Collagen is having a moment. You have probably seen it in powders, capsules, coffee creamers, snack bars and bottled drinks, often paired with promises of better skin, stronger joints, healthier hair and faster recovery, along with claims that go well beyond what the research has shown.

For health and exercise professionals, that popularity creates a familiar challenge: Clients ask questions, often after hearing bold claims from influencers, friends or advertisements, and they expect you to help them sort fact from fiction. But when the topic is a dietary supplement, the conversation also comes with clear professional boundaries. Education is appropriate. Prescribing, recommending or directing supplement use is not.

That is why a new umbrella review on collagen supplementation is especially useful. Published in Aesthetic Surgery Journal Open Forum, the paper pulled together 16 systematic reviews with meta-analyses, representing 113 randomized controlled trials and 7,983 participants. In other words, this was not a single small study asking whether one collagen product worked in one group of people. It was a broad look across the current evidence on collagen supplementation and how it may affect several areas of health and function, including skin hydration and elasticity, osteoarthritis symptoms, muscle and tendon measures, oral health and cardiometabolic markers.

The result is a more nuanced message than the one often found in marketing copy. Collagen may offer some meaningful benefits, particularly for skin hydration and elasticity and for osteoarthritis symptoms. But the evidence does not support collagen as a quick fix, a sports-performance booster or a magic “anti-aging” solution. As Lee Smith, professor of public health at Anglia Ruskin University and a coauthor of the study, explains, “Collagen is not a cure all.”

What the Researchers Reviewed

Collagen is a structural protein found throughout connective tissue, including skin, tendons, cartilage and bones. Collagen makes up about 25% to 30% of all proteins in the human body, and also plays a role in skin structure, strength and elasticity, as well as in connective tissue integrity. Collagen levels decline with age, which helps explain why consumers are drawn to supplements marketed for skin, joints and healthy aging.

The researchers reviewed the scientific literature on collagen supplementation through March 2025, focusing on systematic reviews and meta-analyses in humans. The team then pooled results across multiple health domains and used evidence-grading tools to assess how much confidence readers should place in those findings.

This matters because collagen research is not equally strong across all claims. Some outcomes have a more consistent support from the literature. Support for others is mixed, weak or not statistically significant. As a health and exercise professional working with clients, this distinction is important.

The Clearest Skin Findings: Hydration and Elasticity

The strongest skin-related findings were for hydration and elasticity. According to the review, collagen supplementation was associated with significant improvements in skin elasticity and hydration, both supported by high-certainty evidence. Skin elasticity improved across 20 randomized controlled trials, while skin hydration improved across 19 trials.

That sounds promising—and it is—but it is important to be precise. Hydration and elasticity are not the same as erasing wrinkles, reversing age or restoring youthful skin. In fact, the review found that collagen did not significantly affect skin roughness. That is a key limitation to be understood and communicated.

This is where the collagen conversation often gets distorted. A product may be able to improve a measurable skin characteristic without delivering the dramatic visible transformation implied by phrases like “anti-wrinkle” or “anti-aging.” The authors themselves drew a boundary around the interpretation, noting that collagen may be better understood as dermal support rather than an “anti-wrinkle quick fix.”

That distinction is useful when a client asks, “Does collagen work?” An accurate answer is: Research suggests collagen supplementation may improve some measures of skin hydration and elasticity when used consistently over time, but it has not been shown to reverse aging or reliably smooth skin texture. That is a very different message from the one a client might hear in a 20-second ad.

Joints, Osteoarthritis and the Limits of Your Role

The review also found consistent benefits for people with osteoarthritis. Across the studies, collagen supplementation was associated with improvements in several commonly used measures of osteoarthritis symptoms, including reductions in self-reported pain and stiffness. Several of these findings were supported by high-certainty evidence, though the authors noted that not every osteoarthritis-related measure improved.

While these are interesting findings, it is outside your scope of practice to offer clients who have osteoarthritis a treatment recommendation. Osteoarthritis is a medical condition, and clients who have joint pain, stiffness or a diagnosis of osteoarthritis should be encouraged to work with a qualified healthcare provider. Your role is to support movement, strength, function and adherence within your scope, not to suggest collagen as a therapy.

Still, understanding the research helps you to be a better communicator. You can acknowledge that collagen is being studied for joint-related outcomes and that some evidence suggests symptom relief in people with osteoarthritis. You can also explain that questions about whether to use it, what type to use, how much to take or whether it is appropriate for a specific diagnosis should be asked of a physician, pharmacist or registered dietitian nutritionist.

This approach respects the evidence and protects the client.

Muscle, Tendon and Performance: Not the Same Story

Collagen is often promoted to active people as a recovery or performance aid. The new review suggests that available evidence doesn’t necessarily back up those claims.

