Nutrition Nutz, with Jim Wilk C.N.C.

The Significance of Hydrolyzed Collagen with Jim Caras, Health Direct

• Jim Wilk C.N.C. • Season 5 • Episode 9

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Unlock the secrets to a healthier, happier life with our special guest, Jim Caras, a health and nutrition industry veteran. Discover his compelling journey from personal struggles with weight to developing a groundbreaking weight loss program and founding Health Direct. Jim shares invaluable insights on medical-grade collagen peptides, revealing how this powerful supplement played a critical role in his transformation and can potentially reshape your health and wellness approach.

Curious about why hydrolyzed collagen is superior to raw collagen? Jim breaks it down, explaining the essential differences between medical-grade and commercial collagen products. We discuss the best timing for taking collagen supplements—hint: bedtime is key—and explore how this practice supports muscle tissue repair, metabolism, and overall health. You'll also learn about an intriguing Italian study showing how olive oil consumption can significantly lower risks of heart disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality.

Get ready to boost your brain health with an introduction to AminoMind, a revolutionary nootropic collagen product designed to support cognitive function. Jim elaborates on how AminoMind's unique composition can enhance brain structure, improve cognitive abilities, and support overall mental health. We also discuss the synergistic benefits of combining AminoMind with other collagen types for optimal results in hair, skin, nails, and joint health. Tune in for a wealth of knowledge that promises to enhance your wellness journey from head to toe!

Use coupon code "NUTZ" (in your cart) for 15% off your entire order of featured products on our sponsor's website: HollyHillVitamins.com.

Jim Wilk:

Welcome to Nutrition Nut, where we discuss the latest nutrition breakthroughs, supplements and wellness choices with leaders in the natural products industry, health practitioners and research scientists. I'm your host, Jim Wilkes, certified Nutritionist. Thanks to our main sponsor, hollyhillvitaminscom, the place for great selection, service and prices. Check out their extensive wellness library for updated science-based info. Okay, thanks again for joining me today on Nutrition Nuts. I'm happy to be here. I hope you guys are happy to be here. We're going to learn about some good stuff today.

Jim Wilk:

Jim Caras Karra he has consulted in the health and nutrition industry for over 25 years. His best-selling weight loss book, ow to Completely Reshape your Body, is on its sixth publication and his articles on anti-aging, weight loss, pain relief and achieving optimal health have been published in numerous health magazines. He is the founder and CEO of Health Direct, which is a nutrition company whose, as they like to say, innovative anti-aging solutions have benefited over a million users worldwide. And Jim has an interesting story and we'll get into that a little bit. For years he struggled with his weight, a lot of disappointment in the stuff that was available back then. So, like many great people, he created his own program and it had a specific regime of diet and exercise and taking supplements and things, and after only 67 days Jim lost over 20 pounds, four inches from his waist, another nine inches from the rest of his body and completely reshaped his physique. You know all without any kind of stimulating weight loss pills or drugs or surgery or things like that. So, being Jim, he felt like helping other people and started talking to friends and family and helping them to lose weight as well. But he had a little hard time finding good stuff, so he started that company which is Health Direct. A hard time finding good stuff, so he started that company which is Health Direct. And in the book how to Completely Reshape your Body, he recommended certain nutrients and one of them was collagen peptides.

Jim Wilk:

And we've talked about collagen on a few other shows. This is a kind of unique one out there, so I want you guys to listen. He is one of the foremost authorities on collagen. He was the first to introduce medical-grade collagen peptides to the public over 25 years ago. So you know somebody who's written some of the first articles in collagen on weight loss, anti-aging things to use. So I think it's going to be an interesting show. So hang in there.

Jim Wilk:

We'll talk with him in just a few minutes, but I found a good little study. That's what I do, folks. I look at studies and about olive oil and I'm a big fan of olive oil and never had it growing up. I just didn't. My family just wasn't into that. I guess Mediterranean type of diet, European type of foods and things. So we didn't have olive oil too much. I just don't remember even consuming it. But in the past few years, a number of years now, I've been using olive oil. That's all I use when I have a salad, which is usually every day, I have something with some vegetables. I've been using olive oil.

Jim Wilk:

And so when I saw this study it piqued my interest a little bit. And this is a prospective cohort study in Italy. And what they found? I'll tell you what was studied. It was the association between olive oil consumption and the risk of various causes of death. And the causes of death they were talking about was all-cause mortality cancer mortality and CVD, which is cardiovascular disease mortality, and even some other non-cancer, non-cvd mortality. So WHOA study was over 22,000 people, 52% were women, 47% were men from southern Italy I guess they know olive oil right and they also conducted a prospective cohort study with a medium follow-up period of 13 years.

Jim Wilk:

That's pretty good. And they used a food frequency questionnaire. They asked their reported daily use of olive oil and things like that, and they had five categories which are interesting. Some were I won't go into each one, but the first one was lower than 15 grams 15 grams or less, which 15 grams is about a tablespoon 14, 15 grams it depends on the country. Really there's different tablespoons out there and it goes up to 25 to 30 grams, which is 30 grams Again, it's two tablespoons or even over 30 grams. The associations between the olive oil intake and mortality outcomes during follow-up were adjusted for potential confounders, which things like differences in age and sex and calorie intake, even education, what else they say physical activity, diet, but mostly specifically adherence to a Mediterranean dietary plan which excluded olive oil. So this is a study that they did. They found that participants with the highest intake of olive oil, that's two tablespoons per day or more, had a 20% lower risk of all-cause mortality, which is pretty cool, 23% lower risk of cancer mortality and a 25% lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, compared to the participants with the lowest intake of olive oil, which is less than a tablespoon a day. So everybody had olive oil. It's just crazy. So when they looked at the big picture and everything, people who were eating more olive oil were less likely to die during the follow-up, and they were saying that this is not the first study with such a conclusion.

