Why Is Collagen So Important for Youthful-Looking Skin?

Aging can be a tough journey as the systems in your body weaken and become less effective. Whether it’s the health of your joints or the function of your brain, you’re left struggling to make up for the losses that come with the natural aging process. Your skin, which is your body’s largest organ, is not immune to the passage of time.

At The Aesthetic Surgery Center, with Dr. Elliott H. Rose at the helm, we understand the effects that aging can have on your skin, robbing it of its once-youthful appearance. Driving the aging process in your skin is the loss of collagen.

Here’s a look at the role that collagen plays in your skin and why it’s so important for youthful-looking skin.

Collagen 101

Your body is full of proteins, but none more plentiful than collagen, which accounts for one-third of them. Collagen is found mainly anywhere in your body that needs support, such as in your:

• Bones
• Skin
• Nails

Collagen is also a component of connective tissues, such as your muscles, tendons, and ligaments.

In fact, it’s hard to find an area of your body that doesn’t somehow rely on collagen for structural support. To give you a better idea of what collagen does, it’s interesting to note that the word comes from the Greek word for glue — kolla. And that’s exactly what collagen accomplishes — it holds your tissues together.

Aging and collagen

When you were younger, your body benefitted from an ample supply of collagen, which tops out at about the age of 20. After that, your collagen production begins to gradually decline, by about 1% a year. On top of this decline, the collagen that you do produce becomes gradually weaker.

While the effects of this loss aren’t immediately noticeable, over time the deficit can add up. And one of the first places where you observe the loss is in your skin. With the reduction of collagen, your skin is less elastic, which means it’s more prone to sagging and wrinkling.

Getting collagen back

Unfortunately, there’s very little that we can do to stop this natural winding down of collagen. There are oral and topical supplements that claim to replenish your stores, but there’s not enough evidence to support this yet. Naysayers believe that your digestive system breaks down anything you take in orally, so the odds of the collagen making its way into your skin intact are minimal.

Researchers have found that there are steps you can take to slow the loss, such as avoiding exposure to the sun, which breaks down collagen. As well, smoking can interfere with collagen production, giving people another great reason to quit.

Getting youthful skin back

Since the road to more youthful skin may not be found in restoring collagen, we offer effective cosmetic facial surgery options that can tighten the skin in those highly exposed areas, such as your face and neck. Dr. Rose has extensive experience helping his patients regain a more youthful appearance by removing excess, collagen-depleted skin to create a firmer surface area.

If you’d like to explore how you can fight back against the effects of collagen loss in your skin, please contact our office on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City at 332-255-5375 or book a consultation using the online scheduling tool.