How To Increase Collagen Production and Combat Aging
There are dozens of reasons to put together a plan for how to increase collagen production. Achy joints, wrinkles, brittle hair and nails, and muscle loss are just a few symptoms of your collagen production slowing down.
For most people, collagen production begins to decrease in your mid-20s. Just this simple fact brings a whole host of questions. What is collagen? Why does collagen decrease? Are there any science-backed tips out there for how to increase collagen production naturally?
Today, we’ll be looking at all these questions, as well as a few things that can negatively impact your body’s natural collagen production.
What is collagen?
Collagen is a protein that our body naturally produces to create and repair structural parts of our bodies like our bones, cartilage, skin, ligaments, and other connective tissues. It provides elasticity to our skin and our joint structures and creates walls for our arteries and blood vessels.
Collagen is one of the most important parts of our structural body, which is why the effects of a decrease in collagen production are so noticeable as we age. Learning how to increase collagen production can help offset the negative effects caused by a collagen slowdown.
Many collagen anti-aging products are applied to the skin, but our body can’t use collagen unless it’s digested. Foods rich in collagen, or in the amino acids your body uses to create collagen, will be much more helpful than any soaps or creams!
Why is collagen production important?
Without enough collagen, our bodies can still function, but we will start to divert collagen that is produced to the most important parts of our body, like our vital organs. That means that our skin, cartilage, and other “less important” connective tissues often get left out, and will not have as much collagen to recover or rebuild.
Putting together a plan for how to increase collagen production can help you avoid a collagen deficiency. Symptoms of a collagen deficiency include brittle hair and nails, sunken cheeks, and bone or joint problems.
Even for people who don’t have a full deficiency, low collagen levels can contribute to slow healing, skin problems, and joint conditions like arthritis.
At what age does healing slow down? And is it directly linked to collagen supply?
Many factors can impact healing, but age is one of them. If you have slow-healing wounds, seek medical care as soon as possible. Increasing your natural collagen production can help, but slow healing can be a sign of other, more serious health problems, as well.
How to increase collagen production naturally: 7 methods
How to increase collagen production will depend a lot on personal needs, including dietary restrictions. Your age, any existing health conditions, and current diet can all play a role in how to increase collagen production.
If you have any concerns about your health, it’s important to speak with a healthcare professional to make sure all your body’s needs are met.
Since collagen is derived from animal sources, vegans and vegetarians will have a much harder time accessing things like collagen supplements to replenish collagen. However, vegans and vegetarians can still use collagen-boosting foods, foods high in vitamin C, and supplements that help the body boost collagen production.
1. Exercise
Exercise isn’t just a great tip for how to increase collagen production, it’s also key in how to slow aging. Exercise increases your blood flow and oxygen intake, as well as your body’s ability to produce collagen, along with many other hormones and molecules it needs.
2. Aloe vera
No one knows why aloe vera is so good for your skin. Multiple studies have shown that aloe can help improve wrinkles and speed healing by helping your body produce more collagen. Why aloe has this effect is still a mystery, but the impact has been proven time and again!
3. Ginseng
There are several different kinds of ginseng, and all of them have been used in medicinal practices around the world for centuries.
When it comes to how to increase collagen production naturally, Sun Ginseng is particularly helpful because of its natural ability to send cell-boosting signals throughout the body.
5. Vitamin A
Vitamin A is one of the most important nutrients for collagen production. Vitamin A is responsible for keeping your vision healthy over time, as well as your immune, digestive, and reproductive health.
Vitamin A can also encourage your body to make more collagen and can help reverse sun damage in the skin.
6. Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a pillar of any longevity diet, and it’s just as important in how to increase collagen production as well. Vitamin C is one of the materials your body uses to synthesize collagen, so getting enough in your diet is crucial to reducing the effects of aging.
7. Collagen supplements
High-quality, medical-grade collagen supplements absolutely have a place in your plan for how to increase collagen production.
Collagen supplements will contain all the materials your body needs to synthesize its own collagen. And medical-grade collagen is held to a higher standard than all other supplements, so you can be sure there aren’t any fillers or other ingredients that might make collagen deterioration worse.
What makes collagen deterioration worse?