Jim Wilk:

A few other studies show the exact same things and won't go into that right now. They were saying that olive oil can improve the blood lipid levels. This is because, mostly for the monounsaturated fats that are in there, as compared to saturated fatty acids or polyunsaturated fatty acids. They also said it might benefit blood pressure. They found that consuming olive oil can improve blood pressure control compared to various other fats and oils, and they think it might be a lot of. It has to do with the phenols in there. Those are those wonderful little things that help protect you. There. Increase that nitric oxide level, so that opens up things, right. People know about nitric oxide. Everybody's using the beets these days, and so it opens up everything which can reduce the blood pressure, right. That vasodilation that can reduce blood pressure, so I'm a big fan of that. They also found that it can also improve insulin sensitivity, so I think it's a good idea to do.

Jim Wilk:

To add that I mean that's the only thing I really just put on my salad is allopurin and I'll tell you I really enjoy the Life Extension one. They got a really good review last year in Consumer Labs, which is a nice group of people that have been around for a few decades that keep an eye on our industry. They go in, they buy things off the shelf and they test them. They don't take any advertising, things like that and they found that the Life Extension one had a pretty high amount of phenols in there. It is a little strong, but I like that way.

Jim Wilk:

Some people I've asked to try it. I found it a little too strong for them, but I enjoy that. It gets that little cough in the back of your throat kind of thing. It's a little bit powerful, but that's what I like on my salad. Hey, I'm not putting anything else on there, right? So it's important to me, all right, and with that and a tablespoon of olive oil, here's Jim Karras and, as promised, we have Jim Karras, founder and CEO of Health Direct. Thank you for joining us today, jim. Appreciate it.

Jim Caras:

Thanks for having me on, Jim. I appreciate being on the show.

Jim Wilk:

And where are you calling from, Jim? What area are you?

Jim Caras:

calling from. I'm calling from Irvine California.

Jim Wilk:

Okay, so you're not up too early here. This is good, and I know I was telling people in the intro that you've been doing this for a while and I was just so happy to get an expert on collagen in here. We're also going to be folks talking about their newer product, the AminoMind, in just a bit, so definitely stay tuned for that, because we're getting some great results with people on that particular product. But on collagen, well, first of all, your history, jim. I was reading with fascination and telling people that many years ago you decided to take the horse by the reins there and say, listen, I'm not doing too good here, let me see what I can do for myself. So give me a little background there.

Jim Caras:

Sure, because the story is interesting. Thanks for asking. The story is interesting because it actually started with collagen. So, although most people out there are familiar with collagen and all the powders that really got started about five, seven years ago, this story goes back 25 years, right before I first introduced collagen to the market. So I found myself.

Jim Caras:

I was in my mid-30s at the time. I was at an age where you should be healthy. I had extra weight on me, I had low energy, I had pain in the back, my back and joints and stuff, and a lot of people were telling me well, no, hey, you're 30 now, that's just life, you're aging, that's just your metabolism slows down. And a lot of people were telling me well, no, you, hey, you're 30 now. That's just life, you're aging, you know, that's just your metabolism slows down. And thank goodness I was stubborn because I was like no, I'm like no, this is not how it's supposed to be, so there's no, I had no business. I had nothing at the time other than I was a guy that wanted to improve my health and I always would take, you know, vitamins, minerals. I was a guy that wanted to improve my health and I always would take vitamins, minerals. I was always looking for the natural edge to do it.

Jim Caras:

So one day I sat, I was invited to and sat in the seminar and I heard this man speaking about collagen and he happened to be the patent holder and original inventor, creator of hydrolyzed collagen. So anyone that uses any collagen product. It basically it started with this man back in the seventies, so this is the nineties. He sold it. He sold collagen to the medical community I hear him talking about it and this wasn't available to the public and it just click with me and I said this is something that can help me. So I took his collagen, I took a cleansing supplement, which I actually sell now that I created, and I basically no stimulants, nothing weird, nothing harmful to the body, and I ate a lot of food, but I cleaned up what I ate to correct my body. So I'd done a lot of failing in the past of trying to diet, exercising a lot, everything. I'd lose a couple pounds and then I'd gain it all back. So I put this program together with the collagen and bam, in 67 days I lost close to 30 pounds. I lost close to five inches in my way, or over five inches in my waist completely transformed my body. Energy levels were back above where they were when I was, you know, like when I was younger. Most of the pain dissipated and I had a whole different life and body. And where it all took off from there was that was just me improving my health, and my friends and family noticed the difference.

Jim Caras:

I went to a wedding and I always joke about I'm Greek and I went to a Greek wedding, which is like a lot of people If you've ever been to a Greek wedding all my friends. I put on my suit and wasn't thinking about it and my suit was really baggy. My family was like what did you do? You lost all this weight. I go. You know, I took this collagen thing and I put this together, a little diet together for myself, and they go, we want to do it. Everyone started doing it. I got on the product. They started losing weight. Their friends started calling me. That's what started the whole thing. I approached the patent holder. He gave me the rights to the original medical grade collagen, which we still have today, and that's how everything started.

Jim Wilk:

Wow. Yeah, you know it's so familiar to pioneers like yourself in this industry. You know they go through a personal experience like that and they, you know. Obviously you want to make money, you want to get into business, but you also have a passion behind it and it's just so nice to hear stories like that. So you started Health Direct and you mentioned the word medical and people get a little weird about that. So what is it about medical? That does it? And I also like you to differentiate. Some of these buzzwords are hydrolyzed and peptides. People don't know the difference with those things. So let's discuss a little bit. What is collagen and why should you look for certain things?

Jim Caras:

Okay, great, let's talk about collagen in general and maybe why people should take it. When I use the term medical grade, I'll define that a little better. Because people should want medical grade, which is completely natural, by the way.

Jim Caras:

It's a certain quality standard of the product and then we'll talk about hydrolyzed, because people need to know how to buy collagen and what they're getting. So you know, I always like to tell people when they say you know what is collagen. You know, back when I started, no one heard the word collagen 25 years ago. They said what is collagen? So I defined it pretty well. The people did my research and basically collagen is very simple.

