Does collagen production in the human body increase with age? No, that's not true: The body's collagen production slows down with age. According to scientific studies, collagen declines by around 1 percent after reaching age 20, especially in perimenopausal and menopausal women. This results in a decrease in collagen production, accelerated by the estrogen hormone drop.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok by @pukmutnews on March 13, 2024, titled (translated from Thai to English by Lead Stories staff) "Just Realized: 'Collagen' is not Human Food." The caption (as translated) read:
The information spreading that collagen decreases as you age is a lie. It's not true because collagen production naturally increases with age in humans.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Mar 21 01:56:16 2024 UTC)
The person speaking in the video, as stated in the text overlay, is Dr. Wichai Ekataksin, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Lymphology Institute of Thailand in Bangkok. Ekataksin is renowned for his research and expertise in the field of lymphedema (archived here).
In the video, Ekataksin said he observed the quantity of collagen under the microscope and found that it increased and became thicker as people age. He didn't provide any scientific evidence to support his claim.
Our body produces collagen through fibroblast cells, specialized cells with the main function of synthesizing collagen and stroma, a type of tissue consisting mainly of connective tissue, among other elements (archived here). We can enhance collagen production with a high protein and amino acid-based diet, which means eating high-collagen foods from animal sources (archived here).
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body, and it accumulates primarily in the skin (archived here). Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors cause skin aging and the disintegration of physiological functions (archived here). The intrinsic factors are mainly three: atrophy of the dermis, which is the middle layer of skin affected by decreased collagen synthesis, degeneration in the proportion of elastin and dehydration. On the other hand, extrinsic factors are related to environmental causes (archived here, here and here).
According to a Scientific American (archived here) article from September 26, 2005, titled "Why does skin wrinkle with age? What is the best way to slow or prevent this process?" by Suzan Obagi, assistant professor in dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh and director of the Cosmetic Surgery and Skin Health Center, people after age 20 begin to produce less collagen at a rate of around 1 percent per year (archived here).
Hormonal imbalance after menopause causes a significant change in collagen levels, which decrease because of estrogen deficiency in women around 50 years old (archived here). The quantity of type I and II collagen in women's skin will lower by about 30 percent in the first five years of perimenopause and will reduce by 2 percent every year for the next 15 years (archived here). The acceleration of collagen reduction after menopause in women contradicts the claim in the video on TikTok that collagen increases with age (archived here).
