Collagen

Anything But Mid is hosted by Amy Edwards and Whitney Stropp. Neither host is a doctor and nothing here is medical advice. Lightly cleaned for readability.

Amy: I'm Amy.

Whitney: And I'm Whitney, and this may be midlife, but you're anything but mid.

I think it's the wheatgrass that I just took.

Amy: That's right. We had wheatgrass on the last episode, and Whitney, you

Whitney: I did try it today. I think I put a little too much water in, cuz then it took me multiple

Amy: Yeah? Too much water?

Whitney: Well, because then I It wasn't like a shot. It was just like I had to drink it, yeah.

Amy: Oh, it was a drink. A wheatgrass drink. Yeah, that's kind of what I did.

Whitney: Although, it is pretty bulky, so you want to have enough water in there. I'm going to play around with it. Foster Oh,

Amy: Yeah. Good for you.

Whitney: you didn't bring your phone. Oh, you did. Yes. All right. On the last episode, we were talking about fun purses. Amy's bringing her phone purse and

Amy: This is one of my one of my crazy purses. I got this from Akira on sale. It was like literally like not even a hundred dollars, and the quality is dope. It's like

Whitney: What? I don't know Oh my gosh, this is like a 5-pound weight.

Amy: Hey, those phones, originally, were like that.

Whitney: Call me. This This is so true. It used to be this big.

Amy: Yeah, it's an old-school '90s phone.

Whitney: Who is this designer? Where did you get this?

Amy: I I got I bought it on Akira, but I don't know who the designer is. It's just the It's just the company, like a website, a-k-i-r-a, and they just have They have crazy shit.

Whitney: That's so fun.

Amy: If you want crazy fucking clothes, go look at their website. That's where I get all my faux furs. Like Or most of them.

Whitney: A-k-

Amy: A-k-i-r-a. Yeah. And so, these purses, though, they'll go on sale, too, so you can get it half off, and so I think original price was like 180, and I got it at half price. And

Whitney: That's so fun. And it's a perfect way to take the mid out of your life. Like, get something fun like that. I haven't gotten to use my pickle purse yet, but

Amy: Yeah, it's It's a conversation starter, and it's just ridiculous. And, I mean, I'm the type of person that sometimes doesn't know what to say at parties or what to talk about, and so I love to wear a conversation starter. Something that is going to just like get some attention when people It breaks the ice.

Whitney: Yeah. But how do you hold Like, are you holding it like that on your when you're out and about or you're putting it on your shoulder?

Amy: Well, when I wore this out, I went to Saxon Pub to hear my friend AJ play, and so I set it on the bar, so it had its own little spot. And the bartender girl was like, "Is that a cell phone purse?" And I was like, "As a matter of fact, it is."

Whitney: And your real phone will fit in there, right? Oh, yours is too big.

Amy: No, unfortunately, it does not. Nope. But in my pizza purse, my phone fits in the pizza purse. So if you're just listening to, this is a completely rhinestone bedazzled '90s very thick cell phone. That is what we're doing.

Whitney: It is so thick, like,

Amy: Yes. '80s maybe. I don't It's like Zack Morris. Straight up Zack Morris vibes.

Whitney: It's very, very cool.

Amy: Yeah. So I did I It sat on the bar a lot, so I did just kind of carry it. It was just fun. It's just, yeah.

Whitney: It's just, yeah. It doesn't have to be practical, you guys.

Amy: Nope. Actually, it's just

Whitney: She had two phones that night. She carried her real phone in one hand and her purse phone.

Amy: I did. Yeah. I did. I did. Yeah. It was a blast.

Whitney: It's so fun. I love it. All right, well, I'm going to have to go check out that website.

Amy: Yeah, cuz you know what? When I go to like a a formal event or something, I want to carry stuff like that.

Whitney: Yeah, it just makes it fun.

Amy: Have you seen my boobs one? I have one that's just like It's a set of tits.

Whitney: I'm sorry, what?

Amy: It's a set of tits. It's not bedazzled. It's just gold. Oh, next time Next Next episode. Next episode.

Whitney: No, I have not. I have not seen your tits.

Amy: It is so much fun at parties.

Whitney: That is hilarious.

Amy: Yeah, it's just boobs. I love it. It was a splurge. I I splurged on that one because when I saw it, I was like, "You will be mine."

Whitney: Oh, really? Oh, that is Now, I'm dying to see it.

Amy: And then like, I was the biggest hit in the store. Like, people came out from the back. A guy came out and shook my hand and was like, "I I'm so happy to see"

Whitney: Do they have nipples?

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: The boobs have nipples?

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: They're like real boobs?

Amy: Do I need to go get it right now? Okay, hold on. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Everybody, just hold on. Yes.

Whitney: Yes. What? We'll just edit the the break out. Gosh, I cannot wait.

Amy: Okay, so I have it now here. Here it is.

Whitney: Okay. Oh, it's like a bust. It's a bust of boobs.