Jim Caras:

Your body I always tell people your body. If I were to break down your body, your body is a blob of three things water, fat and protein, otherwise called lean body mass. If I were to break it down to three basic elements, just make it simple Of that, protein, 30% of your body's protein, which is most of the structural protein, is actually collagen. Collagen it's the most important structural component for your body. It actually holds your body together. Without collagen, your body would be that blob or blop on the ground. So it gives you your shape, your form, your function, everything. 90% of your hair, skin and nails are collagen. Most of your brain mass is collagen. 90% of your lungs is collagen. A lot of your tendons, lig, skin and nails are collagen. Most of your brain mass is collagen. 90% of your lungs is collagen. A lot of your tendons, ligaments and joints are collagen. Collagen is actually the glue. It surrounds every organ and muscle. It's the glue that holds your body together.

Jim Caras:

So as we age, we lose about 1% a year, and this is why it's important for people to supplement with collagen. You lose 1% a year and this is why it's important for people to supplement with collagen. You lose 1% a year. Basically, by the time you're in your 40s, you've lost about 20%, 50s, 30%. You have collagen deficiency. So with that, what people notice with it is they think they're aging, like I was. But basically, your skin starts sagging, hair starts thinning, your nails are brittle, joints stiffen and hurt. Your body loses muscle tone. These people think, like I did when I was 30, oh, I'm getting old. No, it's a loss of collagen, experiencing any of those, like I was by supplementing with collagen and, of course, getting some exercise, watching your diet. But collagen can really change a lot of those and make you look and feel younger. So that's where I like to start and tell people that's the basics of collagen and why it's so important.

Jim Wilk:

If it's such a crucial to our health, and how did people before our ancestors get it and things like that? How has that evolved?

Jim Caras:

Our ancestors would get it. It's interesting because back when we go years back, people would eat the whole. You know when they would eat chicken beef, you know animal type products. They would eat the whole animal. They just didn't eat the chicken breast skinless, they just didn't eat. You know, they would take away a lot of the bone fragments and things like that. So they would eat as much as they could. They'd simmer them, they'd make stews, et cetera.

Jim Caras:

Collagen so this is a good point to define too Collagen does not come from any plant sources. There's no such thing as a plant collagen. So I like to clear that up with people. You need to get it from a from like fish, chicken, bovine, cow, pork type source. Okay, so that's the only place you can actually get collagen. So people would eat these. They wouldn't get the full benefits like we get today, but they would get some of those benefits.

Jim Caras:

Collagen and this is where we get into hydrolyzed now Collagen unlike other protein sources, it's very the collagen you're here's the factoid of the day. Your collagen is like a strand of steel in your body. This is why your skin just doesn't rip open. It's that tough, so trying to digest it is just as tough, your body can't do a good job of it, so you really can't eat those things and get a lot of benefit from it. That's why I like to tell people with you know, bone broth was a hot thing a few years ago. Bone broth is basically leaching the collagen out of bones and things like that, which is raw collagen, and so I'll get to hydrolyzation in a second.

Jim Caras:

But it's not the best absorbed collagen. Actually, you don't absorb much at all. So because it's strong, what the patent holder who introduced me to it developed back in the 70s, which started the whole collagen in the medical field that eventually came to the public is he was able to take natural enzymes, like your stomach does, and hydrolyze the collagen. So hydrolyze is a process of breaking collagen strand, the protein strand, down to amino acids that your body can absorb and then even further to peptide groups. That's why you hear collagen peptides that your body can fully utilize. If you don't have collagen like that, you're not absorbing and digesting it. So that's why raw collagen and some of these things that are fads and things out there, they really don't work well. All the research is based on peptide-type products, so that's why hydrolyzed collagen peptides are crucial to you getting results.

Jim Wilk:

Interesting, yeah, so when you and you mentioned the medical grade, so tell me the difference between what some companies are doing and what you're doing with your collagen.

Jim Caras:

Okay. So the big difference is when we talk about medical grade, I talk about a standard of quality and how a product is produced. So not necessarily it's not a medicine type when I use the word medical, but it's something, because our collagen was originally only produced for the medical field. It was given the original patents on it were for medically supervised weight loss, which is really interesting. Now we should talk about the GLP-1 problems people are having with the medicines, because this collagen is actually a perfect fix for some of the deficiencies people are having there. So remind me to get to that a little later. So it was originally developed for burn centers, for healing skin, for post-surgical recovery, for diabetic, for help healing diabetic wounds, and it was used. Currently. It's still used in hospitals for wound healing, for pressure ulcers, which are bed sores that people get in nursing homes. It actually heals, not topically, taken internally, it will heal those. It's used in dialysis clinics where the purpose with dialysis is people strip a lot of the protein out of their blood. They become a sort of a protein deficient. It increases rapidly the whole body collagen levels and it's used in hospitals for muscle wasting diseases. There's studies with muscle wasting diseases like cancer and different things like that, where people lose a lot of muscle tissue and they lose it rapidly and it helps to preserve and build that muscle tissue. So the standard of care of our collagen has always been used in those hospitals. Over 100 million doses of this collagen have been used in hospitals and to be used in a hospital and to go through these type of medical studies, which I can tell you a little more about, it has to have a quality level.

Jim Caras:

Now we hydrolyze our own collagen because we started the whole thing. The patent holder created it. We still use that same process but it's been refined over the years and improved, but that same original process. So we hydrolyze and make our own collagen. So when someone gets, they are getting a product that has been hydrolyzed and done under a medical grade process, the same that still goes to the hospitals. It's not a commercial brand.

Jim Caras:

When you buy powders and a lot of the other collagens out there, those companies they don't hydrolyze. There's only a few companies, a few manufacturers main manufacturers that make collagen peptides, that are sold for the powders. So all the powder companies are basically buying from these sources. These manufacturers are hydrolyzing them themselves. They're not made for hospitals, they're made for public consumption. So basically, a lot of the powders you're getting are different label wrapped around it from a similar place. They're not the type that's sold to hospitals.

