What’s Happening Right Now
For so many of us, the death of Juice Wrld is scary. Regardless of what anyone can say; a life is a life. It is a tragedy when someone so young, is suddenly gone. A successful artist, he was working his way up into the realm of rap/trap music. Riches and fame on his side, he was a drug addict and didn’t make the safest or best decisions for his overall health, which played a huge factor in his early death.
I don’t know about you, but this was again, another eye-opening moment where I find myself wanting to add more self-care into my life. With only one body and one chance in this world, I want to do whatever I can to be the healthiest version of myself possible. This for me was figuring out ways to stay active, eat right, have proper check-ups and appointments, and do whatever I can to fill my body with natural and clean substances, benefitting a healthier future.
If you are looking for tips and tricks on those exact things, be sure to check out my earlier blogs jam-packed with tons of beneficial information on ways to live healthier and what to consume that could be right for you! One thing I do want to talk about though is the benefits of collagen, a vital ingredient to holding our bodies together.
Keeping our bodies active and souls happy is probably the first thing we should do to live healthier lives. But there is no harm in helping our outward appearances too, because they also play huge roles in the outcome of our overall wellness.
Collagen aids fundamentally in anti-aging. Although used in many different forms of botox or injections, it is a great way to help your skin radiate a natural glow from the inside out. Why does that happen? Well to put it simply, collagen helps your nails, skin, hair, ligaments, flexibility, and more which is such a big part of self-image and self-care; both of which promotes a positive mental health state. Pretty neat, right? Found within your muscles, bones, and the digestive system it has been proven to support anti-aging, esspecially in woman.
Immediate use of supplements is not always needed to aid in gaining collagen, but eventually, it could catch up to you. Our bodies produce collagen naturally but by 25 you could see a drastic loss of it. This why scientists took a look at what we could begin to do to help battle that issue. They realized that adding collagen back into our bodies proved to aid in stronger skin, healthier hair, and stronger joints and ligaments.
Sounds all good, am I right? But, it truly is important to know how collagen affects our every day functioning and creates the overall build of our bodies.
So What Really is Collagen?
Getting technical here, collagen was first discovered in the 1930s and was found to be the strongest protein, 70% of which can be found within our skin. Specifically in animals, it was carefully watched and reported to be made up of amino acids which help the sizing of tissue, cell receptors, and structural support.
One of the most interesting things to me as I dug deeper into this life-changing protein, is that it contains different types and isn’t conformed to just one specific thing. There are up to three types of collagen which I find best described by the company Natural Healthy Concepts.
“Type I collagen is the most abundant type of collagen in the body — it is found in the skin, tendons, ligaments, organs, and bones, and is even found in the gastrointestinal system. It works to support skin elasticity and may support wound healing. It is also present in scar tissue. Type II collagen makes up the fluids in your joints and is responsible for cartilage production, which is essential for supporting joint health. It makes up about 50-60% of the protein in cartilage and 85-90% of collagen in articular cartilage.”
Type III collagen is often found with type I, and it is found in skin and organ cells…”
This combination ends up creating the support we so desperately want for our nails, hair, and skin – not to mention our hearts. Yes, you read that correctly. Healthline.com makes the statement that
“Collagen provides structure to your arteries, the blood vessels that carry blood from your heart to the rest of your body. Without enough collagen, arteries may become weak and fragile.”
The decrease of collagen can be alarming and it can be difficult to understand what sorts of factors would be present due to lower levels. The Clevelandclinic.org lets us know that the appearance of
“Wrinkles and crepey skin, stiffer, less flexible tendons and ligaments, shrinking, weakening muscles, joint pain or osteoarthritis due to worn cartilage, and gastrointestinal problems due to thinning of the lining in your digestive tract”.
All of this was reason enough for me to start incorporating collagen into my daily life. There are numerous ways to intake more of this protein, even found in certain foods! Remember that the care of our bodies helps the care of our minds and souls. A Happy You, is a Healthy You!
