Understanding the Connection Between Collagen and Gut Health

When it comes to our overall well-being, gut health plays a significant role. To maintain a healthy gut, the food we eat must be processed well to help us absorb the nutrients efficiently, which in turn affect several of our body’s critical functions, including digestion, immune response, detoxification, and more.

Prioritizing your gut health is, therefore, crucial to ensure an efficient digestive process.

One of the products that can have significant benefits for healing the gut and improving gut integrity is collagen. In this blog, we explore the connection between collagen and gut health in more detail, along with understanding the reason why it is worth incorporating collagen into your daily routine.

How Collagen Affects Gut Health

If you are worried about your gut health, there are multiple ways to improve it, and one of the easiest ones to do this is to incorporate collagen into your daily routine. Collagen and gut health are closely related, and it is believed to be one of the best supplements for all your digestive problems.

Collagen is one of the most common types of protein found in the human body. It is, in fact, the most abundant and vital protein in the body and makes up 90% of our connective tissue/organic bone mass and 70% of our skin.

It is produced naturally in the body, requiring it to perform various essential functions in the body. Apart from being present in our bones, skin, joints, and ligaments, it is also there in our gut.

Both gelatin and hydrolyzed collagen have several unique structural properties and amino acid profiles, which allows them to offer several amazing health benefits, especially when it comes to our gut health.

The benefits of collagen in our daily routine are many. It allows us to give our bodies easy access to the naturally decreasing supply of essential amino acids required to build, repair and restore various bodies as we age, including our gut.

Benefits Of Taking Collagen Supplements For Gut

Here are some of the ways different types of collagen helps in improving our gut health-

• Rebuilding the Tissues

Glycine and glutamine are two of the vital amino acids found in collagen. The essential elements for rebuilding the tissue that lines our digestive tracts, collagen and gut health are closely interlinked, and collagen supplement is beneficial for gut health.

• Tame Inflammation

Glycine is another amino acid present in collagen that helps tame inflammation and can be helpful for people suffering from inflammatory bowel diseases such as IBS, leaky gut, or SIBO.

Further, another role of collagen is to regulate the secretion of gastric juices in the body by ensuring enough acid for proper digestion. Collagen protein is also known to prevent an excess of gastric juices, leading to issues such as stomach ulcers, heartburn, and other similar digestive problems.

• Reduces Gut Issues

The benefits of collagen peptides, as an easily digestible, bioavailable form of protein, are many. They are extremely helpful for people with gut troubles. This is simply because an unhealthy gut often struggles to absorb nutrients from food sources (especially proteins).

Because collagen peptides are already broken down to their smallest molecular structure, they are ready to be absorbed and used by the body easily.

• Easy to Add to the Diet

Another collagen benefit is that it is easy to add to any diet and lifestyle routine. A good-quality collagen peptide is tasteless/odourless and can be mixed directly into hot or cold liquids/foods and can put your gut on the path to recovery.

How to Know if You Have an Unhealthy Gut?

One of the most common signs of an unhealthy gut is constant digestive issues such as bloating, heartburn, constipation, and diarrhea. However, they aren’t the only signs for which you lookout.

Since our gut affects various other body systems, gut problems could lead to a wide range of non-digestive-related symptoms. Some of these are listed below-

• Intolerance to Food Items

If you are constantly suffering from difficulty digesting a particular food item or a specific group of food, the chances are high that you're dealing with a damaged gut.

• Autoimmune Issues

Severe gut irritation or gut problems for a long time is believed to cause systemic inflammation in the body. If not dealt with in time, it may even affect the function of our immune system, leading to various autoimmune diseases.

• Weight Changes

If you are witnessing a weight change without any change to diet or fitness schedule, it may be a sign of an unhealthy gut. This can lead to malabsorption of nutrients and unintentional weight loss or gain.

Why Do We Need Collagen if We Produce it in the Body?

The production of natural collagen in the body peaks around 20 years of age. As we age further, collagen production starts declining, and our muscles and bones become weaker, the skin begins to sag and feel less elastic, and we may experience frequent joint pains.

Today's modern and convenience-based diet is relatively low in naturally occurring collagen. This lack of support further impacts our body’s collagen production. Apart from this, various environmental factors such as a stressed lifestyle, smoking, UV rays, processed food, and exposure to chemicals can lower collagen levels.

FAQs

• Which collagen is best for gut health?

In general, collagen peptides or hydrolysed collagen is considered best for gut health as they are easily digestible, bioavailable form of protein.

• How much collagen should I take?

The amount of collagen you should take primarily depends on the particular supplement and why you're taking it.

• What is the best way to take collagen?

The best way to take collagen is to incorporate it into various day-to-day recipes to fulfil your daily collagen supplement needs.

• What is the ideal collagen supplement daily dosage?

Ideally, a 2.5–15-gram daily dose of collagen is considered to be safe and effective.

• Does collagen help lose belly fat?

Unlike other supplements on the market, collagen has been proven to help with weight loss and burning fat in many cases.

To Wrap

The importance of maintaining your gut health in living a long and healthy life is immense. If you wish to control your gut health, it is best to introduce the best collagen supplement into your diet.

By implementing collagen into your diet daily, you can help your body replenish its low collagen levels and healthily support your gut.

Try Casa De Sante collagen, which can be incorporated into various day-to-day recipes to fulfil your daily collagen supplement needs while providing your gut with the nutritional boost it may need.

Medically Reviewed by Onikepe Adegbola, MD PhD