Collagen Is More Than Hair, Skin & Nails | Dr. Andrew Ross

47 minutes ago

2 min read

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On this episode of Peak Human, Brian sits down with Dr. Andrew Ross, a DO and collagen expert at Rousselot. Before medicine, he trained to be a professional hockey player, and he later did a residency in orthopedic surgery. Dr. Ross explains that collagen does a lot more than help your hair, skin and nails. Its small peptides survive digestion and send signals to your cells, telling them to rebuild cartilage, bone, skin and the extracellular matrix, the collagen framework all your cells live on. Brian and Dr. Ross talk about why plant-based “collagen” isn’t real collagen, and about a specific collagen peptide blend that gets your body to release more of its own GLP-1 and GIP before a meal. They also cover how collagen compares with whey, what it does for tendons, gut health and aging bones, why vitamin C matters (that’s why pirates lost their teeth to scurvy), and what to look for when you buy a collagen supplement. Underneath it all is one idea: our bodies work best on nature’s ratio, which means eating the whole animal, nose to tail.

Show Notes

00:00 Peak Human is back, plus Sapien Health and Brian’s new book, The New Theory of Food
02:30 Dr. Ross’s path: hockey, lab research, DO school and orthopedic surgery
04:30 More than beauty: collagen as a signaling molecule
05:45 The extracellular matrix, the scaffolding your cells live on
06:45 Can your body make all its own collagen? Why hydroxyproline matters
09:00 Natural collagen peptides vs. synthetic peptides like BPC-157
10:00 How Rousselot’s collagen peptide library works
11:00 Finding a collagen profile that triggers your own GLP-1
13:00 Working with your body’s pathways instead of overriding them
14:30 Collagen types I, II, III and IV and what each one does
16:15 Best food sources: bone broth, tendons, organs and connective tissue
17:00 Why “vegan collagen” doesn’t exist
20:15 The GLP-1 study: 86% more GLP-1, about 70% more GIP, lower blood sugar and longer fullness
23:00 Incretins, satiety and the body’s hormone web
24:30 You can’t cheat nature: the side effects of GLP-1 drugs
26:00 Could a perfect ancestral diet replace supplements?
28:00 Build the foundation first: supplements are add-ons
30:30 Glycine, methionine and longevity
32:00 Glycine and better sleep
33:00 How to take collagen, and why you need vitamin C (scurvy explained)
35:30 Carnivore diets and eating only muscle meat
37:00 Nature’s ratio: seed oils, omega-6, zinc and copper
41:00 Collagen vs. whey: different tools for different jobs
44:00 Tendon injuries and collagen for athletes
45:00 Taking collagen before training, gut health and endotoxins
47:30 Aging well and preventing fractures
49:00 Skin, hair and the beauty research
50:30 Zinc and copper as collagen cofactors
51:45 How to choose a collagen supplement: match the studied source and dose 53:45 How Rousselot works with other brands
55:00 Gelatin vs. hydrolyzed collagen peptides
56:30 Where to find Dr. Ross