What is collagen protein?

Collagen is a crucial protein that is found all over the human body. It is mainly found in connective tissue – that means that it’s in our bones and our joints. But it’s also a major component of our skin and our hair, too.  

The word collagen comes from the ancient Greek word κόλλα (kolla), which translates to “glue”. This name is a perfect description of its role in the body - namely, to hold our body together, providing firmness and strength. Interestingly, collagen is so strong, that type 1 collagen fibrils are gram-for-gram stronger than steel (1) – pretty impressive!

In your body, collagen proteins form what is known as fibrils. These are long tubes of fibrous tissue which are arranged into a regular pattern. It’s these fibrils that contribute to the health of your connective tissue, bones, joints, hair, and nails. However, over time as we age, your collagen production decreases, resulting in weaker connections and less strong arrangements. This is why over time your joints become less stable and your tendons and ligaments become more prone to injury.

Puori CP1

CP₁ from Puori is a clean, high-quality hydrolyzed collagen powder, which only contains pure collagen peptides that ensure optimal absorption and function in the body. It’s made of hydrolyzed collagen from bovine and contains primarily collagen types 1 and 3.

 Collagen has a complex amino acid profile including a mix of both essential and non-essential types. It’s particularly high in conditional amino acids, like arginine, glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline, which are great for support the structure of our skin, nails, hair, as well as the health of our gut and tendons.

The best part is that CP₁is an unflavored powder that easily dissolves and mixes into any cold or hot beverage, without adding any flavor. Each scoop of CP₁provides you with over 90% pure protein, that enriches the nutritional profile of any drink, smoothie or other beverage and Puori Pure Collagen Peptides provides 10g of hydrolyzed collagen peptides per serving.

Why is collagen so important?

Muscle Maintenance and Growth 

After a vigorous workout, your muscle tissue develops microscopic tears, which rapidly repair and become stronger. This is what leads to muscle growth, also known as hypertrophy. While muscle growth responds to exercise relatively quickly, however, the building of connective tissue and, in particular, collagen is relatively slow, which means that your muscles may be getting stronger, but the connective tissue around your joints may not have caught up.

Bone Health 

As the world’s population is transitioning gradually into an aging population, the incidence of fragile bones of old age, also known as osteoporosis, increases annually. This is particularly true in women who have gone through menopause.

A recently published study in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrients, that supplementing with collagen peptides improved the bone density of postmenopausal women and was associated with a favorable shift in bone markers, indicating increased bone formation and reduced bone degradation overall (2). 

Skin & Hair 

As we age, you may notice that your hair becomes less shiny, has less volume and your skin develops wrinkles. This is, of course, part of the natural aging progress and can’t be halted forever. But, the aging of the skin which, as already noted, is seen in the form of wrinkles that occur due to the breakdown of collagen. This happens naturally with age but is also caused by exposure to intense sunlight (3) or disease (4).

The obvious question, then: how can we build collagen and keep our joints strong and our skin and hair healthy?

Protein 

Collagen, as with all protein structures in the body, is composed of building blocks known as amino acids. To create amino acids to build proteins, we must ingest protein through our diet. Once ingested, dietary protein is broken down into its constituent amino acids before it is rebuilt into other proteins, for example, to repair your muscle tissue or, indeed, to build collagen. So, we need a healthy supply of dietary protein, be it from animal sources such as beef or salmon or a high-quality protein supplement like Puori CP₁. The advantage of a supplement such as Puori CP₁is that the collagen protein available provides the perfect balance of amino acids for collagen synthesis in your body, and the ease of adding a scoop of CP₁to any beverage without any added flavor.

Vitamin C

Scurvy, most famous for affecting malnourished sailors in the 18th century is caused by a deficiency in vitamin C. Unlike most animals, we humans are unable to synthesize vitamin C in our bodies and so it must be obtained through diet. Vitamin C is found in many fruits, including citrus fruits, strawberries, and kiwis, as well as vegetables such as broccoli, green and red peppers, and spinach. Another great source of vitamin C is Puori C₃, which contains natural vitamin C alongside botanical extracts to help give you a boost.

Vitamin C is particularly important as it is required to form collagen proteins (5). Without it, tissues begin to break down leading to bleeding gums, muscle, and joint pain, as well as a type of tiredness associated with scurvy. On the less severe end of the scale, if you don’t have enough Vitamin C to synthesize collagen, your joints, hair, and nails will all suffer. Thus, getting enough vitamin C through your diet can help to keep the collagen in your skin, bones, and joints as healthy as possible. 

Forgotten protein

The way we eat in the developed world has changed a lot over the last couple of hundred years. We typically choose to buy perfectly trimmed cuts of meat and fish, without any of the connective tissue or sinew that would traditionally have been found on animal produce. Eating less of this gelatin and collagen-rich food, for example, traditional bone broth, or pigs’ trotters, and offal and more plant-based protein sources has created a significant shift in our amino acid intake.

We know that our hunter-gatherer ancestors cooked animals from nose-to-tail providing them with an abundance of connective tissue and cartilage.

For that reason, eating more connective tissue or gelatin can help boost your collagen production by providing the right amino acids, but we know that connective tissue or gelatin is not to everyone’s taste. That’s why Puori CP₁was born – to help supplement the food sources of collagen which are not eaten so frequently. It’s an unflavoured powder than mixes with any hot or cold beverage, importantly without any flavor! 

Give Puori CP₁ a try

So now you know why collagen is so important and what you can do to help your bones and joints stay healthy and keep your hair and nails strong. Try Puori CP₁ today.

References

1. Molecular Cell Biology, Lodish, U H et al. Section 22.3

2. Specific collagen peptides improve bone mineral density and bone markers in postmenopausal women—a randomized controlled study. König, D., Oesser, S., Scharla, S., Zdzieblik, D. and Gollhofer, A., (2018) 

3. “UV damage of collagen: insights from model collagen peptides.” Jariashvili, Ketevan, et al. (2012)

4. “Biochemical changes in the collagen of the palmar fascia in patients with Dupuytren’s disease.” Brickley-Parsons, D, et al. (1981)

5. “Vitamin C, collagen biosynthesis, and aging.” Phillips, C. L., et al. (1997)