Collagen supplements are becoming popular day by day.
Along with athletes and sports individuals, common people are also opting for collagen supplements and including that in their regular diet.
The users are stating that their collagen consumption is helping them with younger-looking and healthier skin along with improving their joint health. With age, our body reduces the production of collagen.
But collagen is one of the vital proteins in our body that plays a huge role in maintaining skin and joint health. It means that with aging, the collagen has to be replaced by outsourcing in the body.
And this is the reason why collagen supplements are becoming popular.
What Is Collagen?
Collagen is a family of proteins that are found in the body and provides most of our connective tissues’ study crucial components, such as;
- Cartilage,
- Tendons,
- Ligaments,
- Skin.
33% of all the proteins in our bodies are the collagen family. Different types of collagen are there. The exact number of 16. However, 90% of all the collagen in our bodies comes from only Type I and III.
By assembling collagen fibrils from 3 types of amino acids, collagen is formed naturally in our body. Those 3 amino acids are- glycine, hydroxyproline, and proline. Just like muscle tissues, all those fibrils are bundled in larger groups in order to make collagen fibers.
To keep it simple, collagen has a cable-like structure, which is composed of several smaller protein bundles. It offers collagen much of its physical properties along with superb tensile strength.
The Science of Collagen Supplements
From other foods in our diet, we can always make the amino acids necessary to make more collagen. However, studies have found that consuming dietary collagen is far more effective for replacing the required collagen instead of making collagen from other sources.
Along with offering your body more amino acids, when you are consuming collagen, all those dietary collagen also tells particular cells in your skin to produce more collagen. When you are consuming sufficiently large amounts of collagen supplements, this has been seen.
15 grams of collagen is considered the most suitable amount for the same purpose.
Over the last few decades, collagen supplements have been studied, and in two main areas, they show good evidence to suppose collagen supplementations.
They are skin and joint pain.
Skin
It is really crucial to understand how the skin works and how it maintains itself. Well, regarding collagen, it is the most abundant protein in a component in the skin that is known as the extracellular matrix.
It is responsible for providing skin with its overall structure and also keeps it youthful and smooth when humans are young.
Now we know that collagen is a form of protein, and like other proteins that are present in our body, collagen is also in a state of constant turnover, and that is why they also need to be replaced.
It has been seen that collagen supplements can actually increase collagen production in our bodies. So, we can say that collagen supplementation might improve skin appearance and quality by increasing the production of collagen.
Several studies and trials have found that collagen supplements can improve the skin’s health by improving elasticity, hydration, and wrinkling. In addition to that, systematic reviews have also supported the use of collagen for a number of aspects of skin health.
Along with helping in improving skin elasticity and hydration, some reviews also have found that collagen supplementation plays a significant role in wound healing.
Joints
We all have learned in high school that collagen is among the primary proteins in our joint connective tissue, along with another similar protein named elastin. In some people, the loss of collagen is one of the common reasons.
Along with that, it has been hypothesized that collagen supplementation might improve joint pain. A number of trials have examined the efficiency of collagen supplementation on joint pain in different types of populations.
In a trial that was conducted with college-aged athletes, it was found that 24 weeks of 10 mg per day collagen supplementation improved joint pain, particularly knee pain. Another trial has found that 13 weeks of collagen supplementation have significantly improved pain associated with osteoarthritis.
Meta-analysis and systematic reviews also support the consumption of collagen supplements for joint pain, particularly in the case of osteoarthritis. One meta-analysis has found that the use of collagen supplements can be clinically meaningful and statistically significant in joint pain that is associated with osteoarthritis.
Final Talks
Although users are stating that they are being benefited from collagen supplementation, still a lot of research is required. Studies are indeed showing great results of collagen supplements in both skin and joints.