Amy: It is It's a set of boobs. That's right. It's like a bust of boobs.

Whitney: Solid gold.

Amy: They're a nice set of titties, too. I'm going to take it out. It's solid gold. If you can see, I hope you can see. Yeah, there you go.

Whitney: Yeah, they are. Yeah. That is crazy. Open it up.

Amy: And it doesn't have a chain, which is a problem.

Whitney: Oh, that is a problem cuz it's hard to hold in one hand.

Amy: Well, no. It tucks under your under your under your sleeve really nicely, so here you go. Would you like to hold it? And I mean, talk about a hit.

Whitney: Oh, my gosh.

Amy: I wore it to a wedding, and people

Whitney: That is hilarious.

Amy: Yeah. It does better when I don't have a sleeve on or else it's just too slippery. I know. It's amazing. Like, she's amazing.

Whitney: Yeah, I would just be fondling this the whole night.

Amy: If you're wondering, it's Cult Gaia, Cult Gaia. I don't know how to pronounce it.

Whitney: Cult Gaia.

Amy: Yep, that's the brand. Yes, it was expensive.

Whitney: That's awesome. How much was it?

Amy: I don't want to say. It was under $1,000, so you know. But it was just a splurge that I was like I saw it, and I was like, "Yep. I need this bag in my life."

Whitney: Okay. Okay. Oh, my gosh. That is hilarious.

Amy: I just collect ridiculous stuff.

Whitney: So is that a website?

Amy: They have a website.

Whitney: Like, where did you see it? Online or you

Amy: Neiman Marcus.

Whitney: Oh, my gosh, that is hilarious. I bet they were so excited that you bought it.

Amy: Yeah. They were so excited. Literally, that everybody came out. And like a guy did come out and shook my hand.

Whitney: Oh, that's why you got the high-five, or shook shook your hand. Oh, okay. At the store when you were buying it, I got it got it.

Amy: Yeah. Yep, yep. So anyway,

Whitney: Oh, my gosh. That's hilarious. All right, well, now you've got to go on YouTube or on Spotify to see the video of these purses cuz they're insane.

Amy: You do. You do. I'll share my pizza purse another day.

Whitney: Yeah, it's amazing.

Amy: It's

Whitney: You've got I mean, you really, one day you just have to do your whole closet, like do a whole 360 of the things that are just out.

Amy: Yeah. I do, I do.

Whitney: Yeah, it's pretty awesome.

Amy: It is.

Whitney: All right. Anything but mid, that's for sure.

Amy: Anything but mid. Do we have a mid moment to share?

Whitney: I don't think that I do. High-five.

Amy: I do. Congratulations. You probably do, and you're just forgetting. I do. I I like strained my butt muscle just walking.

Whitney: What is it? Oh, my gosh.

Amy: I was walking inclines fast on the treadmill, but still, I started to feel some pain, but I mean, strained my entire gluteus

Whitney: Barefoot? Oh, no.

Amy: It's I've been limping.

Whitney: Well, you need to get on the red light.

Amy: I Oh, I was just going to say, I was I've been using the PEMF

Whitney: And your PEMF. You have?

Amy: for my hip, and it's been helping, I think.

Whitney: Oh, good.

Amy: Yeah. I like it.

Whitney: Yeah, I'm telling you. I was just in there the other day, and they have the mat, but then they also have these coils. Like, it's basically like a hose and it just wraps around. And I laid on my stomach, and they put it on my lower back.

Amy: Yeah. Wow. Cool.

Whitney: And I need to go in multiple times. You know what? I I I don't know if this is a I guess this is a mid moment just because it happens later in life. I had to go to the dermatologist because all of a sudden, out of the blue, I looked down at my arm and there's this new growth.

Amy: What kind of growth?

Whitney: And I was like, "What the hell?" And It was like a raised, red freckle-type thing.

Amy: How big?

Whitney: It was like, how big is that?

Amy: Oh, no.

Whitney: You're going to see it now in a second. So I was like, "Oh, shit. This is This is not something that I can ignore." And it popped up, I felt like overnight. And so I made an appointment at the dermatologist. I went into the dermatologist, and thankfully, it was just something they could freeze off. It wasn't anything

Amy: Okay. Good.

Whitney: big deal, but let me show you. Good thing I'm wearing a tank top under this today, so

Amy: Okay. I know. I have a tank top on, too, actually.

Whitney: So,

Amy: Oh, my god.

Whitney: here it is.

Amy: Oh, my god.

Whitney: It's like the size of a well, it's not it's not quite the size of a dime.

Amy: Yeah, I was going to say dime, too. A little smaller than a dime.

Whitney: Yeah. So I don't know.

Amy: Yeah. Wow. Oh, my god.

Whitney: Sexy stuff. But the good news

Amy: Do you get pain in your body when you feel pain? Do you

Whitney: What do you mean? Like when they were freezing it off?

Amy: No, I mean when you see someone else's pain.

Whitney: Do you get a pain in your body when you feel pain?

