5 ways your skin tells you it’s losing collagen

We have dissected media threshing, and for reason, “collagen” has been one of Google’s most sought after in recent years. Why obsession? It is the most abundant protein of the human body, and when it begins to disappear (which it does naturally), your skin tells the story.

Let’s move on beyond poetic praise and go into the figures. According to Vichy experts, collagen represents 70% of the dry weight of your skin. In an average body of 80 kg, it is about 4 kg of pure collagen. No wonder there is a race to protect it.

From the age of 25, we start to lose around 1% of collagen each year – a slow fade that accelerates with age, sun, stress and existential end of evening. The start of the game is a question of prevention. The subsequent game? Stimulation, where aesthetic medicine occurs, the needles ready.

“Collagen in our skin reflects a delicate balance between synthesis and degradation,” says Mercedes Abarquero Cerezo, pharmacist and chief of scientific projects at the Oréal Dermatological Beauty Spain, said Vogue Spain. “As we age, the cells responsible for the production of collagen slows down.

But, she adds, the process is not as catastrophic as we could imagine. “Our body is a flow system. Collagen is always broken down and is always rebuilt. The problem arises when this rhythm falls from synchronization – when production plunges or quality decreases. It is at this point that the visible signs of aging begin to emerge. ”

5 signs your skin loses collagen

Although statistics speak of loss of collagen after the age of 25, there is nothing strictly mathematical on this subject. But it is true, explains Abarquero Cerezo, that this lower quantity of different types of collagen in the skin (there are 16) produces changes in the “internal structure and alteration of its organization, which generates that we can visibly see how the skin loses firmness and wrinkles is marked,” she says.

Among the most obvious signs that this loss began, the expert lists:

• Drought and dehydration
• More obvious lines of expression and even more pronounced wrinkles
• Volume changes
• Sweeping and loss of firmness
• Lack of elasticity because “the skin, with collagen, loses other elastic fibers”

Collagen and menopause

Abarquero Cerezo confirms that hormonal fluctuations affect not only the body but also the skin. In fact, “studies show that during the first 5 years of menopause, there is a decrease of up to 30% of collagen and it can also be seen that during the following 15 years, the decrease is greater than that of younger ages with a reduction of 2% of collagen”, she concludes.

How to slow down collagen loss

Aging is a gift and the loss of collagen is a natural process. It cannot be avoided, but it can be slowed down. Abarquero Cerezo recommends a several component approach: