Collagen is often stated as being the most abundant protein in the human body, making up 30% of all your bodily protein.
Now, collagen itself can be broken down into 5 different types, each type plays a different role and focus in the body.
Type 1 collagen, out of all the 5 main types, accounts for nearly 90% of all collagen. This basically means when we look at the collagen in your body, it is mainly Type 1 collagen.
It happens to be a very densely packed collagen, this is very important as it is used in your connective tissues and focuses in on providing structure.
Type 1 is also known to be stronger than steel (gram for gram) and helps in multiple areas of the body from your skin to muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, bones, hair and nails.
As you can tell its a very versatile type of collagen, and this is what makes it so important to supplement collagen especially as you age.
What is type 1 collagen made of?
Collagen is mainly manufactured or consumed from animals e.g. marine, bovine or poultry.
All collagen starts off as amino acids proline, glycine and hydroxyproline which your body puts through collagen synthesis to internally create its own collagen.
This is a necessary process, so what that means is you can’t just consume collagen (as your body will still need to break it down), instead you give your body the tools it needs to create collagen.
There are two ways to get type 1 collagen into your system.
First you can get hydrolysed collagen supplements – which is collagen in the form of tablets or powders.
These are known to be efficient because they are broken down into peptides, which are shorter chains of the key amino acids, which are the ingredients needed for the body to create collagen – it also makes them easily digestible and highly absorbed into the body.
Secondly you can increase the collagen in your diet by eating collagen-rich food such as fish e.g. fish scales, chicken, egg whites, bone broth and red meats which will help with collagen production.
Bovine / cow being the main source of Type 1 collagen.
When you consume collagen-rich food your body has to first break down the collagen you take in to then extract the key amino acids it needs to start collagen production, so in essence, adding an extra step to the whole process.
What are the benefits of Type 1 collagen
As mentioned before there five types of collagen in the body and each one has a primary focus or role. Collagen Type 1 has the following benefits:
- Hydrates the skin, making it seem more youthful and plump.
- Provides elasticity and volume to the skin, helping to combat or delay wrinkles and sagginess.
- Reduces brittleness in the nails, resulting in healthier, stronger nails that are less prone to breakage.
- Being a key component of the bone matrix, helps to increase bone density and maintain bone strength, resulting in less breakage and injury.
- Helps with inflammation and replenishment of collagen, reducing joint pain in between the knees, ankles and elbow joints.
- As it is a protein, collagen helps the muscle recovery process especially for those strength training, going to gym or in a physical activity.
- Helps to promote new skin cells, replacing dead cells.
- Promotes better blood clotting and general heart health as collagen helps maintain the structure of blood vessels and arteries.
