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why is collagen so well known especially
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outside of the fitness world let's talk
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how's it going guys my name is richie
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kirwan and today we're going to talk all
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about the protein collagen what it is
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what effects it has in your body and if
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it's actually good for anything if
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you've ever had a little wander around a
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supplement shop if you've ever read the
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ingredients list of a protein bar or if
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you've ever read through an article
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talking about anti-aging or skin health
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it's quite likely that you've seen the
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word collagen but what is it and does it
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deserve all the attention that it gets
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firstly what is collagen well collagen
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is actually the most common protein in
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the human body and this is because it's
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a major structural protein that helps
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form the structure of pretty much
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everything your skin your nails your
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connective tissue your bones collagen
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plays a big part in keeping them and you
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all together and that brings me to a
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really important point about collagen it
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only comes from animal sources
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you see collagen is produced by animals
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and often extracted from their bones and
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connective tissue so there is no at
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least widely available vegan collagen
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which is strange because i've actually
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seen quite a lot of products marketed as
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vegan collagens which are actually a
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combination of amino acids and other
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nutrients thought to be necessary for
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the production of collagen in the body
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the thing to remember though is that
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these supplements won't have the same
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effect as taking collagen itself now
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that said there are apparently some new
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vegan collagen products that are coming
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on the market and are made using
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bioengineered bacteria and yeast but
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they aren't common yet so most of the
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vegan collagens available in the stores
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aren't the real deal another thing worth
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noting about collagen is that despite
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coming from animals it's not a complete
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protein so an incomplete protein is one
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that's lacking or low in one or more
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amino acids needed for the human body
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specifically collagen completely lacks
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the amino acid tryptophan on top of that
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collagen is not very good at stimulating
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muscle protein synthesis or mps and this
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is the process our body uses for growth
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and repair of muscles after exercise and
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that brings me to the question what is
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collagen actually used for so let's talk
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about the use most of you watching this
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video are interested in is collagen a
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useful supplement for building muscle
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and the answer is no like i mentioned
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earlier collagen is an incomplete
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protein and it's not good at stimulating
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mps muscle protein synthesis that's one
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of the most important factors when
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considering a protein to use when
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building muscle there are far better
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proteins available that are great at
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stimulating mps and promoting muscle
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growth like whey casein egg white powder
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and even soy protein these are often
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better and cheaper than collagen so if
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building muscle is your goal those are
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the better options if i was talking
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about any other protein this video would
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be over right now but
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and i genuinely don't know how big a
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butt it is there seems to be a couple of
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benefits to using collagen that science
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can't fully quite explain just yet
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you see you'll often see collagen
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supplements aimed at joint care and the
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skeptic in me wants to call
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you see when you eat a protein any
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protein it all gets broken down into
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amino acids which get absorbed and are
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then used by your body for whatever it
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needs like repairing joints by that
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logic taking a really high quality
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protein like whey should be all you need
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and in fact should be better than
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collagen but there are a number of
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studies that show collagen may be useful
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for reducing joint pain
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if you suffer from joint pain in fact
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meta-analyses or combinations of the
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results of a number of studies
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found just that a reduction in perceived
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pain when taking collagen supplements
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scientifically we can't explain why that
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would be the case if it were due to the
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amino acids any good quality protein
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should help the other difficult to
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explain benefit of collagen is skin
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health specifically we have another
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meta-analyses of collagen studies
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showing that they help to reduce skin
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improve skin hydration and restore skin
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elasticity and once again we can't
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explain this by collagen's amino acid
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content alone i know a lot of scientists
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that say collagen supplementation
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shouldn't work like this
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but we have the results that say it does
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from a scientific perspective it has
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many people scratching their heads in
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reality we need more research to confirm
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the effects and to help us explain how
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they might be happening so should you
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use collagen well if your goal is muscle
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growth then absolutely not there are far
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better proteins available if you have
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some joint pain and nothing else has
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worked for you or if you want to reduce
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those fine lines and wrinkles you could
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at least try it out for a few months to
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see if it helps if it does fantastic if
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at least you can say you tried so did
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this answer your question questions as
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always if you have any more let me know
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in the comments below and remember to
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like and subscribe to the my protein
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youtube channel for more great
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evidence-based nutrition information
