Collagen gives your skin and joints structure, strength, and stability. You’re born with a glut of collagen and this is why babies have enviable smooth and plump skin and why toddlers never need a ‘recovery day’ after a long run at the playground.
You continue to make collagen naturally until your mid-20’s and after that, collagen levels start to decline. When collagen disappears, signs of aging start creeping in. Fine lines and wrinkles crop up, plump cheekbones start to lose their height, and those pesky joints feel like they need some WD-40 in the morning.
Collagen isn’t only helpful because of its ability to maintain the structure of cheekbones and lubricate joint capsules – collagen has protective and regenerative benefits too.
Today I’m unlocking the secrets of collagen and what this powerhouse protein does for our body.
But first, what is collagen?
Collagen is the most prevalent protein in your body. There are over 28 types of collagen in the body, categorized by structure and function. Rather than going into a detailed molecular breakdown, here is what you need to know:
Collagen is made of three, tightly wound chains. Because of this tight configuration, collagen can handle stress extremely well with high tensile strength (just like your favorite pair of yoga pants).
These chains are made of different amino acids (like all proteins) and provide different functions throughout the body. Thanks to the elasticity and strength of these tightly tied collagen molecules – their biggest function and benefit is providing structure to tissue.
What does collagen do?
Since collagen is the most popular protein in your body, it has a lot of responsibilities (heavy hangs the crown and all that). Big areas like joints and your skin are full of collagen. Tiny areas like blood vessels behind your eyes and in your heart also have collagen. Those 28+ types of collagen fibers are everywhere.
Collagen maintains the structural integrity of tissues – specifically ligaments and the layers of our skin. It plays a vital role in the shape and mechanical properties of molecules that give your skin that lovely plump and maintains movement in your ligaments.
Collagen supports joint and bone health.
You’re probably getting the idea that collagen plays a role in joint health. Collagen is stored in ligaments and tendons to help maintain flexibility, elasticity, and function. This is why watching a toddler and young kids walk around is so mesmerizing – they have perfectly supported joint structures that allow them to move like a body contortionist without ever warming up.
Collagen provides stretch and mobility to ligaments and helps maintain the water content of this useful connective tissue. Ligaments are the flexy tissues connecting two bones together (whereas tendons connect a muscle to a bone). Like most bendable things, keeping them lubricated and mobile is pretty important, and this is exactly what collagen does.
By keeping everything nice and moisturized, collagen allows these ligaments to stretch like Stretch Armstrong without snapping apart. Collagen also provides the juice for the cushiony tissue in between bones. If you’ve heard someone say they have ‘bone on bone’, this is referring to the cartilage tissue loss in between the bones. Cartilage loss happens over time and with overuse, and eventually, these protective barriers become thin and brittle.
In addition to joint support, collagen helps protect against bone loss in an effort to maintain bone strength and integrity. You may not know it, but after you hit your mid-20s (especially women), your body starts to slowly steal calcium from your bones.
When this thievery happens, your bones become less dense and less sturdy. Over time, this contributes to the development of osteopenia and osteoporosis – diseases of bone loss and weakening that can increase your risk of fracture.
Thanks to the scaffolding and stretching abilities of collagen, it helps protect your bones from this indirect loss. While collagen loss doesn’t directly cause osteoporosis (bone loss), it’s important to recognize the role collagen plays in supporting bone health.
Skin benefits of collagen.
Now on to the good stuff – what collagen does for our skin. Just like your joints, the layers of your skin (the dermis) rely on collagen to keep the connective tissue and cells healthy.
Collagen provides structure, stretch, and stability to your skin. Every time you smile, squint, or sneeze, the skin on your face is being stretched and pulled. Thanks to collagen, the layers of skin can bounce back AKA maintaining elasticity.
Over time, as collagen levels decline, wrinkles and fine lines show up. After years of smiles, sun exposure, and free radical damage – the stretch and flex of your skin wear out like your favorite pair of Lulu Lemon’s you just can’t find the heart to toss.
It’s not just the missing Flex Factor that causes wrinkles, it’s the missing water. Remember those tightly wound chains? They help your skin hold onto moisture, giving you that dewy, refreshed look.
Most people think lotion and moisturizers work by putting water back into your skin. But the best moisturizers work by being a barrier. Even though your skin is your biggest barrier, you’re constantly losing water through your skin thanks to evaporative loss.
Barrier creams and moisturizers reduce how much water is lost and helps you hold on to your own moisture to therefore hydrate your skin.
Collagen acts as a natural barrier and over time as collagen (and estrogen for the ladies) decreases, the skin’s overall hydration level starts to drop.
Collagen also affects skin tone and smoothness. Thanks to the antioxidant effects (more on that next), collagen helps keep free radicals away and in turn, keeps discoloration in the form of dark spots away.
Antioxidant effects of collagen.
Collagen is more than molecular Spandex; collagen is a very interactive molecule. Collagen can influence how cells grow and reproduce, protect against mutations in cell growth, and facilitate cell migration.
This interactive nature shows powerful collagen can be. It not only provides flexible scaffolding to your tissues, but it helps protect them from damage and oxidative stress. So, while collagen isn’t considered an antioxidant, it most definitely has antioxidant tendencies. (If you missed our last post about oxidative stress and antioxidants – check it out here.)
Unfortunately, collagen levels decrease as we age.
Your body makes enough collagen to maintain all of its functional needs until you reach your mid-20s. This is when collagen production starts dropping faster than your body can replace it.
Ailments commonly blamed on aging start to appear, including joint aches and pains, fine lines and wrinkles, as well as a decrease in your skin’s water content.
Thankfully, you can find collagen in your diet and with the help of supplements. Whether you choose diet or to add a high-quality supplement, it’s always important to take some time to understand why you should consider taking one. I hope this post has provided some insight into what collagen is and why we need it.
Next week, I’ll be sharing more on how to find collagen (including a fool-proof bone broth recipe!)
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Stephanie Klein is a freelance medical copywriter and licensed Family Nurse Practitioner creating a space where evidence-based research and creativity can have a chat. You can reach her at thekleincreative@gmail.com or contact her through her website.
