Collagen is a structural protein that our body has various uses for ranging from joint, hair, skin, and nails health. Collagen is needed for creating, maintaining, and repairing tendons, ligaments, muscles and our skin.
As we age, our body’s collagen levels get lower which is why issues such as bone and joint pain, thinning hair, lessened muscle mass, and dry and wrinkled skin start to happen.
Fortunately, we don’t have to rely entirely on our body’s collagen production to maintain healthy bones, hair, skin etc. Focusing on the health of our skin, incorporating healthy lifestyle practices that will help promote your body’s collagen production you can prolong your skin’s healthy and youthful appearance.
1. Increase your Vitamin C Intake
Vitamin C is a precursor to collagen. Because our bodies naturally have and synthesize their own collagen, it’s important to replenish nutrients that our body uses to keep up with its own natural functions.
Vitamin C is a key antioxidant that helps keep up our skin’s collagen levels. Vitamin C can be both ingested and applied topically for us to reap its collagen boosting benefits. Vitamin C does this by holding our cells together when our body creates collagen. In fact, without Vitamin C, our body wouldn’t be able to create or store collagen.
Vitamin C is fortunately an easy nutrient to come by. You can find it in most leafy green vegetables, nightshades, and citrus. When applied topically, such as using a fast absorbing product like a vitamin C serum, this already can help your skin replenish lost collagen stores significantly.
2. Limit refined sugars and refined carbohydrates
Processed sugars and refined white grains are metabolized in our body as simple sugars and empty calories which causes our body to have a spike in blood sugar. Putting your body through constant rises and falls in blood sugar is very damaging to the skin as these refined sugars destroy collagen bonds that give skin its plumpness and elasticity.
Enjoying an occasional sugary treat such as a birthday cake shouldn’t leave you feeling guilty, but do keep in mind that regular sugar intake can accelerate aging from skin damage.
Opt instead for healthier alternatives to refined sugars and carbohydrates. Ancient grains such as Quinoa and Amaranth are an excellent fiber-rich replacement for white rice. Coconut sugar, dates, stevia and monk fruit are all-natural sweeteners with a much lower glycemic index that you can easily use to replace with in recipes that call for white sugar.
3. Get enough quality sleep
If you’ve ever wondered how much sleep affects your health, look at yourself in the mirror after a good night’s sleep and compare it with how you look and feel after being sleep deprived. This shows just how much our body needs sleep to repair and replenish itself after the wear and tear of daily life.
Where collagen production is concerned, daily aggressors such as UV rays and pollution slowly accumulate damage on our skin’s outermost collagen fibers. Our body naturally repairs and replenishes these fibers when we sleep, however having poor sleep quality and going through sleep deprivation doesn’t allow your body the much needed restorative rest it needs to replenish collagen stores.
4. Supplement with collagen
One of the easiest ways to increase collagen in your body is by consuming it. Collagen rich foods such as bone broth, grass fed beef, and wild caught seafood are not only nutrient dense, but these protein sources are rich in collagen that your body can easily assimilate.
Alternatively, you can choose to take a quality collagen supplement as well, which many people find more easy to incorporate into a collagen-boosting lifestyle. Whatever collagen supplement you choose, be sure to read the instructions for intake to maximize the collagen’s benefits as certain formulas will specify intake with/without food, to take in the morning/evening etc.
5. Wear SPF daily
As discussed earlier, our skin’s outermost layer of collagen gets damaged from environmental aggressors, particularly from UVA and UVB rays.
This is why wearing SPF daily, rain or shine, indoors and outdoors is perhaps the most universal skincare advice. Protecting our skin from the damaging effects of the sun by wearing a quality SPF will lessen damage and slow down collagen depletion. Boost your skin’s collagen levels naturally with Skin Bright Vitamin C Serum. Combined with the effective skincare benefits of Vitamin C, SKIN BRIGHT Vitamin C Serum also contains Vitamin E to help prevent signs of aging, boost hydration, reduce UV-induced damage, and neutralizes free radicals that damage the skin’s structure.
