THE BENEFITS OF COLLAGEN FOR OPTIMAL GUT HEALTH

The Benefits Of Collagen For Optimal Gut Health

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There’s so much more to your gut than just digesting food and, well, getting rid of waste!

A healthy gut can improve mood, stress levels, appearance of your skin, cognition, brain health and immunity. Equally, neglecting your digestive health can negatively impact on each of these factors. Getting enough collagen is one way you can support normal gut function and boost digestive health.

Facts on Collagen 

Helps to maintain healthy skin, hair and nails – as well as bones and joints
Most abundant protein in the human body
Hard to come by in the modern diet
Higher bio-availability in supplement form
Natural production of collagen declines as we age

Follow your Gut Feeling

Research has shown that poor gut health can impact both our physical and mental health. Our gut is extremely intelligent and communicates with the brain via the 'Gut-Brain Axis' or GBA. This is a bidirectional communication system which delivers information from brain to gut and vice versa.

It may be easy to presume that the leg work is done by the brain here, but it is in fact the gut which hosts around 90% of this communication. This is so much so that gut health not only influences our physical health but also our mental health, here’s just a few examples of how…

• Brain Fog – Gut bacteria imbalances can affect cognition, memory and concentration
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease – When the gut lining is damaged it becomes inflamed and worsens the symptoms of these conditions
• Anxiety – An inflamed gut produces elevated levels of cytokines, proteins which have been linked with increased anxiety
• Stress – Probiotics encourage good bacteria in the gut that have been shown to reduce levels of stress hormones in the blood
• Depression – Gut cells produce a large amount of serotonin, dubbed the ‘happy’ chemical as it lifts the mood and increases motivation

So, the above list should explain the phenomenon of gut-brain interaction. Next time your stomach drops, you feel sick with nerves or get butterflies with excitement it won’t be so mysterious! Looking after your digestive health should be a priority if you suffer from any of these symptoms.

Collagen for the Gut of your Health!

There are many reasons why boosting your diet with collagen can support a healthy digestive system and promote overall health…

• Provides Structure for Digestive Organs

Collagen is a protein and protein is super important for structuring and regulating body tissues, including the gut. From beginning to end, the adult digestive tract is about 30 feet long - that's a lot to structure and a lot to regulate! Amino acids delivered to the body by hydrolyzed collagen peptides are used to heal and seal the gut. They provide the building blocks from which to make new collagen, which helps to maintain and repair the intestine.

• Prevents Leaky Gut Syndrome

Processed foods, lack of sleep, stress and use of antibiotics all affect the lining of the gut. Overtime they can cause it to become more permeable and to leak substances through the intestinal wall. This means that toxins and bacteria can end up in the bloodstream instead of excreted - something experienced with leaky gut syndrome. Collagen provides the amino acids needed to repair and rebuild the intestinal wall and prevent a leaky gut.

• Helps to Absorb Nutrients

A leaky gut not only leaks toxins and bacteria but also nutrients. A permeable gut lining can prevent vitamins and minerals in food from being absorbed properly. So regardless of how good your diet is, all of that goodness could literally go to waste. Collagen helps to strengthen the gut wall, making it less permeable and more likely to retain nutrients from food. It also keeps our intestines nice and flexible due to its elastic qualities, which helps to move food around and increase absorption further.

• Reduces the Risk of Digestive Conditions

Collagen contains glycine, an amino acid which has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation is the root cause of many conditions and diseases, so preventing it should be a top priority. Studies have also shown that lower levels of serum collagen are linked with increased risk of some digestive conditions. That’s likely to do with the loss of that anti-inflammatory effect, resulting in an inflamed bowel that can lead to conditions like IBS and inflammatory bowel disease.

Healthy Aging Starts in the Gut

One thing that is inevitable in life is ageing. Whilst its easy to see the visible signs of growing older – wrinkles, saggy skin and furrowed brows! – the inner signs of aging are often overlooked. Over the years and decades things like antibiotics, stress, lack of sleep, excessive hygiene, medicine and indoor living all begin to mess with our balance of bacteria – or gut flora .

These bacteria have many useful functions including boosting the immune system, maintaining/ enhancing brain/skin health and promoting efficient digestion. What’s more, declining collagen levels as we age mean that gut health is doubly at risk of suffering in the autumn years of life!

The good news is that there are some good collagen supplements on the market. They can not only bridge the gap in falling collagen levels but also promote the growth of healthy bacteria that help the digestive system to thrive and hence our immunity and overall health. We can’t avoid getting older but we can be proactive in the longevity of our own health!

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