Using Collagen for Leaky Gut and Gut Health

Have you considered collagen for leaky gut?

You have probably heard of collagen here and there, possibly from friends or co-workers, but what exactly is it?

The collagen you see in stores, particularly health food stores or even online, is a powdered form of collagen that you actually already have in your body.

Why do you need a collagen supplement?

Because it can break down in your body over time, which might cause symptoms like joint pain, premature signs of aging on your skin, and gut health issues.

If you are dealing with leaky gut, collagen is important in repairing the gut lining and restoring overall gut health.

Using Collagen for Leaky Gut

What Exactly is Collagen?

First thing’s first – let’s discuss what collagen is. This is the most abundant type of protein in your body that exists to help keep tissues together.

It is often found in parts of the body where you have connective tissues, such as your joints, muscles, and even your skin and scalp.

Since it can break down over time, you might need to supplement with a powdered form of collagen, which luckily is very easy to use and now due to its popularity, easy to find as well.

The reason collagen is so popular is because of how beneficial it is for your skin and body. When you don’t have enough collagen, it affects you in ways you might not have even thought of. 

Collagen for Leaky Gut and Gut Health

Moving on to another set of health benefits such as your gut health.

Gut health is in the hot seat because it’s quickly being found as the root of all health problems. 

Not only do issues like leaky gut lead to autoimmune conditions but it can also affect your brain since your gut is known as your second brain.

Collagen can help many gut conditions, but it has been especially useful with leaky gut syndrome.

When you have leaky gut, nutrients are passing right through your body, without being properly absorbed.

It can also let proteins like gluten slip through your intestinal wall causing autoimmune actions.

This along with many negative side effects like nausea, upset stomach, fatigue, and bloating, can make life extremely difficult to deal with.

When you start taking collagen each day, you might notice a difference in how your stomach feels.

Maybe you don’t have as much diarrhea and constipation, or you experience a relief in the bloating you have been dealing with.

Adding collagen to your daily meals can improve the lining of your gut and help the lining rebuild.

While you can still use the powdered form of collagen, you might also see benefits with bone broth.

For some people, they either don’t notice little changes with their digestive health, or it has been going on so long, they didn’t realize there was something they could do about it.

Have you ever told people you “just have a sensitive stomach?”

It is very possible that this is true, but you might also have a gut that just needs a little TLC.

Symptoms like constant nausea, constipation and diarrhea, stomach cramps, bloating, and just overall discomfort of the belly are not normal, and most likely related to a gut condition.

You can add collagen to your morning smoothie, or any hot liquid really. 

I personally buy the Vital Protein Grass-fed Unflavored Collagen so it won’t have a taste no matter what you put it in.

A little goes a long way and I’ve found this container to last a long time when using collagen for leaky gut.

Additional Help with Leaky Gut

If you feel you need more help in getting your gut health on track, I recommend Dr. Jockers Digestive Restoration Program.

It’s full of video recipes, meal plans, supplement guides and food journals to show you exactly what to do to restore your gut health. 

Written by a doctor, it’s one of the best gut health programs out there and super easy to follow.

Other Benefits of Collagen

Collagen for Healthy Skin and Hair

This health benefit of collagen happens to be one of the most popular and widely known advantages.

You might have heard about collagen when doing research on anti-aging, or wondering why at a relatively young age, you are showing signs of aging like looser skin and wrinkles.

The reason might be a lack of collagen.

Yes, collagen is found in your connective tissues like your joints, but did you know it can also be found in your skin?

It helps with the outer layer of skin, which is usually elastic in order to remain tight.

However, when you start losing collagen, the elasticity goes with it.

As your skin loosens – even before you see a big difference – you start to get wrinkles and lines.

Aging is Not Always Permanent

What you might not know is that some signs of aging are not permanent.

If you have wrinkles and lines due to a loss of elasticity in your skin, finding a way to tighten it up just might reverse the signs of aging, allowing you to age more gracefully.

This is what collagen can do for you.

When you start using collagen on a daily basis, it can not only help with your skin’s elasticity, but it can also help you to retain more moisture in your skin, which as you know, is vital to protecting your skin from premature signs of aging.