The researchers found modest benefits for some longer-term musculoskeletal measures, including fat-free mass, muscle structure, strength and tendon structure. But collagen did not appear to improve short-term exercise recovery, including strength recovery or muscle soreness in the day or two after a workout.

That means collagen should not be framed as a fast-acting sports supplement, as the study found no meaningful improvements in post-exercise muscle recovery, soreness or tendon mechanical properties, suggesting collagen should not be viewed as a quick sports-performance supplement.

For clients, this may be one of the most practical takeaways. If someone is taking collagen because they expect to be less sore after tomorrow’s workout or perform better in next week’s race, this review does not support that expectation. The possible musculoskeletal benefits appear more structural and gradual, not immediate or ergogenic.

That difference matters. Training adaptations come from well-designed programming, adequate recovery, appropriate progression, sufficient overall nutrition and consistency. Collagen is not a shortcut around those fundamentals.

What the Study Did Not Prove

One of the strengths of this study is that it highlights where the evidence is less convincing. Oral health findings were mixed. Cardiometabolic findings were also inconsistent. While some body-composition markers showed favorable changes, traditional markers such as blood pressure, glucose and lipids did not show a clear or consistent benefit across the board.

The review also has limitations. Although it included nearly 8,000 participants overall, some subgroups had small sample sizes and many trials were short. The certainty of evidence varied, and when the researchers assessed the quality of the included meta-analyses, only one was rated high quality, four were rated low quality and the rest were rated critically low.

The authors also noted unanswered questions about collagen sources, such as bovine versus marine, and formats, such as liquid versus powder. They could not fully examine how factors such as age, menopause status, ultraviolet exposure, smoking, hydration, diet or sleep might influence results because those variables were not consistently reported.

That does not make the findings useless. Instead, it’s better to consider that they are promising in places, limited in others and not ready to support sweeping claims.

Clearly, as study coauthor Roshan Ravindran concludes, collagen is “not a miracle product.” This may be the most useful sentence in the whole discussion.

Debunking the Anti-Aging Message

The phrase “anti-aging” is one of the biggest problems in the collagen conversation. Aging is not a disease, and no supplement stops it. Skin changes over time because of biology, hormones, sun exposure, sleep, nutrition, stress, smoking status, illness, medications and other factors. Collagen is only one part of that larger picture.

As described earlier, the study supports a more modest claim: Collagen supplementation may improve certain measurable skin outcomes, especially hydration and elasticity. It does not prove that collagen reverses aging, removes wrinkles, restores youthfulness or meaningfully changes every visible sign of skin aging. It also did not show a significant effect on skin roughness, which is highly relevant when evaluating claims about texture and wrinkles.

That is the message some of your clients may need to hear. For example, you could say, “There is some evidence for skin hydration and elasticity, but that is not the same as an anti-aging effect. Be careful with products that promise wrinkle reversal or dramatic cosmetic changes.”

That kind of answer positions you as a trustworthy source of perspective without stepping into supplement counseling.

How to Apply the Findings as a Health and Exercise Professional

When a client asks about collagen, your first job is not to endorse or reject it—instead, you should try to clarify the claim.

Is the client asking about skin? Joint pain? Workout recovery? Muscle gain? Hair? “Healthy aging”? Each claim has a different level of evidence, and this review shows why broad yes-or-no answers do not work well. Collagen research looks most favorable for skin hydration and elasticity and osteoarthritis symptoms. It looks much less convincing for immediate exercise recovery, soreness, oral health or cardiometabolic health.

From there, stay in the education lane. You can summarize what the research found. You can explain that collagen is a supplement and that supplement decisions should be made with an appropriately credentialed professional. You can encourage clients to bring the study or product label to their physician, pharmacist or registered dietitian nutritionist. You can also remind them that product quality, dose, source, duration and individual health status all matter and were not fully resolved by this review.

What you should not do is tell a client to take collagen, choose a brand, suggest a dose, recommend it for osteoarthritis or promise that it will improve skin, reduce wrinkles, speed recovery or prevent injury. Those statements move from education into recommendation or treatment.

This research can also help you redirect clients toward the fundamentals you are qualified to support. For skin and healthy aging conversations, you can reinforce consistent exercise, balanced nutrition within your scope, hydration, sleep, stress management and sun-safe habits. For joint health, you can emphasize strength, mobility, gradual progression, weight management support within your role and referral when pain or function changes require medical evaluation. For performance, you can keep the focus on training design, recovery, load management and adequate fueling in collaboration with qualified nutrition professionals.

The best practical use of this study is not to make collagen part of your toolbox. It is to make the collagen conversation more honest.

Clients are surrounded by bold and often overblown claims. You can offer something better: context. Collagen may have legitimate, measurable benefits in certain areas, especially when used consistently over time. But it is not a cure-all, not an anti-aging solution and not a performance shortcut. That message is well within your scope, and it may be exactly what clients need most.