Eat a balanced diet that includes an adequate amount of protein. “High-protein foods contain amino acids that are critical for collagen synthesis,” says Garshick. Lean protein sources include fish, seafood, skinless chicken breast, and lean cuts of beef and pork.
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.
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.
Exposure to ultraviolet light.
Too much sunlight reduces collagen production and caused collagen to break down more rapidly. Ultraviolet sunlight causes wrinkles. Avoid excessive sun exposure and always wear sunscreen (SPF 30 and higher) when you're outside.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Bone Broth
This tops the list of food sources that contain high amounts of collagen. You can buy bone broth at the grocery store or make it yourself. To make bone broth at home, simply cook beef, pork, poultry, or fish bones in water.
Our bodies gradually make less collagen as we age, but collagen production drops most quickly due to excess sun exposure, smoking, excess alcohol, and lack of sleep and exercise. With aging, collagen in the deep skin layers changes from a tightly organized network of fibers to an unorganized maze.
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.
Ascorbic acid markedly stimulates collagen synthesis without affecting synthesis of other proteins. This effect appears to be unrelated to its cofactor roles for hydroxylation of lysine and proline. Glucocorticoids at microM concentration specifically inhibit collagen synthesis.
Alcohol depletes collagen
Unfortunately, alcohol depletes your body's vitamin levels. Fewer vitamins mean less collagen production. By depriving your body of collagen, alcohol deprives your body of collagen's numerous health benefits, notably the health of your hair and skin.
Quitting or cutting your coffee intake may stop or reverse aging leading to a more youthful appearance. Caffeine slows down the rate your body makes collagen, a protein that both tightens and gives your skin its elasticity.
As a clinical manifestation of severe vitamin C deficiency, scurvy is caused by ascorbic acid's role in collagen synthesis. Collagen type IV is the main constituent of blood vessel walls, skin, and specifically, the basement membrane zone separating the epidermis from the dermis.
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 has an essential role in connective tissue healing, being a cofactor for prolyl hydroxylase and lysyl hydroxylase.
Collagen, according to dermatologist Dr. Anna Palabyab-Rufino, is the building block of protein that gives one baby skin. But due to pollution, stress, sun exposure and other toxins, the body's capacity to produce collagen starts to deplete at age 30.