Natural collagen production decreases with age, but science is still working to uncover why. Internal factors like DNA repair capacity, oxidative stress, telomere shortening, and other molecular interactions may contribute to the loss of collagen with age.
These internal factors may also only account for a small percentage of collagen production decrease and sun exposure, smoking, air pollution, and other external environmental factors influence collagen loss more dramatically.
Here are a few of the things that can cause natural collagen deterioration to worsen, even if you’re following the best tips for how to increase collagen production. Keep in mind that although everyone’s collagen production decreases, you may lose more collagen more rapidly with increased exposure to some of these external factors.
Too much sugar
Our diets have a lot to do with our collagen production and collagen synthesis. Sticking to a well-balanced nutrient-dense diet is important, making it a cornerstone of any plan for how to increase collagen production.
Refined sugars aren’t very nutrient-dense, and can make it harder for our bodies to produce and synthesize collagen.
Foods with refined sugars usually contain fructose, glucose, or their derivatives – which can lead to glycation. When a protein becomes glycated it means that a sugar molecule was able to bond to it, and the result is a stiff, inflexible molecule.
Glycation produces advanced glycation end products (AGE), and many health professionals will look at a patient's AGE level as an overall marker for health. AGE molecules damage and cause premature aging in normal cells and can lead to oxidative stress.
When eating sugar or high-fat animal products in excess, the AGE molecules stick to collagen proteins in our bodies. Collagen gets weighed down by AGE molecules, causing the collagen to get damaged or stiffen, preventing it from moving around correctly.
Sugar also makes our collagen production less stable over time, because glycation converts collagen into a less stable type of collagen that is more vulnerable.
Tobacco use
Smoking and tobacco use are one of the most damaging external factors that can influence collagen production, especially the collagen in our skin.
Many smokers may notice the skin near their lips is the skin that loosens first over time. That is because the collagen in that area is losing its elasticity.
Smoking can also restrict or reduce blood flow and constrict blood vessels. The lack of proper blood flow can influence collagen production and existing collagen, making the molecules rigid and unusable.
The lack of blood flow, combined with smoking's impact on oxygen transport in the body to tissues, results in even more collagen damage.
Talking with a healthcare provider about quitting can be one of the best tips for how to increase collagen production, especially when combined with steps like a healthy diet and a collagen supplement!
UV damage
UV rays have long been tied to skin damage, and their influence on collagen production in the skin is one of the reasons why. UV rays damage collagen production in the skin in various ways, some of them internal – like DNA damage.
Skin exposure to UV rays can also produce free radicals. Free radicals can seek out and damage collagen molecules, making it hard for them to produce and repair damaged areas.
One way to combat these free radicals is through the ingestion of antioxidants. Using sunscreen isn’t exactly a tip for how to increase collagen production, but it is helpful in preventing extra damage to the collagen your body is producing!
Stress
Stress can have a huge impact on our mental health, but it impacts our physical health as well. Stress is known to increase inflammation for some people, as well as increase hormones like cortisol, which can influence collagen production.
High-stress individuals often produce less collagen because the body is in a fight or flight mode, and most resources are being redirected to focus on the cause of the stress and the inflammation the stress creates.
That leaves less time for the body to produce collagen, and even if it is producing collagen, it likely is being brought to areas experiencing inflammation because of the stress. Seeking mental health help, starting a meditation practice, or finding ways to reduce stress all have a place in your plan for how to increase collagen production.
Increasing your collagen intake to age gracefully
There are so many ways that our natural collagen production is impacted. For some, our genetics work against us, and we naturally produce less collagen. For others, it may be because of environmental factors like growing up in a home with secondhand smoke or a job that requires us to work long hours in the sun.
Whatever the cause, it’s completely normal to wonder how to increase collagen production naturally. The great news is that boosting your body’s supply of collagen can be as simple as adding a high-quality, medical-grade collagen supplement to your daily routine, like ProT Gold.
ProT Gold is a hydrolyzed collagen supplement, which means that it is a collagen peptide protein. Unlike the collagen proteins your body already produces, these collagen peptides go through a process to break them down into smaller pieces, making them more digestible and easier for your body to use.
When your body has a strong supply of collagen, it can build and repair tissue consistently, so you can age gracefully.
