I think Brad Stanfield, Siim Land, and Physionic debunked this quite well. In fact, it only made collagen sound more compelling for skin.
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I am very sceptical. You can also tell things are a shitshow when there is absolutely no consensus in the study design or results. For example, looking at Table 1 of the paper, you have collagen doses ranging from 0.5g per day to 50g per day, (and both of those studies claim improvements). That’s a 100-fold dose range. We wouldn’t do that with any other intervention, would we? That’s a first warning sign that you’re in a “field” of research where people are just making things up.
And if we’re talking about oral supplementation, I find it a bit baffled how/why it could work. Collagen is a pretty damn big triple helix protein. How much going to get through your stomach acid, digestive enzymes, then be absorbed, travel around the blood stream, then integrate into your skin?
The theory is that we lose dermis collagen as we age, so replacing it will slow skin aging. Apparently, people lose collagen at around 1% per year. So if you think about it, is it really possible that supplementing for 8-12 weeks going to reverse that to a degree that can be measured? Even if you completely halted all age-related collagen degradation over 12 weeks, you’d have an eventual difference of 0.23% between the groups. To get anything bigger than that, you’d be actually building collagen back into your skin.
Lastly, consider that an 8oz steak contains ~3-5g of collagen. If you enjoy the tougher parts (brisket, shank, or the edge of your sirloins etc), you could have 6-10g in one serving. If you cook things like chicken soups, you release out gelatin, which is better absorbed. So basically, if you have a decent diet, you’re already getting collagen in the range of the doses used in those studies.
It’s theoretically possible that something else is going on, such as modulating enzymes which remodel the extracellular matrix. Or maybe affecting the fibroblasts in the skin. But none of that has been convincingly shown IMO.
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from a group called “LongevityDocs”
If you’re seeing more patients interested in “anti-aging skincare,” you’re not alone — but as Dr. Saranya Wyles, Mayo Clinic, reminded us at Peptide Mastermind in NYC, the real story starts inside the cell.
Skin is the first place longevity shows up — and its dysfunction can be a biomarker for what’s happening in the vascular, metabolic, and immune systems.
The problem?
Most doctors aren’t trained to read those skin signals or understand what to do about them. And patients get funneled into short-term aesthetic fixes instead of long-term protocols that actually protect healthspan.
4 Thoughts from Dr. Wyles
- Senescent cell accumulation shows up visibly in skin as thinning, inflammation, and fragility — especially postmenopause.
- mTOR inhibition (via topical or oral rapamycin) is one of the most promising areas for reducing these visible and internal signs of aging.
- Skin is a “window into tissue regeneration” — and optimizing NAD+ levels can help restore repair cycles.
- Barrier dysfunction and immune dysregulation go hand in hand — and skincare alone won’t fix it.
If you’re seeing these signs in your patients — you’re already treating longevity, whether you call it that or not.
Our role is to give you the clinical, operational, and peer-based structure to turn that intuition into confident practice.
Catch Dr. Wyles’ full talk — plus protocols from Dr. Yurth, Dr. Koniver, and more.
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Following having a PICC line removed from my arm about 2 days ago, the nurses put a band-aid over the little hole in my arm – only, it was no ordinary band-aid, and it gave me the idea for better delivery mechanisms for skin topicals. Basically, they used a Tegaderm dressing, which has a large, transparent, very sticky covering, and then a little square gauze in the middle. I had had those before when seeing a doctor years back, but never knew what they were called; this time, however, they wrote it down on the instructions for when to take it off (they said “24 hours”). I think this can be purchased over-the-counter. I could imagine putting some topicals on that gauze, and then sticking it to the skin. It would really hold in the water, far better than an occlusive. I bet it would make some topicals work 2x better. Many topicals have poor skin permeability; however, if you can keep them dry, long enough, they eventually do at least partially penetrate the skin. (Though, it’s really hard to get the Tegaderm band-aid off! – it’s almost like it’s super-glued onto your skin!)
Another use might be to tighten skin, by putting the sticky part (which you can cut off) on skin and then pulling it in some direction. I’d guess it would stay stuck on your skin for about a week or more before degrading; and it would be mostly transparent, with the only giveaway being the slight glossiness in just the right lighting.
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Dr. Brad talks about his favourite skin aging devices at 13:30.
