Basics about Collagen
You might have probably heard about Collagen at some point. However, what exactly is collagen? Is it an ingestible product or is it only used for skincare? The answer to the first question would be that collagen is the most abundant form of protein in our body and is the most important building protein we need. Collagen is also found in plants and animals so we can have it in a form of a supplement as well. But the most common form of collagen production would be through our everyday diet, protein-enriched foods like chicken, beef, fish, eggs, and so on, which play a vital role in collagen production in our body. However, we won’t be talking about collagen ingestion today, instead, we will mention how collagen benefits our skincare routine and how we can use it to our advantage.
Benefits
It is essential to maintain a good collagen level in your body. If we cannot maintain this standard on a consistent level, we might start to feel a little stiff, joint pain, and most importantly (for us at least) deteriorating skin. We might start to see cracks or “bubbles” or even wrinkles on our skin because collagen is the main structural ingredient in our middle skin layer (the dermis). The topical application of collagen is beneficial because it helps us revitalize and moisturize our skin. The only unfortunate drawback of topical application of collagen is that it does not help our bodies produce more collagen. The chemistry behind this is slightly boring but the basics that we need to know is that it cannot penetrate the top layer of skin. You might’ve also heard the word “anti-aging” along with collagen. Now reports on the benefits of topical collagen are very different, but while collagen helps moisturize our skin, it doesn’t have any anti-aging properties as such. The topical vitamin C, on the other hand, has been shown to produce collagen in our skin and have anti-aging properties as well.
Drawbacks?
Now, this is the tricky part about collagen. While it is shown to have benefits to our skin in terms of moisturizing and giving our skin a healthy look, the plus point’s sort of ends there. While there are no real drawbacks of collagen as such, there aren’t as many benefits as we were expecting. One can almost think for a second that topical collagen is sort of standing on neutral ground with no drawbacks, but minimal benefits since many other topical products do a much better job with no drawbacks either. I do use topical collagen from time to time because even though my skin might be oily in my face region, my hands and feet do suffer from dryness from time to time (especially in the winter) and that’s when utilizing topical collagen the most. But to conclude, should you use collagen? I would say yes if you have an issue with getting dry skin from time to time.