Amy: When you see someone else's pain, do you get a pain anywhere in your body?

Whitney: Sometimes.

Amy: Where?

Whitney: Why, did you just get Where in your body? My boobs.

Amy: Oh, wow. Everybody gets it somewhere different, and I'm Yes.

Whitney: Really?

Amy: My daughter gets it in her fingertips.

Whitney: No, it like hurts me. I guess like

Amy: I get it

Whitney: just the chest, like my

Amy: I get it in my taint.

Whitney: What?

Amy: In my bottom.

Whitney: I am sorry, but what did you just share?

Amy: It's I get it in my bottom. I get it in my bottom, and I just got it when Like, I get a pain in my bottom.

Whitney: It's your sphincter.

Amy: I get It's not like it's tightening up. It's like a It's like that pain

Whitney: It's your vagus nerve.

Amy: It's like a pain feeling.

Whitney: Yeah, like I just like get a little like like my nipples hurt or something.

Amy: What? You get it in your boobs?

Whitney: Weird. I cannot And you get it in your butt? I can't even believe we're talking about this right now.

Amy: I get it in my bottom. Yeah. And, you know what, one of my children gets it in her butt, too. The other one gets it in her fingertips.

Whitney: But now I don't think everybody has that. I don't think

Amy: No. I don't

Whitney: not everybody if if feels pain when they see someone else.

Amy: No, but if like you know that when you see pain and you like feel it in your body,

Whitney: You're just like Yeah.

Amy: I'm curious.

Whitney: I I will like, you know, depending on where I am, but I like will have to hold myself for a second.

Amy: Yeah. Wow. I can't do it cuz I would have to hold my bottom. Yeah, it's I didn't realize that until I just started talking about it with my family finally one day, and Sydney was like, "Oh, no. I get in my fingertips." And I was like, "Wait, this is happening to other people." And so then we started talking about it.

Whitney: That is so hilarious. Well, yeah.

Amy: Do your kids get it? Have you ever asked?

Whitney: I have never talked about it. I never really

Amy: You need to ask. You've got to ask. Ask your mom.

Whitney: Oh, my gosh.

Amy: What if she gets it in her bottom, too?

Whitney: I can guarantee you that she won't say taint. And if she does get in her bottom, she won't share. That is so crazy. All right.

Amy: She might. She might. Well, anyway, I strained my butt. I'm doing I did text my kids. I was like, "Well, I strained my butt." And then I was like, "Oh, I better say muscle. I better say muscle cuz it sounds like"

Whitney: Yeah, something

Amy: something bad. So anyway, I'm on the mend. That's I just needed to

Whitney: Yeah, but I'm glad you're doing the PE- PEMF mat. I think that really helps, so it's working

Amy: Me, too. Yeah.

Whitney: even though it got peed on?

Amy: Oh, uh, yeah, I worked hard to get it back in order. I still put a very thin towel over it cuz it does smell like pee if it heats up a little bit. I know.

Whitney: Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Oh, Tipsy.

Amy: Oh, Gypsy.

Whitney: All right, well, I'm excited because I've been getting a lot of

Amy: Me, too. Me, too.

Whitney: I've been getting a lot of ads on Instagram lately. I don't know what happened, but ads for collagen and this liquid collagen, I don't know if you've seen it, like E27 liquid collagen or something. And all these celebrities, yeah, all these celebrities are like backing it and stuff and anyway, it just got me thinking cuz I do take collagen every day. I put it in my MUD\WTR or in a protein shake or something.

Amy: I will now. Your your MUD\WTR is doing a lot of work.

Whitney: My MUD\WTR is super muddy.

Amy: It is doing a lot of work.

Whitney: And I need to do do some real research on it cuz I'm like, is this even worth taking, you know? It's like

Amy: I know. Because, you know, they just came out about AG1, and it's just a whole load of crap.

Whitney: I don't know what AG1 is.

Amy: You don't? Oh, my gosh. It's that green supplement that, like, every podcaster in the world was talking about.

Whitney: Oh, and they said it was a hoax?

Amy: It's just It's just there's no clinical trials. There's no nothing.

Whitney: Benefits. Right. So Oh, yeah. The MUD\WTR, it's got like lion's mane and

Amy: Yeah. Well, those are good. We know that.

Whitney: Those are good.

Whitney: But I don't know if it's helping me with anything, necessarily.

Amy: It is helping you not use coffee the way that you know, Yeah,

Whitney: but I wasn't like a huge coffee drinker where I was drinking three cups a day or whatever. It was one cup. Yeah. Anyway, but like I said, it was like a ritual, more than anything. But it just got me thinking about my collagen, and why am I taking the collagen?

Whitney: Well, you went off of it for a long time. I'm going to call back to our hair loss episode, and you said, "I stopped taking marine collagen because I forgot about it."

Amy: Yeah, I finished it, and it was expensive, and then I was like, "Eh, I don't know that it's doing anything."

Whitney: How expensive?

Amy: Oh, man. Like I don't remember.

