What is Bovine Collagen and its Benefits?

what is bovine collagen and its benefits

Content you'll find:

Introduction to Collagen?

What are the different types of Collagen?

What is Bovine Collagen?

What is the difference between Bovine and Marine Collagen?

What are the main Benefits of Bovine vs Marine Collagen

How much Collagen Should I take?

Why choose Kinetica Collagen?

Recently, you might have seen a growing trend about the potential benefits of supplementing with collagen for your health and fitness.

Research is growing daily about the value of collagen supplementation, whether it’s our perceived [i] recovery from exercise, our physiological[ii] recovery from exercise, improvements in muscle[iii] gains after strength training or a reduction in joint pain[iv].

Collagen is here to stay, and it has to potential to make a real difference.

The International Olympic Committee[v] issued a consensus statement on dietary supplements in 2018 and concluded that collagen could potentially help with:

Training capacity
Recovery
Muscle soreness
Injury management

So, collagen can be a winner in your health and fitness. But where do you begin deciding between the different types of collagen out there? Like many other supplements, the noise can build fast and get confusing quickly.

In this mini-post, I will give you an overview of the different types of collagen, as this will influence what you decide to invest in.

What are the different types of collagen/where does it come from?

Collagen is everywhere in the body. Research has identified at least 28[vi] different collagen types, which are vital for your health - providing fundamental structural properties for muscle, joints and organ structure or the ongoing renewal of cells as we age.

In life and sport, we need to be able to offset all the various forces imposed on us. We run, change direction, jump, slip, lift, and get hit by other players on the field of play: all these aspects of movement require muscles, tendons and joints to be robust yet adaptable. We need to be able to absorb force just as much as we produce it. Collagen is an essential part of our success here.

Here’s a quick summary of the first five types of collagen vi

Type I: skin, bone, teeth, tendon, ligaments, and organs

Type II: cartilage

Type III: the skin, muscle, and blood vessels

Type IV: an epithelium-secreted layer of the basement membrane and the basal lamina

Type V: cell surfaces and placenta

Maintaining collagen status is important for all of us in our health and wellbeing, not just elite athletes looking to compete at the highest level. As we get older, we naturally lose collagen. This loss of collagen begins in adulthood, and after 40 years of age, we can lose about 1% of collagen per year.

collagen workout

What is Bovine collagen?

Not all collagen supplements are the same. It’s worth understanding the two main collagen supplementation types as they impact your results.

The first type of collagen you can buy is bovine collagen. Bovine collagen comes from cows. As a result, you might come across it online as ‘beef collagen’.

To give you a great bioavailable product, native collagen is typically heated, and enzymes are used alongside a few other steps to provide you with an end product which you’ll see as hydrolysed collagen.

Hydrolysed collagen gives you collagen peptides (think amino acids that are connected in one way or another). These collagen peptides[i] in the bloodstream are bioactive and used by the body for multiple jobs.

What is the difference between bovine and marine collagen?

The type of hydrolysed collagen can impact the kind of impact it has on our health and wellness.

Bovine collagen comes from cows, whereas marine collagen comes from different[ii] types of fish, such as snapper, mullet and mackerel.

Bovine collagen is high in Type 1 and Type III vi; critical components of skin, hair, nails, muscles, tendons, bones, ligaments, eyes, teeth and blood vessels.

Marine collagen is another source of collagen but has less mechanical strength[iii] than bovine collagen due to its composition.

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What are the main benefits of bovine vs marine?

There is much positive research about both types of collagen, albeit studies suggest different benefits depending on what kind you consume.

Bovine hydrolysed collagen has been shown to offer many potential benefits, including:

Faster recovery from injury[i]
Faster wound healing [ii]
Faster recovery from training[iii] load
Improved ligament[iv] strength after exercise
Improved joint function and reduced iv joint pain
Helping[v] those with osteoarthritis and osteoporosis
Better strength and lean mass after resistance[vi] training
Increased bone[vii] density in post-menopausal women

For those who love their fitness and want to get into the best shape possible, a 2021 randomised controlled trial[viii] is worth mentioning because it used a very accurate method (called DEXA) to monitor changes in body composition.

This trial had 97 participants who trained three times per week over 12 weeks under the supervision of a trainer. The average age of participants was in the late 40s. The results were impressive.

Those taking collagen peptide supplementation saw a statistically significant improvement in fat-free mass, which is encouraging for a middle-aged group. The cohort using hydrolysed collagen also got leaner, reduced their waist size, added muscle, and saw bone mineral content increase.

Marine collagen offers slightly different benefits. Because it does not typically have the same mechanical strength as bovine hydrolysed collagen, marine collagen is used more for skin health. For example, a 2021 randomised controlled trial[ix] involving 46 females found that marine collagen helped skin health and wrinkles compared to a placebo.

A simple way to think about it?

Bovine collagen (as used by Kinetica):

Joint health
Muscle health
Ligament health
Skin health

Marine collagen:

Skin health

Ashleigh Collagen

Why choose Kinetica collagen?

Kinetica’s collagen is a premium product and was recently awarded 2022 ESSNA Award for Best Targeted Sports Nutrition Product for a variety of reasons. Each serving provides 20 grams of collagen, but on top of that, there are synergistic nutrients to help you:

150mg of glucosamine sulphate
100mg of chondroitin sulphate
250mg of turmeric extract
4mg of black pepper extract
50mg of vitamin C
500 μg of copper

This combination of nutrients makes Kinetica’s collagen product special. For example, Vitamin C is known[ii] to help boost the effect of collagen peptides on healing, and it is why the International Olympic Committee recommend combining collagen with 50mg of vitamin C.

In addition, black pepper can help increase the bioavailability[iii] of curcumin found in turmeric, which has consistent anti-inflammatory[iv] outcomes. A new meta-analysis also shows that a combination[v] of glucosamine sulphate and chondroitin sulphate is more effective in treating osteoarthritis.

In summary, you have peace of mind in Kinetica’s collagen that you are consuming a great synergistic blend of nutrients to support muscle and joint health as part of your daily life. In addition, the guarantee of purity offered by their WADA testing and Informed-Sport accreditation makes Kinetica collagen an all-around excellent product for your health and fitness.

Written by
Justin Buckthorp

Justin Buckthorp has over 22 years of experience in health and wellness. He has a Master of Science Degree (MSc) with Distinction in Personalised Nutrition, where he specialized in the gut-brain axis in depression.

References

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Silva TH;Moreira-Silva J;Marques AL;Domingues A;Bayon Y;Reis RL; (2014) Marine origin collagens and its potential applications, Marine drugs. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25490254/.

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