What Does Collagen Do?

Collagen has become a popular ingredient in many beauty and cosmetic products in recent years, but do you know why this is the case and what the benefits of it are? Here at Tegoder we’re firm believers of being transparent about the ingredients we use in our products and why we use them, so here’s our rundown of what collagen does and the many benefits it can bring to your health and beauty regime by helping your body - inside and out.

What Does Collagen Do For Your Skin?

Collagen is commonly featured in skin products such as our concentrated facial gel. Collagen is one of the most abundant proteins in the human body - a connective tissue that forms part of tendons, muscles and skin and helps give them structure, it contributes to keeping skin looking youthful and firm.

As a major component of your skin, introducing additional collagen in cosmetics can be beneficial - it strengthens and adds elasticity. As we age, our levels of naturally-produced collagen decline so supplements and creams can help bolster collagen levels to keep skin looking young and firm. Not only this, but wrinkles are reduced and the skin’s natural moisture is replenished.

Collagen supplements and products also have the additional benefit of stimulating your body to produce collagen on its own by activating cells called fibroblasts. In addition to this, they can promote the production of other important proteins that help structure your skin, including elastin and fibrillin.

What Does Collagen Do To Your Hair?

The benefits of collagen aren’t limited to improving your skin. Hair also benefits when the body produces or takes in collagen. Hair is made primarily of keratin, which is constructed from several amino acids. Collagen contains some of these amino acids and when the body breaks down collagen, it can supply some of these acids to help with hair care and repair. The result is more lustrous hair, with reduced brittleness - and as an extra bonus, this applies to your nails as well as your hair.

Because collagen also acts as an antioxidant, it can provide protection and repair damaged hair follicles by eliminating free radicals which can damage the follicles (free radicals are compounds that form in the body as a result of certain lifestyle and environmental factors like smoking, diet and air pollution).

There are also studies that show collagen to be instrumental in preventing hair thinning (although not male pattern baldness) and greying hair.

What Does Collagen Do For Your Gut?

It’s a little-known fact about collagen that it’s not just beneficial to your external elements of your body like skin and hair, but it can help promote a healthy gut as well. As it forms a key part of connective tissue, collagen helps keep internal tissue and your digestive tract in good shape too.

There is a condition known as ‘leaky gut’ where the lining of the intestine is damaged, which means food or waste can pass through the membrane and into the bloodstream where it can cause inflammation and other problems such as IBS. The amino acids collagen contains can help promote a healthy gut and reduce the risk of these conditions.

What Does Collagen Do For Your Joints?

Collagen forms an important part of cartilage which acts as a barrier between your bones and helps them move smoothly against each other. When cartilage is damaged or wears away with conditions like osteoarthritis, the bones rub together, causing pain in the joints.

While additional collagen cannot repair or restore cartilage, some studies have shown that people suffering from joint pain have seen reduction in symptoms when taking collagen supplements. It has been suggested that the additional collagen can reduce inflammation, although the evidence for this is not as strong as the benefits of collagen in other areas. However, it is worth trying collagen to see if it helps. There is no suggestion that it can have any detrimental effect.

What Are The Benefits of Collagen Supplements?

Collagen supplements have been shown to help reduce the reduction in bone density that occurs as we age. Studies have shown that women who took collagen supplements for 12 months had a 7% increase in bone mineral density compared to those who didn’t.

We stock a range of collagen-based supplements, including our B45 Collagen Pure With Maqui Extract And Hyaluronic Acid Drink. This supplement is formulated to treat the signs of skin and joint ageing with a composition that goes further than collagen. B45 Collagen Pure is based on hydrolised marine collagen of the highest quality, and hyaluronic acid which helps your skin and joints to stay healthy.

Similar to the bone density study, people who took collagen supplements had a corresponding increase in muscle mass compared to those who didn’t have the supplement but took part in the same exercise regimen. The reasoning for this is, as the most common protein in the body, collagen plays an important function in the structure and formation of muscle tissue.

This rationale extends to other tissue in the body such as blood vessels and arteries, so collagen can help promote a healthy cardio-vascular system and heart, reducing the risk of heart and vascular conditions in later life.

So collagen, as one of the main building blocks in our bodies, has many benefits and as we age, additional collagen can help to improve skin, hair, gut and joint health. If you’d like to explore our range of collagen products, simply head to our homepage and search for ‘collagen’ in the search bar at the top. You’ll find over 40 products, from moisturiser and eye cream, to tonic lotion and anti-ageing products for clients 50 years and older.