Eating foods that contain vitamin C and antioxidants, avoiding smoking, limiting caffeine intake, and protecting the skin from sunlight may all help preserve collagen or boost its production.
Initial results from collagen restoration treatments are usually visible immediately. However, new collagen growth can take anywhere from four to 12 weeks to complete. Keep in mind that while certain procedures can be very effective at restoring and replacing collagen, these results aren't permanent.
The collagen tissues support the formation of bones, tendons, and cartilage that form depending on the level of mineralization. However, an individual can lose collagen components in the body due to exposure to ultraviolet light, tobacco, excessive intake of sugar, and aging.
Oral supplementation, along with eating foods that either contain collagen or boost your natural production, is the best way to absorb it into your body and increase your collagen levels. Foods that contain Vitamin C are helpful for increasing collagen production.
Vitamin C is an essential part of skin health both as a small molecular weight antioxidant and as a critical factor for collagen synthesis. Vitamin C contributes to photoprotection, decreases photodamage, and is needed for adequate wound healing.
Improvements in skin, nails, muscle and joint health may become noticeable after three to six months of regular collagen supplementation, but results varied across scientific studies.
After daily collagen supplementation for a few weeks, you will typically start to notice a few things: hair growth, skin hydration and skin moisture, improvement in joint health and skin health, lessening of fine lines, and other possible anti-aging improvements.
The good news is, though you may not be able to bring back the lost collagen, there are ways to help get things moving and slow further loss. With the right skin care products and treatments outside and in, there's so much you can do to get back that spring back in your skin.
Just five minutes a day of regular tapping:
encourages lymph drainage which helps eliminate the damage from free radicals; enhances our skin's ability to breathe by improving the flow of oxygen; plumps the face and smoothes wrinkles by stimulating collagen production; normalizes the activity of oil and sweat glands.
Which Fruits Have The Most Collagen? Citrus fruits like oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit are known for being foods high in collagen-producing properties.
The "Classic" Face Massage: One of the most common facial massages practised by beauticians and involves pinching, tapping, stroking and kneading the face and is thought to promote collagen production.
Besides time, three main things will lower your collagen levels: sunlight, smoking, and sugar. Too much exposure to ultraviolet light makes its fibers unravel.
Vitamin C
“Like vitamin A, vitamin C supports collagen synthesis in the body, so combining collagen with vitamin C-rich foods or a vitamin C supplement is a win-win,” says Dr. Josh Axe, D.N.M., C.N.S., D.C., founder of Ancient Nutrition and member of The Vitamin Shoppe Wellness Council.
Because of the high content of specific amino acids, including hydroxyproline-proline and hydroxyproline-glycine, collagen peptides are easily absorbed within the body and improve skin, joint, and bone health.
Your body begins to lose collagen when you turn 30. The effects become noticeable after several years. Even though this is a natural process, it's possible to speed it up with UV exposure, pollution, bad habits, and poor diet choices. While it's possible to accelerate collagen loss, it's also possible to slow it down.
Caffeine suppresses collagen production by preventing cell growth and interfering with the development of cartilage. In turn, this affects the ability to make new collagen and the genes involved in maturing cartilage cells. One study found that caffeine reduces collagen synthesis in human skin.
And with consistent, daily supplementation, the best results are achieved from 12 weeks. As for how long to take collagen supplements, collagen works by replenishing collagen peptides to stimulate its production.
How vitamin D deficiency leads to accelerated skin aging isn't fully understood. However, some experts suspect it has something to do with vitamin D's protective and antioxidant properties on the skin.
Generally, collagen takes about 8 to 12 weeks to see its major results on skin health, joint pain relief and bone strengthening.