Hydrolyzed Bovine Collagen I and III (as PeptiPlus ioCollagen) – 10000 mg
Glaxon boosted their collagen with io technology and several collagen-boosting ingredients, including key vitamins
The star of the show, Glaxon has combined forces with two other technologies to create an extremely unique collagen ingredient here, touting supremely high bioavailability.
Before diving into what makes Glaxon’s selection and technology so novel here, let’s do a quick refresh on collagen itself:
What is collagen protein?
When you discount water from the equation, our skin is about 80% collagen. It composes the primary structure or scaffolding of our skin (and various other soft tissues as well) — the extracellular matrix.[1] You can think of collagen as the glue that binds it all together.
Collagen makes skin flexible thanks to the abundant amino acids inside — there’s an incredible triple helix structure of glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline shaped in a way that it can bond and fold easily.[1] Through various bonds, they form collagen peptides, and our cells are able to generate them and put them into the extracellular matrix to hold our tissues (and bodies) together.
Having enough of these amino acids is important, but in today’s society, where we’re not eating as much animal skin, bone broth, or meat off the bone, we might not have as much as we should. To help with this situation, we can supplement more.
Collagen Improves the Perception of Joint Pain when walking[2]
Collagen protein benefits
Adding more collagen protein to the diet then brings the benefits of collagen that most of us know, such as:
- Improvements to joints and connective tissues[2,3]
- Better hair, skin, and nail health[4,5]
- Cardiovascular health benefits[6]
Start with high-quality collagen
To get these benefits, Glaxon started with PeptiPlus, which is a trusted and tested collagen protein ingredient that touts world-class purity, bringing better solubility, taste, texture, stability, and even brilliant color.[7]
However, that alone wasn’t good enough for the brand, who then went and made PeptiPlus even better:
Optimized with io’s plasma treatment!
The masterminds behind Ingredient Optimized Technology are using a natural atmospheric plasma treatment to modify the protein molecules to make them more bioavailable!
To go further, Glaxon used io technology from Ingredient Optimized, which uses a natural atmospheric plasma treatment to increase the protein’s surface area, improving the solubility, dispersibility, and ultimately the bioavailability and absorption of the protein!
We’ve covered this technology with regards to pea protein and whey protein (in our ioPea and ioWhey articles, respectively), and have been fascinated by the technology put forth.
Shifting the protein to make it more bioavailable
The general gist is that proteins or amino acids treated with cold atmospheric plasma undergo functional and structural changes that more prevalently expose the protein peptide’s binding sites. This makes it easier for our body’s enzymes to cleave them and process them – thus improving the entire protein powder’s bioavailability.[8,9]
How Ingredient Optimized Technology compares to enzymes. Image courtesy of Plasma Nutrition.
It turns out that the structural changes actually expose more more hydrophobic pockets in a protein,[10,11] and more hydrophobicity enhances the ability for enzymes to degrade the molecules, which has led to improved digestibility when done using other technologies.[12]
Although we don’t have any research on this process with collagen protein specifically, Ingredient Optimized has shown this in several studies on whey protein isolate and pea protein.[13,14] Both studies showed significantly improved plasma essential amino acid levels 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes after consuming, far outperforming standard standard whey protein isolate,[13] standard pea protein, leucine, and BCAAs.[14]
Given the research behind the underlying technology and how it seems to work on nearly all amino acids, we’re confident that Glaxon has put together a top-tier collagen that is worthy of trying.
Use it for the right purposes!
As always, we like to note that collagen should not be used or marketed as “muscle building protein” — even if you see protein counted on the label.
With collagen, the amino acid ratios are different from something like beef or whey. Here, the powder is higher in glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline, all of which are great for the benefits discussed in the top. However, it’s not the highest in the anabolic, mTOR-stimulating amino acids that drive muscle protein synthesis.[15] We’re perfectly fine with this as long as nobody’s promising that you’ll build muscle with it.
Glaxon’s of researchers and formulators continue pushing the supplement science envelope, and the inclusion of the next ingredient demonstrates that further:
Moldavian Dragonhead (Dracocephalum moldavica) [Aerial Parts] Extract (as DracoBelle Nu) – 200 mg
The Moldavian Dragonhead plant is more formally known as Dracocephalum moldavica, and is a member of the mint family that has cardioprotective and anti-aging properties due to its antioxidant profile. However, it’s a difficult plant to properly isolate due to the plant genus’ wild diversity and limited supply.[16]
DracoBelle Nu is a branded ingredient designed to standardize the plant’s extract, which targets at least 150 micrograms per gram of flavonoid glucuronides.[17] According to its manufacturers, it’s able to increase a AMPK activity 4x and FOXO activity 3x.[18]
The DracoBell Nu skin results – we’ve requested the source here. Image courtesy Nutricosmetics.[17]
AMPK stands for ATP-Activated Protein Kinase, and in layman’s terms, we consider AMPK the “we need energy now” enzyme that gets so many metabolic functions moving.[19] FOXO, on the other hand, stands for Forkhead box protein O, which signals improved collagen and DNA repair, amongst other cellular benefits – many related to skin health.[20]
According to DracoBelle Nu’s manufacturer, the 200 milligrams of the ingredient has been tested in a clinical trial performed on 32 female volunteers (average age 50.8 years) for eight weeks. They reported the following effects:[18]
- Skin moisture increased by 14.4%
- Skin elasticity increased by 6.7%
- Skin density increased by 2.5%
Additionally, 94% of the volunteers “felt better in their skin” and 75% were satisfied with the product’s performance, while 72% felt that their skin was more hydrated.[18]
We’ve requested the clinical study, as it’s unclear if there was a placebo group or statistical significance, although the charts seem to indicate significance was achieved in moisturization and elasticity.[18]
One last note is that Moldavian Dragonhead has a sweet (but weak) lemon balm-like taste and odor, which may improve the flavor profile too!
While we await the data, we remain focused on the high quality collagen content, but are very hopeful that Glaxon further boosted it with this unique plant extract.
Hyaluronic Acid (as Sodium Hyaluronate) – 45 mg
We see Hyaluronic Acid in several joint and skin care supplements, but it’s not frequently put into collagen supplements, making for a common-sense inclusion that further differentiates Glaxon Wonder Collagen from the pack.
What a label we have on this tub!
Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a glycosaminoglycan produced and found alongside collagen in the extracellular matrix (ECM). Its chemical composition allows it to attract and retain water molecules throughout the body, which is incredibly important to skin health (where about 50% of all HA is found).[21]
While the compound is incredibly important nearly everywhere (such as in the eyes, muscle tissues, heart, lungs, etc), we generally focus on skin care or joint health when discussing its use, which is primarily in the context of lubrication. Hyaluronic acid leads to better water balance, osmotic pressure, and overall skin stability.[21]
Some dietary supplement ingredients help us produce more, while Glaxon is simply providing more. A detailed review published in 2014 concluded that orally ingested hyaluronic acid can work with skin cells to help them retain more moisture, with one study finding significant increases in skin moisture with an even lower amount of the ingredient![22]
For those looking into joint health, there are numerous ingredients that can be added, but the dosage in those studies is generally a bit higher than what we have here. Regardless, this is a fantastic inclusion in a dietary supplement category that should have this more often – and Glaxon is the brand to bring it to us.
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