04/02/2026
High quality nutrition for a healthy internal body and healthy skin.
Your body makes collagen constantly. But the version it assembles first isn't finished. Before collagen can hold its shape, an enzyme has to modify specific amino acids in the chain. That enzyme needs vitamin C to work.
Here's what vitamin C actually does: it enables the chemical modification (hydroxylation) that allows three collagen chains to lock together into a stable triple helix. Without that modification, the collagen structure is so weak it falls apart below body temperature. Literally. Unhydroxylated collagen melts at about 24°C. Your body runs at 37°C. The only thing keeping your collagen intact at body temperature is the modification that vitamin C makes possible.
This is why scurvy causes bleeding gums, loose teeth, poor wound healing, and joint pain. Your body is still making collagen. It just can't hold together.
Vitamin C isn't recycled in this process. It's consumed each time. Your supply has to be continuously replenished.
Most collagen supplement studies co-administer vitamin C. The ones that don't rarely account for baseline vitamin C status. If you're taking collagen without adequate C, you're supplying the raw material without the tool that finishes it.
Sources: Peterkofsky, Am J Clin Nutr, 1991. Shoulders & Raines, Annu Rev Biochem, 2009.
