What is collagen and what types of collagen are most important for the optimal functions in the human body?
Collagen production is essential for healthy hair, skin, joints, teeth, and muscles. As you age, your collagen levels naturally drop. This can lead to sagging skin, joint pain, and even affect bone health. A collagen booster can be very helpful.
Related: How To Build your Collagen
Collagen is a complex, long-chain protein made up of collagen molecules and is a tight-packed, triple helix protein found in every known mammal. Collagen is considered to be a complex protein. It’s made up of 19 different amino acids and makes up 30% of all of the protein in your body. There are 28 known types of collagen. All types of collagen contain at least one triple helix.
Collagen is everywhere in your body:
- 90% of your sclera (eyes)
- 80% of your tendons
- 75% of your skin
- 60% of your cartilage
- 30% of your bones
- 1 – 10% of your muscle mass
Collagen essentially functions as glue for the entire body. It binds and supports the structure of your skin, muscle tissue, bones, and tendons. Even the word collagen comes from the Greek word “kólla” (glue) and the suffix “- gennao (production).” The word literally translates to glue producing.
Collagen is a big component of the connective tissues that make up things like skin, ligaments, tendons, and muscles. It has many important functions and gives your body structure through your bones and skin.
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What Is Collagen?
Related: Collagen for Healthy Joints, Tendons, and Ligaments
5 Most Common Types Of Collagen
Type I collagen is the most abundant type of collagen and makes up the tendons, ligaments, bones, skin, and arteries.
Type II collagen forms fibrils. These fibrillar make up the main component of cartilage and are imperative for the skeletal system.
Type III collagen provides structure of muscles, organs, and blood vessels. Composed of meshy reticular fibers, type 3 collagen is abundant in the intestines. When type 3 collagen is depleted in the body, it can result in leaky gut and improper digestion.
Related: How to Heal a Leaky Gut & Improve Digestion with Collagen
Type IV collagen lacks the amino acids to form the tight shape, so it turns into a sheet structure. It aids in the filtration of the kidneys and other organs. Type IV collagen are the building blocks in different layers of the skin. These layers of skin often surround our muscles, organs, and fat cells. This unique type of collagen helps form cell surfaces and hair.
Type V collagen is a long, thin collagen fiber found in layers of skin, hair, and most importantly the tissue of the placenta. Type V collagen is often found with type II collagen in joint cartilage.
Benefits Of Collagen
Collagen is the single largest protein source in your body. It is necessary for the proper functioning of your cells, organs, muscles, and tissues. Collagen helps in the development of organs; wound and tissue healing; cornea, gums, and scalp repair. Collagen helps in bone and blood vessel repair. In the cornea, collagen tissue has mechanical and optical properties. It is present in biological functions of the cell such as proliferation, cell survival, and differentiation; so, collagen is present in the human body as a whole in bones, tendons, ligament, hair, skin, and muscles.
The health benefits of collagen include:
- Increases elasticity and smooth skin that looks visibly younger
- Decreases inflammation throughout your body
- Helps prevent Alzheimer’s disease and improves memory retention
- Lowers cholesterol levels and keeps your heart healthy
- Increases your bone density and keeps your bones strong
- Detoxes your body and supports your liver
- Promotes gut health
- Supports joint health and reduce joint pain
- Strengthens hair, skin, nails, and teeth
- Boosts muscle recovery
- Increases energy levels and mood
- Improves metabolism and muscle mass
Related: Health Benefits of Collagen - Muscles, Bones, Hair, Skin, Gut, More
Why Your Body Loses Collagen:
Your body naturally produces collagen, but as you get older your body breaks it down faster than it can produce it. This results in a gradual depletion of collagen and contributes to changes in your joints, skin, and bones that are commonly associated with classic signs of aging. This process starts as early as your 30s.
