Before we dive into the amazing benefits of supplementing with collagen I want to go over what collagen is and the important role it plays in our bodies. Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body and is the primary building block of your body’s skin, muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments and other connective tissues. It’s also found in your organs, blood vessels and intestinal lining. It’s specific roles include

  • Helping fibroblasts to form in your dermis so new cells can grow
  • Providing your organs with a protective covering
  • Giving your skin structure, strength and elasticity
  • Helping blood clot
  • Replacing dead skin cells 

As we age our bodies produce less collagen. When we have less collagen in the body we will start to notice wrinkled skin, hallowing around eyes, joint pain, loss in muscle mass, muscle spasms, stiff ligaments and tendons, loss of mobility, GI problems, and blood flow issues. Because our bodies start producing less collagen it can be extremely beneficial to supplement with it. 

Collagen supplements are mainly known for their beauty benefits for your skin, hair and nails (which are all incredible) but today I want to focus on gut health because as you know, gut health impacts everything. Research shows that collagen benefits digestion including bloating!

I personally add it to my matcha or coffee in the morning, which is a win win because you also get some added protein first thing in the morning.

It plays an integral role in rebuilding and strengthening the lining of our digestive tract

Collagen contains the amino acids particularly glycine and glutamine that are essential for its repair. In fact, research has shown that collagen peptides can actually ameliorate gut barrier dysfunction and improve its tight junctions. Gut inflammation is linked to inflammation elsewhere in the body, it’s undoubtedly beneficial to include an abundance of amino acid-rich foods such as collagen in our diet on a regular basis to help reduce gut inflammation and keep conditions such as leaky gut and other autoimmune diseases under control. 

It aids in digestion & nutrient absorption

When we suffer from gut issues like leaky gut it impacts the absorption of nutrients in our body and can create nutrient deficiencies. Collagen helps to support the integrity of the gut barrier. Which means we can help to mitigate this loss of nutrients due to impaired gut function by upping our collagen intake!

It aids in collagen synthesis

Our bodies naturally produce collagen but as I touched on earlier, our bodies produce less collagen as we age. That is why it’s important to consume enough of the amino acids required to build, store and synthesize collagen. Some foods that help with this are: animal proteins (including bone broth), eggs, dairy, etc. A collagen supplement could be super beneficial as well.

I personally take a collagen supplement every single day and have experienced a huge difference in my gut, skin, hair, nails and joints! One thing I didn’t expect was that any joint pain I had disappeared when I consistently took collagen. My favorite high quality collagen is Ancient Nutrition and you can use code HAPPYBALANCEDLIFE to save some money.