7 Reasons Women Down 40+ Pounds Are Adding Type II Collagen, And Why The Tub In Your Cupboard Never Touched Your Knees
Your medication did its job. It took the weight off your joints. This is the part nobody explained, and the 90 day window you are still inside of.
Reviewed by Kirsten Chick, DPT · Orthopedic Physical TherapistUpdated August 20269 min read
4.7 / 52,901 verified reviews
60 daysEmpty pouch still refunds
$0.97Per serving vs $1.83
First, the part nobody explained
You lost 40, 60, 70 pounds. So why do the stairs feel worse?
It is the question you have typed into Google at 11pm. Here is the answer in three steps, and it is not what your doctor told you, and it is not your fault.
Neither one of them is the joint itself.
Picture your knee. Don't picture bone, picture what is wrapped around it.
The outer layer is your quads, glutes and hamstrings. They don't just move you, they absorb force every single time your foot hits the ground. The tendon connecting them to bone is roughly 80% collagen by dry weight.
The inner layer is the cartilage and connective tissue that keeps the surfaces gliding quietly past each other. That is roughly 60% collagen by dry weight.
Both layers are built out of the same thing. Which is why one shortage shows up in two places at once.
Between 45 and 60, three things arrive together.
Independently. From three different directions. And every one of them lands on collagen.
1
Oestrogen withdrawalThere are oestrogen receptors in cartilage, tendon and ligament. As oestrogen falls, connective tissue collagen falls with it. A 2024 review proposed a name for the cluster, musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause, estimating over 70% of women experience it.
2
AgeYour rate of collagen production has been declining since your mid twenties. Turnover in tendon and cartilage is slow at the best of times.
3
Rapid weight lossAppetite suppression is how the medication works, and it is also, unavoidably, the lowest your protein and amino acid intake has been in your adult life. At the exact moment demand is highest.
Losing weight removed the load. It did nothing to rebuild the frame.
You were told that dropping the weight would take pressure off your joints. That is true, and it helped. Load matters.
But load was only ever half the equation. The other half is the structure that carries the load, and while you were lowering the demand, three separate forces were quietly thinning the frame that meets it.
Read that again, because this is the whole thing: nobody is saying your medication hurt your joints. It didn't. Your weight simply changed faster than the support system underneath it could adapt.
The scale moved. The scaffold didn't.
So the question stops being "why do I still hurt?" and becomes a much more useful one: what is the frame actually built from, and how do I get more of it in?
The shelf, honestly
What you have already tried, and the layer each one actually reaches
Every one of these does a real job. Not one of them does this job.
Revive MixType I, II & III Collagen Mix
Beauty / multi- collagen powder
UC-II joint capsule
Glucosamine & chondroitin
Ibuprofen / Voltaren
Whole Type II collagen, the type cartilage is predominantly built from
✓ 40 mg
✗ trace or none
✓ 40 mg
✗
✗
Never heated, never broken down
✓
✗ hydrolysed
Varies
n/a
n/a
Bulk Type I & III peptides for tendon and connective tissue
✓ 10 g
✓ varies
✗
✗
✗
Vitamin C, the cofactor your body needs to assemble collagen
✓ 80 mg
Sometimes
✗
✗
✗
Hyaluronic acid for joint glide
✓ 100 mg
✗
Sometimes
✗
✗
Every dose printed on the front, no proprietary blend
✓
Rarely
✓
Varies
n/a
Nothing to swallow on a nauseous morning
✓ one scoop
✓
✗ capsules
✗ capsules
✗
What it is actually aimed at
Supply, the raw material
Skin, hair, nails
One pathway only
One target
The pain signal
Cost per day
$0.83
$1.83
~$0.60
~$0.53
Varies
← swipe the table →
Ibuprofen turns the alarm down. It does not repair the wiring. If you want relief this afternoon, take the ibuprofen. That is a different job, and we are not pretending to do it.
The 7 reasons
Why Type II collagen is the piece your cupboard was missing
01
It is the collagen your cartilage is actually built from
Go and look at the tub in your cupboard. Turn it around. If the label says Type I & III, and almost all of them do, that product was formulated for skin, hair and nails.
