5 Warning Signs You Have Collagen Deficiency

Last updated on December 28, 2022

 

We all start lacking collagen as we age. But while collagen production naturally decreases, a collagen deficiency can negatively affect our health in many ways.

Have you noticed new wrinkles on your skin or drier hair than usual? Or maybe your joints start to ache, or your muscles take time to recover from exercise? These may be signs of a collagen deficiency.

Collagen is one of the most important proteins in our body, and it plays an essential structural role in our skin, bones, muscles, cartilage, and connective tissues.

This is why we should all provide our bodies with natural sources of collagen that we can get from foods and supplements.

Let’s begin with discussing the warning signs that your body lacks collagen and then see how we can best address this deficiency.

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What is Collagen Deficiency?

Collagen is the most abundant structural protein in the human body. It’s essential for the body to function and is found in skin, bones, muscles, tendons, cartilage, blood vessels, and connective tissues.

Collagen proteins play essential roles in providing support to cells and tissues, including extracellular matrix, tissue repair, and cellular communication. Therefore, healthy collagen levels are crucial and help maintain good joint health, protect the organs and muscles, keep the skin young and elastic, and promote a healthy cardiovascular system.

Unfortunately, as one gets older, collagen levels naturally fall, and collagen quality decreases, leading to signs of aging that are visible on the skin and invisible yet impactful in the rest of the body.

A collagen deficiency can seriously impact your health and cause skin aging, brittle bones, fragile hair, joint pain, digestive issues, muscle mass loss, and other issues. 

What causes collagen deficiency?

Collagen deficiency is when your body lacks collagen to function correctly. Although everybody’s collagen levels decrease as we age, not everyone has collagen deficiency.

The main causes of collagen deficiency include:

• Aging
• Poor diet (refined sugar)
• Smoking
• UV ray exposure
• Hormonal changes
• Certain diseases

Luckily, there are ways to help your body increase its natural collagen production, including collagen-boosting foods like sea moss and collagen supplements.

Related article: The top 5 foods that increase collagen production

5 Collagen Deficiency Symptoms

There are no medical tests or ways to diagnose a collagen deficiency apart from the symptoms one can experience. However, here are five warning signs your body lacks collagen.

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1. Wrinkles

One of the earlier signs that your body lacks collagen is the loss of skin elasticity and hydration. As we get older, our body naturally decreases its collagen production, which primarily affects our skin appearance.

About 70-80% of our skin is made up of collagen, the first protein responsible for our skin’s hydration and elasticity. A collagen deficiency makes it difficult for our skin to repair itself to prevent stretch marks and wrinkles.

When your body struggles to produce more collagen or repair the existing one, the littleavailable collagen is sent to your vital organs and parts in dire need of repair as a top priority before it can be used for your skin.

Sometimes there will be very little, or no collagen left for skin repair. That leads to your skin starting to show signs of aging and sagging. It loses its elasticity, and wrinkles begin to appear fairly rapidly.

Boosting your body's collagen production is then essential and considerably helps repair the signs your skin lacks collagen. An excellent way to do so naturally is to take sea moss, one of the best collagen-boosting foods.

Related article: How to make an anti-aging sea moss face mask?

2. Cellulite

Cellulite is another common symptom of collagen deficiency. Cellulite occurs when the fatty tissues underneath the skin push up against the body's connective tissue. As a result, the skin starts to pucker, which makes the cellulite visible.

When your body produces less collagen, the skin starts to loosen and become less firm,making it more vulnerable to damage caused by cellulite. This is also known as the "orange peel" look, and it worsens with age.

By boosting cell renewal, making the skin more supple, stimulating dermal metabolism, and repairing skin damage, collagen supplements help reduce the appearance of cellulite.

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3. Joint pain & stiffness

Another common issue occurring when your body lacks collagen is joint pain. While joint pain and stiffness are part of the natural aging process, they're often caused by collagen deficiency, which means they can be avoided.

Like our skin, the cartilage in our joints requires collagen to build and repair itself. When there’s collagen deficiency or poor-quality collagen, the cartilage in our joints starts to stiffen, causing joint pain.

Collagen is the main building block for most of our body's structural parts. It adds elasticity to the connective tissue and the cartilage. This provides cushion and flexibility to our joints. Without collagen, we become more prone to damaged cartilage, and our joints struggle to function with everyday movements.

Along with joint cartilage, collagen is essential for the ligaments, tendons, and bone structures. When all of these components in our body struggle to keep up with daily activities, it can cause joint inflammation and a great deal of pain.

Most of the time, supplementing your body with collagen and increasing your intake of collagen-boosting foods can prevent or even reverse the problem.  

Related article: 10 benefits of sea moss for women

4. Muscle aches

Regardless of whether you are physically active or not, collagen deficiency is often the underlying cause behind muscle aches and slower muscle recovery.

Most athletes consider muscle aches as a normal consequence of their workouts. But they often forget that a lack of collagen can also cause slower recovery time and muscle after these workouts.

Collagen is essential for muscle flexibility and helps repair the muscles after using them. Unfortunately, people with collagen deficiency can also lose a great amount of muscle mass.

The two most important amino acids in collagen proteins are glycine and arginine. These amino acids help form and repair muscle tissue, heal wounds and injuries, spare tissue waste, and aid muscle development. That's why sea moss and other collagen-boosting foods are highly recommended for people who want to build muscle mass.

Related article: 6 Benefits of sea moss for men only!

5. Digestive disorders

A lack of collagen can also lead to leaky gut syndrome, intestinal permeability issues, and an impaired intestinal barrier. This can cause various digestive issues, including constipation, diarrhea, bloating, and other gut issues.

Of course, not all gastrointestinal issues are tied to collagen deficiency, but it's a contributing factor that's often underestimated. Collagen is essential for organ tissues. When our bodylacks collagen, it can’t repair the intestinal walls and tight junctions, which eventually causes a leaky gut to worsen, leading to inflammation and an unbalanced gut microbiome.

If you experience digestive issues as you age, a collagen-inclusive diet or collagen supplements can help lower the symptoms and repair the damaged tight junctions in the intestines.

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How to Treat Collagen Deficiency?

Diet and supplements are the easiest and most efficient ways to address collagen deficiency. Adding collagen supplements to your daily routine can help improve your skin, repair muscles, boost your immune system, and, even more importantly, support your cardiovascular and digestive health.

So, when your body starts showing signs that it lacks collagen, try eating collagen-rich foods or taking collagen supplements. 

Eat collagen-boosting foods

Collagen-boosting foods are foods that are rich in nutrients and amino acids your body needs to produce collagen. These foods do not contain collagen themselves. Instead, they boost the body’s natural collagen production by providing it with what it needs to make its own collagen.

Collagen-boosting diets are very efficient. Try incorporating natural foods like sea moss, seaweed, berries, meat, poultry, beans, nuts, seeds, and vitamin C as much as you can in your new diet.

Sea moss is one of the best plant-based sources of collagen, so you should take a few tablespoons of sea moss gel daily.

 

Take collagen peptide supplements

Collagen supplements are another option to increase your body's collagen. The best kind is hydrolyzed collagen, also called collagen peptide. It's a powder made from tiny pieces of collagen proteins from animals.

Organics Nature has formulated a high-potency sea moss & collagen peptide powder so that you can get both forms of collagen at once (collagen peptide powder and sea moss's collagen-boosting nutrients). It dissolves easily in beverages like smoothies, coffee, tea, or others.

This brand-new formula combines all the benefits of collagen with sea moss and its 92 minerals and vitamins.

 

Related article: 6 great recipes to make sea moss smoothies