The pursuit of youthful beauty has captured the attention of women and men for thousands of years.
From Cleopatra of Egypt to Wang Zhaojun of China, and from Queen Elizabeth I of England to Grace Kelley of the United States, societies revere their beauty icons. And people spend untold hours, effort and money trying to imitate them.
In ancient Egypt, women and men used castor oil to fight wrinkles. In ancient Greece, yogurt and honey were popular for anti-aging. And in China and India, they used pearl powder to remove age spots.
Today, science has helped us uncover what causes skin to age. It has given us ways to fight aging, and it has shown that beauty is more than skin deep…
Healthy skin is tied to health in other areas of your body, and skin changes are often the first visible signs of aging throughout your body.
The protein that keeps your skin, hair and nails looking youthful and vibrant is what’s known as collagen, and it makes up a full 70% of your skin.
But collagen isn’t limited to your skin, hair, and nails...
It’s also the cellular glue that helps hold together all the connective tissue in your body.
Collagen provides the structure for your bones, muscles, tendons, joint cartilage, blood vessels and organs, including your entire digestive system.
As you’ll soon see, collagen plays a crucial role in not just your appearance but also in how you feel and even how well your body functions as the years roll by.
After Your Mid-20s, Your Natural Collagen Production Steadily Declines
Collagen is the most common protein – and the most abundant substance – in your body, second only to water.
There are nearly two dozen types of collagen, but three types make up 80 to 90% of the collagen in your body: Types I, II and III.
Types I and III are found mainly in your skin, bones, ligaments and tendons. Joint cartilage is mostly type II collagen.
When you’re young, your body is continually generating collagen, keeping your tissues pliable and youthful.
However, that changes once you pass your mid-20s.
By the time you reach 40, your body’s ability to produce its own collagen drops to about 25%. By age 60, your production drops to only half of youthful levels.
When you’re in your 80s, you have about four times less collagen than you did in your youth, which is why your skin now creases and sags more on your face and neck.
Collagen works together with elastin to keep your skin looking youthful. Collagen provides the strength and firmness to support your skin’s structure while elastin contributes softness and elasticity.
Aging skin’s collagen weakens and loses its tensile strength in the dermis, or second layer of your skin. Older skin not only takes on a lined appearance, it’s actually thinner. It contains less collagen and less elastin.
Here’s some good news about the declining levels of collagen and elastin in your skin...
It’s not written in stone that these losses have to happen. You can slow the rate at which your levels decline, and you can even build them back up.
The Collagen-Busting Threats That Speed Up Your Losses
When you have high levels of collagen, your skin is perky, smooth, moist and firm. Skin cells renew and repair themselves.
Advancing age plays a role in declining levels of collagen, but it’s not the only culprit.
Here are some of the most prominent environmental, lifestyle and nutritional factors that can affect your body’s production and speed up the loss of collagen, impacting the overall youthfulness of your skin:
- Deficiency of nutrients (amino acids, vitamins and minerals) needed for collagen synthesis
- Poor gut health and irregular elimination may impact absorption of nutrients and elimination of wastes
- Hormone imbalances of the essential hormones DHEA, estrogen, testosterone, progesterone and pregnenolone
- Sugar and excess carbs can lead to systemic inflammation which contributes to skin damage
- Fluoride in water can damage collagen and affect the bond between bone mineral and collagen
- Stress and trauma produce excess cortisol, which increases collagen breakdown and decreases bone building and bone density
- Excess free radicals from smoking, air pollution, Wi-Fi and cellular radiation degrade collagen fibrils
- Alcohol damages your liver, dehydrates your skin and produces skin-damaging chemical substances called congeners
- Caffeine significantly reduces cellular synthesis of collagen
- Inactivity decreases collagen turnover, whereas exercise indirectly builds skin thickness by increasing blood flow, oxygen and nutrients to your skin
- Inadequate sleep is associated with higher stress hormones, which can hasten the breakdown of collagen
- Excessive sun exposure can lead to photo-damaged skin that’s resistant to collagen synthesis
Many of these factors involve free radicals. When excess free radicals are produced in your skin, say from smoking or too much sun exposure, they attack the skin’s collagen. This can lead to the early onset of lining, dryness and sagginess.
