Collagen protein benefits have long been touted by the beauty industry when it comes to turning back the clock on wrinkles – but the positive effects of collagen protein are more than just skin deep.
Just one example? Collagen is used by many medical professionals to promote healing and aid in surgeries. Our very own ProT Gold is a medical grade collagen peptide protein supplement that is trusted by doctors and often used for post surgery recovery. In fact, it is used in over 3,000 medical facilities for medical nutrition therapy.
But there are plenty of additional collagen protein benefits that extend far beyond when you’ve recovered from surgery.
Just what are those collagen protein benefits? First, let’s dive into the details of why collagen is used in the post surgery diet to begin with. Then, we’ll explain some amazing ways that collagen peptide proteins can benefit you even once you are done with your recovery.
Why is collagen a part of a post surgery diet?
Collagen protein has become widely used for surgery recovery as a part of a post surgery diet.
Why? Well, if you undergo surgery, no matter the severity, it is best to think of your surgical wounds as a trauma to your body. This will help you to conceptualize everything that is actually happening underneath your skin as your body repairs itself.
The reason why collagen protein benefits your surgery recovery is because your body uses collagen protein to repair connective tissues and rebuild structures such as cartilage.
And, adding additional protein to your post surgery diet is just a good idea in general to promote the wound healing process.
While collagen protein benefits the wound healing a bit more, and you may recover more quickly, any high quality protein can help. Your body will use the proteins to repair cells, multiply and make more cells, and synthesize necessary healing enzymes. All these processes can help you to heal more quickly after your surgery.
But what about after you’ve recovered? Is there a point to continue taking your collagen protein supplements? Let’s take a look at some of the collagen protein benefits that extend far beyond your surgery recovery period.
Collagen protein benefits after you’ve recovered from surgery
Surgery recovery is different for every person. The length of time can vary, and your body can react quite differently to the healing process. That’s why so many medical professionals recommend adding collagen protein to a post surgery diet to try and speed up recovery – we can use all the help we can get!
Once you’ve recovered from your surgical wound though, there are still some collagen protein benefits that may make you think about keeping a collagen supplement in your diet long term. Here are just some of our favorite life-long collagen protein benefits.
1. Collagen supplements can help you maintain healthy collagen synthesis
It is not a secret that your natural collagen synthesis slows down as you age. That’s why you get wrinkles, your joints start to ache and hurt, and it takes longer to heal from an injury.
Collagen synthesis slows down sometime in your mid-twenties, so depending on your age, recovering from surgery may take even longer than usual if you don’t have enough collagen. This is where a collagen supplement is extremely beneficial.
But once you’re done with surgery recovery, you can still benefit by keeping up with your collagen production. By adding a highly nutritious and easy to absorb collagen supplement into your diet, you can give your body the amino acids it needs to build more of its own collagen proteins.
The thing is, not just any collagen supplement is going to help boost collagen production in your body. To get the most collagen protein benefits from a supplement, you need one that is easy for your body to break down, digest, and absorb.
If you want an easy to absorb collagen supplement, it’s important to look for a hydrolyzed or nano-hydrolyzed collagen protein. These collagen proteins have gone through the process of hydrolysis, which breaks them down into smaller pieces so you can digest them and get the most from your collagen protein benefits.
2. Collagen may help you build and maintain lean muscle
No matter your age, building and maintaining lean muscle can improve your health and quality of life. Muscles naturally decrease and deteriorate with age, so there may be even more collagen protein benefits for people in their 50s and 60s than younger folks recovering from surgery.
The reason why collagen protein benefits muscle health is because of the boost in protein synthesis and application to connective tissues.
When your body has a limited amount of collagen to pull from, it naturally applies it to the areas that need it the most. That’s usually anywhere you’re injured and next your vital organs. So, skin and muscles can often lose out on collagen because there simply is not enough collagen in your body to go around.
By adding collagen to your daily diet, you can provide the appropriate amino acids needed to help build and maintain lean muscle mass.