Whitney: How much is that how much does that tub run you?

Amy: Well, this is the tub that I was talking about. I think like $65.

Whitney: Oh, that's pretty pricey. Yeah, let's see.

Amy: Let me look it up. It's Amandean or something.

Whitney: 50 servings, this is Amandean. Amandean wild-caught Amandean, Amandean, Amandean, Amandean, Amandean. This is wild-caught. Oh, oh, oh.

Amy: Yeah. Oh, it's it's between It's about $50 to $55.

Whitney: So, that's about a dollar a serving because it says it has 50 scoops in here. So, yeah, it's not cheap.

Amy: It's not cheap.

Whitney: Wild-caught fish, marine collagen, dietary supplement, easy to mix, healthy skin and hair, joints and bones,

Amy: Graceful aging.

Whitney: natural, gluten-free, fat-free, non-GMO.

Amy: Yes. Natural, graceful aging protein powder. And so, I got back on it because, yes, you're right. I was on it for like a year, and my hair was luxurious. But dumbass me didn't put the two together, and then I was like, "This is too expensive." And I got off of it, and then all my hair fell out.

Whitney: And now, you're back on it.

Amy: A couple of a couple of years. Yeah. Now, I'm back on it.

Whitney: How How long have you been back on it?

Amy: 6 months maybe.

Whitney: Okay. Oh, wow.

Amy: Yeah, I've been on it for a while now. But, you know, and I don't know. My hair is getting better, but I'm also on minoxidil, so

Whitney: Yeah. Hard to say.

Amy: That's the problem. You never know. But let's get into it because I don't even really I mean, you hear about collagen, collagen, collagen, and I'm like, "What is collagen? I don't even know."

Amy: I don't, either.

Whitney: But the collagen is a protein Well, here's what it is. It is a bi- It's the biological glue that holds your body together. It's the most abundant protein in the human body, making up about 1/3 of your total protein composition,

Amy: which is how much of your body,

Whitney: Oh, girl. Please. Not that much.

Amy: I have no idea.

Whitney: I have no idea. But it holds everything together, right? So, it's like the scaffolding the scaffolding. Does that make sense? So, there are four pillars of the collagen that that this is why we want it. All right? It helps with your skin and hair. That's the elasticity and the hydration. You know, the snap test. Like you can tell if you're dehydrated if you pinch your skin, and it doesn't go back in right away.

Amy: Uh-oh.

Whitney: Are you dehydrated?

Amy: I know I'm dehydrate- Well, look. Mine looks okay.

Whitney: Yeah, you're not that dehydrated. The other area is your joints. They're the The collagen is the shock absorbers,

Amy: Mm.

Whitney: the rubbery cartilage that prevents the creaking movement. Like, dude, this morning, this is my mid moment. I another one. I was looking at my myself in the makeup mirror and like trying to, you know, look at my face. And I moved my head, and I could hear like a creaky and feel it in the back of my neck. And I was like,

Amy: Oh, yeah. I get that. Oh, no. I totally get that.

Whitney: Well, it's because I don't have enough collagen. If I had more collagen, I wouldn't have that creaky movement.

Amy: Really?

Whitney: Yes. Then it's in your bones. The calcium is the concrete, but the collagen is the flexible rebar, the reinforcer that prevents brittle snapping.

Amy: Oh, god.

Whitney: And then get this: organs and muscles. It maintains the this is kind of gross the bags that hold your organs. Your organs have a bag around

Amy: There are bags that hold our organs?

Whitney: Yes, bags that hold the organs and support muscle mass.

Amy: What?

Whitney: Yes. It plays a role in maintaining muscle mass as we age. It provides the structural integrity for your digestive tract and blood vessels. Like who knew collagen was this important? I thought it was just to make my face look good. You know? But it's doing a lot.

Amy: Are all the organs in the same bag?

Whitney: No. No.

Amy: Is each one in a separate bag?

Whitney: Yes. Each organ has its own bag. Yes. No, it's not all in one bag. That would just be your body.

Amy: Yeah. I'm a giant organ bag.

Whitney: Yeah, no. So, your body naturally synthesizes collagen by combining these amino acids found in protein-rich foods, right? So, you're you're getting collagen from protein-rich foods. However, it's very critical that you also have vitamin C. Without enough vitamin C, your body can't effectively braid those amino acids into the strong fiber, the collagen fiber.

Amy: Oh, my god. I'm very upset. I'm not getting any of this.

Whitney: The vitamin C? You can also get You can buy collagen that has a vitamin C

Amy: What?

Whitney: like aspect to it, if you want.

Amy: What? What has vitamin C? Oranges.

Whitney: Oh, yeah.

Amy: Okay. Wait a minute. I eat a lot of carrots.

Whitney: I think there's there's vegetables have vitamin C. Does broccoli, I feel like, or spinach?

Amy: I think it might. Oh, good. I eat a ton of that.

Whitney: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, here's the sad truth. All right?

