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Collagen
What is collagen?
Collagen is a naturally-occurring protein found in your body. It's an essential component as it provides the structural support for your organs, skin, tendons, muscles, cartilage and bones.
In product terms, collagen is found in face creams, lotions and supplements, as well as being used in more invasive procedures such as dermal fillers and other cosmetic injections.
What does collagen do?
In your body, collagen works alongside elastin and keratin to provide firmness and strength to your skin. Over time collagen levels deplete, and this is what causes wrinkles.
Products that contain collagen claim to either directly increase your collagen levels through absorption, injection or, more realistically, to encourage your body to produce more collagen itself.
The topical application of collagen is not going to increase your collagen levels, as these complex proteins are incapable of penetrating your skin. Even if it could, pharmaceutical collagen or collagen derived from plants or animals are the wrong shape and size to bond with naturally-occurring collagen in your body.
Taking collagen supplements is equally ineffectual for similar reasons – collagen has to be made by your body. However, the capsules often contain other ingredients that may encourage collagen production such as rosehip oil and vitamin C.
Injecting collagen will have more effect, but the results vary from person to person and do not last forever. Here at The Good Spa Guide we believe it's best to keep things natural, so encouraging your body to make more of this wonder-stuff gets our vote over preposterous claims of eternal youth or nasty injections!
How does it work?
Promoting collagen production is no mean feat. Nothing is failsafe, and nothing can completely reverse or halt the hands of time. However, there are some things you can do to keep looking (and feeling) younger, that will stimulate your body to produce more collagen, slow down the rate of depletion, or simply keep your skin as fresh and glowing as you can:
* Drink plenty of water
* Eat garlic. Garlic contains sulphur, which helps stimulate collagen production, and also contains taurine and lipoid acid, which provide support to ageing cells.
* Eat kiwis and tomatoes, both of which are high in anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals and proteins that help both protect your skin and encourage collagen production
* Use sun screen – protecting your skin from harmful UV rays will help preserve collagen stocks
* Exercise, eat healthily and keep your alcohol intake to a minimum
* Don't smoke – smoking is scientifically proven to deplete collagen stocks, and reduce vitamin C levels, which are vital for collagen production
* Have a glycolic acid peel – glycolic acid removes dead skin cells and helps stimulate collagen production by increasing the development of fibroblasts – the cells that produce collagen
* Use products that contain retinol, copper peptides, gold and vitamin C
* Drink plenty of water, get plenty of rest and indulge in plenty of smiles!
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