is then used building blocks for supporting a collagen matrix in each part of the body.

  6. What percentage of collagen matrix survives and receives long lasting ingrown vasculature to support the tissue for the long run?

Dave Liu
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Ian Sharp
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1 Answers1

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Gelatin is made up of proteins derived from collagen, a protein that is heavily used in our bones and joints, among other things.

According to this study, which was done in rats:

The relative and absolute bioavailability of gelatin were 74.12% and 85.97%, respectively.

It goes on to say that about 42% of gelatin was absorbed from the intestine as peptides (chains of amino acids that are smaller than proteins). Because these peptides are susceptible to proteases (the proteins in our body that break down peptide bonds), it is likely that these peptides are broken down into amino acids, which are then used to make different proteins, rather than that re-used to make more collagen (though I could not find data on this specifically).

Similar studies have not been done in humans, so it is not known if these numbers are generalizable, but Canada has approved a nutritional label stating that gelatin can be a nutritional source of protein.

Nate
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