On Instagram @AndreaHardyRD, I talk all about whether or not taking a collagen supplement dangerous for collagenous colitis? 🤔 Ask Andrea Anything!
I had someone ask me – could taking a collagen supplement make my collagenous colitis worse?
Very logical question – since collagenous colitis is literally the build up of collagen in the colon wall, impacting absorption and reabsorption of fluids in the colon and causing watery, urgent diarrhea.
⭐The TDLR answer: no it cannot.
Why? Collagen is a protein, which gets digested into peptides and amino acids and absorbed in your digestive tract. While it might SEEM logical that taking in more collagen might cause collagenous colitis, the protein is digested and goes on to do what all other proteins do – act as building blocks for our body tissues and provide our body energy. The collagen itself doesn’t travel through to the colon intact and build up in the bowel walls – phew!
That being said – right now collagen is trendy for gut health – from ‘healing leaky gut’ to ‘curing acid reflux’ – so should those with collagenous colitis take it for benefit?
Also no! 🛑There are literally NO human studies showing anything of those sort (yet you can literally find crazy blog posts purporting the benefits of collagen supplements for gut health citing cell studies in test tubes or in animal models under very specific conditions…).
So if you take collagen supplements – it’s essentially just another way to get protein in your diet – it is very unlikely it has any magic effects on the gut (despite all the personal anecdotes, followed by ‘buy my collagen supplements). 😏
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