Jim Caras:

This is the only collagen that has three proven medical studies on it that are substantial. They're not regular clinical studies, they're actual medical studies funded by the National Institute of Health, the National Diabetic Association. So this collagen is used and trusted by doctors for over 40 years. That's why we call it medical grade compared to any other collagen that's available out there. Also, jim, let me throw one more thing.

Jim Caras:

Because we hydrolyze it, you can buy a collagen peptide but it doesn't mean you're getting the same thing as another collagen peptide. Some of these peptides are broken down and hydrolyzed but they're not broken down far enough to be absorbed properly in the body. So people don't get the full result that they're after Ours because we hydrolyze it ourselves. We're breaking it down to what we've always done for 40 years that have worked for hospitals. So when you buy our product you know you've gotten a product that we've overseen, that's been broken down to a hospital standard that's going to absorb completely in your body. People with powders, like I said, they're not doing it themselves. They're buying it from a source and they can get a variation of how well that's hydrolyzed over time.

Jim Wilk:

Well, you also see, jim, that people get confused when they see the types of collagens the one and the two and the three and things. How is your product, aminosculpt, different from that?

Jim Caras:

Okay. So the difference is I sort of you'll have to excuse my term here, so I sort of call that sort of collagen marketing malarkey a lot of times. There's, most of your 90% of your body is and it's a good question you're asking because I like to clear this up for consumers Right, 90% of your body. There's 28 types of collagen in your body. 90% of your collagen is type 1 collagen, so it's the most significant one. Now we sell type 1 collagen.

Jim Caras:

It's been the primary and main one, or only one used in 99% of the clinical studies. It's the only one used in 99% of the medical clinical studies. It's the only one used in the medical studies. So type two collagen is good and it's different, by the way, and that's good to supplement with, but that usually comes in a pill form and it comes. Type two collagen is a mixture of collagen, hyaluronic acid and chondroitin, so that has a little different effect and you need those other two ingredients for type two to work and that's why there's some great type 2 products out there, but they're completely separate than we're talking about today you mean more for joints, health and things right.

Jim Caras:

Yeah, yeah, it's going to be more for joint health than anything, and they do a great job.

Jim Caras:

But, once again, it has hyaluronic acid with it and the chondroitin, along with a small amount of type 2. So there's not enough type 2 collagen to give you any other benefits other than that. Now, going back to the types 28 types of collagen. Type 1 is 90% of your body. Here's how collagen works as a supplement in your body, and then you'll understand why the type doesn't matter as much. But type 1 is important. When you take collagen, it's doing two things to work in your body to create these results. The most primary one is it has to be in a peptide form. When these peptides are absorbed and hit your bloodstream, they signal your body to produce more collagen, which is critical. So you're getting that effect of the signaling to produce more collagen, or the stimulating effect. Number two is and I should talk a little about why collagen is different than other proteins in a minute. So if you want to ask me that, question.

Jim Wilk:

Sure people get confused, but we're adding?

Jim Caras:

yeah, we're adding collagen amino acids. So the second form of why collagen works is we're adding the specific amino acids that are in collagen, that don't occur in other proteins, to your body for you to get those type of results. That's how it works. So back to the stimulatory effect. When your body gets signaled to stimulate collagen, it doesn't say, oh, I'm only going to make type 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 10.

Jim Caras:

If it did, everyone would have a lot of problems because they're not taking a collagen with 28 different types of collagen in it. They're taking one with 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 types. What your body does is your body stimulates and grows all 28 types of collagen in it. They're taking one with one, two, three, four or five types. What your body does is your body stimulates and grows all 28 types of collagen if it's stimulated properly. So with our product we're building 28 types of collagen in the body. It's a whole body collagen. We don't need to add a, two, a three, a five, an eight and 10, because it really doesn't do much and it's not what's building your body. So you want you really only need type one collagen and you need a really good one that's hydrolyzed in the peptides so it stimulates the growth of all the collagen in your body.

Jim Wilk:

Yeah Well, I know that your company recommends and let's talk a little bit about this the timing is very important, just like everything else in life, right? So what is the best time to take collagen? And you guys, one of your flyers says the bedtime is the best time to take collagen, and personally, I've always felt like I like to go to sleep with an empty stomach. I think it's important to not be digesting something it's late at night. I like my body to repair while I'm sleeping. I work out a lot and stuff like that. So when I saw that the bedtime was the best time to take it, it really piqued my interest when I first got involved with your company. So let's explain to the folks out there why bedtime is the best time.

Jim Caras:

Okay, and Jim, you're referring to an article I wrote that we'll make available to you for all your listeners so they can go to your website and read in detail about it. But 25 years ago I came up with the concept of using collagen at bedtime. I did it because I was trying to optimize weight loss. What I noticed 25 years ago and it made sense based on, like I said, there was no research that said take it at bedtime. There still really isn't any research that takes it at bedtime. So what I'm going to tell you is this is 25 years of experience of me selling over a million bottles of collagen and dealing with hundreds of thousands of customers and being able to monitor the results or see results and have that as a based on results information.

Jim Wilk:

I'm going to give you.

Jim Caras:

So if you think about how the body works, like you just described, collagen is ideal at bedtime. So what happens at bedtime is, like you said, your body repairs itself. It's building cells, it rebuilds the muscle tissue, it rebuilds your collagen, it's releasing protein and hormones. It's a critical time and that's why you need a good night's sleep and you need to be in the right state Eating food, taking protein powders, et cetera. Although you would want that protein at bedtime, the problem with it is you have to digest it and when you digest, your digestion takes a lot of energy and it will keep you awake and interrupt your sleep pattern. So you're absolutely right you don't want to eat, take protein powder, stuff like that at bedtime because they interrupt your sleep pattern. So you're sort of you need those nutrients but you're sort of hurting yourself at the same time. Now what happens at bedtime and I'm getting to the collagen and why collagen would be different taking it at bedtime than other things, and why it's so important is let's go back to what happens at bedtime. So for your body to repair itself, it needs protein. It's breaking down its own muscle tissue into amino acids to use to rebuild your body. Now this works great when you're young, because you're in a catabolic phase, which is your tissues breaking down as you sleep to rebuild itself, and then during the daytime you go in this anabolic phase where your body rebuilds itself. Well, as we get older, that process doesn't work that well. You keep breaking down but you don't build up as much, and that's why you have less muscle on your body. You don't recover as well. It's just one other layer on top of, like the benefits of collagen that you lose as you get older. So it's a key element of aging when you're breaking down and not recovering well. So when we're able to use collagen at bedtime and here's why it's ideal, because it's hydrolyzed in peptides, you don't digest it. It's hydrolyzation. Because it's hydrolyzed in peptides, you don't digest it. Hydrolyzation, if it's done properly, is also pre-digested, meaning your body doesn't need to break it down.

