Yes, you can take collagen forever. Collagen is a protein that is found in the connective tissues of animals. It is responsible for giving our skin its strength and elasticity. As we age, our skin begins to lose its collagen, which can lead to wrinkles, sagging skin, and dryness.
Collagen peptides have been safely used in doses up to 10 grams daily for up to 5 months. Side effects are rare.
Collagen supplements on average 3-4 times per year for most types of collagen. But with hydrolyzed collagen, you can continue to supplement for many years with the recommended dose to maintain the desired effect.
According to Pam Hartnett, MPH, RDN, “Collagen is generally considered a safe supplement to day daily. In fact, most studies that found a benefit to collagen supplementation looked at consistent daily intake and none of these studies found significant side effects.”
If you stop taking collagen for a couple of days there will not be any significant effects. However, research shows that if you stop taking the supplement completely the benefits will slowly disappear and your skin will return to its original state.
Research shows that taking 2.5 to 15 grams daily of hydrolyzed collagen is safe. A smaller dose benefits your joints and skin, while a larger amount may help with body composition and muscle mass.
Are there any health risks to taking collagen supplements? Collagen supplements are generally made from connective tissue, bones and other parts of cows, pigs, chicken and fish. They can contain toxins and heavy metals that could be harmful.
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. Results may take longer depending on personal factors including age, nutritional status and overall health.
When you have too much collagen, your skin can stretch, thicken, and harden. It also can cause damage to internal organs, such as the heart, lungs, and kidneys.
To reap the benefits for skin health, the research recommends that you take between 2.5 to 5 grams of collagen per day (2). This amount is shown to increase skin elasticity and hydration in elderly women while reducing the depth of existing skin wrinkles in middle-aged women.
You may choose to begin taking collagen as early as your twenties or wait until your natural collagen levels start to decline a little more at menopause. Although it's never too late to begin collagen supplementation, people with certain lifestyle habits and choices might benefit from starting sooner.
Production starts to dwindle in our mid-to-late 20s and early 30s and we start losing 1% of our collagen per year after that. By 40, collagen drops dramatically, leading to signs of aging such as wrinkles, skin sagging, skin drying and loss of energy.
Collagen is a protein that serves as one of the main building blocks for your bones, skin, hair, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. "Collagen is what keeps our skin from sagging, giving us that plump, youthful look," says dermatologist Dr. Ohara Aivaz.
Furthermore, oral intake of collagen enhances the moisture content of the skin, especially the stratum corneum, as well as the elasticity of the skin, reducing wrinkling and roughness [37].
Does collagen work? Some studies show that taking collagen supplements for several months can improve skin elasticity, (i.e., wrinkles and roughness) as well as signs of aging. Others have shown that consuming collagen can increase density in bones weakened with age and can improve joint, back and knee pain.
Some research has found that taking daily collagen powder could help make your bones denser, slowing the aging process that makes them brittle and helping your body to produce new bone. Skin elasticity and hydration. Collagen supplements have been shown to improve skin hydration and elasticity for older people.
However, the answer to this question is that taking collagen does not cause weight gain. The only way to gain weight is if you take in more calories than you burn and collagen doesn't contain too many calories. In fact, each pack of Absolute Collagen contains only 32 calories per 10ml serving.
Taking collagen can help because it is rich in glycine, an amino acid that has enormous healing and detoxification capabilities for the body. Glycine helps reduce damage as your liver processes toxins. This study even showed that glycine reduces liver damage and provide a protective effect on the liver long-term.
Collagen might make you feel bloated, queasy or full as your body's stomach acids break it down to amino acids. This usually passes except for rare cases. You are likely feeling these symptoms because you body is not used to the amino acids found within it.
So how long does it take for collagen to start working? Tangible results for skin, hair and nails are seen in as soon as four weeks. And with consistent, daily supplementation, the best results are achieved from 12 weeks.
Since collagen supplementation has been shown to increase the body's collagen production, it would make sense that collagen supplementation may improve skin quality and appearance. Randomized trials have found that collagen supplementation can indeed help by improving hydration, elasticity, and wrinkling.
Sugar interferes with your body's ability to repair itself. It also diminishes Collagen reserves at a faster rate. Minimise your consumption of any added sugar, especially refined sugars.