Why is collagen difficult to absorb? Are injections effective in eliminating wrinkles? Answers from famous doctors

Where does collagen come into play?

When it comes to dermal care, the first thing that usually comes to mind is "collagen". Recently, terms such as elastin and hyaluronic acid are also commonly heard.

Here, let us review collagen again. Although collagen is very popular, there are actually different opinions on its effects.

However, as long as you read this section, I believe you will be able to distinguish the authenticity of all circulating information based on your basic knowledge of skin.

I saw advertising slogans that read "Moisturizing cream containing collagen" and "Eating shark fin pot full of collagen will make your skin supple and elastic." It really feels very moisturizing, as if it can make your skin soft and supple. The skin regains its firmness. Unfortunately - this has no effect, as I made clear in Chapter 1.

Before explaining, let us first recall what collagen is.

When it comes to collagen, most people usually think of skin. But in fact, it is a protein found in various parts of the human body. It can play the role of a skeleton and allow various organs to maintain their shape. It is a structural protein and accounts for about 30% of the protein in the body.

40% of the collagen in the body is concentrated in the skin and 20% in the bones. Elderly people often suffer from osteoporosis. One of the reasons is that the collagen in bones decreases and deteriorates with age, making the bone structure no longer flexible.

Collagen is located in the dermis layer under the skin. About 90% of the dermis is composed of collagen. Other substances in the dermis include elastin and hyaluronic acid.

Collagen and elastin work together to maintain the shape and elasticity of the skin. When we talk about skin firmness or wrinkles, the background is no longer the epidermis, but the dermis.

Applying it is useless, the problem lies in the "molecular weight"

So, why does collagen have no effect on the dermis regardless of whether it is applied or eaten?

Let’s first take a look at the application process. Why doesn't it increase after applying it? The reason is simple, because collagen simply "cannot reach the dermis."

The limit value for substances to penetrate the skin is "molecular weight of 500 Daltons".

Molecular weight is calculated by the total number of atoms that make up the molecule. For example, H2O (water) is two H (hydrogen) and one O (oxygen) linked together. The atomic weight of H (hydrogen) is one, and the atomic weight of O (oxygen) is sixteen. So the molecular weight of water is 1×2+16=18.

Since the molecular weight of water is much smaller than 500, it can easily penetrate the skin.

When you sweat, water will come out with potassium chloride and sodium. This is also because these substances are much smaller than 500 daltons, so they can pass through smoothly. The steroid ointment is just at the critical point of five hundred daltons, so it will pass.

But the molecular weight of collagen is hundreds of thousands. It is too big to penetrate the skin. In this way, even if collagen is applied, it will only stick to the surface of the skin. Even if it does penetrate to some extent, it can only reach the injured and peeling skin barrier, and at most it can penetrate into the stratum corneum.

In short, collagen cannot penetrate deep into the dermis to replenish the skin's original elasticity and bring it back to life.

The synthesis ability is declining year by year

Next, let’s take a look at why food cannot increase collagen.

Let us first think about how many steps it takes from being eaten in the mouth to reaching the dermis?

First, the digestive juice secreted by the stomach and duodenum will break down collagen into components such as peptides and amino acids. Next, they are absorbed into the small intestine—at this point they are able to enter the intestinal wall because their size is already less than the molecular weight of 500 daltons.

Next, it enters the bloodstream and eventually reaches the dermis. At this time, the original collagen has already become fragmented "parts".

Can these parts that reach the dermis be restored to their original collagen? The answer is "very difficult".

As we age, the enzymes that synthesize collagen gradually weaken. For example it's like the parts arriving at the factory, but the assembly workers aren't working.

Around the age of twenty, the power of synthetic enzymes will gradually decline. Basically, metabolism has been declining since birth, and it has been declining even more dramatically since the age of twenty.

Speaking of which, what was it like before the age of twenty? Before you reach this age, synthetic enzymes are very active and your metabolism is quite strong. Even if the dermis is damaged by ultraviolet rays, it can be resynthesized immediately without leaving dark spots or wrinkles.

Babies have the strongest skin metabolism. Even if a baby is burned, it can heal immediately and leave almost no trace. I think this should shock many people. The speed of wound recovery is also overwhelmingly fast in children.

The dermis does not regenerate like the epidermis, so once it is damaged by ultraviolet rays, it cannot recover. This is the reason why deeper wrinkles cannot be removed.

The effect of injections is only temporary

Let’s talk about the “collagen injections” that people use to eliminate wrinkles.

In conclusion, even if it is effective, it is only temporary.

When you hear that collagen is injected into the skin, some people may worry: "Isn't that okay?" But that is actually done after removing the antigen (the part that will be regarded as foreign matter by immune cells). , so there won’t be any immunological problems.

Indeed, injecting a substance with a similar composition to the dermal tissue can temporarily swell the dermis and restore its firmness, making it appear as if even wrinkles have been smoothed. But it doesn't stay in the skin for long and is broken down soon.

Therefore, in those medical aesthetic clinics that inject collagen, doctors will tell them "repeated injections are needed to maintain the effect" and "if the effect disappears, let's do it again", allowing patients to continue to have expensive injections. Collagen needles.

These are all symptomatic treatments to temporarily deal with laxity, not the cause. And the more collagen, the better. The key lies in its quality. The relationship between collagen and the elastin that binds it together is also important.

Hyaluronic acid and elastin

Finally, let us also look at the elements other than collagen contained in the dermis - hyaluronic acid and elastin. Both of these products often appear in the ingredient list of cosmetics, and they are always advertised as "moisturizing the skin" and "giving firmness and luster".

However, these two are actually the same as collagen. The molecular weight is very large and cannot enter the dermis even if it is applied. The effect of eating it is the same as collagen.

Having said that, what has been discussed above are all facts logically inferred from the structure of the skin. There will be no problem in applying or eating products with added collagen, hyaluronic acid, and elastin.

However, from the perspective of cause therapy, it is still recommended that you take care of your skin based on its skin structure so that it can exert its original strength so that the skin can achieve physical and immunological barrier functions.

As for the orthopedic treatment of intra-articular injection of hyaluronic acid, since the purpose is to replenish the lubricating fluid in the joint that is reduced due to aging, it does have a certain degree of efficacy.

How to maintain leather? Please remember the following suggestions first - the health of the dermis and epidermis are closely related, so take good care of the epidermis.

Basically, as long as the epidermis is maintained healthy, the dermis will also be healthy. Because once the physical barrier of the epidermis is destroyed, the dermis will also be damaged.

In addition, exercise is really important. There are blood vessels in the dermis that transport nutrients and water. The blood vessels not only send nutrients and water to the dermis, but also to the epidermis. After exercise, blood circulation becomes better, which can transport nutrients and water in large quantities and promote epidermal metabolism. As long as the blood flow is smooth, metabolism and regeneration capacity will be improved.

(Excerpted from: Qiu Junyan discussion forum)