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: You start losing collagen in your late 20s. Did you just find some vitamin C foods?

Amy: Vitamin C foods: broccoli, red pepper, tomatoes, guava. Who eats guava? Cauliflower, berries, oranges, strawberries. Oh, phew. I'm in the clear. I'm in the clear. Okay. Sorry. So, what'd you say? Oh, bananas, too. Oh, good. Okay.

Whitney: Yeah, veggies.

Amy: Great.

Whitney: You're good. You're good.

Amy: Dodged a bullet.

Whitney: I was saying that, sadly, you start to lose your collagen in your late 20s.

Amy: Jeez.

Whitney: 1% of our collagen every year, starting in our late 20s.

Amy: Fuck.

Whitney: And then the real kicker, midlifers, is that during the first 5 years of menopause, and your estrogen drops, your collagen plummets by 30%. Okay? And this is why like Remember when I told you that I woke up one morning and both my hands, the joints were aching? Like literally out of the blue. It's because of the collagen.

Amy: Damn.

Whitney: It's the It explains the overnight feeling of creepiness, joint stiffness, hair thinning.

Amy: Oh, this I need it. Okay, I need it.

Whitney: It's all because of the collagen.

Amy: And I'm not making my own? Or

Whitney: You do, but once you hit menopause and that estrogen drops,

Amy: I'm losing it.

Whitney: you're losing collagen by 30%.

Amy: I might be in menopause. I haven't had a period. I don't know what's going on.

Whitney: Yeah, if it's a year of no periods. And you've been a year without?

Amy: I've gotten to 8 months before, something like that. But now, then I started having regular periods. And now, I've been since November.

Whitney: Yeah. Well, you're probably right there on the menopause train.

Amy: I'm on I'm on the cusp.

Whitney: You're on the cusp.

Amy: 53.

Whitney: The menopause cusp. So, here's the deal because I was questioning because I remember hearing like people say, "Oh,

Amy: I'm ready. I'm ready.

Whitney: you're People who are eating collagen are stupid. You can't eat something that and make your and then your and then it's in your body."

Amy: That's my question. Yes.

Whitney: Right? So, that was the old-school view, Amy. Doctors once thought collagen was expensive pee, just saying that protein is protein.

Amy: Expensive pee?

Whitney: You're just peeing it out. Like you just pee it out.

Amy: Oh, oh.

Whitney: You're You're buying it and peeing it out. But they were saying that the stomach destroys anything like that. Like it just your body is going to treat it like any other protein. It's just like eating chicken or something, right?

Amy: Okay.

Whitney: But there's a modern pivot because now we know collagen is uniquely tough. That braided thing that that braided thing I was just talking about, how it's braided together, it will not be destroyed in the stomach. It survives the stomach. So, it doesn't get shredded. It stays intact.

Amy: That's crazy. That's crazy.

Whitney: And then what happens, I know you're wondering,

Amy: I am.

Whitney: it tricks your body into thinking there's a massive breakdown occurring and that needs to put collagen there. So like So like my Sculptra, right?

Amy: Awesome.

Whitney: I it they injected something into my face that then alerted my body that there needs to be collagen there, right?

Amy: Cool.

Whitney: So, it the body's just like, "Oh, we've got a we've got a breakdown. We've got to get in there and fix it."

Amy: Emergency, guys.

Whitney: "Emergency, guys." So, this collagen that you eat

Amy: Is it stealing collagen from like your joints?

Whitney: No. Uh-uh. Your body produces collagen.

Amy: Right. Okay.

Whitney: And when you are injured or like there's a scar scar, a scar scar

Amy: A scar scar.

Whitney: then your body will create collagen and go and and fill it in and try to help. All right? But as we get older, we don't produce as much. So, you're not getting the the effects that you did when you were younger and you had an injury. So, anyway, this is what's so cool. Not only is this collagen creating collagen, but it also is sending a message Like it's collagen, so it's going into your body and into your bloodstream, but then it becomes a messenger for the body to send more collagen. Isn't that cool?

Amy: Wow.

Whitney: So, it's tricking the body into thinking there's a massive breakdown, and it triggers these collagen factories to wake up and get in there and fix it. So that that's very, very cool. So, there are two types of collagen. There's the marine collagen, and there's the bovine collagen,

Amy: That's it?

Whitney: which is the cow. There's probably a plant one, but I didn't research that one.

Amy: Well,

Whitney: But, I'm sorry.

Amy: I am plant-based.

Whitney: You are. But I think the But you eat fish sometimes.

Amy: Come on. Well, I do.

Whitney: Plant-based collagen, I'm going to look it up for you right now, and there is Verisol. Oh yeah, Verisol. Verisol is a plant-based collagen. Well, shoot. I didn't do any research on that.

Amy: Okay, but that's good. We know.

Whitney: But now you know.

Amy: Yeah. Boy, there's a lot of them out there. Verisol, collagen for skin, algae.

Whitney: I was taking

Amy: It's from algae.

Whitney: you don't even need it cuz you're taking the algae.

