Use hydrolyzed collagen peptides (Types I & III) to support the bone matrix.
The Flexible Foundation
I was taking all the right minerals for my bones, but I still felt… brittle. I was missing a key component. I learned that bones are not just hard minerals; they are a living, flexible protein matrix, and that matrix is made primarily of collagen. I started taking hydrolyzed collagen peptides. It was the missing piece. I felt like I was not just making my bones harder, but also more resilient and less likely to break. I was building the flexible foundation that the minerals needed to be strong.
Stop thinking of bones as just inert minerals. Do remember that the protein matrix, made of collagen, gives bones their flexibility.
The Living Tissue
We’re taught to think of our skeletons as being like the rock-hard, dead skeletons we see at Halloween. This is a lie. Our bones are living, dynamic, and flexible tissues. The minerals, like calcium, give them their hardness and compressive strength. But the protein matrix, which is 30% of the bone, gives them their tensile strength and flexibility—the ability to bend without breaking. To ignore the collagen is to see only half of what makes a bone healthy.
Stop just taking minerals for your bones. Do provide the protein “scaffolding” for those minerals to attach to.
The Scaffolding
I was swallowing all the right minerals—calcium, magnesium, boron. It felt like I was dumping a pile of high-quality bricks onto a construction site. But I wasn’t providing any scaffolding for those bricks to be built upon. I learned that collagen is the protein scaffolding of the bone. It’s the framework that the mineral crystals are meticulously laid upon. Without a strong and healthy scaffolding, the bricks just sit in a useless pile.
The #1 secret for bones that are both strong and flexible (and less likely to break) is a daily collagen supplement.
The Unbreakable Secret
I used to think that the key to unbreakable bones was just making them harder and harder. The secret I learned is that a healthy bone needs to be both hard and flexible, like a bamboo reed. It needs to be able to give a little under stress. The minerals provide the hardness, but the collagen provides the flexibility. A daily collagen supplement is the secret to building this “unbreakable” quality, ensuring that your bones are not just dense, but also resilient.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about bones is that they are like rocks. They are living, dynamic protein tissues.
The Rock Myth
Look at a picture of a skeleton, and you see a rock. This is the biggest lie. Your bones are not inert rocks. They are a bustling, living city of cells that are constantly breaking down and rebuilding a complex structure that is one-third protein. To treat your bone health as a simple mineral problem is to completely misunderstand the living, breathing, and protein-hungry nature of your own skeleton. You are not a statue; you are a dynamic, living organism.
I wish I knew that my brittle bones were not just a mineral issue, but a protein issue as well.
The Protein Problem
I was so focused on my calcium and Vitamin D, but my bone density scan was still not great. I was frustrated. I wish I had known that I was only solving half of the problem. My issue wasn’t just a lack of minerals; it was a lack of the protein framework that holds them all together. The knowledge that my “brittle” bones were also a sign of a “protein problem” would have been a complete paradigm shift in my approach to my own skeletal health.
I’m just going to say it: A bone health protocol without collagen is incomplete.
The Incomplete Protocol
You can have the most advanced and well-thought-out bone health protocol in the world. You can have your D3, your K2, your magnesium, your boron, your strontium. But if you do not also include a source of the primary protein that makes up the physical structure of the bone itself, your protocol is, by definition, incomplete. You are bringing all the decorations for the house, but you have forgotten the lumber to build the frame.
99% of people make this one mistake: focusing entirely on the “brick” (minerals) and ignoring the “mortar” (collagen).
The Brick and Mortar Mistake
It’s the most common and fundamental mistake in bone health. A person is worried about their bones, and they focus 100% of their attention on the “bricks”—the calcium and other minerals. They are completely ignoring the “mortar”—the collagen protein matrix that holds all the bricks together and gives the wall its strength and resilience. They are so obsessed with the hard parts that they have completely forgotten about the flexible, proteinaceous glue.
This one habit of adding a scoop of collagen to your morning routine will change the resilience of your bones forever.
The Daily Build
I wanted to build a stronger, more resilient skeleton. I started a simple, powerful habit. Every single morning, I add a large, unflavored scoop of hydrolyzed collagen peptides to my coffee. I can’t taste it, but I know that I am providing my body with the exact amino acid building blocks it needs to repair and maintain the protein matrix of my bones. This one, effortless habit is my daily investment in building a skeleton that is not just hard, but is also fundamentally unbreakable.
If you’re still only taking calcium for your bones, you’re losing the flexible strength that collagen provides.
The Brittle Mistake
When you focus only on packing more and more calcium into your bones, you are making them harder. But you are also potentially making them more brittle, like a piece of chalk. You are losing the other, equally important half of the strength equation: flexibility. By not also providing the collagen that creates the flexible protein matrix, you are building a bone that might be dense, but that can shatter under stress. You are losing the resilient, flexible strength that is the true mark of a healthy bone.