Slowing Your Losses and Rebuilding Collagen
So, how can you reduce your losses and start rebuilding the collagen in your skin, hair, nails, organs, bones, joints, tendons and blood vessels?
First, pay attention to the factors we just discussed.
Diet, clean water, regular movement and exercise, sleep and sensible sun exposure that provides red and near infrared light all play important roles in supporting healthy levels of collagen throughout your body.
Avoiding pollution whenever possible and using air purifiers to clean your indoor air are other helpful strategies. Dirty air and even dust particles can speed up your skin aging through collagen loss.
You’ll find top-quality whole home, room, auto and personal air purifiers in our online store.
Once you’ve slowed the damage, there are a number of ways to help rebuild your levels of collagen.
Several nutrients can help boost your collagen levels:
- Panax, or Korean Ginseng, increases the amount of Type 1 collagen in your bloodstream by stimulating the production of fibroblasts in the dermis layer of the skin.*
- Vitamin C is the most plentiful antioxidant in human skin and protects the skin from damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress that can lead to collagen breakdown. Vegetables high in vitamin C include broccoli, bell peppers, tomatoes and green leafy vegetables.
- Antioxidants protect against damaging free radicals and enhance the effects of the collagen you have. Vegetables like kale, spinach and beet greens contain high levels of antioxidants that can help stimulate collagen production and protect against free radicals.
- Garlic contains sulfur, an important component for collagen production, and lipoic acid and taurine to help rebuild damaged collagen fibers.
And there’s one food in particular that really excels in helping to rebuild your collagen levels...
Scarce in American Diets, yet Abundant in Our Ancestral Diet – and Around the World
Animal protein is an excellent source of collagen, but it’s concentrated mostly in the bones, skin and tougher cuts of meat that have a lot of connective tissue, including tendons and ligaments – parts we don’t typically eat.
That wasn’t so with our ancestors – or maybe even your own grandmother. Determined to make good use of all the parts of the animal, they would simmer everything in a kettle for days to create a nutrient-dense, flavorful bone broth or stock.
Bone broth is one of the best sources of collagen, and it has long been a staple in the traditional diets of people all around the world. Plus, it’s fast becoming recognized as an incredibly healthy superfood.
Simmering bones and the surrounding joint and connective tissues releases collagen. The cooking process turns the collagen into a gelatin.
You need certain amino acids to produce the different types of collagen in your body, and bone broth provides them all: glycine, proline, glutamine, arginine and hydroxyproline. These amino acids are behind collagen’s many benefits in supporting your skin health, joints and bones, gastrointestinal tract, muscles and more.*
Plus, bone broth contains abundant and easily absorbed minerals that support collagen production like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur, and potassium.
A Simple Solution for Smooth, Firm Skin, a Healthy Gut and Youthful Joints, Bones and Muscles
One of the biggest myths – and consumer rip-offs – may be the use of collagen-enhanced creams, ointments and moisturizers. Collagen molecules may be too large to cross your skin barrier into the deeper layers of your skin.
Firm, glowing skin starts inside your body, so it’s important to do all you can to support your production of collagen, and to help protect what you have.
The amino acids and other compounds in bone broth have been shown in studies to help not only your skin but other parts of your body as well. A few of the things it has been shown to do include:
- Helps form elastin and other compounds in your skin to maintain youthful tone and texture, and to reduce the appearance of fine lines*
- Supports digestion by increasing stomach acid and attracting and holding liquids, including digestive juices in your gut*
- Helps restore and maintain gut health, as well as support your immune function*
- Supports your body’s normal detoxification processes by providing the precursor amino acids for glutathione*
- Supports muscle growth and energy production during exercise by forming creatine along with two other amino acids*
- Supports the building of DNA and RNA, the genetic building blocks for healthy cells*
- Supports your body’s normal healthy inflammatory response*
- Promotes a feeling of calmness and may even help you sleep*
Good news for your skin, joints, bones, muscles and gut – researchers have discovered that collagen is absorbed by the digestive tract and travels to the skin and other areas to make new collagen for up to 96 hours.
