Collagen Premium

Collagen Premium 

What is Collagen?

Collagen is a protein found throughout your body - it’s actually the body’s most plentiful protein and there are five main types of collagen:

Type I

Type II

Type III

Type IV

Type V

Each type of collagen has a different function, including growing new cells, forming tissues, and even protecting your organs. In addition to providing support and structure to your skin, collagen also helps to form the structure of your bones, muscles, and cartilage.

The body produces all this collagen on its own, but factors like your age and the foods you eat can affect both healthy collagen production and maintenance. To shed light on the different types of collagen and how you can boost your body’s supply, let’s examine collagen a little closer.

How Collagen Proteins Function

You can find proteins like collagen in every cell of the human body. Different proteins perform different functions for your body, and the role of collagen is particularly unique. To fully understand collagen’s role in the body it’s helpful to first understand how proteins function.

Proteins are like your body’s workhorses. These crucial molecules help the body to:

Fight harmful bacteria and viruses

Support cell growth and regeneration

Transmit signals from the brain to receiving organs

Transport molecules and nutrients throughout the body

Amino acids form the building blocks of proteins. These organic compounds enable vital proteins to carry out their important bodily functions.

Collagen’s skin-replenishing properties come from three main amino acids:

Proline

Glycine

Hydroxyproline

Through the synthesis of these three amino acids, the collagen protein can function like a mattress’s springs—shaping the body while maintaining skin elasticity and bounce.

Collagen’s Roles

The ways collagen supports your body can vary depending on which body part or organ you look at. But as a whole, collagen performs five key roles:

Helps replace dead skin cells – Your body’s skin cells are in a perpetual process of decay, rebirth, and regrowth. To enable this process, collagen helps the body replace dead skin cells to make room for new active cells.

Give structure and elasticity to the skin – Collagen plays a pivotal role in strengthening and structuring the skin, which means that having more collagen can improve the skin’s elasticity. Highly elastic skin is beneficial for several reasons, including helping with wrinkle prevention and making skin less susceptible to damage.

Covers the organs – Collagen plays a vital role in protecting the organs by covering them. Without collagen’s protective shield, the organs would be more exposed to internal and external bodily threats.

Helps the blood to clot – Blood clotting prevents you from losing too much blood when your body is injured. It also prevents harmful bacteria from entering exposed wounds. Collagen helps your blood clot by attracting platelets to damaged blood vessels.

Helps fibroblasts form – Fibroblasts are cells that help the body produce connective tissue. They are essential for cell regrowth and maintenance. Collagen can enable the formation of fibroblasts, assisting in the growth of skin cells.

Where is Collagen Found?

Since collagen is a protein tasked with structuring and supporting the body, you will primarily find it in the body’s structural components. These include:

Muscles

Bones

Ligaments

Cartilage

Tendons

Connective tissue

Collagen is also in your blood and intestinal lining. In these parts of your body, collagen is an essential part of cellular communication and repair.

Five Main Types of Collagen

As we mentioned before, the majority of your body’s collagen is comprised of five main types:

Type I

Type I collagen is primarily responsible for helping structure the body’s skin, bones, and cartilage. It is by far the body’s most produced collagen type. If you read or hear people talking about collagen in the context of healthy hair, skin, or nails, they are most often referring to Type 1 collagen.

Type I collagen also helps improve the skin’s elasticity and form the structure of your teeth. Type I collagen’s other roles include:

Bone tissue engineering

Bone strength enhancement

Cellular regrowth and regeneration

Type II

Type II collagen is found almost entirely in the cartilage of your joints, like knees, elbows, hips, and shoulders. It is similar to Type I collagen in its ability to strengthen connective tissues. As a result, Type 2 collagen is essential for your body’s mobility.

The primary benefits of Type II collagen include:

Improves joint functioning – Type II collagen is particularly important for the structure of your joints. This is because Type II collagen supports the cartilage between joints, which enables your range of movement, helping to prevent joint pain.

Helps athletic performance – The amino acids that form Type II collagen also help to form creatine. A powerful organic compound, creatine helps the body increase energy and muscle growth.

Promotes cartilage health – Although cartilage primarily covers your joints, it also creates a good portion of your nose and ears. Type II collagen promotes cartilage health and helps give shape to these two essential organs.

Given Type II collagen’s cartilage-strengthening capabilities, having plenty of this collagen type can ensure joint health, aiding those with joint diseases and conditions, including:

Osteoarthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis

Morning stiffness

Joint inflammation

Type III

Type III collagen is secreted by fibroblasts, the cells that help to form the reticular fibers and connective tissue in your skin. These collagen fibers can help promote skin health by improving hydration and elasticity. It can also help improve gut and arterial health, as well as strengthen the lining of your intestines.

Although Type III collagen only makes up 5–20% of your body’s collagen, this type plays a significant part in blood clotting and wound healing. Type III collagen also helps with:

Cell adhesion

Tissue development

Gene expression

Signal transmissions

Type IV

Type IV collagen is found primarily within your skin’s basement membrane zone (BMZ).

The BMZ is a layer of skin that connects the epidermis (your skin’s top layer) to the dermis (your middle layer of skin). The BMZ also allows for the transmission of nutrients between the epidermis and dermis. Without Type IV collagen’s stabilizing power, the epidermal-dermal relationship wouldn’t be possible.

Thanks to its location in the BMZ, Type IV collagen is responsible for skin strength, regeneration, and skin cell stabilization.

Type IV collagen can also help:

Heal wounds

Shape tissue and organs

Enhance tissue and organ functionality

Type V

Type V collagen is the body’s least prevalent collagen type - however this protein still plays an important role in the body’s cellular functions. Type V collagen specifically helps with:

Eye health and development – Type V collagen contributes to several eye components including the cornea, the sclera, and the vitreous humor.

The placenta – During pregnancy, Type V collagen aids in the development of a healthy placenta for the fetus.

Hair follicles – Although Type V collagen doesn’t constitute the makeup of hair follicles, it does coat the area around the follicles.

Insulin production – To secrete insulin, the pancreas relies on Islet cells. Type V collagen supports these insulin-mediating cells.