Jim Caras:

When you take our collagen, it's in your bloodstream in a matter of minutes. There's no digestion needed. You're not starting that digestion process which interrupts you at sleep or causes strain on your body. Your body just absorbs and takes in these amino acids. So when you do this at bedtime, your body doesn't break down your muscle tissue like it normally would. It's using these amino acids from the collagen to build itself. So what happened? The reason I did it with weight loss. These are the benefits you get when you take collagen at bedtime. The reason it's beautiful, for if someone's overweight Now, if someone's underweight, by the way they're not going to lose, they're not going to get thinner, they're just going to build a stronger body.

Jim Caras:

But, if anyone has excess body fat and you take collagen at bedtime and watch what you eat and do the other things you should do, the collagen is actually building your muscle tissue. So what happens is muscle is one of the things that helps to regulate your metabolism. More muscle on your body, like when you're younger, more lean body mass, means you have a higher metabolism, which will burn more fat. So when I give all my clients and I wrote a book on collagen and weight loss, that's 25 years ago when you take the collagen at bedtime, you build the lean body mass, your metabolism increases, you start burning more fat, not only at nighttime but the next day as well.

Jim Caras:

What happens is I tell my clients don't look at the scale, because what happens is is you're gaining muscle mass and losing fat. The scale doesn't show it. Sometimes it'll show it gains a little, but then it's like compounding interest. The more that metabolism increases over time, the longer you take the collagen. You know, two weeks, four weeks, six weeks your metabolism keeps going higher and then those pounds the scale weight really starts changing. So that's a benefit you miss if you take collagen during the daytime, because you just don't get that benefit at bedtime Also oh, go ahead.

Jim Wilk:

No, I was just going to ask this. Will it improve your sleep as well, if you've seen people get a better night's sleep?

Jim Caras:

Oh, absolutely. That's the other benefit that people miss when they don't take collagen at bedtime. So 25 years ago, when I told people take it at bedtime for weight loss and for it also, by the way, makes the skin joint benefits, everything else happen better and quicker because you're addressing that collagen breakdown at bedtime. But let's go to sleep. So my clients started calling me and saying Jim, I don't know what's up, but I'm sleeping better. I go to sleep better at night, I wake up more refreshed. And there was zero information on collagen and sleep at the time. So I knew it had something to do with the amino acids and so I knew it had something to do with the amino acids. And then later on, some research developed because, once again, 25 years ago there wasn't a lot of this type of research out there.

Jim Caras:

Later on, some research came out that glycine now collagen is very rich in glycine. It actually contains almost 500% more glycine than whey protein in any other food out there. That's one of the reasons why it works differently in the body. Is that glycine. When you take about three grams of glycine at bedtime, the study said that you the study has proven that you sleep deeper, you sleep better, you wake up more refreshed. The glycine affects your core body temperature while you're sleeping, helps to regulate it, and that's why you get these wonderful effects of a better night's sleep. But when you take our collagen in this one little ounce serving, you're getting over 3,000 milligrams of glycine naturally, so you're getting that sleep benefit. You take it during the daytime, you miss it completely.

Jim Wilk:

Though it's still good during the daytime. I want to get that.

Jim Caras:

Yeah, yeah, oh yeah yeah, Absolutely. Now I'm not saying don't take it during the daytime there, absolutely. No, no, I'm not saying don't take it during the daytime. There's a lot of different uses to take it during the daytime. People may want to supplement with it as a little extra protein in their diet, or if they just can't take it at bedtime, take it, take it a bit, take it during the day, put it with you know, if you want to put it with your food in between meals, however else you want to take it, it's wonderful.

Jim Caras:

You shouldn't not take collagen, so I'm not saying don't take it during the day. There's other benefits, like if someone exercises, it's wonderful to take immediately after exercise as well. It'll really ramp up the recovery. There's other research that says if you take it before you exercise, you lessen the chance of injury. And then I always say the second most important time to take collagen, if you're going to take an extra dose, is first thing when you wake up in the morning, because you're turning that catabolic clock off and you're going anabolic immediately. And this is a detriment to people, that when they don't have a breakfast with protein and they wait too long, their body stays catabolic. So if someone doesn't like eating in the morning, this is the next best time to take it.

Jim Wilk:

Can you take too much Jim?

Jim Caras:

No, not I mean like anything, you can always take too much. But really, when we're talking about how much people are taking now, because we have a study that was done on cancer patients with our collagen, that was for lean body mass- for helping to regulate it.

Jim Caras:

Those patients, that's a very medically sensitive group, so I'm using that as an example. Here is those people were taking 90 grams of our collagen per day in the study to rapidly affect and change their lean body mass. The average person is going to take to get a result of collagen. You really don't need much. They're going to take, you know, between 10 and 18 grams would be the therapeutic dose of our collagen. They can take more if they want some extra during the day. So people taking 20, 30, 40 grams. It's a protein, so it's not going to cause much. And if you take the right collagen because it's pre-digested, it's not putting the strain on your kidneys.

Jim Wilk:

Well, folks remember, you can always go to hollyhillvitaminscom, our sponsor, where you can order this. They have three delicious flavors to check out and we're going to give 15% off Mention nuts and UTZ and we'll pass on the discount. It is delicious, by the way, it's just a nice little treat at night to take there. You can also go to healthdirectusacom for more information as well. But let's switch gears, jim, because I'm really excited about this new product, bdnf. We're going to have to explain that to people. It's something that I've been hearing for the last couple of years and the word nootropic also is getting into the language. And you have a new product called Aminomine, nootropic Collagen, and let's go with that. Explain what BDNF is and what nootropic means as well.

