The Dr Collagen Journal
Written by the doctors who formulate it
Evidence-led writing on collagen, skin and joints from a dermatologist and an orthopaedic surgeon — including the parts of the research that do not flatter the supplement industry.
Best Time to Take Collagen: What the Evidence Actually Says
No trial has compared morning against night, or empty stomach against food. Why daily consistency is what the trials controlled, and the one small exercise study where timing mattered.
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Oral Hyaluronic Acid: Does Swallowing It Help Your Skin?
Seven small trials suggest swallowed hyaluronic acid can improve skin hydration and wrinkle depth. The 120mg dose they used, how little is absorbed, and how it differs from a serum.
How Much Collagen Per Day? The Doses the Trials Actually Used
Skin trials used 1 to 10g, joint trials mostly 5 to 12g, and undenatured type II collagen just 40mg. Why those numbers differ 250-fold, and why more is not better.
Is Collagen Vegetarian? The Honest Answer for Indian Buyers
Real collagen only comes from animals, including ours. What plant-based collagen labels actually contain, how to read the FSSAI logo, and what vegetarians can do for their skin instead.
Osteopenia vs Osteoporosis: How to Read Your DEXA Report
A T-score of -1.8 is not osteoporosis, but it is not nothing either. What the bands mean, why FRAX decides treatment, and why the database your scanner used can change your label.
Collagen for Nails: What One Small Study Can and Cannot Tell You
Nearly every nail claim traces back to one 25-person study with no placebo. What it found, why 24 weeks is the minimum fair test, and the causes worth ruling out first.
Menopause Joint Pain: Why It Happens and What Actually Helps
Around seven in ten women report aches through the menopause transition. What oestrogen did in the largest trial, why loading comes first, and why no supplement has been tested in this group.
Collagen Side Effects: Which Ones Are Real, and Who Should Avoid It?
Most pages on this question either say "no side effects" or recycle a scare about organ damage. What trials actually recorded, the four groups who need to ask a doctor first, and the hydroxyproline arithmetic on our own label.
Vitamin D Deficiency Symptoms: What Is Real and What Is Not
Deficiency is usually silent, and the symptom lists online leave that out. The signs that are actually specific, the ng/mL thresholds Indian labs use, and why a 600 IU maintenance dose cannot correct a deficiency.
How Long Does Collagen Take to Work? A Week-by-Week Timeline
Almost every brand answers this with "results in two weeks", and no trial supports that. The timeline the studies actually measured: hydration at 4 weeks, wrinkles at 8, nails at 24, and hair where the evidence runs out.
How to Increase Bone Density: What Actually Moves the Number
Most advice here is a calcium list with no doses and no mention of the one intervention with randomised evidence of raising a DEXA score. The training numbers, the 1,000mg Indian calcium target, and the trials where supplements alone did nothing.
Marine Collagen: Benefits, Dose and How to Choose
Half the collagen sold in India now says "marine" on the front and hides the dose on the back. What fish collagen actually is, the peptide size that decides absorption, and a six-point label check before you buy.
Collagen for Hair: What It Can and Cannot Do
Hair is keratin, not collagen, and most of the marketing skips that sentence. What the two big 2026 hair supplement reviews actually found, where a collagen shot plausibly helps, and why pattern hair loss needs a prescription instead.
Collagen for Women: What Changes by Decade
A woman's collagen does not decline in a straight line. What actually changes in your late twenties, thirties, forties and after menopause, and the one window where the evidence is strongest.
How to Boost Collagen Naturally (and When Food Is Not Enough)
Most advice here is a food list with no doses attached. This is the version with numbers: the vitamin C intake, the protein target most Indian diets miss, what the sun undoes daily, and the point where food stops being the answer.
Types of Collagen: 1 vs 2 vs 3 Explained Simply
There are 28 types of collagen and only three you will ever be sold. What type 1, type 2 and type 3 actually do, why hydrolysis erases the number on the label, and when that number genuinely matters.
Collagen for Men: Joints, Recovery and Skin
Collagen is not gendered, the marketing is. What actually helps gym knees, cricket shoulders and desk-job stiffness, plus the pre-training protocol most men have never heard of.
Collagen Tablets vs Capsules vs Liquid Shots
A tablet holds under 1g of collagen and the trials used 5g to 10g, which means 10 to 20 tablets a day. The arithmetic across tablets, capsules, sachets, gummies and shots, including why our own format costs you more.
Collagen Peptides: What They Are and How They Actually Work
Whole collagen is far too large to absorb, so hydrolysis cuts it into fragments that can cross the gut wall. What Daltons mean, which two dipeptides reach your bloodstream, and which outcomes survived the 2026 re-analyses.
Collagen vs Whey Protein: Different Jobs, Not Rivals
Collagen has no tryptophan and barely any leucine, so it will never build muscle the way whey does. What it does instead, why gym-goers keep swapping the wrong one out, and when both belong in the same day.
Marine vs Bovine Collagen: Which Should You Take?
One is fish skin, the other is cow hide, and only one of them is a problem in most Indian kitchens. What actually separates the two: collagen types, peptide size, dietary fit and cost per gram.
Supplements for Knee Pain: An Orthopaedic Surgeon's Guide
Eleven ingredients graded by the evidence actually behind them, updated for the September 2026 ACR guideline that now strongly recommends against the two most Indian pharmacy shelves are built around.
Collagen for Joint Pain: What the Research Actually Shows
Cartilage has no blood supply, which is why repair is slow and what you swallow matters. The trials, the doses that worked, and how collagen compares with glucosamine.
Glutathione for Skin: Benefits, Dose and Honest Expectations
The most requested and most oversold ingredient in Indian skincare. What oral glutathione does to pigmentation, at what dose, the big trial that missed — and why India now restricts the IV version.
Collagen for Skin: What the Evidence Actually Shows
Your skin loses collagen every year from your mid-twenties. What oral collagen can and cannot do about it — peptide size, the co-factors most brands skip, and a realistic timeline.