Image courtesy of Everyday Health.
Collagen is an important supplement that can benefit your health in many ways. You might already be aware of some of the major benefits, but there are probably some that you still have yet to learn about. Also something that you need to consider is what time of the day you should take collagen. Is it a good idea to take it late at night or during the daytime? Which time will have the greatest impact?
What is Collagen?
Collagen is a protein that plays an extremely important role in the body. It is naturally produced by the body, and also happens to make up a large percentage of it. Because of this, it is sometimes used as a supplement for people to improve their health outcomes. Just about everything in your body uses collagen to function. Your skin, bones, and muscles require a lot of it, and about 30 percent of the protein in your body is made up of collagen as well. It is one of the most important proteins in your body, and one that you can buy from several grocery stores.
There are 28 types of collagen in total, and different kinds affect different parts of the body. There are four types of collagen that are the most prominent in the body, and those types are type I, type II, type III, and type IV. Type I is found in all connective tissue, type II is found in joints, discs and gut lining, and type III, which is found in skin and blood vessels. Because of type II collagen’s function, collagen is really beneficial for gut health, even though that’s a lesser known benefit. And by supporting the gut lining, collagen supports overall gut health.
Collagen is one of the most popular supplements on the market for joint and skin care, but less people know about its gut health benefits. It can be taken as a capsule, as a powder, or in liquid form, and you will most often come across the powdered form. Collagen powder, also called collagen peptides, can fit seamlessly into your diet. It is hydrolyzed, something that makes it easy to digest, and you can easily mix it into any drink or meal you make. Liquid collagen can similarly be added to drinks like the powder, but may be harder to find in stores.
The Benefits of Collagen
Collagen is involved in building and maintaining the health of each major organ. It replaces dead skin cells, gives skin elasticity, helps blood clot, reduces joint pain, and keeps skin moisturized, and much more. Collagen is best known for reducing joint pain. The body loses collagen as you age, and that causes the bones to have less protection, which causes more friction and joint pain over time. When someone adds collagen to their diet, it works to reduce the awful effects that aging and activity has on your joints.
Collagen builds and maintains the health of each major organ in the body. It replaces dead skin cells, gives skin elasticity, helps blood clot, reduces joint pain, and keeps skin moisturized, though is best known for reducing joint pain. As people age, the collagen in the body decreases, causing there to be less cushioning for the joints. The lack of cushioning will cause the bones to have less protection, which leads to more friction and joint pain over time. Adding collagen to the diet works to reduce those painful effects.
Collagen also works to boost muscle mass, builds up the arteries, gives strength to the hair and nails, and can help you regulate your weight. It helps with the digestion process, builds and repairs the gut lining, and can even help with leaky gut syndrome and IBS symptoms like bloating, constipation, diarrhea, cramps, and acid reflux. Collagen even contributes to your brain health and can help you regulate weight. Possible weight loss is one of the lesser known benefits of collagen, but it can manage to help with almost any bodily function, even if the contribution happens to be mild. And it can also help fight gut inflammation and protect against leaky gut syndrome.
The Side Effects of Collagen
Collagen isn’t known to cause major side effects. As a natural substance that exists within the body, it is one of the safest supplements that you can take for its benefits. You will only experience side effects from collagen if you take far too much, and even then, it won’t be difficult to get rid of them. As long as you make sure to always take the right dose of collagen, you can avoid even the mild side effects that can come from taking collagen.
Too much collagen over a long period of time can lead to some digestive side effects. One of them is a heavy feeling in the stomach that can lead to feeling some overall discomfort. Another more minor side effect is mild diarrhea, but in extreme cases, the side effects can be more difficult to handle. Those side effects are skin rashes, hyperglycemia, overaccumulation of calcium, and kidney stones. These side effects are extremely rare and usually only arise in cases of extreme overuse of collagen. To avoid having these side effects, make sure that you always take the right dose whenever you get your daily dose of collagen.
