Collagen is a "building block" of the body. It plays a major role in providing elasticity, hydration, strength and smoothness to our skin. Collagen and elastin are two essential proteins the body relies on to heal dermatological injuries and achieve homeostasis. As we age, our bodies produce less of these important proteins. In fact, as professor Susan Obagi explains in her article “Why Does Skin Wrinkle With Age”, we lose our ability to rebuild our collagen by 1-1.5% per year after age 20. Over time, the loss of collagen makes us look older, more tired, and less healthy. Over time, you may notice:
Loose, crêpey, wrinkly skin
Volume loss
Increased skin fragility
Fine lines and wrinkles
Altered skin pigmentation
COLLAGEN FACT: Women who have experienced peri-menopause and menopause produce less collagen and other essential nutrients to heal skin.
COLLAGEN FACT: Taking collagen orally can help treat aging skin, but aim for the hydrolysed collagen supplements. They have a low molecular weight, which allows it to be digested, absorbed, and distributed to your skin more effectively than regular collagen.
Why You Need Collagen
When your skin experiences an injury, your body sends a cascade of essential ingredients to help it heal. These include proteins, platelets, fibrin, fibroblasts, elastin, and collagen.
- Platelets release growth factors, which promote healing and tissue regeneration.
- Fibrin provide support to the epidermis
- Fibroblasts secrete collagen and elastin proteins that are important to healing
- Collagen and elastin are essential scaffold proteins that bring smoothness and elasticity to skin
COLLAGEN LOSS
Collagen is lost through factors outside of your control, such as genetics, ethnicity, aging and menopause. But there are many things you can do to preserve your body’s collagen. Saving your skin from sun damage, smoking, alcohol use, and stress are some extrinsic factors you can control.
ANTI AGING WITH COLLAGEN INDUCTION THERAPIES
Once you’ve done all you can do to preserve your skin’s natural collagen levels extrinsically, it’s time for you to seek assistance. Procedures to induce collagen production are critical to help you maintain healthy, rejuvenated skin. Microneedling, medium-depth and deep chemical peels, and PDO threads are excellent forms of collagen induction therapy. Check out this link to get a better understanding of what microneedling is.
Radio-frequency (RF) microneedling is one treatment method professionals can use to stimulate your body's natural production of collagen, elastin, hyaluronic acid, and important nutrients to skin cells. Essentially, our Genius RF microneedling machine uses tiny needles to prick channels into your skin, stimulating your body's repair response. Your body will rush to produce and deliver the aforementioned cascade of essential nutrients your skin needs to heal these microchannels.
The result is smoother, plumper, more youthful-looking skin. Because microneedling treatments occur at the cellular level, they are especially effective at treating dermatologic concerns like acne scarring, stretch marks, fine lines, wrinkles, skin texture, skin tone, hyperpigmentation like sunspots or brown spots and melasma, and hypopigmented areas.
Chemical peels are a great way to stimulate your collagen production, as well. They come in three types: superficial, medium, and deep. Superficial chemical peels penetrate the top layer of skin called the epidermis. Superficial chemical peels treat conditions in the epidermis, like superficial hyperpigmentation, mild photoaging, and fine lines. The collagen stimulation is found only in the epidermis, thus clinically improved fine lines are quick to return.
Medium-depth chemical peels penetrate the epidermis and papillary dermis. Medium-depth chemical peels are excellent at treating fine lines and wrinkles, photodamage, superficial hyperpigmentation like melasma, acne, superficial acne scars, and actinic keratosis (pre-cancerous lesions of the skin). Collagen and elastin stimulation occur in the epidermis and papillary dermis, provider more support for fine lines and wrinkles. Deep chemical peels penetrate to the midreticular dermis and treat more deep, furrowed lines and hyperpigmentation. With the evolution of lasers and their ability to provide more precision results, deep chemical peels are not utilized as often as they once were. At Youthful Obsession, we offer the VI Peel, which is a medium depth chemical peel.
PDO threads (polydioxanone threads) are dissolvable sutures strategically placed to non-surgically lift tissue and stimulate the body's repair response. If the PDO thread goal is a non-surgical face lift, the threads placed will stimulate the body's repair response, flooding the area with collagen, elastin, fibroblasts, growth factors, and other essential nutrients. These elements work to wall off the PDO thread and once the thread has dissolved,
the scaffolding of collagen and elastin remain providing the lift until your body breaks it down (can take up to two years). PDO threads can also be placed to boost collagen in areas of fine lines and to help smooth out skin.
Microneedling, chemical peels, and PDO threads are FDA approved. They are safe and effective and can be used on the face, neck, and other areas of the body.
SUM IT UP
Your body needs collagen to repair and renew your skin. Intrinsic factors like aging and stress, and extrinsic factors like environmental pollutants, smoking, alcohol, and sun damage can impact your body’s production of collagen. Microneedling, VI Peel, and PDO threads are safe, effective and easy ways to gift your skin with collagen, elastin, and other essential elements leaving your skin with a more revitalized, healthier radiance while minimizing the appearance of deeper skin conditions like scaring. There’s little downtime, and the results are outstanding. Contact us today with your questions. Better yet, come visit our aesthetic providers at our comfortable and private medical spa in Edgewater. Link to directions