Your face and your knee are not built from the same collagen structure. The cushion inside your joint is predominantly Type II. It is a different molecule doing a different job in a different tissue.
So when you bought collagen, took it faithfully for two months, and your knees did nothing, you did not fail at it. You were sold a product built for a different part of your body, by a category that has never once told you there was a difference.
You did not fail. The label did.
And the reason most brands leave Type II out is stranger than you'd think →
02
Most of the Type II on the shelf was cooked before it reached you
Here is the thing almost nobody in the aisle will explain. Collagen is heated and broken down at the factory, hydrolysed, because that is what makes it dissolve nicely in a cold glass of water. It is a manufacturing convenience.
For Type I & III peptides, that is fine. It is how they are meant to be delivered.
For Type II it is the end of the story. Undenatured Type II works because the immune tissue in your gut can still recognise the intact molecule. Cook it, and there is nothing left to recognise. You are drinking an expensive amino acid.
Revive Mix uses UC-II, whole, undenatured, never heated. It is the reason we can only run 5,000 units at a time, because keeping it unheated the whole way through rules out most of the supply chain.
60% of cartilage, by dry weight, is collagen
03
It works at 40 milligrams, and the reason why is the whole point
This is the number people query, so let's take it head on. If 10 grams of collagen peptides is a real dose, how can 40 milligrams of anything matter?
Because they are not doing the same job.
The 10 grams is bulk supply, raw material arriving for tendon and connective tissue to build with. More is genuinely more.
The 40 mg is not supply at all. Undenatured Type II is thought to work through oral tolerance, a small, consistent daily exposure through the immune tissue lining your gut, which changes how your body responds to the cartilage in your own joints. That pathway runs on consistency, not on volume. Piling more in does not push it harder.
Which is why every published trial on it used 40 mg. Not 39, not 500. And why a brand quoting you "1,200 mg of Type II" on a label is telling you they do not know what the ingredient does.
Fine, but has anyone actually put it up against the bottle in your drawer? →
Four reasons to go. But some people are already sure.
Two months, both pouches, 60 day guarantee. If your joints don't feel looser, send it back, even empty.
60 day empty pouch guaranteeFree US shipping on 2+2Cancel in one click
04
It has been tested head to head against the glucosamine in your drawer
Most joint ingredients are compared against a placebo. This one has been compared against the incumbent.
In a 2016 trial published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 191 people with knee osteoarthritis were randomised across 180 days to one of three arms: 40 mg undenatured Type II collagen, glucosamine plus chondroitin, or placebo. The Type II group reported a significantly greater improvement in WOMAC score, the standard joint questionnaire, than both the placebo arm and the glucosamine arm.
A separate 2009 trial in the International Journal of Medical Sciences ran the same head to head over 90 days in 52 people and reported the same direction of result.
Two decades of mixed evidence is why glucosamine ended up in a drawer instead of a routine. It is worth knowing what was measured against it.
05
One of the trials was run on people who were not diagnosed with anything
This matters more than it sounds, and here is why.
Almost every joint study recruits people with diagnosed osteoarthritis. You probably don't have that. You have a knee that objects on stairs, hips that need twenty minutes in the morning, and a doctor who said "wear and tear" and moved on.
In 2013, a trial published in the same journal took 55 healthy subjects with no diagnosed arthritis, just exercise induced knee discomfort, and gave them 40 mg daily for 120 days. It reported improved knee extension and a longer period of exercise before discomfort set in.
That is the closest population match in the whole literature to the woman reading this: not a patient, just someone whose knees complain when she asks them to do something.
"Stairs one at a time was my normal. Now I come down them like a normal person and my knees keep quiet."Gill · 6 weeks · verified buyer
06
On its own, Type II is only half the job, which is why it isn't on its own here
Here is where the UC-II capsules on Amazon fall down, and it is the same mistake as the beauty powders, just from the opposite end.
A Type II capsule gives you the cartilage specific pathway and nothing else. No bulk raw material. No answer whatsoever to the fact that you are eating less than you have eaten in thirty years.
