11/01/2026
Make sure to get some Vitamin C with your Collagen order.
Most people think of collagen and vitamin C as two separate supplements, but inside your body they work as one system, and if you take away the vitamin C, the collagen stops working.
Collagen is made of three protein strands that twist together into a tight rope, and that twist is what gives your skin, tendons and joints their strength. The strands can't hold that shape on their own, though. Each one first needs a small chemical change, and your body can only make that change when vitamin C is around to help the enzyme that does the work. Without enough vitamin C, the strands never lock together properly.
The practical result is striking. In lab experiments with human collagen, strands made without that change fell apart at about 90 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit. When vitamin C was present and the enzyme could do its job, the collagen stayed stable up to about 104 degrees. Your body sits at about 98.6 degrees, which means that without enough vitamin C, the collagen you build comes apart at the temperature you live at.
That is what was really happening with scurvy. Sailors with scurvy were eating plenty of protein, but with no vitamin C they couldn't make collagen that held together, so their wounds reopened, their gums broke down and even old scars came apart. The cure turned out to be limes rather than more meat.
If you take collagen for your skin or joints, the vitamin C isn't an optional extra, because it's what allows your body to build anything with the collagen you eat. Most people who eat fruit and vegetables every day already get enough, so the people who should pay attention are those who rarely eat produce, smokers, and anyone relying on a collagen powder to do the job by itself.
To be fair about the evidence, the exact temperatures come from a lab system rather than measurements inside living people. The overall finding isn't in doubt, though, since this is well-established biochemistry.
References
Myllyharju, Ann Med, 2008
Booth & Uitto, Biochim Biophys Acta, 1981
Lamberg et al., J Biol Chem, 1996
