Why is collagen so important for proper skin health?

When it comes to maintaining proper skin health, everyone has a theory. There are tons of creams, lotions, and potions that people recommend for glowing, tight, healthy skin. However, one of the most important things for proper skin health is something you produce on your own.

This component, a protein known as collagen, is what many experts believe is the key to keeping your skin young and healthy. While your body produces it naturally, things such as old age and lifestyle choices can impede your collagen production. This article will go into more detail about what collagen is, why it’s so important for your skin, and how to ensure you have enough of it.

What is Collagen?

Your body produces many natural proteins, and collagen is one of them. It also happens to be the most abundant protein in the human body and much of it is directed toward maintaining healthy skin. However, collagen also helps strengthen your bones, muscles, hair, and several other vital parts of the body.

The best way to think of collagen is as a building block. It’s the foundation on which healthy skin and other types of connective tissue reside. Here are some of the areas where collagen is used.

Bones
Muscles
Ligaments
Teeth
Hair
Skin
Interstitial lining
Blood vessels
Numerous organs

In all, roughly 30% of all the protein in your body is collagen. Every bit of collagen consists of various amino acids that bind together to create the protein. Additionally, you need various vitamins and minerals to bind these proteins to form collagen.

What Does Collagen Do For Your Skin?

Because of how abundant collagen is, it’s used for a ton of different things. In terms of how collagen helps the skin, however, here’s what it does.

Helps replace old skin cells with new ones.
Helps form the middle layer of the skin – the dermis.
Keeps your skin hydrated.
Increases blood flow to the skin and its various layers.

Thanks to collagen’s effects on the skin, it’s vital for maintaining proper skin health. People with enough collagen in their system will have tight, elastic skin that appears smooth and shiny. Because collagen helps keep your skin tight and healthy, it will prevent the development of wrinkles, fine lines, color spots, sagging, and other signs of aging.

Additionally, collagen also increases blood flow and the production of new skin cells, which helps prevent unwanted scarring. Collagen also reduces the risks of eczema, dry skin, and other conditions that result from a lack of hydration in your skin.

Things That Hurt Collagen Production

While your body naturally produces collagen, this production declines with age. According to Dr. Ohara Aivaz of Cedars Sinai, collagen production slows down in adults when they reach their mid-20s. This process starts slowly and gradually increases with age. In fact, collagen production will decrease by 30% in women within the first five years following menopause.
In addition to age, here are a few other things that can decrease collagen production.

Lifestyle Choices

The way that you live your life will have a huge effect on your collagen production. Things like drinking too much alcohol, doing drugs, and smoking cigarettes will severely impact how much collagen your body can produce.

Diet

In addition to lifestyle choices, your dietary choices will also impact collagen production. Foods that are high in sugar, glycogen, and refined carbs, such as white bread and pasta, are terrible for collagen production.

The Sun

While your diet and lifestyle play a major role in collagen production, the sun is the biggest cause of decreased collagen. UV radiation from the sun both kills your skin cells and prevents collagen from producing new ones. The sun can also damage the collagen you already have in your system, leading to a breakdown in your skin.

How to Increase Your Collagen

If you want to maintain healthy levels of collagen for your skin and other connective tissue, it’s important to avoid the pitfalls listed above. However, because production inevitably decreases with age, merely avoiding the sun, bad food, and poor lifestyle choices won’t be enough to maintain healthy collagen levels. You’ll need to be proactive and purposeful about getting collagen into your system, and here are some of the best ways to do that.

Wear protective clothing and sunscreen anytime you spend time in the sun.
In addition to avoiding foods that are bad for collagen, gravitate towards foods that boost collagen production. Foods that increase collagen production include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seafood, and legumes. A well-balanced diet is the key to collagen production.
Increase your vitamin and mineral intake – specifically Vitamin C, zinc, magnesium, copper, and proline.

In addition to these methods, you should also consider a collagen supplement. Absorbable Collagen supplements, will help replace lost collagen in your system. This, in turn, will lead to healthy, younger skin.

References

Collagen for Your Skin: Healthy or Hype? | Cedars-Sinai
Collagen: What it is, Types, Function & Benefits (clevelandclinic.org)
Health Benefits of Collagen: Pros, Cons, and More (healthline.com)
Enigmatic insight into collagen – PMC (nih.gov)

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