Collagen Peptides

[LeeB]

Does it do any good? How many of us are taking it?

[Magicman]

I suppose that I am sheltered because I had to Google to find out what it was ??

On another note, PatD has always experienced knee pain even as a young child.  She happened to mention it to FF member @loggah a few years ago and he suggested "Glucosamine and Chondroitin".  She takes one in the morning and one at night and I can absolutely assure you that her leg/knee pain is gone.  

It is manufactured from the cartilage of animals such as cows, pigs or shellfish, or made in a lab so it may kinda contain some of the same ingredients.  :P

[Iwawoodwork]

MM     I also take the gluco with msm with 2 pills am and 2 in pm an it seems to help my  shoulder, thumb, and knee pain.  Costco has it on sale quite often.

[Magicman]

Our RX insurance furnished us with 200 every 3 months so she has an ample no-cost Glucosamine & Chondroitin supply. 

[kantuckid]

What I recall from reading the research on those pills is that they can assist in the maintenance of a joint over time but don't "fix" them as when a repair jobs needed. There's plenty of real research to read about if someone's thinking of those pills as their solution.
 
Once your knees are worn out or have enough arthritis to make them painful, (mine have both) Glucosamine/chondroitin isn't going to help much at that point.   

 Anecdotally: My neighbor, who has bad knees and won't consider any sort of actual repair has taken it for years and can barely walk now. He does now get a knee shot but his knees past the shot's help, so it seems. Maybe the pills kept him going longer. 

[LeeB]

I guess that's a no on anybody taking collagen peptides.

[thecfarm]

I think I gave my dog Glucosamine. The squirrels would climb the light pole and she would jump at the pole for hours. All fun and games until she got hurt doing it.  :(  
She was walking-running on three legs. Vet said it was a bad sprain. Put her on that stuff and she would run on all four.  ;D

[Magicman]

If PatD starts jumping at light poles and chasing cars, I may have to up her dosage. 

[thecfarm]

First warning sign, walking on all fours.  :D
Then wanting to go out to go to the bathroom.  :D

[kantuckid]

I guess that's a no on anybody taking collagen peptides.

A no? :
 Note that I did not say it doesn't work, per what I read. It's been researched a lot!
 What I said was that research finds it to be a way to help your joints stay better over time and hopefully prolong the "aging stuff".
 Like a maintenance pill of sorts- if that's the correct word choice? ;D
Once your knee joints are gone, taking those pills will not make you into a high jumper, etc..  I suspect many who take them have reached a point of no return, as we USA humans take lots of pills looking for a fix. TV shows you many non-FDA approved get better pills. I wasn't suggesting I thought this was one of those "magic pills" at all. 

[LeeB]

I thought you were referring to glucosamine/chondroitin which it seems the conversation has drifted to. My original query was if anyone was taking the collagen peptides which are a different thing. I have not seen any response from anyone saying they are taking collagen peptides which is why I said I'll take that as a noon anyone taking them. I never read anything into your reply suggesting not to take it.

[69bronco]

Lee-The wife and I take collagen/peptides. We started this summer, 2 scoops a day. I can get on my knees to work on something now without a cushion, first time in several years. In my opinion it does help, and we will continue to take it.

[Walnut Beast]

https://frogfuel.com/blogs/news/collagen-protein-joint-health-what-you-need-to-know


https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/collagen/

[kantuckid]

I thought you were referring to glucosamine/chondroitin which it seems the conversation has drifted to. My original query was if anyone was taking the collagen peptides which are a different thing. I have not seen any response from anyone saying they are taking collagen peptides which is why I said I'll take that as a noon anyone taking them. I never read anything into your reply suggesting not to take it.

I was referring to Glucosamine/chondroitin. Were good, no argument here. I muddied the water, my bad.
 
I need to read more on Collagen peptides and there plenty to read I now see. They are in fact helpful for joint pain based on a quickie search. The "other pill" is more of a joint maintenance item to my understanding.
 If you google "one vs the other"- it will get into far more detail than I'd ever try to put in my own words. And to get even deeper, there's collagen vs. collagen peptides. IMO, you really opened a can of worms Io don't fully understand. It's interesting that not one of my several joint docs nor my cardiologist, nor the basic practitioner has ever mentioned any of the above. 