Amy: "Turn your morning coffee into a fountain of youth."

Whitney: What? Or your mud water.

Amy: AlgaeCal collagen, it's called. Wow.

Whitney: Okay. Interesting. Interesting. Pretty cool.

Amy: "The Clumpy Collagen Conundrum. Have you noticed how confusing it is to choose the right collagen?" Okay, sorry. Sorry.

Whitney: Yeah, no. It is confusing. It is confusing. And that's why I wish that I would have done the I don't know why I didn't find any of the plant stuff. But anyway,

Amy: That's okay. That's okay. We've just covered it.

Whitney: So, the marine collagen, which is fish, and you really need And I'll get into this, but it needs to be wild-caught fish because there is a an issue with mercury. And in and in the bovine, a.k.a. cows, the issue is lead.

Amy: Yikes!

Whitney: So, you have to be careful and know where you're getting it. Yeah.

Amy: Lead? Ay-ay-ay.

Whitney: But I And probably plant is lead as well, cuz it's in the soil.

Amy: Ah.

Whitney: So, you've got to watch out for that. But anyway,

Amy: Well, maybe that's why this one is derived from algae, so maybe that's better.

Whitney: Maybe so. Yeah.

Amy: So

Whitney: Marine So the marine the marine biology. The marine collagen

Whitney: Yeah. is for skin and beauty. All right? So if you're doing the marine biologen it's smaller molecules,

Amy: bi- Biologen. Biologen.

Whitney: I know. What Collagen. 'Cause every time I say marine I want to say biology. Marine biology. Anyway, the marine collagen is for skin and beauty. It's type one and it's got smaller molecules, it's one and a half times better absorption and matches the human skin.

Amy: Oh! I have some downstairs. I have some. Yes.

Whitney: Okay, good. Well, I don't again, I'm sorry I didn't

Amy: I need to take it.

Whitney: My book report doesn't have the plant-based.

Amy: No, but I have marine.

Whitney: But the Verisol I do have the Verisol collagen at home that I was taking. Yes. Because Galveston Diet lady, Mary Dr. Mary

Amy: Galveston Diet lady?

Whitney: Yeah, I've talked to you about her before. Mary Haver. Anyway, she's she's blown up. She's very like famous now for menopause stuff, but she has a collagen that she recommends and it has the Verisol in it. And it's for skin and beauty too. The bovine has type one and type three collagen and it's found that collagen is found in blood vessels and muscles, so it's better for full body structure.

Amy: Do you take that, too?

Whitney: No, I just take the marine 'cause I was I didn't realize

Amy: That there's different types?

Whitney: I knew that there were different types, but I thought they all did the same thing.

Amy: Right, right, right. I mean different types like one and three or whatever you're talking about. Where's What's type two, though?

Whitney: Yeah, yeah. Well, I've I did just look that up a second ago. And type two Type two supports cartilage and joints for flexibility.

Amy: Ooh.

Whitney: I need that, too. So, yeah. Yeah, you want to get the your your splits back in.

Amy: I need it all!

Whitney: You want to get your splits back in.

Amy: I do need to get my But not with this butt-pulled muscle. It's not happening.

Whitney: You need to do the PEMF and the red light and boom. And sauna.

Amy: I am. It's only been a day. It's It's getting better already.

Whitney: You're fine. Yeah. All right, here's the dark side of collagen.

Amy: Ooh, the dark side!

Whitney: All right. They're not It's not regulated. Like the FDA isn't regulating this. Not that we

Amy: Oh, yeah.

Whitney: Not that we trust the FDA, necessarily, but there's no We have to remind everybody that this isn't pre-approved by the government. You have to do your own research.

Amy: But no official studies?

Whitney: But no No, there are studies, it's just not FDA approved.

Amy: Okay. Okay.

Whitney: Yeah. There's contamination risk. Like I said, the bovine collagen can hide lead lead. My goodness gracious! That's a mid moment in real time. That was such a mid moment. Marine biology. Marine biologen and lead. What the hell? That that wheatgrass did nothing for me! Not one damn thing! Oh, shit. All right. Anyway, bovine can hide lead from that's in the soil and the marine can have mercury or arsenic. So you have to look for certain things. You have to look for NSF,

Amy: Sheesh!

Whitney: USP, or Informed-Sport third-party testing. Now, this Amandean it does have the third-party testing, so it's in the clear.

Amy: Where does it say that? Let me see.

Whitney: It says it in there somewhere, but I also went on their website.

Amy: Cool.

Whitney: They do third-party testing. You don't want one that's dirt cheap, so even though I was like, this is too expensive,

Amy: GMP certified facility.

Whitney: Yes. It it it it matters. You want something that is

Amy: Rigorously tested by third-party labs for safety and purity. Cool. Okay.

Whitney: There you go. So because you you you want to make sure that they did not skip the heavy metal testing.

Amy: This has it take It has types one and three.

Whitney: Yeah. Oh, really?

Amy: Yep.

