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Most people interested in maintaining youthful skin and reducing wrinkles have heard about collagen. It's something "they put in expensive creams or inject into wrinkles." Well, there is much more to collagen than that. Collagen is a protein (a biological polymer consisting of amino acids) that serves as a key structural component of connective tissue such as skin, bones, ligaments, etc. Dermis, the inner layer of the skin, contains large amounts of collagen whose fibers form a supporting mesh responsible for skin's mechanical characteristics such as strength, texture and resilience. As any material, collagen is subject to wear and tear: it slowly breaks down over time. Skin cells called fibroblasts are capable of producing collagen. When needed, fibroblasts replace broken collagen fibers with new ones. Unfortunately, as we age the skin's ability to replace damaged collagen diminishes and more gaps and irregularities develop in the collagen mesh. This process eventually leads to wrinkles. Thus, one important target of wrinkle prevention and elimination regimen is to reduce collagen breakdown and increase its supply. This task is achievable but you have to go about it in the right way. Many factors contributing to accelerated collagen breakdown can be fully or partially neutralized. They include sun damage, free radicals, some age-related hormonal changes, and smoking. See other pages of this site and Skin Rejuvenation Infopack for further details. To reduce rather than just cover wrinkles,
new collagen must become a part of the skin's inner layer, the dermis.
Unfortunately, collagen molecules are too large to penetrate into the dermis
when applied to the surface of the skin. Thus, when simply applied onto
the skin, collagen remains locked outside without affecting the skin structure,
at best just temporarily covering wrinkles.
one step forward, two steps back Another common approach to smoothing wrinkles is collagen injections. Collagen is injected in the skin under the wrinkles in such a way that it pushes the groove of a wrinkle up making it less visible. This procedure does have some noticeable cosmetic effect but has a number of serious drawbacks. Collagen for injections usually comes from animals sources. Since it is a foreign protein for humans, injected collagen may be attacked by the immune system, which may lead to a serious allergic reaction. This is not common but it does happen. Furthermore, injections of animal collagen carry a small risk of triggering a long-lasting auto-immune disease. The wrinkle smoothing effect of injections is relatively brief. Although injected collagen cannot escape outside the skin, it still fails to structurally integrate into the skin's own collagen mesh. As a result, it breaks down relatively quickly, which causes wrinkles to reappear. New technologies to resupply wrinkled areas with collagen are emerging. One notable improvement is to inject human collagen produced via biotechnology. The approach eliminates the risk of allergic and auto-immune reactions almost completely. The results are still not very lasting but somewhat less transient than animal collagen. Another ingenuous new technology is to extract a person's own collagen producing cells (skin fibroblasts), grow them in a laboratory and then reinject in areas with wrinkles. The cells begin producing collagen, filling the gaps and smoothing wrinkles. Collagen created by this method is much longer lasting because it is arranged properly in the skin. As was mentioned, aging of the skin shifts the balance between collagen production and breakdown leading to wrinkles, facial sag and rough skin texture. Stimulating skin cells to produce collagen can partly reverse this process. Stimulating collagen synthesis in aged skin was shown to reduce wrinkles and improve skin texture. The benefit of stimulating your own collagen production is that collagen is deposited in an orderly, structured manner and that there is no risk of allergy, immune reaction or injection-induced infection. Furthermore, many ingredients useful in stimulating collagen synthesis are relatively inexpensive and safe. Stimulation of collagen synthesis in aging skin is realistic and can substantially improve the appearance of fine lines and even deeper wrinkles when done correctly. However, it requires a comprehensive approach. Production of collagen is a complex process, not unlike the assembly of an automobile. Many parts and assembly tools must come together to efficiently create a product. Similarly, lots of things are needed to efficiently produce collagen: Vitamin C: Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is essential for efficient synthesis of collagen. Many of the symptoms of scurvy (vitamin C deficiency disease) such as bleeding gums, skin hemorrhages and poor wound healing a due to impaired collagen synthesis. On the other hand, supplying extra vitamin C can accelerate collagen synthesis especially when other key ingredients are also in abundance. While vitamin C is useful for rebuilding your skin's collagen and reducing wrinkles, it could be of no benefit or even harmful if used improperly. Click here for more about the use of vitamin C to treat wrinkles and rejuvenate skin. Key amino acids: Like any other proteins, collagen consists of amino acids (a type of small organic molecules). Altogether there are 20 different kinds of amino acids in human cells. However, collagen is unusually rich in a few particular amino acids. Supplying these key amino acids in abundance helps stimulate collagen synthesis. Copper peptides: Certain minerals are also essential for collagen production. One such mineral is copper. Indeed when the level of copper inside skin cells increases, collagen production goes up. However, copper is a potentially toxic metal. Supplements containing more than RDA for copper (2 mg) should not be taken. Simply applying inorganic copper to the skin would do more harm than good because inorganic copper promotes free radical formation. There is an promising new technology to circumvent these problems. When copper is converted to organic form by binding to peptides (small fragments of proteins) it can be safely applied to the skin. Such copper peptides were shown to promote collagen synthesis and thereby stimulate hair growth and wound healing. They also may prove effective in smoothing wrinkles. Growth factors and hormones: To maximize collagen synthesis in the skin, it is not enough to simply supply cells with all necessary ingredients. Most cells in the body are responsive to a variety of external signals transmitted by signaling molecules such as growth factors and hormones. Some of those signals can switch skin cells into higher gear making them produce more collagen. In fact, one of the reasons why the skin of a child or a young adult produces more collagen than the skin of an older person is that the body's ability to manufacture signal molecules diminishes with age. The good news is that these activators of collagen synthesis can be supplied by topical application. When setting out to battle wrinkles by enhancing collagen production in one's skin, it is important to use a comprehensive approach outlined above, rather than a single active ingredients. (This doesn't have to be more time consuming though.) The difference in results may be a dramatic improvement versus slight, questionable change. Specific recommendations on affordable Collagen Rebuilding Regimen are included in Skin Rejuvenation Infopack . |
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