Jim Caras:

Okay, I'll do that. So the reason this is a really fun topic to talk about is this is the world's first collagen that affects brain health.

Jim Caras:

So when we talk about nootropics, we're talking about natural elements that affect and improve brain performance BDNF.

Jim Caras:

Now. What AminMind and this new type of collagen does it's different than the collagen we were just talking about and we'll get more into that in a minute is we're talking about one of the first collagen product ever that increases BDNF. What BDNF is and the reason that anyone that's interested in improving their brain health and preserving their brain health meaning their memory, their mental energy, their reaction times, getting rid of brain fog, all these type of things is that what BDNF is. It's brain-derived neurotrophic factor. It's a protein or a growth factor that occurs in your brain as well as in the rest of your body. It's a protein or a growth factor that occurs in your brain and as well as in the rest of your body. It is the primary or the most important protein that affects memory and learning. So if you don't know the word BDNF you haven't heard it brain-derived neurotrophic factor be aware of it, start looking for it. It's the most important thing that you'll do to improve your brain health and in this particular product, what are some of the main ingredients that support this? So what we have in this product is that we've been able to isolate a few different ingredients that actually build and support BDNF, or brain-derived neurotrophic factor, in the body. We have a unique type of coffee fruit extract, which is a natural standardized antioxidant that has been shown not only to provide antioxidant abilities but is also shown to rapidly and consistently improve BDNF levels in the body. And we can talk about BDNF in a minute. Some more about what it does throughout the whole body and the brain. It does that.

Jim Caras:

We have a unique type of collagen that's a dipeptide collagen, once again different than normal collagens. We're able to take the collagen molecule we talked about. I was mentioning earlier about what makes it different, or we didn't talk about it, but real quickly, what makes collagen different from other proteins is it has five specific amino acids lysine, arginine, proline, hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine. These amino acids have a higher ratio than all other proteins. Actually, if you compare it to whey protein, which is like a popular protein for protein supplementation, it has two to one more of those Plant-based proteins, two to one more of those. So when you take collagen, you're getting these, and these amino acids are what build and repair your body. That's why you get the effects from collagen that you don't from other bodies.

Jim Caras:

So back to AminoMind. What we're able to do is we're able to take the collagen molecule and isolate certain amino acids, which we call a pro-hip and a hip-gli, which are the proline, hydroxyproline and hydroxyproline and glycine dipeptides as they occur within the collagen. We're able to isolate them, concentrate them so you get a high ratio of those. So, for instance, when you take one tablespoon of these dipeptides which are in amino mind, it's equivalent to taking 64 tablespoons of regular powdered collagen to get those amino acid ratios and amounts and you still won't get the same effect.

Jim Caras:

So this specific collagen dipeptide within our product helps to build and support BDNF and helps to build and support the brain structure. It helps to build and support the brain structure. Your brain structure actually shrinks or declines as you age, like all your other organs and muscles in your body, and this collagen helps to support that. It's the only one out there like it. We also have a couple of amino acids that are support. We have acitraline and tryptophan in the product, within normal and good levels, that help to build and support brain function and support these two other ingredients. So it's a great formula. It's a completely safe formula, it's revolutionary and it provides some pretty quick results too.

Jim Wilk:

So I can see even more applications for this outside of the brain, right.

Jim Caras:

Yeah, the brain is the. You know, when you hear BDNF, you think you just think of the brain, but it also.

Jim Caras:

BDNF in the body also helps to regulate inflammation, your circulation of blood flow. It helps to regulate your glucose or energy metabolism. It's very neuroprotective. It's protective of the body. Bdnf outside of your brain. It also occurs in your skin, your lungs, your gut, your liver, your heart. You actually have higher levels of BDNF in your bladder, lungs and gut area, which is very fascinating. So there's a lot of other results or functions that, by improving your BDNF levels which everyone really needs to do that you end up receiving when you take this product that you get from that you end up receiving when you take this product.

Jim Wilk:

Yeah, jim, have you found? And what I've noticed over the last couple of years is such a interest in anything that help with memory, help with slowing down the loss of age-related memory and things like that, and obviously dementia and Alzheimer's and all those things are involved in that. I don't know if you've seen this as well. I don't know if people are more aware of it, or is there something really happening to us that we can't think it like we used to?

Jim Caras:

Yeah, I think the people. It's happened all along, I think just because of the way diets have changed. You know there's more chemicals. There's more chemicals in foods nowadays. You know we talked about chemicals being in foods years ago but it hasn't stopped and it's only increased. You know you have more prevalence of toxins in the air and out there. So I just think that all these things, as well as people still consuming a lot of sugar and things that they know that they shouldn't they all take its toll.

Jim Caras:

Then, when you throw, I think what really catapulted it to the surface, even for younger people, is when COVID hit, a lot of people had some remnant effects, or what they called COVID brain, which a lot of people still do or get it when they get COVID, or maybe they didn't even notice it when they got it before. Menopause has become such an important topic and it was overlooked for years. For women, it's become more on the forefront now, which is wonderful. So a lot of women get brain fog or have brain interruptions from menopause because of the hormone and cortisol changes in the body. So I think, just with all this combined and then you've got one out of. I think it's like 10,000 people a day of the baby boomers turn 70 every six seconds. I think it is so you know. One person turns 69 every eight seconds. That's 10,000 people a day.

Jim Caras:

So you just have this mass amount of people that are now saying, oh my God, I got to hold on to my memory. If I can just throw one little factoid in that, the most interesting thing I've. People were asked in the survey what are you more afraid of death or dementia? People over 65, the number one form was dementia. Wasn't even death Under 65, younger people. It was number two.

Jim Wilk:

Right, I thought you could say what was that question. Again, I thought that was the answer.

