Are you a skincare buff? I don’t know about you but I sure am! When you begin building
a basic skincare routine, you’re likely to come across this one word a lot. Collagen!
It’s the most common protein found in your body and is responsible for giving
you a youthful appearance. When your skin has a healthy level of collagen,
it’s not only glowing and youthful but stronger.
This might make you wonder if you can boost collagen production naturally, and the answer
is yes. You just need to make the right dietary choices. In today’s video, we are going to discuss
the top vitamins you need to boost collagen. Why is vitamin C so important? What about glycine?
We’ll talk about all of these AND more…
(Pause) Begin your healthy skin journey with Vitamin A
Vitamin A can help reduce wrinkles. Most skin care products that claim to remove age-related effects
from your skin have retinoids in them. Retinoids are drugs that are derived from vitamin A.
It is important to have enough vitamin A in your body as it can improve the production of
new blood vessels which makes your skin brighter. Retinoids can also decrease the fine lines on your
skin by raising collagen production. If you have age spots on your skin,
vitamin A-based retinoids can help remove them or at least help them fade away.
Retinoids can also help get rid of rough patches on your skin by softening the area.
Retinol is one of the more popular skincare ingredients you’ll find on the market that’s
based on vitamin A. Instead of removing dead cells, they get into the middle layer of your
skin and remove the free radicals. This can, in turn, boost the collagen and elastin. Retinol
can also help treat acne, exfoliate the surface of the skin improving texture and skin tone too.
Vitamin A is undoubtedly great for your skin and health, but what about supplementing
other water-soluble vitamins like the B-complex? Is it good for your skin?
Let’s find out. (Pause)
You need to watch your Vitamin B intake if you want healthy skin
B-complex vitamins can improve the health of your skin.
These vitamins are water-soluble and are available as supplements.
Research has shown vitamin B could help your body produce new and healthy skin cells.
Vitamin B can also be very effective when applied directly. So, if you’re using any
skincare products, you may want to check the label to see if it has B vitamins.
Vitamin B-3, in particular, can help remove signs of aging. It can also remove any
discoloration as well as age spots. Women who have used prenatal vitamins with folic acid
reported improvements in their skin and hair. Folic acid is specifically helpful when it comes
to collagen production. Collagen levels go down as you grow older, which causes your skin to sag.
But using B vitamins that have folic acid can help keep your collagen levels up.
Vitamin B5 can also help with skin aging and gets rid of acne. People who took vitamin B5
supplements reported a significant reduction in skin inflammation as well as acne. And it’s
not just supplements that give you the necessary B vitamins. You can also get them through foods like
eggs, nuts, meat, and seafood. (Pause)
Next up on our list is Vitamin C Vitamin C is very important for the synthesis
of collagen. People cannot produce vitamin C on their own, so they need to get it from food.
While uncommon these days, a severe deficiency in vitamin C, could leave you with scurvy.
You need to include foods rich in vitamin C like broccoli and citrus fruits in your diet.
Bell peppers are an awesome source, too. Although
grains don’t have vitamin C naturally, many breakfast cereals are fortified.
When you get vitamin C, your body converts the amino acids into collagen. Vitamin C also works
as an antioxidant getting rid of any free radicals that may increase the aging of your cells.
Oxidative damage due to free radicals is one of the main causes of premature aging of the skin.
Taking vitamin C supplements can improve your skin health as well as slow down the process of skin
aging. Collagen even helps the healing process. You should moderate your intake of vitamin C
and keep it to 30 to 180 milligrams per day to get around 90% of the absorption from your body.
Vitamin C also works well as a skin moisturizer. Most skincare formulas that have vitamin C
improve the smoothness of the skin within three hours of application.
They also improve the skin’s moisture levels. Ok let’s get to the one you’ve been waiting
for. We all know vitamin E is great for the skin. But does this have anything to do with collagen?
Time to find out. (Pause)
Vitamin E is more beneficial than you think Vitamin E is also an antioxidant,
similar to vitamin C. It can help slow down the aging process caused by free radicals.
You can take vitamin E supplements or get it in foods like mangoes, nuts, and spinach.
Most skincare products on the market likely have vitamin E in them.
Research shows vitamin E was able to prevent skin scarring. If you have atopic dermatitis,
then vitamin E can be helpful. Atopic dermatitis is when the skin becomes dry, itchy and inflamed.
Using a topical cream that contains both vitamin D and E can help get rid of the condition.
There are also some indications that vitamin E can help with healing. This is especially true
when combining vitamin E with vitamin C and zinc. If you’re suffering from sores or acne,
vitamin E can help get rid of them. (Pause)
Moving on, zinc is another nutrient you need to focus on
If you expose your skin to sunlight for too long, it can cause photoaging and create dark spots.
You need to use sunscreen, but make sure it has zinc in it. Zinc oxide can reflect the
sun’s rays so that they don’t affect your skin and prevent any early signs of aging.
When there is too little collagen, your skin starts to age faster and begins to sag.
Zinc can help as it improves the production of collagen and elastin in your body.
This makes sure the underlying skin remains undamaged and keeps wrinkles and blemishes away.
Zinc can also help with the healing wounds as well. The mineral has antioxidants and
anti-inflammatory properties. It helps repair your skin and brings down any redness or inflammation.
The mineral also keeps your skin moisturized and hydrated. When you grow older,
the moisture in your skin goes down. Zinc can prevent this water loss from happening and is
especially helpful for people with dry skin. Zinc, vitamins A, B, and C- are all nutrients you
can easily get from your diet as well. But what about specific collagen supplements? Do they work
or are they just gimmick? Let’s check it out. (Pause)
Collagen peptides do more than just give you beautiful skin
Collagen peptides are supplements that help your body get back the collagen it has lost.
Since the collagen levels drop as you go older, the skin gets saggy and develops wrinkles.
Collagen peptides can replenish your body’s collagen so that the skin can become firm again
and make you look slightly younger. You can get collagen peptides in both pill and powder forms.
Usually, they are made of beef or pork, but marine peptides made from fish scales are also available.
Collagen also helps keep your joints stretchy so that they don’t creak.
When your body loses collagen with age, your joints start to hurt. Collagen peptides can
help you protect your ligaments and tendons so that you don’t suffer these joint pains.
As you grow older, the chances of osteoporosis are higher, because of a decrease in collagen.
Collagen peptides can stop that from happening.
(Pause) Last on our list is glycine
Glycine is the main amino acid found in collagen. You’ll be surprised to know
every third to fourth amino acid in collagen is glycine. This is how important it is! You
can get glycine from supplements but there are even better natural food sources. Seeds, turkey,
and chicken are excellent options. Peanuts, canned salmon, and granola are also great.
Besides boosting collagen, glycine has some other wonderful health benefits. This amino
acid calms your brain and improves your sleep quality. Your body also needs glycine to make
another powerful antioxidant- glutathione. This antioxidant protects your cells against
oxidative damage caused by free radicals. This means you get to stay young and healthy for a
long time. (Pause)
Looking to know more about healthy skincare? Let’s keep the conversation going with a couple
more skincare-related videos. Shall we? Watch 17 Foods That Are Bad For Your Skin!
You can also try our video on 7 Secrets Dermatologists Would Never Tell You
Go ahead, click one. Or better yet, watch both, and learn more about your skin health.
Are you planning to make sure you get these vitamins? Let us know in the comments below!