Should men over 60 take a collagen supplement?

Ranking the money by evidence per pound: the first two lines, which cost almost nothing and do almost everything

Should men over 60 take a collagen supplement is, for most men who ask it, a question about where a limited monthly amount should go, and the honest page answers it that way, by ranking the things a man of sixty can spend on his body by evidence per pound, with the seventeen pounds a tub of collagen costs as the unit, because the ranking answers the question more usefully than a yes or a no and puts collagen where the evidence puts it. First on the list, costing nothing or a gym fee, is resistance training, and the honest page puts it first without hesitation because it is the one intervention that serves every system a man of sixty is worried about at once. It builds and holds muscle against the sarcopenia that is the decade's main physical threat, with the one collagen trial in older men proving the point in both its arms, since the placebo group training three times a week gained muscle and strength too. It loads bone, raising density and reducing the fracture risk that men's under-recognised osteoporosis carries. It trains the balance and reaction that prevent falls, which break the bones. It strengthens the muscles around the knees, hips and shoulders that stabilise the joints and take the load the cartilage would otherwise feel. Two or three sessions a week, progressive, through the main movement patterns, is the prescription, and nothing in a tub approaches it. Second on the list is protein, to around 1.2 to 1.6g per kilogram of body weight a day, higher than the general adult figure because older muscle is anabolically resistant and needs more amino acids, and above all more leucine, around three grams per meal, to switch synthesis on; most men of sixty eat less protein than this and eat it unevenly, with a near-empty breakfast, so the fix is often food, eggs, dairy, fish, meat, soya and pulses spread across the day, and where food falls short a tub of whey protein at the price of a tub of collagen supplies the leucine and the complete profile that collagen, at three percent leucine and no tryptophan, does not. Whey also holds the register's sentences for protein, which contributes to the maintenance of muscle mass and of normal bones, sentences a collagen tub may print as a source of protein by energy and cannot honour in substance. A man of sixty who does the first two lines has done most of what can be done for his muscle, bone, balance and joints, for the price of a gym membership and a change of breakfast.

Lines three and four, where collagen sits, and the gate at the pharmacy

Third on the list is vitamin D, at ten micrograms a day through the UK winter and for anyone rarely outdoors, costing around a pound a month, and it earns its place as the one supplement in the whole picture with a guidance dose for his age: the sun is too low to make vitamin D in skin from October to March, deficiency is common in older adults, and vitamin D holds the register's sentences for the maintenance of normal muscle function and normal bones, the two things lines one and two are building, with a blood test from a doctor if deficiency is suspected and correction at a higher short course if found. Fourth is creatine monohydrate at three grams a day, costing a few pounds a month, and it earns its place on evidence that collagen does not have: an authorised claim to increase physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high-intensity exercise, decades of trials, and a specific literature in older adults showing greater strength and lean mass gains when creatine is added to resistance training, with a clean safety record at that dose in people with normal kidney function and a kilogram or so of water weight as the reliable side effect; a man on the first line who adds creatine has added the supplement with the best evidence for what the first line is doing. Fifth is collagen, and the honest page places it there rather than off the list because it has something, read correctly. The one collagen trial in older men gave 15g a day or a silica placebo beside twelve weeks of resistance training to around fifty men with sarcopenia and found more fat-free mass and strength with collagen, which shows extra protein helping under-fed men who trained, since no whey arm was run and the baseline intakes were below target, and not that collagen is the protein to choose. The skin elasticity trials and the bone density trial were conducted in women, so a man of sixty's skin and bone are unstudied, with his skin thicker and ageing mostly by sun and his bone served by lines one to three. The joint trials, modest questionnaire gains at around 10g over twelve to twenty-four weeks, apply to his knee as to anyone's, and the pre-loading protocol for a tendon beside a loading programme has its marker and one small outcome trial. Collagen's grams count for nothing towards the protein target on line two, and its honest tub carries vitamin C's and zinc's sentences and no muscle, bone or skin claim. So a man over sixty takes collagen if he wants it, as a claim-free habit at 28p a day or a 10g powder for a joint he is tracking with a diary, after the four lines above are paid for and never instead of the first two, and he shows the whole supplement list to a pharmacist first, since a man of sixty is more likely to be on a statin, an anticoagulant or a blood pressure medicine that some supplements meet. The worked example is fifth on the list, stated on its true terms: two capsules, 1200mg hydrolysed type 1 marine collagen with 12mg vitamin C at 15% of its reference value plus zinc, 120 for £16.99 at 28p a day, lab tested and UK made, counting for nothing towards his protein target, below the 2.5 to 15g research band and holding no claim for the collagen. Should men over sixty take a collagen supplement: after the barbell, the protein, the winter vitamin D and the creatine, if the budget and the inclination remain.

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