Jim Caras:

I'd answer it if I remembered it right.

Jim Wilk:

Yeah, seriously yeah, but yeah, it just seemed people are very, you're right, the people are very concerned about that and it seems like aminomide seems to be a little different than a lot of the brain formulas out there. You'll see, lion's mane is very popular, bacopa, the Indian herb, is very popular, the old phosphatidylserine or PS, that's very popular, and choline and things. But you come at it at a different angle, which is very interesting.

Jim Caras:

Yeah, we do. And, by the way, those are great ingredients and I would never tell anyone to stop taking them. So I just like to say that I'm not saying take this and don't take that. They're wonderful ingredients. They've got a lot of benefits to them, a lot of clinicals. We're taking a different approach here. So I like to give the example of looking at your brain like a bucket. We're sort of fixing the entire infrastructure of your brain so these products can work. Those other products can work better as well, as your brain can function well on its own.

Jim Caras:

And the best example I like to give people is picture for a moment that your brain is a bucket. Okay, so it's a bucket and inside of it you've got this wonderful amount of water that does all these special things for your body. So when you're taking these other supplements, what you're doing is like pouring more water in the bucket. Okay, so you're pouring more water in the bucket, so your brain functions better. But what happens to your brain as you age? Just like the rest of your body, the bucket becomes thinner and less stable. You start having cracks in the bucket, you start having little holes in the bucket, so things are seeping through the bucket. The bucket's not performing like it used to structurally. So when you're pouring these things in there, they fill up the bucket and you get some results, but they end up seeping through the holes and the cracks, so you don't get the optimal results. You should get time.

Jim Caras:

As you continue to age and that bucket becomes more frail, you get less and less Okay. So what we're doing with AminoMind and the collagen and the antioxidants and the other ingredients in there that are clinically proven to do, what I'm talking about is we're rebuilding the structure of the bucket. We're getting rid of those holes, we're getting rid of those cracks. We're helping to support the infrastructure of the brain BDNF besides the structural component, which composed of collagen and other matter, we're strengthening the BDNF part, brain-derived neurotrophic factor. But what BDNF does that we never I didn't get into before is it creates new brain cells. It helps to protect and rejuvenate existing ones and it strengthens the connections between them.

Jim Caras:

So this is the whole infrastructure of your brain. What's exciting is you can create a new brain. So I always joke with my friends hey, it sort of doesn't matter. Well, it does matter, but thank goodness, everything we did when we were in our 20s didn't really. Thank goodness, we could grow new brain cells now.

Jim Wilk:

That's right.

Jim Caras:

So I always joke with people that, hey, you had a good time, but you can make that up now so we're able to regrow and strengthen the bucket. So when you put that water in there, you're getting maximum benefits and you're optimizing how your brain works. That's really the gist of the product. That's why it's different than everything else out there and that's why it's supportive of everything else out there.

Jim Wilk:

Yeah, folks, you should really look into this brain-derived neurotropic factor, or BDNF, as Jim was talking about, because it's something that does decline with age, so it's good for us to know ways that we can increase it. And, of course, like Jim said, the exercise is important and the sleep and managing your stress and things are so important. Jim, can people take both your collagen and this amino mind as well together?

Jim Caras:

Yeah, you can take them both and I recommend taking them both because once again, they're two different collagens. One is specifically the only collagen for brain health and the other collagen is more structural and benefit orientedoriented for your entire body, for hair, skin nails, joints, et cetera. So they're going to combine. When you take them you're going to get sort of a beneficial effect where they're going to amp up each other. So the collagen and the aminomine will actually help to improve the results of the hair, skin nails, body, whole body aspects. And then the collagen you're taking from AminoSculpt, the medical grade, regular collagen, which you would take in a higher dose, like we said, between 10 to 18 grams. That will give your body the extra infrastructure or structural protein to help further build the brain as well. So you're getting sort of a dual effect. They're going to feed off of each other.

Jim Caras:

Now Jim if I Go ahead.

Jim Wilk:

No, I was just going to say or ask the question I get asked all the time is on both of these products we can talk about, how quickly can I see some results? And I know everybody's individualized here and we're all unique in one way or another but in your experience in dealing with this for so many years, what results do you kind of see and in what time frame?

Jim Caras:

Let me talk about I'll talk about them separately with the aminosculpt and regular collagen proteins out there or peptides out there. The older you are, the more deficient in collagen you are, the more you're going to see quicker and faster. So let me define the timeframe for you Most people because we're rebuilding damage that's taken place over 10, 20, 30 years. Of course you're not going to see it overnight. You need to take it. I always tell people you'll see some good results 30 days, but mainly when you get into mainly anywhere from six weeks to a month and a half to three months you'll really start seeing a difference.

Jim Caras:

If you look at your nails a lot of people that take our product, including me your nails are going to grow quick and fast and they're going to grow stronger. So you're going to see little things like your nails just don't grow in a day, they just don't grow in two weeks. Your hair just doesn't grow out in a week or two. But I have people who have added an inch onto their hair women at 90 days, at six months, and an inch or two over that period of time is pretty dramatic, but you just don't see those things right away.

Jim Caras:

The things that people might notice is I'd say 80% of the people notice the sleep benefit. That's something that people can notice within a few days. The energy benefits people start noticing that they not like caffeine, that they feel stronger, especially the older someone is, because they have a protein, energy malnutrition element going on. At the same time They'll notice that they start feeling stronger, better, maybe out doing more yard work, doing more physical things. So the older someone is they'll notice those Everyone else. Just give it some time to work.

Jim Wilk:

I noticed the nails right away. I never had it. Thanks to you, I have to cut my nails every three days now. I never had to do that before, so maybe it affects different people at different levels and things right.

Jim Caras:

Oh no, it happens to me, it happens to my wife. I mean, we're helping to keep the nail salons and to get more frequent business.