It is important to note that simply adding collagen to your diet alone will not build or maintain lean muscle. It is important to add healthy amounts of exercise and activity into your life along with your high-quality collagen protein in order to see an improvement in your overall muscle health.
3. Collagen supplements can strengthen and improve joint health
Much like your muscles, your joints need some collagen to stay healthy. You use collagen to maintain and repair joints just from regular everyday use.
The amino acids in a collagen protein supplement like ProT Gold help to promote collagen synthesis and apply that collagen to your joints, especially those most in need.
Collagen protein benefits joint health for athletes, especially because of the increased stress added to the joint over time. If you had a surgery that focused on an important joint like your hip or knee, then you will know that it can take a long time to rebuild strength – even once you’ve recovered from the initial surgical wound.
Giving your body the nutrition and tools it needs to protect the joint from further damage and continue to build up joint health is crucial. Collagen supplements can help your joints to stay healthy, and can prevent further joint inflammation or deterioration.
4. Collagen may help you maintain a healthy weight
It may seem like an interesting concept that collagen protein benefits weight loss or a healthy weight, but any balanced and nutritious diet can help you do that. Maintaining a healthy weight, especially if you have joint issues, is one way to really take some stress off of those areas of your body.
When recovering from surgery, depending on the type of surgery, it is possible that you will need to decrease your activity level. As you slowly become able to start exercising more again, collagen can become an important part of your weight management.
High quality protein diets help you have the feeling of being full for longer periods of time. That’s because protein impacts your hunger hormones. Still, just like with maintaining lean muscle, maintaining a healthy weight cannot be done solely by consuming a collagen supplement.
Collagen protein benefits weight management, certainly, but only as one of the ingredients.
Understanding how much collagen you need is also necessary for maintaining a healthy weight, because you can actually consume too much protein – which could cause you to gain weight. If you were taking collagen supplements as a part of your post surgery diet, you likely were consuming more than you would need to take after recovery.
It is understood that collagen is a safe supplement to take daily, but that’s only true if you are taking a high quality supplement with safe ingredients.
This goes back to knowing how much collagen a day is best for you. You may not need to take it daily either. Consulting with a medical nutrition therapist will help you to understand your protein needs and how much protein you should be taking to be beneficial for your health goals.
5. Collagen can help you to prevent further injury
Looking at all of the collagen protein benefits listed above, it becomes obvious that one of the main benefits of keeping a collagen supplement in your diet post surgery recovery is to prevent an injury down the line.
After all, if you can maintain joint and muscle health, and continue to synthesize collagen to repair and rebuild all the areas of your body, then you will be better protected from injury.
Now, this isn’t to say that just because you use a collagen supplement you will never get injured. We would never make such a claim. The thing is, if you have a strong baseline for your joint health, muscle health, and other connective tissues, they will be stronger.
If you have a small injury that could lead to a bigger injury, then it is also possible that your body will have the tools to repair it before it worsens if you have been regularly adding collagen protein into your diet.
Whether or not you run into injuries in the future is largely up to situations and overall health, but there is no doubt that collagen is a necessary protein your body needs a lot of to keep your body healthy and strong.
Choosing the best collagen for your post surgery diet and beyond
The only way to truly get the most collagen protein benefits is to choose a supplement that your body can properly process. We have already mentioned that the quality of the protein and the absorption rate of that protein is extremely important and can impact the effectiveness of the supplement.
Ideally, you will find a collagen protein supplement that uses hydrolyzed collagen or collagen peptide proteins. Hydrolyzed collagen is still collagen, and still gives you all the same collagen protein benefits – in fact, you can get even MORE benefits since the hydrolysis makes the collagen easier for your stomach to digest.
Better yet, look for a nano-hydrolyzed collagen, like ProT Gold. Part of the reason why ProT Gold is such an effective collagen supplement (and so many medical facilities trust it) is because it is so fast to absorb and digest.
Not only is ProT Gold nano hydrolyzed, it also goes the extra step by adding in additional digestive enzymes to help you digest your collagen supplement within a mere 15 minutes or less.
