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Collagen is a protein that many people take to improve their skin, bones, and nails. Collagen provides extra cushioning to the joints and leaves skin and nails looking visibly healthier. These are the main reasons you can find it in grocery stores and drug store shelves everywhere. It is a valuable substance to replenish the body with, but one thing many people don’t know as much about is collagen’s ability to heal the gut. Collagen plays a surprising role in gut health, and one that you may find some benefit in.
You can use the same collagen for other functions as you do for gut health. There will be some gut healing properties in all forms of collagen, though some supplements will be made specially to focus on gut healing. Collagen comes in many types, and some types do more for the gut than others, and some supplements you come across will isolate the types of collagen that will help your gut thrive. Gut health is something that affects not just the gut, but also the rest of your body. Keeping a healthy gut with collagen can do so much to improve your overall health.
What is Collagen?
Collagen is a protein that is naturally produced by the body and makes up a large percentage of it. It is often used as a supplement for health purposes because of the many benefits that it offers. Collagen provides benefits to several major parts of your body. Your skin, bones, and muscles require a lot of collagen to continue functioning at their best. 30 percent of the protein in your body is made up of collagen, and it works to build up major parts of the body. It is one of the most important proteins in your body, which is one reason you can find it on grocery store shelves everywhere.
There are 28 types of collagen and some have a bigger impact on the body than others. Four types of collagen are 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.
Collagen’s General Benefits
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 also has more benefits, and some of those benefits are boosting muscle mass, building up the arteries, and giving strength to hair and nails. 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. There are many great reasons for someone to consider adding collagen to their diet, and all these benefits still don’t paint the whole story.
Collagen’s Gut Benefits
Collagen provides the gut with many benefits. It helps with the digestion process, builds and repairs the gut lining, and can even help people suffering through leaky gut syndrome and IBS. Taking collagen daily can even improve mild digestive symptoms like upset stomach and bloating. Other symptoms that getting regular collagen can help out with are irritable bowel syndrome, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, cramps, and acid reflux. The more collagen your gut has access to, the more building blocks it has to repair itself and keep in top shape.
The stomach symptoms that collagen helps fix aren’t life threatening, but can be chronic and debilitating. Even mild stomach pains can be tough to deal with when they occur at all times, so the relief that collagen can provide the stomach makes it useful for many people. One part of the stomach wall that collagen works to build is the intestinal epithelium. The intestinal epithelium works as a barrier between internal and external environments that regulates toxins and keeps the internal homeostasis.
Collagen can also help fight gut inflammation. Gut inflammation can be caused by a number of things, including a lack of equilibrium in the gut. When collagen helps keep everything functioning properly, it will help keep the gut from becoming inflamed. And when the gut is kept from being inflamed, it even helps out the rest of the body. When the stomach is inflamed, it can easily transfer to the rest of the body. When the stomach lining is weak, leaky gut can occur, which will cause stomach contents to leak out into the rest of the body, causing inflammation. Since collagen directly builds the gut lining, it will protect strongly against leaky gut and the inflammation it brings.
There are 29 different types of collagen, and some of them provide significant benefits to the gut with their own specific functions. Types 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10 all play a role in the gut, and the most prominent ones are type 1 and type 2. Type 4 is the next most important collagen to the gut. Type 1 collagen is also known as marine collagen and it makes up over 90 percent of the collagen in the body. It heals gut issues. Type 2 collagen helps build the gut lining, type 3 collagen also plays a part in healing gut issues, and type 4 collagen aids in cell adhesion and survival. Type 5 collagen soothes the digestive lining and type 10 collagen is primarily involved in bone formation but also does a bit to improve the gut.
Side Effects of Collagen
Collagen is a protein that is natural to the body, and it is therefore not not known to cause any major side effects. Every side effect that you could experience with collagen isn’t something that can be debilitating, and you can also stop experiencing symptoms by not overdoing your collagen dose in the future. As long as you take the right dose of collagen on the regular, you can avoid even experiencing some of the mild effects that can come from it when taken in really high doses.
And while collagen doesn’t have any side effects when taken in the right doses, it does come with a few minor side effects when you take too much for a long period of time. One mild side effect of collagen is a heavy feeling in the stomach. This feeling can give you some slight discomfort, but it isn’t something that will wind up being too difficult to handle. Another side effect of too much collagen is mild diarrhea. But if you manage to take far too much collagen for a very long time, you can experience somewhat more major side effects like skin rashes, hyperglycemia, overaccumulation of calcium, and kidney stones. As long as you stick to the doses advised on the bottle, though, these symptoms shouldn’t be much of a problem.
What Is The Best Collagen For Gut Health?
When looking for a collagen supplement for your gut health, you will come across many options, and the best options will usually prioritize the types of collagen that work best to heal the gut. Some of them specify that they are meant for gut health and some of them show off the specific types of collagen they are made up of. You can get gut healthy collagen in stores or in person, and we have listed out some of your best options.
Dr. Emil’s Multi Collagen Plus has a number of great benefits that make it worth taking. It is the number one best selling collagen on Amazon and contains five different types of collagen. Each type of collagen it contains contributes to the immune system in some way. This supplement comes in a container of fast dissolving capsules that support healthy joints, bones, and digestion. This supplement also offers enhanced absorption so you can get as much from taking it as possible. Dr. Emil even plans to release a collagen supplement designed primarily for gut health soon!
NutriVein Multi Collagen Protein
This multi collagen supplement is highly rated on Amazon, and contains each type of collagen that is best for your gut health. It is made with chicken bone broth, fish peptides, and eggshell, which contain several types of collagen together. With all these types of collagen together, you get the benefits of collagens building blocks that work on the gut lining and on the gut microbiome. This supplement is a vegetable capsule that you can take at any time. You are supposed to take three capsules each day along with some food or water. Taking this collagen supplement will rejuvenate your skin and nails as well as revitalize your whole digestive system.
Natural Elements Multi Collagen
This multi collagen protein contains 5 types of collagen, and they are all the ones that play a part in controlling your gut health. This supplement supports joints, skin, hair, and the immune system as well as your digestive system. The types of collagen that make up the supplement were chosen to maximize the positive benefits on the stomach. This collagen also comes from four different sources. It comes from grass fed beef collagen, fish, eggshell, and chicken collagen, and can be taken each day for good results.
Native Path Collagen Peptides
This supplement features the two types of collagen that are the best for your gut, type I and type II. These collagen types play the biggest role in the digestive system and so they make up the major components of this supplement. It is made of 100 percent pure bovine collagen and contains no fiber fillers. It is one of the highest rated collagen supplements and it is in part because of their commitment to quality. It comes in powder form and is flavorless and odorless so that users can easily get their daily nutrients.
Gut health is something that is important to the entire body, but can be tough to achieve on a day to day basis. When your gut is healthy, the rest of you is likely to be healthy as well, but stomachs can be sensitive organs that require the utmost care. Collagen can help you find immense relief with any gut issues you may suffer through by keeping your gut in top shape. Many collagen supplements are made to focus directly on the gut, and you might find that such a supplement may be what you need to keep your gut feeling and operating at its best.