Jim Caras:

I mean, by the way, women notice it a lot where they're, where they've worn gels or acrylics for years that they just had brittle nails and their nails get strong and they don't need them and they start growing quicker. You just give it a little time, but the nails the men noticed that pretty quickly. Like my hair grows rapidly. I'm older, so I don't have. I'm older so I'm not. Like I have hair like when I was 20, 30, but I have to go get it cut or trimmed every two weeks instead of a month.

Jim Caras:

That grows very rapidly once you get going, once you do that. Now, the AminoMind Jim, that's a little different and we should talk about the timing of when to take it, because it's ideal that product, people can notice something. Some people will notice it, usually within a few days, and not only do the clinical studies support that, which I'll back this up with, but it's just from our experience. People are seeing it right away, but they usually notice right away. And I'm one of those people where if someone has mental, if someone has mental fatigue or they're like me I'm not a morning person. I joke with my wife or my wife jokes with me and she goes. You didn't tell me I was marrying a sloth In the morning. I'm like a sloth, I'm just like really, I'm just sort of clawing around the house. I'm really slow.

Jim Caras:

Since I've been taking this product, it's turned me into a morning person. I'm awake, I wake up. I take it first thing. When I wake up, I go shower, get ready for the day. By the time I'm out of the shower I'm like you know what? I feel good.

Jim Caras:

No stimulants in it, no coffee, anything in the product. It just happens naturally because it's increasing that BDNF rapidly. The clinical studies on it show that we have a mental fatigue study, which is a double-blind placebo control on 30 healthy adults and it shows that it reduced mental fatigue or increased mental energy within three hours with improved alertness. People are noticing this on the product so they'll start noticing that first. Then in the memory study with 71 adults with mild cognitive decline, 27% of the people noticed an improvement in working memory in seven days. The learning and reaction times that where people were done with an MRI this was double-blind, placebo-controlled, average age 60, mri monitoring everything on them where they were really tested and put under stressful conditions they had 7% faster reaction times or able to process information within the first 90 minutes and they made 50% less errors.

Jim Caras:

So, those type of things as far as mentally functioning during the day, making decisions, remembering quick things, mental energy where you're not just worn out by noon when the coffee wears out those things will happen pretty rapidly. The memory parts will continue after that, so you would take this product. Those things will happen pretty rapidly, the memory parts will continue after that, so you would take this product. I call it AM-PM collagen Amino mind, AM amino mind. First thing in the morning with you wake up, take it. You can take it straight, add it to water. I like drinking a full glass of water as a general health routine. By the way, I've done this for over 30 years. I wake up, I drink a full glass of water because it helps to rehydrate you from the night's sleep. Take that with Aminoma and you'll be surprised what you notice At bedtime. Take the regular collagen.

Jim Wilk:

Do you know of any contraindications with either product? Are there people that shouldn't be trying this or should be cautioned or talk to the doctor about?

Jim Caras:

I'll preface it with any supplement. You should always talk to your doctor.

Jim Caras:

If you have a medical condition, especially anything serious, you should always be consulting with your doctor and saying but always provide your doctor with the proper literature so they can make a good decision for you. A lot of times they're just not familiar with they weren't trained on nutrition but they're unfamiliar with it so they may opt not to, but just provide them the information. With aminosculpt collagen, it is regular, it's protein. So as long as you can have protein, you should be okay. Once again, check with your doctor. With aminomine you should. If someone has, I would say, on blood pressure medicines or has anything like that, they should check with their doctor because it's going to increase and improve the circulation throughout the entire body. They may want to slowly ramp up and watch that medication, but once again, check with your doctor on those.

Jim Wilk:

Yeah, folks remember, you can go to hollyhillvitaminscom, mention nuts and UTZ and get 15% off. Also, go to healthdirectusacom for more information and we're going to have some PDFs on our website to download. They also make some other great products and again we'll have to do another show in the future there on the other products and things. I also liked it. You guys have a nice guarantee too. You really guarantee your products, which I applaud you for.

Jim Caras:

Well, thanks, jim. I appreciate you bringing that up and I always like to say don't take my word for it. You Appreciate you bringing that up and I always like to say don't take my word for it. You've heard me say all this stuff about my products.

Jim Caras:

And of course I'm biased. I've taken them, I've helped make them and I own the company. I make people an offer that just really takes all the risk out of it for trying what we do here, and it backs up when I make the claim is I think these are the best products available of their type on the market. I give people an unconditional 120% money back guarantee, and what that means is, if you take any of our products and if you don't notice the results you wanted if a taste is an issue, whatever it is just give it a chance to work. But if there's any issue, you can return the product direct to us. Save your receipt from wherever you bought it your store, any store anywhere out there. Save the receipt.

Jim Caras:

What you'll do is you'll call my customer service. They'll walk you through the process. You don't even have to take it back to the store or wherever you got it. You call us, give us the information, we'll tell you what to do and I'm going to not only refund you what you paid for the product. I'm going to give you an extra 20% as a thank you for just giving us a try to take all the risk out of it for your time. So I'm going to refund you more than you paid just for trying our product, if there's any reason you don't like it at all I can make a living doing that.

Jim Wilk:

That's great. No, that's really awesome. Not many companies do that, Jim, so I applaud you for that. Really great. It's a great product. Folks, I'm going to start taking the amino mind just talking to Jim here. We just got it in recently into our system, so I'll let you give you some feedback on that in a little while, tell you how I'm doing. Listen if I sound smart, you know what's happening, right. That's important, Jim. Thank you so much for being on today. I really appreciate it. It was a great show. Good luck to you and I'm always looking forward to some new things from you guys.

Jim Caras:

Well, I appreciate it. Jim, Thanks for having me on and thanks for doing a great job all these years, you know, helping people improve their health. You've been out there making sure people have the best information and the best products possible to improve their health, and thank you for doing that for you know, with us and with other products and for everyone out there.

Jim Wilk:

Well, yeah, thanks for the kind words, Jim. You yeah, thanks for the kind words, im. Take care of yourself now. We'll see you guys real soon. Please subscribe to the channel so you can get our latest episodes, and if you want to contact me with any questions or comments, try jimwilkcnc at gmailcom. Thanks again, you.