Skin-care companies often hop on the next trend and push vitamins that won’t do much for you. For instance, have you seen ‘biotin’ in single-ingredient supplements that are supposed to make your hair, nails, and skin healthier?

I know I have.  And I have some bad news to break. 

If there’s a shred of science that says it could be helpful, it has probably been sensationalized for the profit of companies and the expense of you. Try as you might to do the best for yourself, not everyone has your best interest in mind.

Biotin is probably only effective for nails if you’re deficient in it or if you’re body doesn’t use it properly - which is very, very rare. 

It’s unlikely that a single vitamin is going to provide the miraculous benefits advertised by some. It takes a coordinated approach that hits the problem from every angle to see real change. 

The list of glamorized vitamins for your beauty goes on, but the level of evidence for each varies.  It usually takes a deficiency to see the effects on your skin.

But a deficiency for one might not be a deficiency for another. 

When you look at what humans have been eating for millenia and compare it to what’s out there now, there’s something amiss. You might see that there are some nutrients not on the label that we might not be getting enough of. 

Just because doctors don’t have a way to measure a clinical deficiency of an ingredient, doesn’t mean you can’t be deficient.  But just because there’s a single study showing a vitamin can improve hair strength, it doesn’t mean that it will help you.

So what to do? Learn more about the science of beauty so that you can make the best decision for yourself.

There’s Another Way

There is another way to market beauty supplements, and that’s ‘accurately’. 

Resync Collagen Support is formulated to help multiple energy and beauty-support systems. We use ingredients that stimulate collagen building, provide the key building blocks themselves, and the antioxidants that keep the system running smoothly. 

We reviewed the scientific literature to figure out what nutrients you need to support healthy hair, skin, and nails, and then we went further.  

What are the nutrients you need to keep your collagen healthy? What about for the systems that keep your skin glowing? How do you keep your energy up to keep it all running smoothly? 

If you want to know what nutrients work to keep a healthy, resilient system, you’ve come to the right place!

In this post we’ll cover:

• Supporting your collagen indirectly with SAMe, GSH, & MSM.
• Directly enhancing collagen with chondroitin, glucosamine, hyaluronan, and hydrolyzed collagen itself.
• Supporting your antioxidant and anti-inflammatory systems with the right antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. 

Click here to register for a free account. Ditch the superficial clickbait and join the community that demands the science-backed tips for real energy and true beauty.

Support Your Collagen Indirectly

S-adenosylmethionione (SAMe) is the ‘universal methyl donor’.  If that doesn’t ring a bell, don’t worry about it!  

All you need to know is that SAMe plays a huge role in letting your cells talk to each other to repair damaged skin, make new cells, detoxify, express your genes… the list goes on.  

You can supplement with it, or you can get methyl groups in vitamin B-rich foods (see more on that below).

Want to know more about what methylation means for beautiful, clear skin? Click here to check out our blog on energy, beauty, and methylation’.

Glutathione (GSH) is your body’s master antioxidant. It’s your first-line defense against toxins, inflammation, and oxidation.  Supplementing with glutathione might or might not increase your own glutathione levels (studies are mixed), but there are plenty of ways to make your own glutathione. 

It might surprise you that the best of these are getting enough sleep and regular exercise. Managing stress and eating lots of colorful plants, healthy fats, and cutting out processed foods and sugar are other sure-fire ways to up your antioxidant power. 

Read more on our 3-part series dedicated to enhancing glutathione here.

 

Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) is a supplement that provides many of the benefits that increasing glutathione can. Studies show that it may decrease oxidative stress, inflammation, and joint pain caused by osteoarthritis.

Support your Collagen Directly

Eating collagen itself is one of the best ways to strengthen your own collagen. The best version is a hydrolyzed collagen like the one backed by scientific studies and found in our Resync Collagen Blend. 

Besides collagen, other important parts of your joints and collagen-rich tissues are chondroitin, glucosamine, and hyaluronan. When your collagen breaks down, the amounts of these nutrients go down.

Supplementing with each of them has been shown to offer some benefit for people with joint issues.

Hyaluronan is the one with the best quality research being collagen.  As you could guess, we’ve got it in both our recovery blends as well.

If you think one of these might help your skin or joints, make sure to give it enough time to start working!  

How long do collagen and connective tissues take to regenerate?

Studies show that the collagen in your skin takes 8 weeks to strengthen, the collagen in your joints and tendons takes 3 months, and the collagen in your bones may take up to 6 months to see real results.

Support your Collagen with Vitamins and Antioxidants

Vitamin C is the most important vitamin for making collagen. 

Besides being an antioxidant that can help boost your defense against certain toxins, vitamin C is required for turning the amino acid proline into hydroxyproline, which makes up a major part of the triple helix structure of collagen that gives it its flexibility.

