How many of us know the value of healthy and strong bones until a problem crops up? Strong bones not only help in providing strength, support, and balance for your body, but also facilitate better posture and improve our appearance. Following a nutritious diet regularly is not always sufficient to maintain long term bone health. It is obviously important to eat healthy everyday, so as to get a sound and healthy body. Added to this, extra supplementation is required for most of us to boost our bone health.
Collagen, calcium, and vitamin D are the crucial building blocks of our bones. Including these three supplements in our daily diet helps with building bone strength, and protecting our bones from damage and degeneration throughout our lifetime.
Here, let us emphasize the role of collagen for our bone health.
What is Collagen?
Collagen is the most abundant protein found in our body. It is concentrated in bones, muscles, blood vessels, skin, tendons, joints, and the digestive system. Available in many varieties, collagen acts as the base material that aids in holding our bodies together, and keeps us resilient and strong. It is needed for bone strength and safeguards the bone from injuries and fractures. It has proven bone health benefits in reducing injuries and joint pain occurring due to intense physical activities.
Collagen supply in a body begins to diminish by the age of 21, which leads to bone and joint degradation, resulting in osteoporosis, arthritis, and osteoarthritis. A daily dose of collagen powder can significantly alleviate inflammation and stiffness of the bones, improve flexibility, aid in building bone matrix, and many more. If enough collagen is not included in your daily meals, then collagen supplementation may be required to provide your body with the necessary amount of this compound.
Different Types of Collagen
Collagen is needed to provide your body with shapeliness, support, and volume. Among 28 different kinds of collagen that have been identified, there are three primary types which are listed below.
- Type 1 – This is the most common type of collagen in the body. This is needed for healthier hair, nails, skin, organs, ligaments, and bones. This protein offers numerous benefits for your overall health and well-being.
- Type 2 – It is the main component of tendons and cartilage, which maintains optimal joint and cartilage health.
- Type 3 – This is usually found in reticular fibers, such as that found in the bone marrow. It aids in keeping cartilages, bones, tendons, and connective tissues in good health.
Importance of Collagen for Bone Health
- Flexibility and Mobility of Bones
The second largest constituent of our bones, collagen, makes up 90 percent of the organic part and 30 percent of the whole bone mass. This component provides our bones with the hardness to endure the physical stress that they deal with everyday. Collagen and calcium together make our bones resilient and help improve our mobility and flexibility.
As we age, the collagen content in our whole body declines. With the weakening of the collagen, which breaks down with age, our bones become more fragile and prone to fracture. It is found that reduction in the level of collagen in our bones results in decreasing their mechanical integrity. Degeneration of the collagen network in our bones leads to about 50 percent reduction in bone strength and 35 percent loss in elasticity.
Adding collagen powder in our daily diet can enhance the flexibility of our motion. the ease of movements like knee extension, sitting, walking, and standing can be improved significantly by consuming collagen supplements. Taking this supplementation throughout our lives ensures healthy and flexible bones and can help us avoid painful fractures.
- Helps in Bone Remodeling
Collagen and bone health have been associated with each other as this component helps in a process known as bone remodeling. In this lifelong process, old bone tissues are continuously replaced by new ones. When the ultimate bone size and mass is obtained by age 20, the rate of bone remodeling slows down as a person’s age increases. During this time, our bodies start losing strength. So, it is essential for our skeletons to produce new bones to substitute the damaged ones. But, only 15 percent of adult bone cells are replaced annually.
The rate of replacement of destroyed bone cells can be accelerated with collagen supplementation. The presence of collagen in bone-building cells, called osteoblasts, has been found to trigger cell differentiation to generate new bone cells. It leads to stronger bones.
- Builds Bone Matrix
Collagen fibers make the protein matrix in our bones. Calcium is found within this matrix to provide rigidity. Disintegration of bone collagen is the direct cause for loss of bone strength. An experiment has revealed that regular addition of collagen peptides in our diet can improve bone mineral density, particularly in postmenopausal women and in calcium-deficient persons. Higher bone mineral density leads to prevention of fractures.
- Inhibits Inflammation, Joint Pain, and Stiffness
Supplementing with collagen powder is extremely beneficial for boosting bone strength. Collagen peptide supplementation assists in considerable reduction in arthritis related joint pain, inflammation, and stiffness. In an experiment, patients were supplied with 5-7 grams of collagen hydrolysate regularly for 1 to 6 months. AThe results of the experiment have shown 70 percent positive response citing significant improvement in joint pain.
In a separate study, collagen has been found to be 25 percent more efficacious in inhibiting osteoarthritis stiffness and pain in comparison to other anti-inflammatory compounds.
Concluding Note
Supplementation of collagen in powder form is quite easy and safe. These supplements should be incorporated in your regular diet for their substantial benefits. You will never again have to worry about retaining your bone strength and flexibility as you age.