Besides being the latest buzzword for beauty, collagen is a vital connective tissue protein, found in both humans and animals. It essentially assists the body with structure - whether that be skin, bones, ligaments, or tendons.
Integral to skin and skeletal structure, collagen is found in bones, teeth, muscles, tendons, ligaments and if it's found lacking in your eyeballs, glaucoma, and cataracts are on the way.
Word Origin of Collagen
Interestingly the word collagen comes from the French collagène, using the Greek kólla, meaning 'glue', and the French suffix gène, meaning 'producing'. Okay, 'glue-producing' then?
The adhesive qualities of collagen certainly make sense of its word origins.
Collagen has this awesome arginine-glycine-aspartic acid adhesion sequence, which is great for wound closure sealants and adhesives, for bonding soft tissues, and also for tendon wrapping after surgery. It can be stretched without tearing apart with its 1 050 triple-helix amino acid formation.
Collagen Type 1, 2 & 3
As the body ages, collagen production not only lessens but the quality also lowers. While most noticeable in the skin, which we observe becomes less supple, less firm, and less smooth, something similar is happening to other collagen production in the body.
Biologists have identified 16 types of collagen. We only need to know about the first three.
- Type 1 - consists of densely packed fibres. Because this type is found in teeth, bones, connective tissue, cartilage, and tendons, which accounts for 90% of the collagen in the body.
- Type 2 - is less dense collagen for the elastic cartilage that cushions joints.
- Type 3 - supports the arteries, organs, and muscles of the body.
Collagen Keeps it All Together
Skin, our largest organ, is what keeps us all in one place, so it's no surprise that collagen and skin are often in the same sentence. Collagen is a key component of the skin - 75% of the skin's dry weight is collagen. The skin itself produces a lot of collagen, at least, until you're midway through your twenties.
There, in the dermis (our second layer of skin) it is collagen that connects it to both the upper layer of our skin, the epidermis, and the hypodermis (the layer below). Collagen connects cells all over the body because it is thermally stable, has astounding mechanical strength, and interacts successfully with other biomolecules.
Increasing Collagen Production
Your body is perfectly equipped to make the collagen it needs providing you regularly supply the right nutrients. 'All collagen starts off as procollagen,' explains healthline.com. To achieve that, the body combines proline and glycine, using vitamin C. The body will also require high-quality protein that contains amino acids, such as bone broth.
You can assist your collagen production process by making sure you top your system up with plenty of the following:
- Vitamin C - a caution here; taking mega doses could be damaging. Make sure you use a buffered Vitamin C or one in a liposomal formulation. Good food courses are bell peppers, strawberries, and citrus fruits.
- Glycine - is present in gelatin and all foods that contain protein (particularly in chicken and pork skin)
- Copper - found plentifully in lentils, cocoa powder, cashew nuts, and organ meats.
- Proline - plentiful in dairy products, wheat germ, asparagus, cabbage, mushrooms, and egg whites.
Collagen Destroyers
Your dietary behaviours and habits can either improve or retard your body's collagen-producing capability. Here is the lowdown - only three things to watch out for:
- Sun Exposure - excessive sin exposes you to ultraviolet radiation which retards collagen production.
- Smoking - stunts collagen production noticeably in the skin, resulting in heavy wrinkles.
- Refined Foods - whether carbs or sugars, refined foods markedly impairs collagen production
First Prize in Collagen Intake
Collagen is now available in powder, granules, liquid, or capsule form. Good quality powders dissolve effortlessly in your favourite fruit juice, smoothie, soup, or even in your morning coffee. It is tasteless, so this is a great way to get it into your system regularly.
Be Bright is a recommendable company with a high-quality, absorbable collagen powder.
Another approach is to use a natural supplement that encourages your system to produce its own collagen whether you supply the right nutrients or not. Remember that we are not getting adequate nutrition from our food as long as excess carbon dioxide continues to impact negatively on our climate, retarding plant capability.
Cures & Creams are proud to recommend the supplements showcased in their online store, such as;
These organic preparations stimulate the body's production of collagen internally, in the parts of the body where it is needed. Perhaps assisting the body to manufacture collagen is the ultimate way to assure adequate and sufficient collagen. There's no way to really know how much orally consumed collage is actually being absorbed or whether it's going straight in and out of the body through the digestive system.
Prompting the body to regularly supply collagen is a positive way to keep the system supplied with the right amount of quality collagen at any given time.
Collagen Fun Facts:
- Used as the casing for sausage
- Makes up the strings for musical instruments.
- Gram for gram, Type 1 collagen is stronger than steel.
- Natural adhesive biomaterial for tissue-engineering applications.
In summary:
Many sensibly to supplement with collagen to discourage ageing and wrinkling of the skin. However, beauty, in this case, is more than skin deep. Bones, tendons, and ligaments are also hungry for collagen. From the mid-20s, the quantity and quality of collagen starts its steady downward decline.
Prompting the body to produce its own collagen on a daily basis assures its quantity and quality.
Feel free to explore the Cures & Creams online store and source the natural remedy that’s just right for you and your loved ones.
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