Although a deficiency will take months of eating no fresh fruit or vegetables, a little extra vitamin C taken with collagen has been shown to increase collagen synthesis. 

Vitamin D is commonly known as the most important vitamin for bone health.  

Scientists are finding now that vitamin D has a very important function in the immune system as well. 

Joint, bone, and immune health might not seem all that related, but when you realize that it’s your immune system that responds to inflammation, and your bones are mostly collagen, it’s crystal clear that having enough vitamin D is critical for collagen health.  

Are you one of the 25% of American’s who have a deficiency in vitamin D? If you don’t get that much sunshine where you live, you may want to make sure.

Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that helps out your whole antioxidant-fighting system and may help your collagen heal faster.  

Get it in almonds, sunflower seeds, whole grains, and extra virgin olive oil.

Vitamin B complex refers to all the B vitamins. 

These play a huge role in making sure your methyl donors (see our post on methylation here) are functioning their best.  Getting the right amount is important for heart health, mental health, and steady energy levels. 

You get the most B vitamins when you eat nuts, seeds, beans, fish, liver, eggs, yogurt, whole grains, onions, beets and green leafy vegetables.

Support Your Collagen With Minerals

Earlier we pointed out that vitamin C is the most important vitamin because it helps create the collagen structure. In a similar way, the minerals manganese (not “magnesium”), zinc, iron and copper either activate collagen proteins or directly help create collagen.  

Each is in different levels in different foods, but generally speaking, seafood, healthy meats, whole grains, nuts, and seeds are good sources. 

There are plenty of other nutrients vital for healthy collagen and healthy skin. Calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium are a few other important ones. If you’re eating a colorful, varied diet of whole foods, you are probably already eating the right things to optimize your collagen health!  

That being said, scientists have shown that magnesium and other mineral levels in our soil have decreased over the years, so you might want to consider taking a magnesium supplement like magnesium citrate which has vitamin C as a bonus.

However, natural sources of collagen are hard to come by. You can eat all the delicious, nutritious salads you can, but if you’re not getting collagen too, you’re changing your car’s oil without giving it gas. 

And if you’re one of the many who don’t have the time, energy, or resources to make a balanced diet happen all the time, you can give yourself a bit of insurance by supplementing with the nutrients that you most need for your sustained vitality.

We want to hear from you! 

Comment below with your thoughts and questions and we’ll get back to you in future posts!

Want the practical details on how to eat to support your heart health, beauty, and mental energy levels? Subscribe to our feed and never miss our best content! We believe that if you have the right information, you’ll be empowered to make the best decision for yourself. That’s why we break down the complex science of nutrition and supplements into practical takeaways you can incorporate into your life today.

While some companies just try to sell their stuff with clickbait and fake news, we make sure you have the research to backup what we say.  Want to learn more about a topic? Let us know by contacting us or getting in touch on social media!

Works Cited

Clark, Kristine L. “Nutritional Considerations in Joint Health.” Clinics in Sports Medicine, vol. 26, no. 1, Jan. 2007, pp. 101–18. www.sportsmed.theclinics.com, doi:10.1016/j.csm.2006.11.006.

Davis, Donald Ruble, et al. “Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999.” Journal of the American College of Nutrition, vol. 23, no. 6, 2004, pp. 669–82. Semantic Scholar, doi:10.1080/07315724.2004.10719409.

DiNicolantonio, James J., et al. “Subclinical Magnesium Deficiency: A Principal Driver of Cardiovascular Disease and a Public Health Crisis.” Open Heart, vol. 5, no. 1, Jan. 2018. PubMed Central, doi:10.1136/openhrt-2017-000668.

Lipner, Shari R. “Rethinking Biotin Therapy for Hair, Nail, and Skin Disorders.” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, vol. 78, no. 6, June 2018, pp. 1236–38. www.jaad.org, doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2018.02.018.

Lubis, Andri M. T., et al. “Comparison of Glucosamine-Chondroitin Sulfate with and without Methylsulfonylmethane in Grade I-II Knee Osteoarthritis: A Double Blind Randomized Controlled Trial.” Acta Medica Indonesiana, vol. 49, no. 2, Apr. 2017, pp. 105–11.

Peptan. Whitepaper: Collagen Peptides for Skin Beauty and Hair Health. Rousselot B.V. 2019. https://www.peptan.com/about-peptan/downloads/collagen-peptides-for-skin-beauty-and-hair-health

Shaw G, Lee-Barthel A, Ross ML, Wang B, Baar K. Vitamin C-enriched gelatin supplementation before intermittent activity augments collagen synthesis. Am J Clin Nutr 2017; 105(1): 136-143.

Written by registered dietitian, Detrick Snyder, MPH, RDN. Updated 09/22/2020