Dr. Andy Galpin

It's like, well, maybe joint pain went down, but they slept worse. Or this marker in the blood went up, and this other marker went up, and then this one didn't. Right. And anytime I see a paper where like everything gets better, I'm always like, no, no way.

Awesome. We've hit protein and carbohydrates and we went to collagen. I think actually it would be helpful and I'm sorry I forgot this, but maybe let's take a real quick step backwards. What the heck is collagen? Yeah. We hear about it a lot. We talk about it. We've sort of been kind of saying that illness is interchanged with protein. It's not.

Awesome. We've hit protein and carbohydrates and we went to collagen. I think actually it would be helpful and I'm sorry I forgot this, but maybe let's take a real quick step backwards. What the heck is collagen? Yeah. We hear about it a lot. We talk about it. We've sort of been kind of saying that illness is interchanged with protein. It's not.

But can you just give people a quick understanding of what collagen actually is?

But can you just give people a quick understanding of what collagen actually is?

Leucine is the amino acid that's the primary driver. Well, it's a large driver of muscle growth, hence your comments earlier about whey protein being – Hey, thanks, Stu Phillips. Great. That's the one for muscle growth. This one is basically absent of it. Yeah. And so it's the throwaway protein, right?

Leucine is the amino acid that's the primary driver. Well, it's a large driver of muscle growth, hence your comments earlier about whey protein being – Hey, thanks, Stu Phillips. Great. That's the one for muscle growth. This one is basically absent of it. Yeah. And so it's the throwaway protein, right?

Let me make sure I understood that correctly. If you were to ingest a majority of different types of proteins— You're going to have them go into your gut as that piece of steak, that milk, that yogurt, that whatever you're getting it from. Great. It's going to be in your stomach as a whole protein. By the time it gets into your blood, it is now in the blood not as the whole protein anymore.

Let me make sure I understood that correctly. If you were to ingest a majority of different types of proteins— You're going to have them go into your gut as that piece of steak, that milk, that yogurt, that whatever you're getting it from. Great. It's going to be in your stomach as a whole protein. By the time it gets into your blood, it is now in the blood not as the whole protein anymore.

but as its individual amino acid components, right? So this is what your gut and your digestive tract are doing is they're breaking it down from the total protein into the amino acids. But what you're saying is what's unique about collagen is it's not necessarily broken down the entire way.

but as its individual amino acid components, right? So this is what your gut and your digestive tract are doing is they're breaking it down from the total protein into the amino acids. But what you're saying is what's unique about collagen is it's not necessarily broken down the entire way.

Technical stuff, I'm sure. Yeah.

Technical stuff, I'm sure. Yeah.

So in your blood, you could pull it out and you'll see two or three of these amino acids still linked together, which would be insanely uncommon. If you were to, for example, put an IV line in me and you measured my blood and I had a meal, you could see how much protein I ate, but you would have no idea what I actually ate. In this case, it would be different.

So in your blood, you could pull it out and you'll see two or three of these amino acids still linked together, which would be insanely uncommon. If you were to, for example, put an IV line in me and you measured my blood and I had a meal, you could see how much protein I ate, but you would have no idea what I actually ate. In this case, it would be different.

You would, in theory, if this holds true, be able to say, wow, you specifically ate collagen. Right, and I think where the breakdown is— This is very weird scientifically, by the way, if you're like, what are these guys learning about? I'm fixated on this because this is really, really odd.

You would, in theory, if this holds true, be able to say, wow, you specifically ate collagen. Right, and I think where the breakdown is— This is very weird scientifically, by the way, if you're like, what are these guys learning about? I'm fixated on this because this is really, really odd.

Sure. Okay. So leucine is the one in most proteins that drives muscle protein synthesis. Over here, we're not talking about leucine. We're talking about a couple of other ones. Remind us of what those other ones are and quickly why they matter.

Sure. Okay. So leucine is the one in most proteins that drives muscle protein synthesis. Over here, we're not talking about leucine. We're talking about a couple of other ones. Remind us of what those other ones are and quickly why they matter.

Okay, great. So I want to focus a little bit more on one of those amino acids because I know you've done some work. Tangentially, I'm transitioning here. I'm bridging a gap a little bit here, and that is glycine. So you don't need to give me the structural details here, but... We know why leucine matters. Why does glycine matter? What does it do?