U Perform What is Collagen?

What is collagen?

Hi guys, it's James here from U Perform and Happy New Year. I hope you're all doing well. And you are finally back into some form of training or exercise, or just keeping fit and working off the Christmas and New Year food and wine.

Today, I'm going to talk to you a little bit about collagen and why it's so important and why we decided to go with collagen as the key protein in our nutrition range. So what is collagen and what role does it actually play?

So many of you may be like me when you first heard the term collagen, you just assumed injection fillers, lips, Hollywood A-listers models, even TV presenters, using collagen as a filler for lines and wrinkles. And that was the understanding I had, but I couldn't be further from the truth.

So what is collagen? Quite simply collagen is the primary structural protein of the human body. It's actually the most abundant protein in the entire body and effectively it's the glue or the scaffolding of the body and the skeleton. So it plays a really important role for everybody, whether it's a beauty aspect or fitness, wellbeing, or even recovery from injury, which is what many of you are seeing positive effects from.

So let's break it down a little bit. So we really understand the role of the collagen protein in the body. The first thing you need to understand is, over 30% of the total protein found in the human body and the skeleton is actually the collagen protein and effectively that's playing the building blocks, the scaffolding, or even the glue of the human body. Let's take a slightly deeper dive and to really understand the role and the impact of collagen throughout the body. Connected tissue, really important for many of us, especially if you're competing, trying to build up for a summer of sport in 2021.

Now, if we look at our connected tissue, we're talking about muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Now there is also different densities and thicknesses of the muscle fibres . But what we understand is there's some point between 40 and a massive 60% of the protein found in this connective tissue is actually collagen.

But it doesn't actually stop there. Let's talk about bone density and joints because that's when it becomes key. What we understand is that up to 80% of bones is actually naturally protein. And of course, collagen being the most abundant of which. In our connective tissue, we see that in huge amounts, but it actually grows when we are talking about cartilage, we can see 50% plus of the protein found in our cartilage, which is obviously found in our joints is actually collagen. So this is adding to the smoothness and the movement of our joints, whether it's a ball and socket joint, a hinge joint, or even just something that is in our vertebrae. So it's the cartilage we need to protect. And 50% plus of that protein is actually collagen.

Now we understand about collagen in the beauty industry. Why? Quite simply it is prolific. If we're talking about skin tissue, which, okay, it has beauty connotations, but we're talking up to a massive 90% of the protein of the skin is actually collagen and predominantly this is type one collagen or pro collagen one to give it its scientific status.

Now, why is this important for us athletes or people wanting to be fit and healthy? Well, the interesting thing is pro collagen one is the newly formed collagen and fibres, the immature collagen fibres that are actually created by the body on a daily basis. So this is the fibres that help renew skin cells in the dermal and epidermal layers. But interestingly, this type one collagen also occurs in our connective tissue, our ligaments, tendons, and especially our muscles.

And it's that new formation of collagen fibres that helps our bodies repair not only from exercise when we've been breaking down muscle fibers as strains, or actually just undergoing really tough training sessions, but actually repairing our body from injury or any physical aspect that when we broke the muscle fibres down.

So really important, this type one collagen is actually being produced on a regular and really fast basis. What we understand is when we're young, we naturally produce this incredible pro collagen type one really, really fast. But when we get fully grown, full adulthood, our body recognises that we've reached that status. It recognises that our bones are at their full length. Our muscles are at full length and full strength.

And at this point in time, the body's ability to naturally produce collagen simply slows down a little bit. With the slowing down, but this continued wear and tear that we as athletes or people who would like to be physically active, maintain, we see a net loss in the body.

And that lost is effectively about one and a half percent of our total body store of collagen being lost every single year. So as quick as 30 years old, you've had 10 years of collagen depletion resulting in a 15% loss in the structural glue; that structural protein collagen, within the human body.

Now this continues throughout the rest of our life. And for ladies watching, it's more severe for you. I'm afraid you do actually age faster than us men during the menopause when collagen depletion can actually go from one and a half percent per year, up to an incredible 6% per year, every year for a five year duration.

So our more mature athletes, it's even more important that you take a collagen supplement during this period of time and post this period of time to maintain body structure, bone density, and actually the ability to push your bodies harder and harder.

So what we understand is there's multiple clinical studies now on the VERISOL B and TENDOFORTE collagen proteins. What we understand from the VERISOL B is we can actually prove things like improvement in skin elasticity reduction in the volume of lines and wrinkles, also wound healing, but this just creates a precedent.

What it actually shows is that this bioactive collagen peptide actually does become functional in the body. And we actually see measured results because of ingesting this VERISOL B. Now with TENDOFORTE which occurs in a much higher dosage in our incredible active collagen gels. An incredible five grams.

So layering that up with the three grams of VERISOL B, you have the most powerful collagen joint peptide formulation there is in the world today. And that's why you see the positive benefits when you're taking U Perform of incredible skin, but on top of that, incredible speed of recovery in your connective tissue and even in your cartilage.

So what we understand is the evidence based results, the clinical studies that are coming more and more available, we can guarantee the improvement in skin. And as a precedent, we know the collagen is becoming functional in the body. And that's the key thing. So to maintain your muscle density, maintain your bone density, collagen is absolutely essential.

It's not a choice for people who want to stay fit active and healthy. And especially if you want to continue competing in your sport through the masters or vets age groups for the rest of your life, if you want to maintain that activity in sport, or even if it's just simply playing with your children or even your grandchildren, we need collagen in our bodies. It's essential protein.

And over the course of this month, we can take a deeper dive into it and really understand the impact of the collagen protein in our body. I hope you enjoyed a little bit of an insight into why we chose collagen as the primary ingredient for the U Perform nutritional range.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, make sure to leave them in the comments below!