Besides time, three main things will lower your collagen levels: sunlight, smoking, and sugar. Too much exposure to ultraviolet light makes its fibers unravel. This can lead to sun damage, such as wrinkles. Many of the chemicals in cigarette smoke can damage it, which can make skin sag and wrinkle.
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.
Crackers, cookies, cereal, pasta, bread and baked goods contain sugar and chemicals that are damaging to collagen molecules, thereby diminishing the quality of the tissue, and can erode the quantity of your collagen as well.
What Hurts Your Collagen Levels? Besides time, three main things will lower your collagen levels: sunlight, smoking, and sugar. Too much exposure to ultraviolet light makes its fibers unravel. This can lead to sun damage, such as wrinkles.
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.
So caffeine is a collagen killer and we should steer clear? Not exactly. "It's worth remembering that coffee doesn't destroy collagen, it inhibits its production," says nutritional therapist at the Pulse Light Clinic, Lisa Borg.
Free radicals damage collagen — “they are our skin's enemy,” says Dr. Zeichner. Environmental factors (like UV rays or pollution), bad lifestyle habits (smoking), and a poor diet (for example, one high in sugar) all create free radical formation, which speeds collagen breakdown.
Lack of vitamin C decreases transcription of pro-collagen. Additionally, a lack of ascorbic acid leads to epigenetic DNA hypermethylation and inhibits the transcription of various types of collagen found in skin, blood vessels, and tissue.
Caffeine inhibited collagen biosynthesis in a dose-dependent manner. The mechanism of this process was found at the level of prolidase activity.
Beef, Pork, Poultry, Eggs, and Fish
Since collagen is in the skin, bones, tendons, and ligaments of animals and fish, then it makes sense to eat them if you want a diet rich in collagen.
As vitamin C deficiency progresses, collagen synthesis becomes impaired and connective tissues become weakened, causing petechiae, ecchymoses, purpura, joint pain, poor wound healing, hyperkeratosis, and corkscrew hairs [1,2,4,6-8].
You can naturally support the collagen production process by using topicals such as vitamin C and retinol, collagen peptide supplements, eating a nutrient rich diet, and avoiding habits that damage the collagen (such as poor sleep and sun exposure.)
Vitamin C has an essential role in connective tissue healing, being a cofactor for prolyl hydroxylase and lysyl hydroxylase.
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.
Which Fruits Have The Most Collagen? Citrus fruits like oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit are known for being foods high in collagen-producing properties.
No organ produces collagen. It's all about the fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are cells that live in all of our connective tissues that are dispersed throughout the body. Because they make collagen, and collagen holds all our cells together (see: What is Collagen?), fibroblasts are the unsung heroes of multicellular life.
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.
Osteoporosis, like skin ageing, is caused by collagen loss which is reversible.