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What is Collagen?

Collagen takes part in the functioning of almost all body systems, body organs and body tissue.

Collagen is a group of naturally occurring proteins. In nature, it is found exclusively in animals, especially in the flesh and connective tissues of mammals. It is the main component of connective tissue, and is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up about 25% to 35% of the whole-body protein content. Collagen, in the form of elongated fibrils, is mostly found in fibrous tissues such as tendon, ligament and skin, and is also abundant in cornea, cartilage, bone, blood vessels, the gut, and intervertebral disc.

Collagen I: skin, tendon, vascular, ligature, organs, bone (main component of bone)

Collagen II: cartilage (main component of cartilage)

Collagen III: reticulate (main component of reticular fibers), commonly found alongside type I.

Collagen IV: forms bases of cell basement membrane

Collagen V: cells surfaces, hair and placenta

Along with soft keratin, collagen is responsible for skin strength and elasticity, and its degradation leads to wrinkles and aging.

Collagen gives the skin structural stability, resilience and durability. It is responsible for what the skin looks like. Absence of collagen in the skin causes wrinkle formation and a thinning of dermis (the lower or inner layer of the two main layers of cells that make up the skin)

When the skin is broken or wounded, collagen is one of the factors needed to repair the wound and possibly return function to the wounded area.
Collagen gives the tendons and ligaments the ability to transmit force from the muscle and assist in the translation of this force to movement and other activities like exercise.

Collagen in the muscle helps its contraction and stretching to transmit force, which can be translated into motion or more strenuous activity like lifting.

With collagen deficiency human body goes through aging changes much more rapidly: wrinkles, chromatosis (deposit of pigment in a normally unpigmented area or excessive pigmentation in a normally pigmented site), cellulite, skin dryness, dull nails and hair, reduction of the body mass (shrinkage).

Disturbances in the immunological system are the most hazardous to health because collagen fulfils a very important immune function: it controls the access and the spreading of pathogen bodies like environmental toxins, micro-organisms and tumor cells. All these afflictions can be prevented or their development can be delayed by supplementing body with collagen 3-Helix.