Collagen for Your Hair

Your skin needs collagen, but that is not just on your face and body; don’t forget your scalp is skin too.

You need to take good care of it just like your face, otherwise, you might experience dry scalp, itching, breakage, and even thinning of your hair.

If you notice issues with your hair texture or the thickness, it might be due to needing more collagen.

So, while you are using collagen to help your skin and other health conditions, you could also get the added benefit of increasing hair growth as well.

Collagen for Stronger Nails

Collagen can also help with your nail condition, most notably if you struggle with weak, chipped, and cracked nails.

This is not usually a sign of not taking good care of them on the outside, but more about your health in general.

Issues with your health affect so many things, so when something is weak and brittle, like your nails, it is often a sign you are missing an important nutrient.

How Does Collagen Help?

With a collagen supplement, you are helping to provide essential nutrients and amino acids to your nails.

This can help them strengthen, which greatly reduces the risk of having them break in the future. It is similar to the effect of using biotin for hair, skin, and nails.

Keep in mind that you might not notice these changes for several weeks, so keep using your collagen daily – you will soon notice a difference.

Collagen for Reduced Joint Pain

You need collagen in your body as it helps with the connective tissues like tendons and ligaments, so what happens when it starts breaking down?

You start feeling the pain in certain areas of your body.

If you have noticed an increase in joint pain recently, such as more stiffness in your joints when getting up or bending your knees, or just general joint pain, it might be from a loss of collagen.

The collagen in your body is in a gel-like form, similar to gelatin.

This helps your bones and joints to work together, gliding from one position to another, without incident.

When you feel stiffness, pain, or hear creaking when moving your arms or legs, this could be from not having enough of that collagen to move things along.

Not only can collagen supplements help with joint pain and stiffness you are already experiencing, but some studies are being done to show a positive effect in preventing or reducing the risk of degenerative diseases.

Prevention of Heart Disease

While there is still some research being done on this benefit, studies have shown that collagen can also affect your cardiovascular health.

Collagen provides essential amino acids to your body, which are very important when it comes to the fat buildup in your arteries and bloodstream.

As you know, this could potentially increase your risk of heart disease.

With collagen, you are getting the benefit of helping to shrink fat in the arteries thanks to these amazing amino acids.

There has also been some evidence to show that your blood pressure can be reduced with tissue repair thanks to the collagen in your connective tissues. (source)

This is an amazing and possibly life-saving health benefit even when you are using collagen primarily for other purposes.

Boost in Brain Health

This is when specific types of collagen come into play.

There is a type of collagen, type 4, that helps with the tissues around your heart, organs, and brain.

This is the collagen that can be useful in helping to protect your brain health by reducing your risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s disease currently has no cure, though there are ways to reduce the risk of getting it. One of them might be collagen, as studies are showing excellent progress.

How Does it Help?

With more collagen in your body, you are allowing those tissues to be protected around your brain, which might just prevent Alzheimer’s, or at least prolong it.

It never hurts to have these added benefits with something you were already going to take every day anyway.

Protection of Bone and Muscle Health

The last health benefit that is worth noting is the protection of your bones and muscles.

This probably comes as no surprise since we have been talking about how collagen helps protect the connective tissues around your ligaments, muscles, tendons, and joints. It works in a similar way to help with your muscle health and even prevent bone loss.

Your bones are actually made up primarily of collagen.

This is what makes your bones so strong and able to withstand a lot of weight and pressure.

As you age, the collagen gradually breaks down and deteriorates, which is why you become at greater risk for bone-related conditions like osteoporosis.

It can also mean a higher risk of breaking bones even in minor accidents that previously would not have caused such a serious injury.

In order to protect your bones, you need to be sure you have enough collagen production in your body, which sometimes means using a collagen supplement.

Collagen can improve your muscle mass

The other benefit is that it might help boost your muscle mass. Muscles also have a high amount of collagen protein in them, so it makes sense that you would lose muscle mass as you lose collagen in your body.

As you age, it becomes even more important to take a collagen supplement.

Again, we are loving Vital Proteins Grass-Fed Unflavored Collagen and this container last a long time. It can be added to your favorite smoothie but you can also put it directly on your food.

It’s perfect for using collagen for leaky gut.