What is collagen? Does collagen help you lose weight? How does the body use collagen? | Health Tips
While you've definitely noticed collagen-containing skincare and haircare products on the shelf, you may not have considered collagen's other possible advantages. Although collagen won't suddenly melt body fat, it can support healthy weight loss and post-workout recovery in a number of ways.
The most prevalent protein in the human body, collagen is responsible for giving our bones, cartilage, tendons, connective tissue, muscles, and skin structure. In a sense, collagen is the building block of our bodies. With exogenous collagen (synthetic collagen from outside the body) being used in many skincare products, it has been heralded as an anti-aging superstar. As we age, our bodies produce less endogenous collagen, which affects the flexibility of our skin, the health of our joints, and how quickly wounds heal.
What is collagen ?
The body produces enough of collagen, a protein that is also utilized synthetically to treat osteoarthritis, promote wound healing, and even make dermal fillers. However, what other uses does collagen serve, and how does the body utilize this protein normally?
The fundamentals are provided by Brian Carson, PhD, co-founder of Whole Supp and lecturer in the University of Limerick's department of physical education and sport sciences. He explains that collagen is a type of protein that is present in connective tissues such as skin, bone, tendons, and ligaments. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and collagen is a protein like any other. With regard to essential amino acids, collagen tends to be low in content and high in glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline.
Does collagen help you lose weight ?
So where does losing weight fit in? According to a study published in the International Journal of Medical Sciences(opens in new tab), supplementing with collagen hydrolysate prevented weight gain in menopausal women who had undergone an ovariectomy, despite the fact that the treatment often causes weight gain. Despite the study's narrow focus, it offers hope for collagen's potential role in weight loss.
"No published clinical trials have assessed the effect of collagen on weight control or weight loss," says Carson, who claims that there isn't any solid proof that it can. Consuming collagen would only have incidental impacts on controlling weight.
Collagen, for instance, has been utilized to heal joint and connective tissue damage. Greater physical activity could be made possible by this, which could aid in weight management. Collagen, however, is a low-quality kind of protein from the standpoint of muscle protein synthesis, thus there are much superior plant and animal proteins that might be consumed for the aim of doing so in order to develop muscle and manage weight.
Low-molecular collagen peptides from cartilaginous fish were administered to overweight individuals as part of a placebo-controlled trial published in the journal Marine Drugs to determine how this would affect the patients' overall body weight. Overall, the findings were encouraging, with the collagen supplement group demonstrating a greater decrease in body fat than the control group following the 12-week experiment.
Another investigation published in the Journal of Nutrition discovered that casein did not effectively control hunger as well as the collagen derivative gelatin (another type of protein). According to the study's findings, collagen's ability to suppress hunger may cause people to consume less food overall, which would result in a drop in body weight.
According to studies published in the Journal of Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome, a high protein diet has generally been associated with favorable metabolic results. According to the study's findings, eating a lot of protein helps people lose weight and prevents obesity and metabolic syndrome.
According to Roxana Ehsani, a registered dietitian nutritionist and national media representative for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, there hasn't been enough research on collagen's ability to help people lose weight. However, it might indirectly assist.
How does the body use collagen ?
Although collagen is produced by our bodies naturally from the food we eat, taking a dietary supplement may help to increase these levels. Collagen helps our bodies create bones, skin, muscles, and many other things. Additionally, it aids in cellular communication, tissue repair, wound healing, and immunological response.
Similar to how other proteins are digested, collagen is broken down into peptide and amino acid combinations that are then employed for physiological functions like bone or connective tissue repair as needed.
Our bodies probably produce enough collagen for our requirements if we consume a healthy, balanced diet, according to Dr. Kitova-John. The majority of collagen supplementation trials have been modest.
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