Rebuilding connective tissue takes two things: a demand signal and a supply of material. You already have the demand, you are walking, you started lifting, your PT gave you the exercises. What you don't have is the supply. You are being asked to run a build with a full work order and an empty materials yard.
So Revive Mix runs all three collagen types plus what the body needs to use them:
✓40 mg whole Type II (UC-II), the cartilage specific pathway
✓10 g Type I & III peptides, bulk material for tendon and connective tissue, in the glycine and proline rich profile whey doesn't give you
✓80 mg liposomal vitamin C, your body physically cannot assemble stable collagen without it. Bricks with no mortar.
✓100 mg hyaluronic acid, joint glide support
✓1,000 mg MSM, a sulfur donor, and sulfur is used in connective tissue formation
✓50 mg pumpkin seed oil and 5 mg black pepper, omegas, and uptake support for everything above
Seven ingredients. Every milligram on the front of the pouch. →
07
And you can test it against us in eight weeks, with a number you write down yourself
You have three abandoned tubs in a cupboard. You have every right to assume this is the fourth.
So don't take our word for it. Take a measurement.
Go for a walk today. Count how many steps you get before your joints start to complain. Write the number on the fridge. One scoop a day. Retest at week eight.
If the number hasn't gone up, email us and send the pouch back. It can be completely empty. No form, no reason, no posting anything anywhere. We refund every penny.
Worst case, you are out nothing but eight weeks you were going to spend stiff anyway.
60 day guarantee · empty pouch accepted
30 second audit
Check the tub you already own
Go and get it. Turn it around. Tick everything the label actually says, then see what it has been doing for your joints.
0 / 100 · joint score
Tick whatever your label says. Most tubs in this category score under 30, because they were built for skin.
Inside the scoop
Seven ingredients. Seven jobs. Every dose on the front.
Tap any one. Check our numbers against the studies yourself, we would rather you did.
40mg
The cartilage pathway
Whole Type II collagen (UC-II)
Never heated, never broken down, so it arrives intact and your body still recognises it. It works through a small daily exposure rather than bulk supply, which is why the studied dose is 40 mg and not 10 grams. This is the ingredient almost nothing else on the shelf contains.
10grams
Bulk raw material
Hydrolysed Type I & III peptides
Bovine and marine. This is the glycine and proline rich material that tendon and connective tissue are built from, and it is the profile that general dietary protein and whey do not give you. A clinically relevant dose, not a label decorating one, and it directly answers the supply gap appetite suppression creates.
80mg
The assembly cofactor
Liposomal vitamin C
The one that closes the logical loop. Vitamin C is required by the enzymes that build stable collagen, which means without it the material arrives and mostly sits there. Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of cartilage and bones. It is the best established claim in the entire formula.
100mg
Glide
Hyaluronic acid
A component of the fluid inside a healthy joint. The consumer word for what it supports is glide: bend and go, instead of hesitate and guard. It costs more than label decoration, which is exactly why the bargain bags leave it out.
1,000mg
Sulfur donor
MSM
An organic sulfur compound, and sulfur is used in the formation of connective tissue. We will be straight with you, because you are going to check anyway: at this dose MSM is a supporting ingredient in the formula. The published knee trials on MSM used higher doses than ours, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
50mg
Supporting inclusion
Pumpkin seed oil
A source of omega fatty acids and antioxidants, included for the low grade inflammation that did not necessarily leave with the weight. It is a formulation detail rather than a headline ingredient, and we are listing it as one.
5mg
Absorption
Black pepper extract
Piperine, included to support uptake of everything above it. It is the cheap step most brands skip, and the logic is simple enough: a perfect formula you do not absorb is still a wasted scoop.
Real customers
What eight to twelve weeks actually looks like
Drag the handle across each photo. Same person, weeks apart.
Before10 weeks
★★★★★
Six months of glucosamine. Two bottles of turmeric. Nothing. By week ten I was on the floor with my granddaughter and got up without thinking about it.
Linda · 10 weeks
Before4 weeks
★★★★★
After the third supplement did nothing I had honestly quit. The 60 days made it a no risk thing. Week four I put my socks on standing up.