[LeeB]

We recently changed primary care docs and the new one is very much for them. He is also forward thinking on other things outside the narrow view of mainstream medicine but that is no real surprise to us. We have known and used his mother who is a vet for many years and she too embraces alternative treatments. 

Many years ago Lindy worked in a doctor's office of a Osteopath. He also leaned toward the unconventional and at first i thought he was quite the quack but came to respect his knowledge and willingness to look outside the box. Many of the treatments he was doing have now become well accepted. 

[SwampDonkey]

As long as it's safe, you can decide how effective it is. Of course everything costs money. If this is basically a supplement, I would not hold out for a miracle outcome. But if things improve a little, it's better than nothing.

[kantuckid]

Cleveland Clinic, a highly respected medical group has a Collagen Peptides page that comes up via google on their nutrition section. They are said to be very popular among celebrities who place great value on appearance, etc.. 

Jennifer Anniston swears by them, how's that for something to shoot for?  :D

They have a long list of good stuff they are said to do. Aging joints and skin are the most common said positives. 
I didn't read that they were a "cure" for osteoarthritis.  : But says it helps. Thats also true for NSAIDS as I can attest. 
All the regular web sources for medical advice like WEBMD and so on, list information on them. Mostly all positive.  
The flip side is the also long list of negative potential side effects, some of which are nasty, indeed! Like kidney stones and much more. 
I'm too far gone to buy into them personally, maybe if I'd used them before my joints got to the here & now. 

[doctorb]

Interesting topic that has been widely studied and even more widely debated.  When these compounds first came out, the belief was that, since they are inherently made up of cartilage proteins and collagen, they would provide the substrates for the rebuilding of degenerative articulate cartilage.  This has definitely been shown to NOT be true.  But they did show that they have the ability to improve the symptoms of arthritis.

Turns out that these products have a pretty good anti-inflammatory effect, hence their ability to make your aching joints feel better.  So, if they work for you, full speed ahead.  If you're taking them because you think they are helping prevent or treat the progression of arthritis, then their hype has overshadowed their ability to make you feel less symptoms.  But they appear quite safe, and, for some people and pets, have provided significant relief.  They remain, however, a good example of how untested supplements can become very popular with completely untested theories of how they work.  They really reside in the same category with other anti-inflammatory meds used to treat arthritis at this point.

[Peter Drouin]

Do I have to go to a Doc to get it, or at a food store where they have all kinds of pills?

[thecfarm]

Hey Peter, people ask me questions in the store. I tell them goggle it, that's all I'm going to do to find the answer.   ;D    ;) 

 

[LeeB]

Thanks DocB.

[doctorb]

Peter-

They are over the counter supplements available pretty much anywhere.  No doc or prescription needed.  And, like many vitamins and supplements, you may have to wade through the advertised bias and "purity" issues when one supplement touts its brand superior to its competitors.

It does work.  As a testament to that....My old yellow lab hadn't come upstairs in over a year.  Started giving it to him and there he was one morning, standing next to our bed, asking for breakfast.  That was about 5 days after we started the pills.  BTW, my recollection is that vets charge quite a bit for it, but that could be incorrect as, unfortunately, labs don't live forever.

[LeeB]

The over the coubtere price for human consumption supplements isn't cheap either.

As for it working in dogs, we have noted the same results in our dogs as DocB. We have several older dogs that get it (glucosamine), sadly not on a regular enough basis but you can really tell the difference when they do. I never noticed a whole lot of difference when I was taking glucosamine.

[doctorb]

Didn't help me much either, but I heard a bunch of patients swear by it.

[beenthere]

I never noticed a whole lot of difference when I was taking glucosamine.

I didn't either,   until I stopped taking glucosamine. Then I noticed a difference and resumed taking one-a-day.

For the last year and half, I have been able to sleep at night without knee pain, by using a random orbital sander (sans sand paper) to vibrate above each knee for about 30-40 seconds. No more night pain and little to none during the daytime. Quite noticeable if I miss a few days in a row. No idea if it might work for others, but works for me.