Collagen is a protein that is found in our bodies and also found in our bones, skin, muscles, blood vessels, and digestive system. It plays a large role in making us look youthful and healthy. But as we age, our bodies start to produce less collagen, which is what causes fine lines, wrinkles, saggy or stretchy skin, and slower healing of cuts and scars.
Skin elasticity
Of course, losing elasticity in your skin is a natural part of the aging process, but there is a way to improve it. Skin elasticity is the way your skin is able to go back into place after being stretched, and collagen can help with that! Since collagen is a protein and it’s fibrous, it helps skin to be coherent but flexible at the same time, making your skin firm, which is a key to looking young and healthy. One study in 2019 even showed that women who took collagen supplements noticed improvements in the appearance of their skin and their skin’s elasticity.
Hydration
When your skin is dehydrated, it can often look dull, dry, and maybe even flaky. Collagen contains hydroxyproline, which is an amino acid and plays an important role in collagen and has been proven to hydrate skin by improving its moisture levels. Hydrating your skin and adding some collagen to your diet will help you gain that glowing and smooth skin!
Stretch marks
As we start getting older or get pregnant, we start to grow and stretch our skin because it is constantly getting pulled at a rapid rate. This causes the skin to overstretch to where the collagen can’t keep up! Collagen may help with the stretch marks, as it enhances the way our skin regenerates, but it’s not always completely avoidable.
Cellulite
Cellulite mostly affects the thigh, buttocks, and abdomen area the most, causing uneven textures and dimples. It’s completely natural and common to have cellulite, but sometimes it means that you might be lacking in collagen. Since cellulite damages bands of collagen in the skin, taking collagen peptides can aid in thickening your skin, repairing the damaged bands, and help to reduce the cellulite.
Anxiety
Anxiety can cause chronic skin-picking, which is a disorder also known as excoriation disorder, as a way to cope with their stress and anxiety. As today in modern society, there are a lot of factors to this, like work, school, and just life in general. Anti-anxiety properties can be found in collagen, as it has a high concentration of glycine.
Acne
Collagen can aid in balancing hormones, which have different functions in your body. One way to find out if you have a hormone imbalance is acne. Including collagen into your nutrition can help balance your hormones, which can lead to less acne, a longer life, and healthier lifestyle!
Scars
Collagen is filled with amino acids that are able to help your skin heal. It helps to speed up the healing process, and not only that, but helps to form ‘new’ skin around the area. As you get older, these scars are much harder to reduce since collagen slowly starts to stop producing as much in our bodies.
Dark spots
Does your skin have dark spots? Dark spots on your skin are typically from “age” spots that are from UV (ultraviolet) lights that make your cells produce more melanin. The melanin starts to clump, as years go on, because of the high production and damages to your skin. Collagen can aid in this because it helps with tissue formation to healthily form, which encourages the skin to heal and naturally repair itself.
Blood flow to skin
Blood flow in your skin is helpful in looking less dull, more vibrant, and less swollen. Along with these features, collagen also aids in helping to create “strong and flexible blood vessels”, on top of keeping the elasticity in your skin through better blood flow.
Beauty
Collagen enhances beauty by keeping our skin firm, aiding to heal our scars, balancing our hormones if we have acne, and more! The one thing it especially does is help us look young, which are some celebrities’ ways of keeping their skin full and youthful. And guess what? Collagen runs even deeper than just beautiful skin! It’s good for your overall health, so you can hit two birds with one stone, gaining both health and beauty. Our article Top 10 Health Benefits of Collagen can guide you in learning about more benefits.
