Collagen Supports Your Brain, Body & Beauty
Why I Love Collagen
Collagen helps to balance the branch chain amino acids in our bodies. This has far reaching effects. Many of you understand the importance of balancing healthy fats to ensure you get enough omega 3’s. There is a similar balance when it comes to amino acids. Most of us get too much methionine and not enough glycine. Glycine can be taken on its own or consumed in either bone broth or collagen.
The reason I love collagen is because of convenience. I make bone broth but not as often as I need to consume it. Collagen is convenient. It can be added to my morning matcha, power balls or an afternoon workout drink.
Grace & Beauty
Collagen nourishes all of our connective tissue. Its great for anyone who wants a faster recovery time post workout or is experiencing tendon or joint pain. Connective tissue includes skin, hair and nails. You may notice collagen being marketed as a beauty aid. Certainly when we are pain free and nourished, we have a healthy glow.
Adequate amounts of glycine also supports phase two of liver detoxification. This is often sluggish due to the modern lifestyle and the high stress that comes with it. We can talk about this from an evolutionary standpoint and it makes a lot of sense. We evolved eating a wide variety of foods that included some fish and animals. We valued these sources of nutrient dense food by eating everything. This gave us a balance of amino acids that nature provides.
Brain Health
Glycine is a neurotransmitter as well! It has the ability to be both excitatory and inhibitory, meaning it can function both to stimulate brain and nervous system activity, or to quiet it. Let’s put a few things together.
1. Calms the brain
2. Helps us sleep deeply to support repair
3. Supports organ function especially the liver which cleans our blood at night
4. Liver also regulates all emotions. When it’s not functioning optimally, we tend to feel frustrated or angry. When the liver is well we are able to grow in a direction that feels right
5. Grace is a feeling of ease with how life is. This comes with a happy liver
Strong Bones Long Term
There is more collagen in our bones than calcium. Remember this applies also to our skin, joints, ligaments and hair. If you haven’t taken collagen before you can try taking it up to three times a day. Ideally we’d have 30% of our protein from collagen rich foods.
Blood Sugar & Hormones
Protein can stabilize blood sugar so collagen can be an excellent way to support a higher protein intake. Collagen is a great way to increase the cascade of dopamine first thing in the morning. Patients report a huge benefit from beginning their day with a warm, protein rich breakfast.
If you aren’t a breakfast person collagen in your hot morning drink can suffice. For hormone health this is a much better choice. I often see people using caffeine and fat to suppress their normal morning appetite. It works for awhile but then hormone and lipid markers start to go out of range. Symptoms can include afternoon crashes, late night hunger, brain fog, thyroid problems and insulin resistance.
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