Collagen supplements such as collagen peptides are popular in the wellness industry because of the supposed benefits that collagen can provide for your skin. So, in this article, we are going to do some digging and see how accurate these claims are.
Will collagen give you younger-looking skin? What else can it do to your skin? Above all, what is collagen in the first place? If you’re looking for a supplement for your skin and you’re wondering if collagen works, this article will explain everything you need to know about collagen. Read more to find out what the benefits of drinking collagen are and if it’s right for you!
What Is Collagen?
Collagen is a protein that makes up several parts of your body including your skin, bones, tendons, ligaments, and even muscles. It is a key part of your connective tissues that help bind and strengthen the parts of your body it serves. In short, collagen is beneficial to your skin – and some more!
Collagen is naturally produced in your body. However, as you get older – mostly as early as when you reach 25 years old – you’re collagen production will decrease. Hence, it is one of the possible reasons why we form wrinkles and experience bone- and joint-related problems,
Although collagen may sound new to you, you’ve probably got it from the foods you eat. If you eat foods like bone broth and pork skin, you are already getting collagen.
So, as mentioned above, collagen is beneficial to your skin because it is what makes up your skin, to begin with. But let’s take a closer look into the benefits of collagen and see what collagen can do for you aside from promoting healthy and possibly young-looking skin.
Benefits Of Drinking Collagen
1) Collagen Can Promote Skin Health
Collagen does not only make up some parts of your skin, but it is a major component of your skin – around 75-80% of your skin! It’s for this reason that collagen is considered a “glue” that binds your whole skin together.
Collagen plays a major role in strengthening your skin. Because it makes up your skin, it promotes hydration and elasticity as well. But collagen can do more than that.
Collagen and collagen supplementation might promote the production of other proteins that also promote structure to your skin, such as fibrillin and elastin.
In short, collagen is important for your skin health. If you want to have healthier skin, you need to get collagen through diet or supplementation.
2) Collagen May Help You Look Young
Aside from keeping the structural integrity of your skin, collagen can promote skin elasticity and hydration as well. This may lead to smoother and younger-looking skin. Aside from promoting skin elasticity and hydration, collagen can reverse aging effects on your skin by reducing wrinkles.
However, although collagen can make you look young, the effects may not be as huge as you may expect – in short, you won’t magically look young by taking collagen peptides and supplements!
Lastly, skin health is more than just taking collagen supplements. If you want to have healthy and young-looking skin, consider looking into your lifestyle: regular exercise, eating a proper diet, getting enough sleep and proper stress management are also needed to promote skin health.
3) Collagen Can Promote Bone Health, Too
As we age, we lose bone mass and density just like we lose collagen. Since collagen plays a key role in the bones, a decrease of collagen production in our body somehow contributes to bone loss.
Bone loss of breakdown can lead to some health problems such as osteoporosis, which is a condition where your bones are lost or are losing bone density. This condition can make your bones fragile to fractures.
Some studies have shown that taking collagen supplements can help prevent or slow down bone breakdown, hence lessening your risk of bone-related problems including osteoporosis.
4) Collagen Can Aid In Relieving Joint Pain
Collagen is responsible for keeping the integrity of your cartilage, a soft, rubber-like tissue that keeps your joints from grinding from each other. If your cartilage weakens, your joints will begin grinding against one another, and the friction that ensues afterward will cause joint pains.
Because collagen is responsible for keeping your cartilage’s structural integrity intact, it is needed if you want to support or promote your cartilage’s health. This is especially true as you age because collagen production decreases with age.
5) Collagen May Boost Muscle Mass
Aside from your skin and bones, your muscles take a fair share of your body’s collagen supply. Around 1-10% of our muscle tissues are composed of collagen. Collagen is needed to keep our muscles strong and firm.
Some studies show that collagen supplementation can help boost muscle mass. For instance, in one study, people with sarcopenia – a condition where we lose muscle mass as we age – benefit from supplementing collagen by helping them boost their muscle mass.
Although our muscles can benefit from collagen supplements, it may not be as big as we would wish and more research is needed to see the range of collagen’s benefit to our muscles.
6) Collagen Is Good For The Heart
Finally, collagen may benefit the heart as well. Collagen can benefit the heart in mainly two ways.
First, collagen helps provide and promote structure to your arteries. When collagen is lacking, this can result in weakened arteries, which is bad for the heart. By strengthening the arteries, blood flow becomes more efficient.
Second, and interestingly, some studies have discovered that collagen can increase our “good” cholesterol or HDL, which is good for heart health. For instance, this was discovered in one study where researchers try to find out what collagen can do to arteries. In this study, aside from discovering that collagen can increase HDL, it also significantly reduced artery stiffness in the participants.
However, just like our muscles, more study is needed to see how collagen can benefit the heart.
7) Collagen Supplementation Replaces Aging-Related Collagen Loss
This one sounds obvious, but it needs to be emphasized. Collagen plays an important and integral part of your body, especially in areas like skin and bones. As collagen decreases with age, so is the overall health of these body parts.
If you want to keep these body parts in their optimal health, supplementing them with collagen is one big way to do it. But of course, you need to keep an overall healthy lifestyle – collagen supplements will not help you if you don’t exercise and you eat unhealthy processed sugary foods!
Is Drinking Collagen Safe?
So far, there are little known side effects associated with collagen and collagen supplements. If anything, collagen may cause digestive side effects such as heartburns and feelings of being full.
As for collagen supplements, take note that some of them could be made with food allergens such as eggs, fish, and shellfish. If you are allergic to one of them, consider reading the label properly to see if the supplement at hand contains these allergens or not.
Nevertheless, collagen is deemed safe for most people. Just be sure to follow proper dosage intake to avoid any possible side effects. If you are pregnant or have a certain medical condition, ask your doctor first to ensure that collagen supplementation won’t interfere with your pregnancy or with your medications.
Recommended Collagen Brands
If you’re interested in trying out collagen peptides or collagen supplements, here are some of the best brands to try out:
Vital Proteins
Vital Proteins is extremely popular amongst wellness influencers, and celebrities alike. They have even partnered with Kourtney Kardashian to create unique blends for her platform.
GET THE BEST PRICE ON VITAL PROTEINSOrgain Collagen Peptides
Orgain Collagen Peptides is a blend that is great for both men and women. This collagen is pasture-raised and can help with hair, skin, nails, and joint health. Orgain is a highly trusted brand in the health and wellness space, and their collagen is a great choice.
GET THE BEST PRICE ON ORGAIN COLLAGEN PEPTIDESAncient Nutrition Collagen Peptides
This is an excellent source of protein with 9g of protein and 10.2g of collagen and only 35 calories in each serving. Each scoop of collagen has hydrolyzed collagen types I, II, III, V, and X, providing your body with a wide variety of high-quality sources. Other collagen products like NeoCell Collagen has only one type, but it’s pure and high quality.
GET THE BEST PRICE ON ANCIENT NUTRITION COLLAGEN PEPTIDESVitauthority
Vitauthority is a great brand to buy collagen from. Their products are reasonably priced and of high quality as well!
GET 20% OFF A VITAUTHORITY BUNDLEShould You Give Drinking Collagen A Try?
Ultimately, the decision is up to you! But we hope that this article helped you understand the wide variety of benefits that come to your decision. If you do decide to give collagen peptides a try, one of the best ways to add them to your day to day diet is by adding them to your morning coffee or smoothie.