Whitney: Oh, yay me!

Amy: Yeah. It says types one and three collagen.

Whitney: So

Amy: Making up 90% of our body's collagen. Yep.

Whitney: Yeah. Are you wondering what happens once you drink the collagen?

Amy: Yeah.

Whitney: Good, because I'm going to tell you. It travels down your esophagus

Amy: Cool. Okay.

Whitney: into your stomach,

Amy: Take me on a journey.

Whitney: where it is broken into clusters, but the braid is left intact.

Amy: Ooh.

Whitney: And then it's transported into the blood, and then your liver decides if the protein is for survival or for skin. And I guess that's where the the one or two or three comes in. Then the delivery service peptides look for worksites while they're in the blood to decide where it needs to go.

Amy: Oh. Cool. Okay.

Whitney: And then the peptides also tell your body to flip on that switch for more collagen production.

Amy: Peptides?

Whitney: Well, this is You have to have I'm going to get into this, but it has to be a collagen peptide. So I'll tell you that in a second. Anyway, then it docks into its destination, whether it's your muscles or your skin or whatever. And the final step, you have to make sure that vitamin C is in there. The new collagen braid cannot lock if there's not vitamin C active in your body.

Amy: Dang.

Whitney: But that can be you ate an orange yesterday and yeah.

Amy: Really? Okay. Great.

Whitney: Yeah, I think so. But I am not a doctor or a scientist.

Amy: No, we are not.

Whitney: Anyway, and then it takes about 30 to 60 minutes to absorb. And then a few hours later the signal happens. The visible change is 4 to 12 weeks.

Amy: Oh, okay. Okay, cool.

Whitney: So your body doesn't rebuild overnight and

Amy: So you got to be consistent on this?

Whitney: You have to of course. It's a long game.

Amy: Consistency is really the name of that game. I mean it's just like

Whitney: It's the name of yeah,

Amy: It's the name of everything.

Whitney: of every game. Yeah.

Amy: Every game. It's called consistency.

Whitney: There's no magic pill, even though you thought it might be wheatgrass.

Amy: I did. Or algae, or

Whitney: It might be, but it has not helped with my mid moments so far. So yeah, that that's that's my

Amy: Is that everything?

Whitney: That's it. Pretty much.

Amy: Damn. Okay, that was fascinating. I need to eat more collagen.

Whitney: I really think that it's I do think that it's legit. I mean

Amy: Yeah. 'Cause I don't think it's in the algae that I'm using, so is collagen in

Whitney: Oh, I don't think so.

Amy: ENERGYbits? So, yeah, I ENERGYbits spirulina tablets. They are marketed as containing high amounts of collagen, often citing cited as having up to 430% more amino acids and collagen building nutrients than traditional collagen powder. And it is marketed as vegan. So that's

Whitney: Well, that's the I guess that's the plant version, like Verisol.

Amy: Yeah. Well, I mean, I guess it's not like the It's talking about it provides the amino acids needed to boost the body's own collagen production. So, which is glycine, proline, and lysine. So that's interesting. Spirulina is a complete protein, which aids in building collagen. So, I don't know.

Whitney: Well, it said right there that it has collagen in it. So you're good.

Amy: Yeah. Woo-hoo.

Whitney: Talking about collagen peptides, any collagen that you're going to get on the market is going to be the hydrolyzed. It's already broken down into the specific peptides that work as the messengers, so.

Amy: Okay. Wow. Well, Interesting. Okay, so I'm glad I'm at least getting something. I was worried about it.

Whitney: Well, it's just like that woman said that was on your show that takes algae. You said that's all she takes.

Amy: Yeah. That's all she takes.

Whitney: I wonder if wheatgrass has

Amy: Trippy.

Whitney: collagen?

Amy: Collagen? I didn't see anything about that.

Whitney: Yeah. Well.

Amy: Nope.

Whitney: All right. There you go, people. I'm a firm believer in it. I will not get off of it again. I do think, in hindsight, that it did impact my hair at the time, and I'm just hoping I'm not too late and can get it back.

Amy: I think you can get it back. I feel good about it.

Whitney: I was I was not in menopause at the time that I was taking it before.

Amy: Talk to your hair.

Whitney: I am talking to my hair. Yeah. Every time I wash it, I'm like, "You're beautiful.

Amy: "Hey, guys! You're beautiful!

Whitney: You're luxurious.

Amy: You're growing in. You're growing like weeds.

Whitney: You're full of collagen. You are

Amy: Growing like a weed. Yeah.

Whitney: gloriously red." Gloriously red. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Amy: "The color!"

Whitney: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Amy: "Your color!"

Whitney: Yeah. Get rid of those I need to tell the greys to go away.

Amy: There's there's a something for that. I've interviewed someone on that.

Whitney: I looked into it because Bryan Johnson talked about it on his with his protocol, and I bought it, and then I didn't use it.

Amy: What was it? Do you recall?

Whitney: It I can't remember what it was called, but I had to order it off of like a random place.