Help Restore Your Bones and Joint Cartilage with Collagen for Easier, Comfortable Movement
You may be surprised to learn that your bones, ligaments, tendons and joint cartilage are all made up of collagen.
Using collagen can help support, and even restore, movement and comfort to those areas of your body.
As you age, your joints experience normal wear and tear, robbing you of comfort and flexibility. The cartilage, or natural cushioning in your joints, also declines with age.
Bone broth offers multiple benefits for your joints and bones:
- Provides cushioning between bones to help them glide more effortlessly*
- Supplies the building blocks to help maintain strong bones and healthy bone mineral density*
- Contributes one-third of the amino acids used in building the highly structured collagenous fibers in cartilage*
- Is readily absorbable to help restore cartilage and build bones*
Bone broth also contains important compounds known as glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) that support collagen and elastin. You’re probably familiar with at least some of these valuable GAGs – chondroitin sulfate, glucosamine and hyaluronic acid – as they’re well-known and valued by many for healthy joints and comfortable movement.*
Using Bone Broth and Collagen for a Happier, Healthier Gut
The concept of using bone broth to support good health isn’t new... Physicians as far back as Hippocrates – who lived from 460-370 B.C. – used it for gut-related conditions.
Bone broth is easily digested and offers soothing qualities to your entire gastrointestinal tract. And its abundant nutrients are easily absorbed.
Individuals with digestive challenges may find bone broth especially comforting, especially if their collagen levels are low. Collagen’s amino acids build the tissue that lines the colon and entire GI tract.*
The naturally occurring glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in bone broth also support digestive and gut health by helping to restore your intestinal lining.* A healthy intestinal lining allows your body to absorb more nutrients from your food.
Bone broth, gelatin, and collagen support gut and immune health by helping to:
- Restore the normal mucosal layer in the gut and normal intestinal permeability.*
- Strengthen and seal openings in your gut lining to help counteract food sensitivities.*
- Aid with the growth of good bacteria and support your healthy microbiome.*
- Promote a normal inflammatory response in your digestive tract.*
Adding bone broth to your daily routine is a delicious way to support your gut health and improve your total collagen status.
But not just any bone broth or gelatin can provide the benefits you’re looking for...
Don’t Be Misled... Not All Bone Broths Are the Same
The collagen in beef bone broth is similar to the collagen in your own body, making it an excellent choice.
Beef bone broth contains abundant Types I, II, and III collagen as well as other types that are key components in your skin, nails, hair, tendons, ligaments, muscles, bones, joints, gut, and blood vessels.
Homemade beef bone broth from organically raised, grass fed animals provides an ideal source of collagen. Simmering it slowly for one to three days releases the gelatin, minerals, and other nutrients from the bones.
A sign of well-made broth is when it jiggles after being refrigerated. That’s your assurance it contains a healthy supply of gelatin and collagen.
If it doesn’t gel up, you need to question the quality of your bone broth. For example, canned, store-bought broth and chemical-laden bouillon cubes will not do this, as they are not the same as true bone broth.
These substitutes are often diluted and have sugars and flavors added to help improve the taste. Also, many companies use meat flavors created in a lab to flavor bouillon cubes and soup mixes.
Manufactured gelatin may contain monosodium glutamate, or MSG, a flavor enhancer that’s also a known neurotoxin, so it should be avoided as well.
A recent debate surrounding collagen is the hydrolyzed vs. unhydrolyzed issue. Hydrolyzed collagen products undergo harsh processing to break down or “isolate” peptides to boost bioavailability.
Many people don’t realize it, but unhydrolyzed whole-food collagen contains these isolated peptides, too. Plus, the less denatured or unhydrolyzed organic collagen offers a more balanced and complete amino acid profile.
