How To Stimulate Collagen Production
November 16, 2022
Have you ever wondered what collagen is? Or why it's important for our body? Well, look no further! In this blog, we’ll talk about how collagen works, why it’s important to our bodies and beauty, and how we at External Affairs can increase your collagen production to help improve skin health (spoiler alert, we have SO many options.) Let’s get started!
What is collagen?
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body, which is a fibre-like structure used to make connective tissue. This tissue is the main component of bones, muscles, tendons, and cartilage. It's also the main component of what we at External Affairs are always trying to increase, which is collagen in the skin!
Collagen’s role in our skin is to help the fibroblasts (a type of cell that composes connective tissue) form in the dermis. The dermis is the middle layer of our skin, and it helps new cells grow to give the skin structure, strength and elasticity.
There are at least 28 different types of collagen in the body, but the 5 main types are:
Type I - This type makes up 90% of the collagen in the body, and it’s used to provide structure to your skin, bones, tendons and ligaments.
Type II - This type is found in elastic cartilage, which provides joint support.
Type III - This cartilage is found in muscles.
Type IV - This is found in the layers of your skin.
Type V - This is found in the cornea of your eyes, certain layers of the skin, hair and the tissue of the placenta.
As we age, our body produces less collagen and the collagen that we do have left, breaks down at a faster rate (boo!) As our collagen ages along with us, we don’t produce as good of quality collagen as we did when we were younger. Unfortunately, women especially suffer a significant loss of collagen due to hormones and menopause.
When you're losing collagen, your body will start giving you signs that this is happening. One of the signs is noticing fine lines and crepey or sagging skin. One of the telltale signs is "barcode lines" across the upper lip. And no, it isn't always smoking that causes these lines, but a definite indication of hormonal changes and loss. If you're noticing your muscles are weakening and constantly aching, as well as experiencing stiffer, less flexible tendons and ligaments - these can be signs of loss of collagen. Also, as you age, your cartilage gets "worn out" in a sense, which leads to joint pain, loss of mobility, and stiffness in your joints. Even your teeth and gums are affected by collagen loss!
If you're reading this thinking "wow, this sounds dull," don't worry, there are habits that we can adopt to help us protect the collagen we have remaining! These habits include: wearing your SPF, quitting smoking, and eating a healthy well-rounded diet that includes high-quality protein!
How External Affairs Can Stimulate Collagen
As you can tell from the information above, a lack of collagen can impact many areas of your body negatively. So, I'm going to share how we at External Affairs can help to increase collagen, specifically in the skin and help increase facial volume!
Let's begin with dermal fillers, particularly Sculptra®, Silhouette InstaLift® and Radiesse®.
Sculptra®
Sculptra® is an injectable treatment that uses poly-L-lactic acid to increase your collagen levels in the targeted areas. This product is a biocompatible and biodegradable substance that your body will slowly absorb. Interesting fact - it's also used to make dissolvable stitches. Once injected, your body will absorb the microparticles found in the product and this will stimulate your body to produce more collagen. By doing this, we can help to restore lost volume and decrease the appearance of wrinkles.
Silhouette InstaLift®
Speaking of dissolving stitches, this brings us to the Silhouette InstaLift®. Silhouette InstaLift® is the only treatment that provides lifting and regeneration in a 2-stage process to restore youthful-looking skin. Special threads that are made of poly-L-lactic acid are inserted beneath the skin and with slight pressure, the tissue is lifted to help smooth out the skin's surface. Once in place, they trigger an increase in collagen production and the depleted facial volume will begin to regenerate. Your body will gradually absorb the sutures and the natural increase in collagen will continue for a period of up to 2 years (amazing!) You'll also see an immediate lift with this procedure, hence the "InstaLift!"
Radiesse®
Radiesse® is a calcium hydroxylapatite product that is also injected to help your body produce collagen naturally. It stimulates the collagen you already have in your body, so you’re essentially building your own filler. The calcium hydroxylapatite microspheres are absorbed into your body and collagen continues to build in the dermal layers for as long as 2 years!
Dermal & Epidermal Treatments
There are also dermal and epidermal treatments that can be performed by qualified Clinical Skin Technicians. One of these is a CO₂ treatment done to the face to treat fine lines, large pores, and deeper lines and wrinkles. The laser uses heat to create channel wounds by light energy to stimulate a collagen response in the body. We can customize our treatment plans depending on the skin concerns we’re targeting by changing the intensity, density and depth of the laser energy being used. This laser is especially great for mature skin as it benefits from the heat component of the treatment.
We can also use this same technology to treat the eye area by performing a treatment called a Venezia Eye Lift. This treatment is great for fine lines, puffiness and dark circles under the eyes. By adjusting the intensities of the laser and dumping large quantities of heat into the area to stimulate collagen, we can get great results in changing and improving delicate eye tissue!
Microneedling is a treatment that creates micro-injuries which help increase collagen production due to signalling the healing factors to regenerate. Because microneedling boosts collagen production and the growth of new skin, it can treat concerns surrounding texture, pigment, scarring, and fine lines.
Chemical peels use acids to remove dull layers of the skin and encourage faster cellular turnover. As we age, our cellular turnover slows down, but a chemical peel can boost this process by assisting in the skin's ability to slough off old, dull, damaged skin cells to reveal fresher, smoother firmer skin. It also creates a wound-healing response in the skin, which stimulates your natural collagen.
Topical Solutions
Let's also discuss topical solutions. Retinol helps to increase cellular turnover in the skin, thus triggering an increase in collagen production. As well, it is very important to slather on topical Vitamin C in the morning as it is an antioxidant that protects the collagen in your skin against UV damage. It also triggers collagen formation and stabilizes the collagen proteins in the skin. Like a chemical peel, we can use Glycolic Acid at home to create that wound-healing response that stimulates new collagen. As I mentioned above, SPF is extremely important as it helps protect against the breakdown of our natural collagen. Medical-grade skin care is as important in creating, maintaining, and protecting our collagen as any injectable or topical treatments done in the clinic!
So, as you can see, there’s not a “one size fits all solution,” no magic bullet, and no one-and-done treatment. We all can build collagen but it is a multifaceted approach. We need to live a clean lifestyle to help us to preserve what collagen we have left, look at dermal solutions to help us plump and fill the lost volume as a result of internal volume loss, treat the visible fine lines, large pores, textural issues with clinical skin treatments and protect our investment with a good, medical grade skin care program. If you’re interested in any of the treatments I discussed throughout this blog, or you’re wanting to add collagen-stimulating products to your skin care routine - get in touch with us for a free consultation! We’d love to help you reach your skin goals!
