Who has never heard of collagen?
Collagen is a protein that represents about 30% of all proteins in our body, with “miraculous” properties, able to improve the appearance of the skin, strengthen bones and joints.
Depending on the tissue we have different types of collagen, one more elastic in the skin, one more consistent in the nails and one more flexible in the bones.
Collagen production reaches its peak between the first and second decade of life and then inexorably decreases as we age.
The progressive deterioration of tissue collagen is partly due to the slowing metabolism and partly to the greater need for essential amino acids that we are unable to obtain with the diet. In addition to aging, other factors reduce collagen production, including smoking, alcohol, coffee, physical stress, infections, pollution, cold and heat as well as the intake of drugs such as cortisone.
However, this does not mean that taking collagen by mouth, in capsules or in pearls, serves to look younger and more beautiful.
Taking collagen through food or specific supplements is of little use because it is easily broken down in metabolic processes while the body builds it more easily within it, as and when needed, starting from essential amino acids.
Believing that the collagen taken by mouth can enter, as such, to be part of the reserves of the skin, or of the cartilages, is a hoax! Any protein taken by mouth, therefore also collagen, undergoes more than one metabolic step that leads it to be dismantled into the “bricks” of which it is made. These bricks are called Amino Acids.
Only the collagen that is synthesized in the fibroblasts present in the dermis promotes hydration, elasticity and tone of the skin and reduces wrinkles.
To keep collagen synthesis efficient in all parts of the body, it is therefore not necessary to take products based on “collagen” but the substances that are used to produce it: the essential amino acids.
