You can’t see collagen, but it’s the essence of healthy skin. And research shows yours is at risk. Find out how to summon its youth-bestowing powers.
You can’t see collagen, but it’s the essence of healthy skin. And research shows yours is at risk. Find out how to summon its youth-bestowing powers.
Anything that increases oxygenation and blood supply to collagen will make skin healthier.
Let’s start with what collagen is and why you definitely want it. Collagen is what makes your complexion firm, plump and youthful. Sure, there are other important stuff in the mix, but the protein makes up 75 to 80 per cent of your dermis. “Collagen fibres are like a bunch of sturdy, fat Roman columns placed close together, holding up the top layer of skin,” says Dr Dennis Gross, a dermatologist in New York City. “When you’re young and healthy, the pillars are strong, straight and plentiful, so your skin looks smooth. And when you pinch your cheek, the skin feels spongy and full.”
When skin is healthy, it repairs and makes new collagen. If everything is working as it should, then cellular collagen-making machines called fibroblasts churn out new collagen and your body produces enzymes that, like a microscopic wrecking crew, break down old or damaged collagen and carry it away, says Dr Ronald Moy, a dermatologist in Beverly Hills. The result: A collagen give-and-take that keeps skin looking smooth and young.
But things like ultraviolet rays, smoking, pollution, stress and other factors wreak havoc by producing free radicals in your skin. “Free radicals are like little arrows that poke holes in and break down collagen fibres, causing skin to thin,” Dr Gross explains. Even more bad news: Excessive sun exposure reduces fibroblasts’ collagen factories, causing a flimsier, weaker collagen layer, and overstimulates the wrecking crew that then clears out healthy collagen.
No matter how much sunscreen you wear, eventually these collagen-making cells lose steam. “When you’re young, they make a lot of collagen, but they get worn down starting about age 35,” Dr Gross says. The enzymes that break down collagen, however, become overactive because of excess sun exposure and damage from years earlier. Then come wrinkles and sagging. Make an expression and you usually create creases. When collagen is strong, your skin bounces right back. But if it is weak, repeated movements cause permanent creases. Skin doesn’t have enough collagen to fill in the groove, so you see a line even when you’re not squinting or furrowing, and it no longer has the same density to resist gravity, Dr Gross says.
YOUR KEY SKIN SAVERS
Smart science over the last several years means there are more ways than ever to maintain the collagen you have and even spark skin to produce more. Here’s how.
Start caring about your collagen now.
When you’re relatively young and fibroblasts are at their peak – before you see the effects of sun or other damage – this is the best time to protect collagen against future damage and begin shoring up skin’s collagen layer.
“Once skin starts to thin and sag, it’s much harder to correct,” Dr Moy says. But it’s never too late to adopt healthy-skin habits. One way to do it, which you’re probably already doing: exercise and eat well. “Anything that increases oxygenation and blood supply to collagen will make skin healthier,” he says. Antioxidant-rich fruits and veggies, meanwhile, help protect collagen from the inside.
Use antioxidants and sunscreen as your collagen’s bodyguards.
It takes only two short exposures to UVA rays (two hours of strong sun over two days) to turn up the body’s production of the collagendegrading enzyme MMP1 levels, which increase with additional exposures, according to University of Michigan researchers.
On the other hand, fair-skinned people who ramped up their sunscreen use, applying it at least three to four times a week, showed no detectable signs of ageing after 4½ years and had smoother skin (which in part indicates healthier collagen) compared with those who maintained usual, less-frequent sunscreen application, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine of more than 900 Australians. Using a broad-spectrum SPF30 or higher is a must. Try Supergoop! Everyday Sunscreen SPF50/PA+++ (from $28, Sephora).
You’ll also need antioxidants to neutralise damaging free radicals and extinguish inflammation. A few antioxidants pull double duty and stimulate collagen while protecting it. “Vitamin C is one key that fits into specific receptors on fibroblast cells, helping to turn them on,” Dr Gross says. The best serums combine vitamin C with vitamin E and ferulic acid, two antioxidants that boost vitamin C’s power eightfold, according to research.
Copper peptides, likewise, can benefit skin as an antioxidant and collagen stimulator, adds Dr Ranella Hirsch, a derm in Boston. Try Dermadoctor Kakadu C 20% Vitamin C Serum With Ferulic Acid & Vitamin E (US$95 or $135, dermadoctor.com) or Christie Brinkley Recapture Day + IR Defense (US$69 or $98, www.skinstore.com).
Build collagen as you would a workout routine.
HIIT, yoga, pilates – they all work in different ways to help you reach one goal: to get fit. The same goes for collagen building. “You want to expose fibroblasts to multiple ingredients, each of which targets different receptors, but all of which tell cells to produce more collagen,” Dr Gross says. Along with sunscreen and vitamin C, this is what else gets your collagen in shape:
> Proven and potent: vitamin A derivatives Prescription retinoic acid (like Retin-A) and OTC retinol may be old news at this point, but that’s a good thing: It means they’ve withstood the test of time because they work, says Dr Hirsch. Both retinoic acid and retinol “turn on” genes and cells involved in collagen production. They also help organise new and existing collagen, Dr Hirsch says.
A recent study found that a four-week treatment with 0.1 per cent retinol increased levels of procollagen types 1 and 3 (the body’s precursor to collagen) and reduced wrinkles after 12 weeks. Retinol and Retin-A can be irritating, so limit yourself to a pea-size drop for your entire face, starting only every other night, she says. Try La Roche-posay Redermic R Anti-aging Dermatological Corrector ($79.90, leading pharmacies).
> Gentle collagen stimulators: peptides and growth factors Both have science to back up their collagen-building, anti-wrinkle claims. Peptides, like the ones found in Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream ($49.90, Watsons), for example, act as messengers, telling cells to ramp up collagen production.
Growth factors stimulate fibroblasts and stem cells to encourage new cells and collagen. The advantage over vitamin A: Both are less irritating, but results may take longer or be more subtle, which is why many experts recommend doubling up – retinoids at night or every other night; peptides and growth factors in the morning or on the night you skipped vitamin A.
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