Image courtesy of ZenPrinciple.
Taking a collagen supplement can change your life for the better. Collagen works to fix a number of ailments, from ones that involve the skin to ones that involve the bones. You just might have to make sure that your collagen doesn’t expire on you while you are taking it. When it comes to supplements, many people don’t realize that there is an expiration date. Most supplements don’t last forever, and if you take them past the expiration date, You could end up thinking you are still earning your benefits while your body slowly goes back to the way it was without the collagen, and it may take a while to notice it.
As long as you are aware of the expiration date, you won’t end up panicking, assuming that your collagen simply stopped working for your body. If you are taking your collagen the same way as usual and it isn’t working the way it was before, you might need to up your dosage or get a new container of collagen. So what can you expect from your jar of collagen? How long is it even good for after opening? Keep reading to figure out exactly when you will need to officially replace your jar of collagen.
The Basics Of Collagen
Collagen is the main protein building block in the body. It compiles most of the protein in the body. Without collagen, every organ in the body would not have the ability to function properly. Collagen builds up everything in the body. It builds cells that make up the organs on a regular basis, and that includes everything from the stomach to the skin and bones. The body would fall apart without collagen. It is a healthy, natural substance and sold in abundance to handle many kinds of problems. Collagen is used to treat aging skin, weak joints, and weak stomach linings among other issues.
There are four main types of collagen that you will find most often. There are 28 types of collagen in total, and only a few play the largest role. The first few types are the most abundant, and the last ones are found in the body more sparsely. The effects that collagen has on you will largely depend on what type of collagen you choose to take. Many collagen supplements come with a blend of several types, and some come packaged with just a single type. Knowing what parts of the body each type of collagen affects will help you choose the best type for you.
Type I
Type I collagen is the most important type in the body. They all play a pretty big role, but type one plays the absolute biggest role. Collagen makes up 30 percent of the protein in the body, and a whopping 90 percent of it is type one collagen. It is what primarily makes up the bones, the skin, the nails, and hair. It is especially a big component of the bones. It makes up every layer of the bone from the dentin, the cementum, and the calcified tissue at the root of teeth. It forms itself into collagen fibrils, or fibers, tendons, cornea, blood vessel walls, and more.
Type II
Type II collagen also works for many purposes, and is also known for having a big impact on the joints and even on the gut. Type II collagen is a main component of the joints, and is widely used to treat joint and muscle pain, as well as illnesses like osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis comes with symptoms like stiffness and pain, and type II collagen can bring some relief in about six months. Type II collagen also plays a part in building the gut’s walls. It prevents it from weakening and making your gut a less hospitable environment for good bacteria, and keeps every stomach content in your gut where it needs to be.
Type III
Type III collagen can be found in the muscles, the arteries, and in major organs. It is an extracellular matrix protein that makes up the uterus, bowels, blood vessels, and more. Type III collagen plays a big role in the healing of wounds. It interacts with the platelets in the blood, by causing them to come to the surface whenever someone is wounded. When the platelets come to the surface, the blood clots, keeping the injured person from losing too much blood. When the amount of type III collagen in the body isn’t sufficient, it can lead to serious problems like artery rupture.
Type IV
Type IV collagen is a type that is found primarily in the skin. It is located in the basement membrane zone, and is responsible for building up skin cells. It helps with cell adhesion, the ability that cells have to stick to each other, cell migration, which allows them to move, and cell assembly, their ability to connect and form structures. Type IV collagen is localized. You won’t find it in any other part of the body. It is also not found in as high amounts as other collagen types when you purchase collagen supplements. This type of collagen is not found in fibrils, it is an extracellular sheet-like matric of multicellular tissue. It exists around the muscle cells, heart cells, and fat cells.
Type V
Type V collagen is a fibrillar collagen that is essential to the functions of other major collagen types. This collagen is involved with the fibrillation of types I and III collagen, and it can be found in the cornea of the eyes, layers of the skin, hair, and the placenta. It is instrumental in the formation of several major parts because of its contributions to its own sections of the body and the sections that other types of collagen primarily inhabit.
What Happens If Your Body Lacks Collagen?
When people age, the amount of collagen in our bodies naturally decreases. This leads to a host of issues that come on, that the body has never had to deal with before. Because collagen performs many essential functions, when it decreases, the body will be inundated with many challenges that come from its loss. This decrease is where most signs of aging come from. The skin, the joints, and even the hair will deteriorate and show more advanced signs of aging the longer they go without normal collagen levels. Each part of the body is affected by this in a different way.