As well as aging, there are numerous reasons why your collagen levels might start to drop including:
- Smoking
- Too Much Alcohol
- Low Amounts of Vitamin C
- Dehydration
- Lack of Sleep
- Unhealthy diet
- High amounts of processed sugar
- Ultraviolet (UV) rays
- Pollution
- Autoimmune Disease
An enemy of collagen is elastase, a powerful enzyme within our body known to breakdown collagen naturally produced by the body. Research suggests that elastase production may be stimulated by exposure to factors like the sun and the foods we eat. The result of increased elastase activity is the potential degradation of skin strength, elasticity, and downstream impact on skin tone and overall appearance. Healthy levels of collagen may help preserve the elasticity and firmness of youthful skin. (1,2)
Collagen and elastin are needed synergistically. Together, they give skin its shape. Healthy levels of collagen will help preserve elastin during movement.
What Happens When You Lose Collagen in Your Body?
Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body, so when its levels drop significantly as you age, you experience more health issues. Although you can't measure the levels of collagen, the following symptoms are indicators that the protein levels drop:
- Gastrointestinal issues (like leaky gut) because of the thinning of your digestive tract's lining
- Osteoarthritis or joint pain because of worn cartilage
- Weakening or shrinking of muscles
- Less flexible ligaments and tendons
- Wrinkles
- Sagging skin
Collagen supplements have become increasingly popular in recent years to help combat the signs of aging, strengthen hair, skin, and nails, and improve joint health. The majority of collagen supplements you see on the shelves are made from protein found in the cartilage, tissues and hides of animals and fish. Fortunately, there’s a plant-based clean alternative without hooves, hides or horns.
How To Boost Your Collagen Naturally
Collagen contains a specific set of amino acids: glycine, arginine, proline, and hydroxyproline. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and these four amino acids are essential for building collagen levels.
Glycine, arginine, proline, and hydroxyproline aren’t the only nutrients needed for your body to produce collagen. Your body also needs an abundance of vitamin C.
Vitamin C is in many fruits and vegetables such as strawberries, oranges, red bell pepper, and others.
In addition to vitamin C, Lysine is an amino acid found in protein that is essential for collagen synthesis. It is found in beans, lentils, tempeh, and quinoa in larger quantities.
These amino acids are what your body needs to be able to make collagen. Both glycine and proline are conditional amino acids. In other words, if conditions in the body are excellent, the body can make them.
Some collagen-boosting foods include:
- Dark leafy greens
- Mushrooms
- Garlic
- Berries
- Avocados
- Almonds
- Flax seeds
- Berries
- Citrus
- Cashews
- Bell Peppers
Watch the video below from Sunwarrior as Thomas DeLauer goes deep into how collagen is formed and why it is a good idea to take a supplement to encourage collagen production:
The majority of the collagen supplements you see on the shelves are animal-based collagen supplements. These supplements come from the hooves, hides, bones, joints, and ligaments of animals; a by-product of factory farming. These hides would normally be discarded but since they’re a source of collagen, the hides are upcycled and turned into a “health” product.
Top Selling Collagen Products (animal-based)
The vast majority of collagen supplementation on the market is animal-based, which is broken down by your digestive system when eaten. The tightly twisted helix of full-form collagen (from animals) is difficult to break down during digestion and too large to cross the intestinal wall, So, depending on the health of each individual’s digestive system and enzyme functions, some could have issues breaking down the long chain of collagen for absorption.
Popular Best-Selling Animal Collagen
Vital Proteins -
For the die-hard Collagen Peptides fan who’s looking for a little something extra in their routine, this option puts a “boost” in their scoop. Get all of these benefits in a formula that’s now thrice as nice thanks to the addition of hyaluronic acid and vitamin C. In addition to grass-fed collagen, which supports healthy hair, nails, skin and joints, comes skin-loving hyaluronic acid plus vitamin C, which helps promote the body’s natural collagen production and promotes a more youthful appearance.**
Ancient Nutrition by Dr. Axe
Multi Collagen Protein gives you support for your skin, nails, hair, joints and gut with five types of collagen from four food-based sources. Our collagen powder is sourced from non-GMO, pasture-raised, cage-free and cruelty-free sources.
Live-Well Labs
Featuring 5 types of collagen protein, supercharged with biotin and vitamin C, this transformative formula was crafted to take your collagen experience to the next level.
Great Lakes Gelatin Company
Made of one simple ingredient; is a dietary supplement with a beneficial combination of amino acids
