Healthier Looking Skin with Collagen Restoration

If you are conscious about your skin, then you must have heard about the term collagen. From supplements to face creams, collagen is everywhere, and you must be wondering what they may do to your skin. Here, we are going to discuss about collagen and its relation with our skin.

What Collagen is?

Collagen is a natural protein that makes around 1/3rd of total protein composition in your body. It makes around 75-80% part of your skin, due to which it is obvious that it plays an extremely important role in affecting the way you look and age. Elastin is another skin protein that works along with collagen to ward off wrinkles and fine lines. As you age, your body starts producing less collagen and you need to fix it with supplements.

Importance of Collagen for Skin

Now that you know the importance of collagen for skin, as we age and collagen diminishes, the skin starts sagging and losing its firmness. Earlier, wrinkles were visible only when you smiled or frowned, but now they stay on your face all the time. This is when boosting your collagen levels becomes important. Collagen is also related to reducing the depth of your eye wrinkles and improving your skin’s elasticity. But when your natural collagen production has ceased, there are ways to revive it. Let’s have a look.

Ways to Boost Collagen Production

While aging is not under our control, there are certain lifestyle choices that can boost collagen production, or at least slow down collagen loss in our body. Some of them are:

• Keeping skin safe from pollution and environmental pollution, as free radicals and pollution can reduce production of collagen and affect skin elasticity adversely
• Cutting down on sugar consumption, as sugar increases AGEs (Advanced Glycation End Products) rate that weakens collagen, damages surrounding proteins, and makes the skin brittle and dry
• Minimizing sun exposure, as UV rays cause damage to the natural collagen in your skin, thereby breaking it down, creating abnormal fibers of elastin, and forming wrinkles
• Quitting smoking, as tobacco smoke damages elastin and collagen, and nicotine restricts oxygen supply to the blood vessels
• Eating collagen rich foods that can replenish lost collagen in your skin, such as aloe vera, ginseng, cilantro, algae, etc. 
• Increasing vitamin C intake through foods such as kale, oranges, strawberries, broccoli, red peppers, Brussels sprouts, etc.

Advanced Procedures to Restore Skin Collagen

If the situation has gone out of hand and it is not possible to control with food and lifestyle changes, then there are multiple advanced procedures that can restore your skin collagen. Such procedures include micro-needling, light therapy, ultrasound, radiofrequency, bee venom facial, and others. 

If you have started developing wrinkles, then talk with your dermatologist and let them assess your skin condition. If they diagnose lack of collagen as the reason for your problem, then follow their instructions to restore your collagen levels, or go through the procedures suggested by them. These days, collagen supplements can also prove to be helpful for the purpose.