Dr. Michelle Henry, clinical instructor of dermatology tells Mel that collagen is a hot topic and a question she often gets is what is collagen? Collagen is a protein and is one of the key building blocks in our skin and it’s really critical to our skin’s youthfulness. It’s because it prevents sagging. She says a fun or not so fun fact is that after the age of 20 we notice a 1% reduction in the production of collagen in our skin. This leads to accelerated aging and sagging in the skin. Dr. Henry has four tips to boost your collagen production and preserve the collagen you do have.
Tip one is to try a topical antioxidant. Dr. Henry says sometimes something simple like vitamin C. Don’t forget your daily SPF. It’s absolutely critical to preserving your collagen and that’s because environmental factors like pollution, free radicals and UV can destroy your collagen and elastin which can lead to sagging.
Tip two is to stimulate your collagen using professional grade treatments. She says treatments like lasers, ultrasound treatments, chemical peels, and micro-needling can also really boost your collagen production.
Tip 3 is a little less costly, less invasive and affordable. Invest in daily skincare that contains ingredients called collagen peptides. Dr. Henry says collagen peptides have been shown to boost your skin’s natural production and give you visibly firmer skin.
Tip 4 is to reduce your sugar intake. Dr. Henry says no one wants to hear this but excess sugar intake actually has profound changes on the skin. It crosslinks your collagen fibers and those crosslink fibers makes it really hard for your skin to produce new collagen and produce new elastin and it impairs your skin’s ability to regenerate and heal itself.
Dr. Henry says when we are looking for products, we have to be really smart consumers and read the label, looking for that really special important ingredient, collagen peptides. She says you’ll see plain collagen everywhere. It’s on every product but what a lot of people don’t know about collagen is that the collagen molecule is too large to penetrate the skin so lots of products will contain collagen but it’s really just sitting on top of the skin and that’s why Olay collagen peptides 24 products, in order to really optimize this moisturizer they really created proprietary powerhouse peptide formulation. These small molecules penetrate the skin and boost your natural collagen.