Sandra · 4 weeks
Before6 weeks
★★★★★
My hands worried me most. Jar lids, toothpaste caps, the dog's leash. They are all mine again.
Tara · 6 weeks
★★★★★
An hour of stiffness every morning, that was my normal. It is about ten minutes now. Oiled is the only word for it.
GMGloria M. · month 3
★★★★★
I went to Spain and left the pouch on the counter. By day nine my knees were talking to me again. I did not believe it was doing anything until I stopped.
VMVictoria M. · 7 months
★★★★★
She said mum, you came up the drive without stopping. I had not even registered that I used to stop.
NRNina R. · month 3
★★★★★
My hands used to feel like rust, like they needed oiling before they would open properly. Now I am making tea at six without thinking about it.
JHJean H. · month 2
Individual results vary. Testimonials reflect the experience of individual customers and are not typical of every user.
Make us prove it
The step count test
Go for a walk today. Count how many steps you get before your joints start to complain, and put that number in the box. Write it on the fridge too. Retest at week eight.
Today's offer
Buy one, get one free on every size
The bundles exist because this runs on 8 to 12 weeks, not 30 days.
Spoon & scoopEvery order
Milk frother2+2 and up
Storage tin3+3 and up
60 day guaranteeTake one scoop a day for eight weeks. If your joints do not feel looser, email us and send the pouch back. It can be empty. No reason required, and we refund every penny.
✓Type I, II and III collagen in one scoop, every dose on the front
✓Unflavoured, 0g sugar, gluten free, dairy free, no fillers
✓Free insured US shipping, ships within 24 hours
✓Skip, pause or cancel in one click
Straight answers
Before you decide
No. It is food derived protein and micronutrients. There is nothing to stop, nothing to switch, and nothing that competes with your prescription. It sits alongside what you are already doing. As with anything new, share the ingredient list with your prescriber or doctor first.
Because of what was in it. Almost every tub on the shelf is dominated by Types I and III and formulated for skin, hair and nails, with no Type II, no hyaluronic acid and no vitamin C. You bought a product built for a different tissue. Run the label check above on the tub you own and you will see it in about thirty seconds.
Honestly, nothing meaningful in the first two weeks. First changes usually land around weeks 2 to 3, most often as a shorter morning stiffness window. The bigger changes come over 2 to 3 months. That is why the bundles run 2 to 8 months, and why the step count retest is set at week eight rather than week one.
No, and we are not going to pretend it is. It contains no NSAIDs and no drugs. It supplies the materials your joint scaffold is built from, daily, so it supports comfort and mobility rather than muting a signal for six hours. If you want relief this afternoon, take the ibuprofen.
No. Revive Mix is not a medicine and does not treat, cure or prevent any condition. It is daily nutritional support for joint comfort and mobility. If you have a diagnosed condition, or you are already scheduled for surgery, speak to your doctor. We would rather you skipped it than wasted your money.
You should, and we will tell you that plainly. But general dietary protein and whey do not carry the glycine and proline rich profile that connective tissue is specifically built from, and appetite suppression makes hitting even basic protein targets genuinely hard. This is additive to your protein, not a replacement for it. You also still have to keep moving. This is the supply side, the demand side is yours.
No. Collagen is animal derived. Types I and III are bovine and marine, Type II is poultry sourced. We say it plainly so nobody orders by mistake.
You already did the hardest part
One scoop a day, into the coffee you already pour. Eight weeks, and a number on your fridge that settles it.
This page is an advertisement for Revive Mix by Balmve. Individual results vary. Testimonials and customer photographs reflect the experience of individual customers and are not typical of every user, and no individual result should be expected.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Revive Mix is a dietary supplement, not a medicine, and it is not a substitute for medical care or for any prescribed medication. Do not stop or change any prescribed treatment on the basis of this page. Consult your healthcare provider before starting any supplement, particularly if you are pregnant or nursing, take prescription medication, or have a diagnosed medical condition.
References to published clinical trials describe research on individual ingredients at the doses stated and are provided for information only. They are not claims about this finished product, and the studies cited were not conducted on Revive Mix.
Spoon & scoop
Milk frother
Storage tin