It is easy: A lack of collagen causes wrinkles. However what does collagen need to do with pores and skin growing older, anyway? Nicely, let’s not overlook that your pores and skin is made up of collagen. It is an important a part of the construction of our pores and skin, bone, cartilage, and muscle that helps tissues to be extra elastic and stand up to stretching (so, for instance, it retains pores and skin trying younger and supple).

Whilst you do make your very personal provide of collagen naturally, it declines as you age. Beginning in your 20s, collagen ranges lower about 1% every year1 (we all know—a lot earlier than anticipated). Plus, different way of life and environmental elements can scale back your collagen manufacturing, similar to solar injury, high-sugar diets2, stress, and extra—you’ll be able to examine all of them right here.

So when your collagen begins to degrade at a faster charge than you naturally produce it, whether or not that is attributable to environmental modifications or age, that is when your pores and skin’s elasticity and tightness develop into compromised (amongst different full-body results). 

The reply: Whilst you cannot apply collagen to your pores and skin and count on it to replenish your inside financial institution, you can ingest it. Particularly, hydrolyzed collagen peptides have been proven to assist promote the physique’s pure manufacturing of collagen1 and different molecules that make up the pores and skin, like elastin and fibrillin—so hold an eye fixed out for “hydrolyzed collagen peptides” in your product labels.

Undecided the place to look? Here is a curated record of the 9 finest collagen dietary supplements available on the market, (all backed by a diet Ph.D.) to get you began.