How To Take Collagen
There are a few different ways that you can go about adding collagen to your diet. The most popular way to do it is to take it in powder form. Collagen is often even more effective in powder form, which is one reason this method is so popular. You can put collagen powder into any drink or food of your choice, and it is made so that the flavor doesn’t stand out.
You can also add collagen into your diet by mixing it into your food and drinks. You can stir it into yogurt, smoothies, soups, stews, any anything else that you can think of. Any food you can stir is ideal to mix some collagen into. You can even bake using collagen. When searching for powdered collagen, you can even find flavored ones on the market, which can add something different to your drinks or meals. You can find caramel collagen, chocolate collagen, and even peach mango collagen. You can find many kinds of flavors that can enhance a meal or drink.
And if you want to use a simpler method to get your collagen, try a supplement. Collagen supplements can be taken as a capsule or even a gummy, and liquid collagen can be added to drinks and meals just like the powder can. You also need to make sure you take the right dose of collagen so that you can avoid any and all potential side effects.
Where To Find Collagen
If you want to get collagen, you can find it at many different drug and department stores. You can find it in supplement and powder form at Target, GNC, Rite Aid, CVS Pharmacy, and Walgreens. You can also buy your collagen online where you will have more options to choose from. You get it from online shops like Amazon, Nature Made, The Vitamin Shoppe, Dr. Emil, and potentially others. Each of these websites makes getting collagen a simple process from purchase to delivery.
Dr. Emil’s Multi Collagen Plus offers several great benefits that make it a top contender when it comes to picking out a collagen supplement. The list of benefits this supplement provides includes:
- 5 types of premium collagen peptides. Collagen peptides are short strings of amino acids that boost muscle growth and muscle repair as well as bone growth and repair. These powerful peptides will give you the maximum benefits you are looking for!
- Fast absorbing capsules. How fast something absorbs in your system determines how quickly it takes effect, and these capsules will take effect right away.
- Supports healthy joints, bones, and digestion. Each of these things can impact your ability to lose weight when they aren’t in top shape, and collagen will help prevent that from happening.
- Gives hair, skin, and nails a youthful appearance. With collagen, you will not only feel better, but you will look better as well.
The Benefits of Taking Collagen At Night
Collagen can have positive effects during the day and night, but there are some additional benefits that come from taking it at night. Collagen can have an impact on how you sleep, and that is because of a substance that it contains. Collagen contains a substance called glycine, and that is what causes its effects on sleep patterns. The exact amount of glycine that helps people go to sleep is the exact amount that you can find in collagen. Glycine is an amino acid that is found in the body and can also be taken in through food. It is a building block for making protein that helps people fall asleep faster, sleep longer, and have a higher quality sleep. And that is why it can help with your sleep cycle.
The glycine found in collagen also helps improve concentration, energy levels, and cognition, so you will have a better nights sleep and feel new and improved in the mornings. It targets the core body temperature instead of acting like a sedative the way many other sleep aids do. It even raises serotonin levels, and serotonin has long been known to have an effect on sleep. Serotonin plays a role in controlling the body’s sleep wake behavior and needs to be present in the right quantity for the best outcome
Collagen is also beneficial to take at night because of the way it affects the body’s temperature. Body temperature happens to play a big role in our sleep cycle, so controlling it with collagen can have a major impact. As it gets closer to your time to sleep, the body starts to drop in temperature. This is something that typically occurs naturally, and the glycine in collagen can make the process even more pronounced. When you are ready to sleep, your body’s temperature will drop by 1 or 2 degrees celsius, which will send you into a deep sleep a lot easier. So when collagen helps drop your temperature, your body will respond the same way.
And glycine, not only helps people fall asleep a lot faster, it also helps them stay asleep for longer, and have a deeper sleep overall. That will then lead to you having more energy throughout the day, even further improving your sleep at night. The more energy you have throughout the day, the less likely that you are to be fatigued before it is time for you to actually go to sleep.
Collagen can be taken during the day or night, but if you are someone who has sleep issues of any kind, taking it at night is ideal. On top of collagen’s usual benefits, when you take it at night, you also get the benefit of improving your sleep cycle.
