‘Initially I thought it was a scam’: can collagen really turn back the clock?

Wrinkled skin, painful muscles, aching joints - collagen is being marketed by the supplement industry as the answer to many of the problems of ageing

Of all the 20,000 or so different proteins in the human body, there is one that dominates more than any other. Without it, our cells would simply collapse in on themselves, our skeleton and blood vessels would disintegrate and we would be little more than blobs of shapeless tissues.

This vital component is collagen, a molecule that defines our existence in a multitude of ways that most of us are blissfully unaware of. According to some research, nearly a third of the proteins in humans and other mammals are composed of 28 different types of collagen, from type I collagen, which is found in skin, to type II collagen, which is found in cartilage.