Surely more than one friend or relative of yours has told you that she prepares some great shakes to which she adds some collagen powders. And surely he has also told you about it convinced that he has found the solution to all his joint pain problems or to stop the signs of aging. But the reality is very different … We are going to tell you the whole truth about what collagen is, what it is for and what it is not for.
What is collagen for? This is what you have to know
To answer that question we would really have to divide it into two parts first: what is the collagen we have in skin and bones for? And, on the other hand: what is collagen for in the form of a dietary supplement? Lets start by the beginning. "Collagen is a protein that is found naturally in the body, especially in the skin and bones", tells us Dr. Eduardo Fonseca Capdevila, Head of the Dermatology Service of the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de La Coruña. The expert also points out that its main function is to "hold the skin together."
To simplify, we could say that collagen is like an elastic fabric, like a lycra shirt. When in good condition it maintains its shape, but over time it loses it. What is collagen in the skin for, then? To keep it smooth and young, so that it doesn't "fall off". " The decrease in collagen is a manifestation of skin aging. Among the known and preventable causative factors are exposure to ultraviolet light (solar or artificial sources) and the consumption of tobacco and alcohol", says the doctor. The same happens with bones and cartilage, when they have good levels of collagen they are strong and flexible.
With that said, the next question on our minds is whether we can somehow get it back and that's where the new obsession comes in: taking it in the form of supplements. However, this doesn't seem like the best option. According to the doctor, "A rich and varied diet, such as a Mediterranean diet, is enough to maintain normal collagen synthesis" and is that taking it in the form of supplements is of little use. "Collagen molecules are not absorbed in the digestive tract due to their complexity, but are degraded and their elemental components are absorbed separately,so they no longer form the same collagen structure for which they were ingested and do not rebuild again. Nor is absorption through the epidermis possible and if injected they are rapidly degraded, so their effect is temporary. "
So now you know, the next time the topic of collagen comes up in a conversation, you can affirm with all the safety in the world that taking it in supplement form DOES NOT DO ANYTHING, providing all these scientific reasons that the doctor has given us. Better to invest the money in a healthy diet than to spend it on the supplement that is fashionable at all times.