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Isn’t Tegaderm usually a hydrocolloid/hydrogel, rather than dry gauze? Either way, it’s meant to keep a moist wound healing environment to prevent scarring. (People also use them after tattoos, for example). I’m not sure it would improve delivery of topicals.
They might have inserted the gauze. The glossy plastic-like part surrounding the gauze completely locked out any chance of fluid (blood) from escaping.
I was actually a little worried the glossy sticky part would suffocate my skin.
It took me like 5 to 10 minutes to remove it. I kept trying to put the boundary over a fingernail pull it up, but it was so stuck-on it was like they had applied superglue.
Addendum: In fact, it looked like this:
https://www.cvs.com/shop/nexcare-tegaderm-pad-sterile-adhesive-pads-prodid-338552
Except, in my case the pad was smaller and square-shaped, not a long rectangle.
…
As far as whether it would make topicals work better, occlusives at least are claimed to do this. As I said, I would guess this works better than that. Maybe 2x is a bit unrealistic, though.
Google search recommends not to use Tegaderm + pad for certain topicals like retinol. I fed in, “using tegaderm with pad to increase delivery of retinol” and it said:
Do not use an occlusive dressing like a Tegaderm with a pad to increase the delivery of retinol. Applying an occlusive layer over powerful active ingredients like retinol can significantly intensify their effects, which will almost certainly lead to severe skin irritation, redness, burning, peeling, or even blistering.
Occlusion therapy works by creating a barrier that dramatically increases the absorption of topical treatments, sometimes by as much as 10 times. While this method is used under strict medical supervision for certain conditions (like psoriasis with specific medications), it is not safe for use with potent, everyday skincare ingredients like retinol without professional guidance. The increased penetration can damage your skin barrier and cause a painful reaction called retinoid dermatitis.
Though, it’s sometimes hard to tell how seriously to take Google search’s responses like this, because typing in even the slightest deviation from approved medical advice generates responses like that. Google has it tuned to make it sound like you’re absolutely going to die of deviate even just an inch from approved medical advice – and “I’m going to call the police if you do use Tegaderm like that”.
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Sure, but I also don’t see much sense using occlusion therapy for something like retinoids. They already pass through the skin very well. You can get them in high strengths (0.1% tretinoin) which are super effective and lots of people already can’t tolerate them. And more is also not necessarily better. It’s quite right that daily 0.1% will cause irritation in a lot of people. If you actually 10x the dose, it’s not going to make you look younger!
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I asked GPT-5-thinking to analyze:
The commenter’s core point—more isn’t better with retinoids, and occlusion usually backfires for facial use—is solid. The absolutism about dosing is the only real miss: benefits don’t go to zero with higher doses, but returns flatten while irritation climbs, so smarter strategy = lowest effective strength + consistent, non-irritating use.
Some of those require a prescription,like tretinoin I think. I know that adapalene you can get over-the-counter.
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You can also get tretinoin and higher strength adapalene through Indian pharmacy sources.
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0.1% tret tubes are $2 a pop from IndiaMart and as far as topicals go, I’ve never ever come across anything more powerful than that little tube. Unless paired with sunscreen though it will do more harm than good.
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I find tret to cause a lot of irritation but I’ve had very little irritation with 0.3% adapalene. I’m able to use this multiple nights in a row without issue. What I’m doing lately is alternating between 0.3% adapalene one night and 8% AHA glycloic acid another night, and once a week doing microneedling. I also just purchased azeliac acid which I use during the day as it doesn’t cause photosensitivity.
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Sounds like a good combo. I’m blessed with skin that doesn’t react to anything so can and do slather the 0.1% tret like it’s no biggie.
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0.1%. the 1% before must have been a typo, because that would be nuts.
My skin being a bit sensitive is multifactorial. I’ve got psoriasis, but I’ve got it 99% under control. I get a bit of redness in skin, but I’m on TRT and have higher blood cell production because of this. I’ve got sleep apnea and use CPAP, the mask can irritate the face. Retinoids can irritate skin.
It’s a careful balance.
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With what to get your psoriasis under control?
So many things but a cheap supplement that has helped me a lot is N-acetyl glucosamine.
But I attribute my recovery to a holistic approach at improving my health through diet, supplements, exercise, lifestyle and longevity meds. I don’t really use steroid cream very much, only if I get a flare up in a spot on my hand that makes it painful to use my hand effectively.
It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what helped the most but I think if you target health more than specifically psoriasis you’re going to do better in the long term.