Stomach
Some stomach issues that can arise from a lack of collagen include inflammation and leaky gut. Collagen keeps the proper equilibrium in the gut, and when that balance is not struck, inflammation can arise. Inflammation can then lead to leaky gut. Anothing thing that can lead to leaky gut is the lack of type II collagen, which plays a large part in building the stomach’s walls. Stomach contents leaking out from the gut can cause a host of problems on their own, problems that extend through the rest of the body.
Skin
One way that lack of collagen affects your body is through signs of aging on the skin. When collagen leaves the skin, it will eventually cause it to lose its elasticity, leading it to develop wrinkles. The skin will wrinkle, droop, sag, and lose its fullness. The lack of collagen will affect parts that are adjacent to the skin like the hair and nails. Collagen is what primarily forms keratin, and keratin is needed for strong skin, nails, and hair. Without as much collagen, all of those parts will lose moisture, elasticity, and volume.
Bones
Some of the most painful symptoms that come from a lack of collagen are the symptoms present in the bones and joints. A lack of collagen will lead to a lack of strong cartilage in the joints. The bones lose their density, leading them to become more brittle. This brittleness will lead to more likely fractures. And even when you don’t suffer from fractures, you will experience random joint pains at times, and it will be easier to incur even milder injuries.
Collagen Related Illness: Ehlers Danlos Syndrome
Some illnesses occur because of the quality of collagen, though not necessarily the amount. Ehlers Danlos Syndrome is a genetic disorder that affects collagen production. The collagen produced by the body is either weak or faulty, and so it doesn’t function the way it would in the average person. This causes many issues with the connective tissue in the joints. Since the collagen isn’t properly holding the joints together, the ligaments are weak and stretched, leading to increased flexibility as well as pain.
So How Long Is Collagen Good for After Opening?
Many food items have an incredibly long shelf life just until they are opened, and that includes collagen. Collagen will last for years when it isn’t open, so you can very well buy a jar, change your mind about it, and then revisit it a few months later. Collagen is not something that you will need to rush through, but it won’t last forever either. How long your collagen lasts can depend on the brand and how often you take it, but there are some universal qualities when it comes to that.
Collagen typically has a shelf life of between two and three years, though once opened, it will likely last for about six more months. This can depend on a few factors other than the expiration date. The way you store your collagen can have a big effect on how long it lasts. So if you have kept a sealed jar of collagen in your cupboard, as long as it is less than three years old, it is likely just fine. The main thing that can result from using collagen that has gone bad is that it will not work as well as fresh collagen. The old collagen will not be nearly as potent and you may not realize that you are not receiving the right benefits for a while.
Other symptoms that can arise from expired collagen can be worse than simply not getting results. Taking expired collagen can cause some digestive issues. Consuming a bit of expired collagen powder won’t hurt mush, but make sure not to accidentally consume too much of it. The digestive issues you experience will likely not be serious, but they can be very uncomfortable.
How Can You Tell If Collagen Has Gone Bad?
To make sure that you don’t accidentally eat expired collagen powder, you need to know how to spot it. Unlike expired fruit, expired collagen isn’t as easy to spot, but there are some telltale signs to look out for to figure out if your collagen has gone bad. Expired collagen will be clumpy, have a somewhat rancid smell, and a bitter flavor. If you find one or more of these signs, there is a very good chance that your collagen has gone bad.
How Do You Keep Collagen Fresh?
If you don’t want any collagen to go to waste, there are ways that you can store it to maximize its shelf life. The type of container that you use will have some of an effect on your collagen’s shelf life. It is best if your jar is glass or food grade plastic with a secure. It is also a good thing to have an opaque container. An opaque container will help block out light from the collagen, as light shining into it can make it go back a lot quicker.
Changing the container you keep the collagen inside of can also make a difference to its quality over time. The less air there is in the container, the longer the collagen will last. Too much air can lead to a buildup of moisture, so having less moisture in the container will keep the collagen dry and therefore longer lasting.
Collagen powder has an extra long shelf life when unopened, and a shorter albeit still somewhat long one when it is, and that makes it an economical choice as well as a healthy one. As long as you make sure to store your collagen the right way, you will get to use every bit of it before it even goes bad.
