Which vitamin is good for tendon repair?

The tendon's collagen factory, enzyme by enzyme, and the cofactor each one needs

Which vitamin is good for tendon repair is a question the shelf answers with a formula and the honest page answers from the tendon's own biochemistry, because a tendon repairs itself by making collagen, the cells that make collagen use a short list of enzymes, and each enzyme needs a cofactor, so the vitamins and minerals that matter to a tendon name themselves once the factory is described. A tendon fibroblast begins by assembling three procollagen chains from amino acids, glycine at every third position with proline and lysine among the rest, and then modifies those chains before they can wind into the triple helix: the prolyl hydroxylases add a hydroxyl group to proline, making the hydroxyproline that lets the helix hold its shape at body temperature, and the lysyl hydroxylases do the same to lysine, making the sites where the fibres will later be cross-linked. Both enzyme families require vitamin C and iron as cofactors, and this is the step that fails without vitamin C, the reason severe deficiency historically produced connective tissue failure, wounds that would not heal and old scars that reopened, and the reason vitamin C holds the register's authorised sentence that it contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of cartilage, bones, skin, gums, teeth and blood vessels, the only collagen sentence any nutrient holds. The chains are then glycosylated, wound, secreted from the cell and trimmed into collagen, and outside the cell the last enzyme does the job that gives a tendon its strength: lysyl oxidase, a copper-dependent enzyme, forms the cross-links between collagen molecules that turn a bundle of fibres into a rope, so copper is the mineral of tendon strength and holds the register's sentence that it contributes to the maintenance of normal connective tissues. Meanwhile the matrix around the fibres is continuously remodelled by zinc-dependent enzymes, the metalloproteinases that cut old collagen away so new can align, so zinc holds sentences for normal protein synthesis and the maintenance of normal skin and bones. That is the factory, and its cofactors are vitamin C, iron, copper and zinc, in that order of the process.

The muscle that loads the tendon, the verbs the register grants, and what the list means for a lifter

One nutrient belongs on the list for a reason outside the tendon, and it is the one lifters most often ask about. The repair of a tendon is driven by load, the fibroblasts aligning the collagen they make to the tension they feel, and the tension is supplied by the muscle the tendon belongs to, so the muscle doing the loading has to work, and vitamin D contributes to the maintenance of normal muscle function, with deficiency producing the proximal weakness that makes a rehabilitation programme harder to do, common through a UK autumn and winter, so vitamin D is on the list not because it touches the tendon but because it keeps the engine of the repair running, at ten micrograms a day through the winter by the national guidance. Now the verbs, because they are the whole of the honesty. Every sentence above is a maintenance sentence: vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation, copper to the maintenance of normal connective tissues, zinc to normal protein synthesis, vitamin D to normal muscle function, and not one of them says repairs, heals, rebuilds or strengthens, because the evidence behind each is deficiency evidence, what fails without the nutrient, and not evidence that more of it than the body needs makes a tendon heal faster or stronger than normal, which no trial has shown for any of them. The list means two things for a lifter with a tendon problem. First, that every cofactor on it is met from an ordinary varied diet, vitamin C from fruit and vegetables, iron from meat, beans and fortified cereals, copper from nuts, seeds, shellfish and whole grains, zinc from meat, dairy, beans and seeds, and vitamin D from a winter tablet, so that a reader eating well is already supplying the factory and a reader eating badly fixes the diet before the tub. Second, that the factory runs at the rate the load sets and not at the rate the cofactors are supplied, so a lifter with a painful tendon repairs it by progressive loading under a physiotherapist over months, and the vitamins hold the floor beneath that work without accelerating it. The pre-loading protocol is where the first cofactor and the protocol's protein meet: around fifteen grams of gelatin or hydrolysed collagen with roughly 50mg of vitamin C an hour before the loading session doubled a collagen synthesis marker in a small trial, the vitamin C there because it is the hydroxylase cofactor and the collagen supplying the glycine, proline and lysine the chains are built from, an adjunct beside the sessions with a marker and one small outcome trial behind it. Vitamins for tendonitis repair are the same list with the same verbs, since chronic tendon pain is healing that stalled and is restarted by load rather than by any nutrient. The worked example pairs the cofactor with the protein on its true terms: two capsules, 1200mg hydrolysed type 1 marine collagen with 12mg vitamin C plus 1.5mg zinc, 120 for £16.99 at 28p a day, lab tested and UK made, the vitamin C contributing to normal collagen formation at 15% of its reference value, the zinc to normal protein synthesis, the collagen below the protocol's grams. Which vitamin is good for tendon repair: vitamin C, the cofactor of the first step, beside copper, iron and zinc for the rest of the factory and vitamin D for the muscle that runs it, all maintenance and none repair, with the repair being the load.

What to check on the label