Amy: Yeah. I it's it's random. I I'm it's escaping me. You know what?

Whitney: Me, too.

Amy: I'm going to try to find it because we need to talk about that.

Whitney: But I didn't use it because it was just one more thing and it you have to put it in kind of like the minoxidil if you don't take it as a pill. Like you have to put it all in there and then And, also, I color my hair. And you don't want to put it on colored hair, you want to put it on

Amy: Oh, it was topical. Well, then what I'm talking about is actually a pill. It's like a Uh-huh.

Whitney: Yeah, it's topical. Oh, really?

Amy: Yeah, and I'm spacing out on it, but it was super fascinating and the woman who of course the woman who you know, talked about it was like, you know, vibrant as hell. And like had reversed some of her grey hair, and talked about all these studies that reversed grey hair, and all this. So,

Whitney: Mm.

Amy: yeah, I know. Autophagy, autophagy.

Whitney: I'm so over-pilled, though.

Amy: I know. That's the thing. I don't want another pill that treats this and another pill that treats this and another pill that treats this. That's precisely what we're trying to avoid.

Whitney: I know. And this is this is the truth. We can't we are aging. Period.

Amy: Yes, we are.

Whitney: We are. So pick and choose 'cause you are not going to be able I mean Bryan Johnson is trying to do it all, and he literally is probably the most boring guy in the world. Like he goes to bed at 8:00 p.m., but he talks about how hard his dick is all night long. Who cares? You're not going out and using it.

Amy: Yeah. Yeah.

Whitney: You know? Who cares if you don't have grey hair? You literally are just I mean he he has an umbrella on in his car. Like to keep sun off of him. Like it's extreme. So you got to balance out living with dying.

Amy: We should do a collaborative episode on him. Like

Whitney: Oh, yeah.

Amy: You know? There's There's too much

Whitney: Yeah, you've wanted to talk about him.

Amy: for just me to figure out. I feel like it's like so much.

Whitney: It's it's a lot. But I don't want I want the just the right amount. You know?

Amy: How to not grow old.

Whitney: I just want the right amount. So I have to pick and choose, but my hair is really important. But if I have great hair, but can't walk 'cause my joints are all jacked up. So I have to pick and choose. So I want to be strong. I want to be pretty. But if I have some greys, then I'll embrace the greys at some point,

Amy: Right, right.

Whitney: but not right now.

Amy: And I mean there's other ways around it, right? You can dye your hair. It's not that big of a deal.

Whitney: Yes, but that is becoming more and more difficult because I After you told me that you saw my greys, I went home and colored it, and it's already they're already back.

Amy: No, they're not.

Whitney: Yeah, they are.

Amy: No, it looks blonde.

Whitney: Oh. Well, that's what it is. It's blonde.

Amy: Yeah. It looks blonde. It doesn't doesn't look

Whitney: I may have to go blonde at some point.

Amy: Actually, you might

Whitney: right? That's what my mom I mean, my mom never has to worry because she Was she a redhead? No, no, no, no, she's always, well I don't know what color her she's always been blonde to me. Yeah. Like a dark blonde.

Amy: I may, too. Dirty blonde. I may have to also. I don't know.

Whitney: I don't know. Or just do strips of purple and green and

Amy: Maybe?

Whitney: Red and Rainbow.

Amy: That sounds like a Mardi Gras on your head.

Whitney: Wow. A party on your head.

Amy: Yeah. A party on your head.

Whitney: Anyway, yeah. I it it can be so overwhelming. So, You don't have to do the wheatgrass, and the collagen, and the mud water, and the the and the buh buh buh buh.

Amy: Because, yeah. I mean like, I feel, then you're on just fast-tracking to too much.

Whitney: Yeah. And then you're not having any fun at all. It's just like you on the bus. You've You had fun with your chips, and then you immediately shamed yourself.

Amy: I did.

Whitney: So you couldn't even enjoy the chips.

Amy: Yep. So.

Whitney: So.

Amy: Well, anyway.

Whitney: Any who.

Amy: Don't get overwhelmed, because ultimately, do what you want. Prioritize what you need, right? So, yeah. If there's something you have to say to us, we'd love to hear it. You can email us at anythingbutmidpodcast@gmail. You can also hit us up on any of the platforms. You can comment there on YouTube, and we will review it and hopefully get back to you in a timely fashion. Who knows? And you can

Whitney: We're very busy taking our supplements.

Amy: Yeah, you can find You can find us on the socials. This one is at @whitney_stropp. With two p's. And I'm at @realamyedwards, and those are also linked in the show notes. We're very easy to find, and contact. And we would love to hear from you and all your thoughts. Or don't, I don't know. You do what you want, because who knows, right? So.

Whitney: That's right.

Amy: All right. What else do we have?

Whitney: I think you covered it all. All right. We love you so much.

Amy: Enjoy your week, guys.

Whitney: Enjoy your week and

Amy: We do love you. Bye.

Whitney: Yeah.