Hello all – I really hope you are all having a good week.  I wanted to let you know you can also ask questions on my Instragram @drbrandith_skin. I try to answer them every Wednesday and Friday. It’s a better format for shorter questions and this blog is a better format for longer questions. 🙂

There seems to be a lot of confusion, completely understandable, about how to build collagen in your skin and why. Here’s a start.

Understanding Collagen

1. Should I eat collagen or put it on my skin? Collagen is made in many forms in our bodies, but the short answer on this one is …eat enough protein. Putting collagen in a cream or lotion? Because it’s such a large molecule, it doesn’t penetrate. Collagen is made of proteins and is a form of protein.  Eating it is not a great idea either.  Collagen supplements are usually powder made of ground up cowhide. This doesn’t seem great to me for many reasons. In my opinion, eating the building blocks of collagen makes far more sense.  Try a high quality whey or soy protein powder.  I like the Biogen Chocolate or vanilla (sugar free) in a little almond milk to add protein in the morning or whenever I’m not getting enough.
2. How can I build more collagen in my skin? There are really three ways.
   1. First, good nutrition where you support collagen production with an overall great diet with plenty of protein and vitamin C, in particular.
   2. The 2nd way is to protect what you have with antioxidants, sunscreen and perhaps peptides in your daily skin care.
   3. The 3rd way is to build more externally with certain lasers and devices, and some injectables like Sculptra.
3. Which lasers build collagen the most to help with wrinkles? To access and build deeper collagen in the dermis, because there is no collagen in the outer layer (epidermis), I think deeper lasers or devices like the CO2 laser, the erbium (like the Fraxel) or devices like Profound are more helpful. There will be some downtime with these and finding a good board certified dermatologist is essential. Most plastic surgeons are really not very interested in lasers.

Hope this helps,

Dr. Brandith