Why “Organic” Is Now a Must-Have with Bone Broth Collagen Products
If you’re purchasing a powdered bone broth or collagen product, the first thing you want to do is find out its source.
The vast majority of bone broth and collagen products on the market are not from organically raised animals, especially chicken bone broths. They’re made from animals raised in large factory conditions, where they are crowded together and fed GMO grains.
Interestingly, chickens raised in factory farms or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) tend to produce broth that doesn’t gel – a sure sign that it is lacking in gelatin and collagen.
CAFO animals are typically fed a genetically engineered diet and given antibiotics as well as growth hormones. The last thing you want are traces of these potentially harmful additives in your broth.
Unless your broth is made from organic bones, you may be missing out on some of the most nourishing ingredients – and instead getting a dose of some nasty ones…
The Consumer Wellness Center (CWC) recently tested eight of the most popular nonorganic poultry-based collagen products sold online. Their research found potentially hazardous contaminants associated with CAFOs, suggesting CAFO animal byproducts are routinely used to make nonorganic collagen products.
Besides the trace amounts of antibiotics and insecticides widely used throughout the animal-based food supply, they also found these alarming contaminants in some of the products:
- Butylparaben – An endocrine-disrupting chemical associated with reduced testosterone levels and abnormal shape, size and motility of sperm
- Cyclandelate – A vasodilator drug
- Netilmicin – An antibiotic
Factory-farmed animal products are undesirable for many reasons, including the potentially adverse health concerns listed above. There are also serious concerns about antibiotic resistance, animal welfare and environmental pollution.
If you’ve already started making the switch away from eating CAFO meats, it only makes sense to start avoiding bone broth collagen made from factory-farmed animals.
Prefer Collagen That Doesn’t Taste Like Bone Broth? Try Our Vanilla and Chocolate Organic Collagen Powders
Many people don’t enjoy the taste of bone broth or don’t have the time to make their own but want to be able to take advantage of its many health benefits.
For those reasons, we’ve created Organic Bone Broth Collagen in your choice of convenient tablets or delicious, easy-to-mix powders in vanilla and chocolate flavors.
Finally, you can reap all the benefits of bone broth without the bother of preparing your own homemade broth or the bone broth taste.
Our Organic Collagen powders and tablets are made with the finest Certified Organic beef bone broth concentrate powder from grass-fed, organically raised cows born and raised in the U.S. without the addition of hormones and antibiotics to their diet.
The convenient tablets are perfect for everyday use or to take along on trips, to work or to school.
Three tablets daily, ideally taken on an empty stomach, provide 1.8 grams of collagen, largely Types I, II and III, for supporting your healthy skin, hair, nails, bones, joints, gut, tendons, ligaments and blood vessels.*
Fast dissolving, our vanilla and chocolate powders are delicious served hot or cold. Simply add to water or your choice of beverage, and shake for several seconds for the smoothest, creamiest consistency without any lumps. Each one-scoop serving of Organic Bone Broth Collagen Powder provides 5 grams of collagen and 0 grams of sugar.
Best of all, you’ll love the natural chocolate and vanilla flavored taste that’s lightly sweetened with just a touch of monk fruit extract. There’s no bone broth taste.
Take Advantage of the Opportunity to Look and Feel Your Best – Discover the Benefits of Organic Collagen
Youthful and vibrant-looking skin ranks high on nearly everyone’s wish list, so it’s no wonder collagen supplements have become so in-demand.
But you don’t want to waste your money on bone broth or collagen ‘wannabes’ and end up short-changing yourself on potentially valuable benefits.
Get all the benefits you desire and more from the real thing: Organic Bone Broth Collagen in convenient tablets or easy-to-mix vanilla or chocolate powders, made of only the finest organic beef bone broth concentrate powder.
Adding this time-honored health food to your routine can help turn back the years in your appearance and provide support for firm, glowing skin, comfortable and flexible joints, strong bones, a healthy gut and more.*
Order Organic Bone Broth Collagen tablets or powder today.