Top 6 Benefits of Collagen
What is Collagen? Why Collagen?
Collagen is the glue that holds our bones, skin, muscles, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, corneas, and teeth together. It is the most abundant protein in our bodies.
There are over 16 different types of collagen in the body. The core four are:
-Type I: 90% of your body’s collagen, made of densely packed fibers providing structure to skin, bones, tendons, fibrous cartilage, connective tissue, and teeth.
-Type II: more loosely packed fibers found in elastic cartilage cushioning joints.
-Type III: supports the structure of muscles, organs, and arteries.
-Type IV: helps with filtration found in the layers of your skin.
Collagen is popular because your body produces less and lower quality collagen as you age which is most visible in the appearance of your skin.
There are several ways to help the body produce high quality collagen including consuming nutrients such as vitamin C, proline, glycine, and copper, as well as eating high quality protein to provide your body with the amino acids (building blocks) it needs.
What is considered ‘high quality protein’?
-Meat
-Poultry
-Seafood
-Dairy
-Legumes
-Tofu
While there are ways to help improve and increase collagen production, there are also ways you may be damaging the collagen your body is trying to produce. Factors that damage collagen include:
-Eating too much sugar and refined carbs.
-Too much sun (Ultraviolet radiation can reduce collagen production).
-Smoking.
Sources of quality collagen include animal products, such as:
-bone broth
-gelatin
-chicken skin
-pork skin
-supplements
Supplementing with collagen can improve skin hydration and elasticity and help with skin aging, along with many other benefits. It can help reduce joint pain in athletes and improve pain associated with osteoarthritis.
Supplementing with collagen has been shown to provide great benefits with very few to no known side effects. In addition, collagen supplements have been shown to provide more noticeable benefits than having high collagen foods.
How much collagen? 10-15 grams per day is both safe and useful for both skin and joints.
Top Benefits of Collagen:
Muscle mass: A combination of collagen peptide supplements and strength training has been shown to increase both muscle mass and strength.
Skin Elasticity & Health: Improvements in skin appearance and elasticity when collagen is used in topical or oral treatments to improve the appearance of skin by minimizing lines and wrinkles.
Hair & Nails: Increase the strength of your nails by preventing brittleness & stimulate your hair and nails to grow longer.
Gut Health: Practitioners have used collagen supplements to help intestinal permeability, or leaky gut syndrome.
Brain Health: Supplementing has been seen to improve mood and reduce symptoms of anxiety.
Weight Loss: Collagen supplements may promote weight loss and a faster metabolism.
Collagen supplements are safe, easy to use, and worth trying for their benefits. They are also very easy to incorporate into your daily routine (i.e. as a tasteless powder in tea, coffee, soup, smoothies, etc. or as a pill to add to your daily vitamin intake).